Wheewww!! Sorry for the absence y’all. I have been in a funk lately and it’s only been exacerbated by the weather and my blessed family (summer break my ass). Anyway, I haven’t been keeping up with this trial for George Zimmerman because in all honesty I really think he’s going to go free. We have a law on the books that should have been examined a little more carefully before it passed. Have any of you read the law? If not, click here to read how “Justifiable Use of Force” is defined in the Sunshine state.
Trayvon Martin is dead because some panicky, neighborhood watch, wanna-be cop, poor self-esteem having idiot thought he could flex his muscle on a unarmed, light-weight teenager. We all feel sorry for his family and want to assign blame. Well if you ask me, I’m placing part of the blame on the people of Florida (and other states) who didn’t question this law before it came to pass. Stand Your Ground was introduced in the state of Florida in 2005 by some Republicans who probably have gun companies backing them up with money and bullshit. These laws protect nutso gun owners and allow them to be cowards. I know it can be difficult to fight gun laws with the NRA lawyers in the house but it can be done. Sure this law can help those of us who are under attack in our home but there are so many little nuances that need to be examined. What the hell went wrong here? People slay me when they get all pissy about a law that works against them but when it was being introduced in the legislature, they were deaf, dumb, and blind. Did anyone question what would happen if somebody stumbles into the wrong house one evening? What about if you are verbally attacked and the person has his or her hands in their pocket as if they had a weapon? Can you pull out a gun and shoot them?
Check this out. Section 3 of this law, for example, says the following:
A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.
So if I’m minding my own business and someone attacks me with their fists I am allowed to pull out a gun and kill them. Sounds great in theory but in real life how does that look. We used to call people punks if they pulled out a gun to stop a fistfight. Especially if you can take that person on pound for pound. I can see this working if a woman is being attacked by a man. But these gun nuts and their ‘shoot first ask questions later’ tirades are costing precious lives. Look at the case of Michael Dunn, a man who killed a Black teen because he felt ‘threatened’ after a verbal exchange. Or Randall White who was shot by a man who felt threatened because he simply raised his fist. This is ain’t the Wild Wild West.
Where the hell have you been Florida? I’m not as outraged about this law as I am about the apathetic stance people take when it comes to holding their representatives accountable. They are creating laws that matter to you and can affect their lives and yet when a watchdog group of protestors try to get their attention about it, folks whip out that tired old catch phrase ”Ain’t nobody got time for that”. I’ll bet they have the time when they have a bullet in their ass and the fool who did it gets a pass from the state they pay their taxes to every year. Now that hurts!!
God bless Trayvon Martin’s family. As a mother of a Black male, I feel for them very deeply. That could be my boy out there being misunderstood by a stranger one day. I pray that God will give his family mercy and peace. As for Zimmerman, I pray for him too. There is now doubt that there will be some kind of bounty on his head should he be let go. He would be wise to give up his US citizenship and move to another country for his own good.
Sorry if I sound a little bitchy in this post. Thanks for reading! I’m going back to my funk now and try to find some peace and clarity. WOOOOSAH!!!!
