February 26, 2012.
Does that date mean anything to you? Be very sure that on this date, in Florida, a 17-year-old Black teenager was killed that particular awful night. That date changed his family's life forever. This date outraged an entire community as this teenager became the poster boy for generations of oppression, inequality and institutionalized racism that the election of a Black President has by no means eradicated. The killer of that teen used a defense, in initial police inquiry, based on a controversial law, that protected him from even an initial arrest but did not protect the teen he killed. Only civil rights pressure brought that case to trial, where the defendant was acquitted anyway. February 26, 2012 greatly heightened our national awareness of a controversial law, wherever each of us may stand on this law.
Why Are Cases Like This So Controversial?
I know that everyone who knows about the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case has a strong opinion about it. This post is not to argue anything that is often believed to pertain to it, such as gun rights vs. gun control. That case is not about either loaded issues. As Zimmerman was acquitted on all charges, he can't be re-tried. A law has protected him, which it should not have, and THAT is what this post focuses on. Most recently, a court case involving another 17 year old Black boy, Jordan Davis, was held and aired on national TV. The case also involves 3 other surviving Black boys. If you know about that case you know that, months after Trayvon Martin was killed, a software developer, Michael Dunn, confronted a car with 4 Black teens in it and they played loud music that provoked Dunn. Dunn acted on his rage and fired 9 shots that missed 3 of the boys but killed Davis. You may know that the recent trial returned guilty verdicts against Dunn, on the missed shots of the 3 surviving boys but no verdict on the murder charge against Dunn. Why? Did it have much to do with Dunn's defense that he used, based on claims on Davis's supposed threat to his safety?
What Is Stand Your Ground, Anyway?
The Zimmerman/Martin and the Dunn/Davis cases have brought to national attention the controversial Stand Your Ground law. This law, which is a statute in many states, extends legitimate self-defense in the face of ACTUAL danger to one's person or others, and gives citizens the right to "exert deadly force" in the face of danger if merely PERCEIVED. Further, it gives people permission to "not retreat but to stand your ground" in exerting "deadly force" against the perceived "threat." Both Zimmerman and Dunn saw their targets as threats and acted on their impulses to "exert deadly force" against those targets. Stand Your Ground totally protected Zimmerman, and while it did not protect Dunn, it kept the Florida jury from rendering a full verdict. To clarify, while Stand Your Ground was NOT used in the Zimmerman or Dunn trials, in both cases, Stand Your Ground was part of the jury instructions, used in jury deliberations and what their verdicts were based on. In a reverse Stand Your Ground case, Marissa Alexander, a Black mom of three, tried to use Stand Your Ground to get immunity from prosecution, in firing several warning shots that missed her spouse and two children; Alexander had alleged domestic violence against her. She was denied Stand Your Ground and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Stand Your Ground did not protect her. The Alexander case shows how Stand Your Ground is not even equally applied to defendants. I know that people who argue FOR stand Your Ground have declared it can protect criminal defendants from legal nightmares, but have defendants' rights become more important than the rights of victims and their families?
Stand Your Ground vs. Legitimate Self-Defense
I don't think that anyone would argue any person's right to Defend one's self and to "use deadly force" when one sees ACTUAL danger to one's person or to someone else. This right to legitimate self-defense is legally allowable and always has been. It's also morally acceptable. Stand Your Ground, however, goes further and allows people to extend ACTUAL threats to PERCEIVED threats and gives people freedom to not have to retreat from these "perceived threats" but to "stand your ground" in self-defense. In states where Stand Your Ground is law, studies indicate that the rate of "justifiable homicides" has increased. That is, Stand Your Ground encourages violence! Stand Your Ground encourages people with poor impulse control and anger management issues to "go ahead" and "stand your ground" in killing "perceived threats" in the name of Stand Your Ground self-defense. Do we need a law that encourages MORE violence and gives the go-ahead to angry, aggressive people to act on their impulses in the name of a law? Stand Your Ground also, as the case of Zimmerman/Martin shows, that this law protects some groups of people and does not protects others. This is not just a race issue either, as the case of the shooting in a theatre shows, where a Caucasian shoots and kills another Caucasian over texting/popcorn throwing. The defendant in that case has used Stand Your Ground, also, in initial police inquiry (this case has not gone to trial yet). Why do we need this law, anyway, when self-defense is already an assumed right? Why do we need Stand Your Ground when it just fuels violence and breeds crime? Why do we need it when it only protects some people groups and is not even applied equally to all people groups?
What Can We Do?
None of us can save the world. This is no call to do that. But each of us can do something, within the limits of our life circumstances. But we can spend some time educating ourselves on Stand Your Ground and below, I have included a few sources for that. You can also find much more through Google searches. I have also included a petition which calls for changes in the Stand Your Ground law. On a personal level, we can all stand against racism where we find it. Above all, we can model love, understanding, nonviolence, and the pursuit of peace with all people. If we do these things, victims of Stand Your Ground, like Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, will not have died in vain.
Stand Your Ground Linked To Increase In Homicides
Lawyers Blog with Stand Your Ground Articles
Please Sign This Petition.
The above photo is courtesy of a Justice For Trayvon Martin Facebook page and can be found here.
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