Florida Legislature expands Stand Your Ground law after Michael Dunn verdict

Florida Legislature expands Stand Your Ground law after Michael Dunn verdict

By Roger Caldwell

Only in Florida, the legislature and the justice department think they are doing a good job when a young Black man is shot to death, and the shooter is charged with attempted murder. It makes no sense to millions of Americans, but to the state justice system, they are doing an exemplary job. Our leaders do admit after giving Marissa Alexander 20 years after firing a gun into a wall, that the “Stand Your Ground Law” needs to be expanded.

Florida is turning into the Wild West, and the pervasive sickness in the “Stand Your Gun Law” is giving certain men a license to shoot first and ask questions later. At the Michael Dunn’s trial, he claims that he feared for his life and he saw a shotgun.

Even though no gun was found in the car, and Michael Dunn shot 10 times into the car, only one young Black man was hit and died. So the jury was deadlocked on the first-degree murder charge, and a mistrial was declared on that count. Michael Dunn could get 75 years, but it will be interesting to see what the system will do to protect a white man.

Something is wrong in a state, where our leaders think this behavior is normal, and you become a celebrity, because you killed a Black man and you walked away a free man. George Zimmerman was acquitted seven months ago in the death of shooting another young unarmed Black man, and now he is getting sponsorships, and there might be a television show in the future.

The state justice system and the legislature think that the only flaw with the law is that it does not include the ability to fire a warning shot. So, the state legislature is going to fix the law by granting the same protections already in place under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground Law” to people who only threaten to use force.

“If the expansion takes place, law-abiding citizens who fire a warning shot would be immune from Florida’s 10-20-Life law, which requires anyone who shows a gun while committing certain felonies is sentenced to 10 years in prison. If someone is wounded, the 10-20 Life law requires a sentence of 25 years to life,” writes reporter AWR Hawkins.

The insanity in the Florida justice system is crazy and used to keep minorities in jail for life. The minimum laws make no sense and it appears they are used primarily against minorities. As our governor continues to privatize prisons and give his friends million dollar contracts, prisoners and criminals are treated sub-human.

Even though unarmed young Black men are being killed at an alarming rate, the governor and the legislature will expand the “Stand Your Ground Law” and they think the system will be fixed. Somehow in Florida, there is nothing wrong when a registered gun owner shoots a young Black man because his music is too loud, or he is walking down the street. Something is wrong with the people who make the rules in Florida, and it is time for a major change in the system, in order to save young Black men.