At least it was on Meet The Press; the TV goes on automatically and I was too sleepy to change the channel.
"Stand Your Ground" laws are being especially hard-hit, despite Florida's never having been invoked by George Zimmerman as a defense against being charged with second-degree murder of Trayvon Martin; and the possibility of a civil rights case is bruited about with grim determination. --Yeah, good luck with that; whatever else you might say about him, Zimmerman's history argues strongly against his being racist. And as for "Stand Your Ground," Florida's law appears to provide disproportionate benefit to African-Americans who shoot someone in self-defense. --Unless you believe, as some writers appear to, that the lives of perpetrator and intended victim are of equal value.
The media and their howling dogs are by Ghu determined to have 'em a nice cluster of riots -- and it's starting to irk 'em that the rest of us won't take the hint.
Dream on, jerks. I think people are starting to get tired of being jerked around.
If we get lucky, maybe the Professional Racists like Sharpton and the NAACP and Holder and Obama will soon be as Politically Relevant as the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Whig Party.
ReplyDeleteOne can hope.
"argues strongly *against* his being racist."
ReplyDeleteMissed the against there, Bobbie.
Yes, I did, Bob.
ReplyDeleteIt appears many of the anti-gun, anti-self-defense people (by courtesy only) put the value of a violent perps hide above that of three or more law abiding victims.
ReplyDeleteStranger
Ahem.
ReplyDeleteActually, even though it wasn't invoked by name, the "stand your ground" law, as interpreted by the courts here in Florida, had an important impact.
Classic self defense: if you initiated the conflict, and did not try to break off the encounter after that, you don't get to plead self defense, even if later events give you good reason to fear for your life.
Current Florida law makes that irrelevant; it's only whether or not you feared for your life at the time you used the weapon that matters.
Without Stand Your Ground, there would be Great Bickerings about whether Zimmerman or Martin initiated the conflict, and whether either one attempted to break off the encounter, etc. Only if those questions were settled in Zimmerman's favor would his self defense argument have much validity.
It's also smart to remember that had Martin killed Zimmermann, he would have probably been able to successfully plead self defense (ie, shadowed by unknown person whom he felt was a threat, and choosing to confront the threat directly instead of trying to escape or evade--in that permutation, Stand Your Ground would have a more overt influence.)
Bear in mind also that the Florida courts have interpreted SYG in a very defendant friendly manner, leading to results that fall into the "what were they smoking when they decided that" category: whereby in some cases the person who is obviously the person attacking the other person has made successful use of SYG. It would be nice if the legislature would pass a revision to overrule those bad judicial decisions, but you can bet your sweet bippie that as long as Al Sharpton is on the case, there's no chance of that happening.
Kishnevi
Using Holder's logic, isn't it true that when he felt threatened, Treyvon Martin should have "retreated" to a safe place instead of confronting Zimmerman? By "standing his ground" Martin was responsible for the outcome.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, Stand Your Ground Laws were not invoked by the Zimmerman defense. This is smoke and mirrors to take away more of our liberties. If you have no need to protect yourself, you have no need for a gun or knife.
It never ends with these people.
People are never tired of being jerked around ...
ReplyDeleteQ
Hmmm. He was in Utah last week to express his displeasure of SYG here. Interestingly, he commented that it was designed to address a problem that didn't exist, as best as I recall. What? He is wasting his time addressing non existent problems?
ReplyDeleteI think that if he would spend as much time attending to his duties as he does attending to non existent ones, he would find life tremendously more interesting and rewarding.
Times like this cause me to take great solace in scriptures like Jacob 3:1 "But behold, I, Jacob would speak unto you who are pure in heart. Look unto God with firmness of mind, pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction."
Joe Harwell