Tuesday, March 20, 2012

"Stand your ground" needs to die

What else can be said, really? The death of Trayvon Martin is a horrible waste, and if anything positive can be salvaged from it, maybe it's for states to take another look at their laws. In big parts of the country, protecting gun rights has gone to the extent of priveleging gun violence. In Florida Stand Your Ground Laws may make it possible to get away with the unprovoked murder - in fact if not in intent - of an unarmed teenager.

Every fact that has come out has only made the event worse. One can give Zimmerman some benefit of the doubt on intent, in that I don't think he was consciously out there hunting for pelts. And yet what else was happening here? How many other neighborhood watches are primed to attack someone for walking while black?

No, this is wrong. Nobody should be victimized in their home. But nobody should be victimized in the street because not being in their home or business makes them fair game.

2 comments:

susan said...

I was horrified too when I read about this a few days ago. Vigilantism seems to have been legalized in Florida with absolutely sickening consequences. The fact that the first reaction of the police was to cover the shooting up is disgusting. Then again, that's the lesson being foisted on the world by manic America these days.

Ben said...

You are so very right on the coverup. That's one of the things you find out in digging out details on the story. The police went beyond dropping the ball, and treated the shooting with indifference or worse.