Tampa Bay Times: 'Stand your ground' protects criminals

[Scuba]

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/stand-your-ground-protects-criminals/1242570

Florida's "stand your ground" self-defense law should be titled the Criminals Relief Act. When the controversial law was enacted in 2005, law enforcement officials warned it would be invoked by people prone to violence and mayhem. Seven years later, it's clear those fears have been realized. Gang members, drug dealers, domestic abusers and other criminals have walked away from killings thanks to "stand your ground," and it's clearer than ever that the law should be repealed. Lawmakers who suggest a tweak can fix the problems are putting politics over sound public policy and the safety of Floridians.

The most recent analysis of more than 100 fatal "stand your ground" cases by Tampa Bay Times staff writers Kameel Stanley and Connie Humburg found that nearly 60 percent of people claiming the self-defense legal protection had been previously arrested, and one in three were accused of a violent crime. All told, 119 people who invoked "stand your ground" after killing someone had been arrested 327 times, not counting traffic violations or other minor arrests.

This is a far cry from the scenario lawmakers envisioned when passing the most expansive self-defense law in the country at the urging of the National Rifle Association. The law expands the "castle doctrine" to give people the right to use lethal force without the duty to retreat whenever they feel at great bodily harm. The thinking was that law-abiding people should be able to defend themselves against an unprovoked assault.

But, just as law enforcement warned at the time, the record demonstrates that people invoking the law are often armed and dangerous, not innocent victims of a random attack. They are people like Maurice Moorer, who landed in jail multiple times and allegedly threatened his then-wife with violence and guns before he killed his ex-wife's boyfriend in 2008. Moorer shot into his victim's car 14 times, but he wasn't prosecuted after he claimed his victim was going to the car for a gun, and a gun was later found in the car.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Sure hope the TBT isn' dependent on a lot of advertising

from coprocephalic wingnut business owners.

[Scuba]

2. Thank you Jackpine for teaching me a new - and useful - word!!!!

[earcandle]

13. I like that idea! Warren before Clinton any day!

[BlueJazz]

3. Tampa Bay Times was the St. Petersburg Times and still is one, if not, the most Liberal..

...newspaper in Florida. I get it every day.

[B Stieg]

4. And how does any of this apply to Zimmerman?

He molested his cousin.
He attacked a policeman.
He beat his girlfriend.
He murdered an unarmed teenager.

The law should be renamed "Stand on Your Recidivism."

I'm scared of Florida. If I go there, I may have to shoot it (in self-defense, you see).

[LynneSin]

5. Stand Your Ground Laws = Human Hunting

Just make sure you have a good excuse - like how dangerous a 17 year old kid, armed with skittles and a can of ice tea, is a dangerous criminal.

[amuse bouche]

6. Finally

some truth exposed

[AtheistCrusader]

7. Yeah, I dunno. Spurious use of 'often' here.

So, Florida went from about 200 justifiable shootings per year, to about 350, after this bill passed.
Assuming ALL of that increase is nefarious activity, 150/year is a statistical blip. Not 'often'. This state has almost 20 million people in it.

Most of those could be fixed by getting better prosecutors. That last example in the excerpted clip probably should have gone to trial.

[Scuba]

8. So you don't see a 75% increase as statistically relevant? Why is that again?

[AtheistCrusader]

9. For starters, I don't assume that whole 150 is nefarious activity.

It's also about 10% of the total number of actual known murders in florida in 2011. There's a slightly bigger fish to fry somewhere.

That said, actually, I suppose non-prosecution of these cases should maybe just go away entirely. Have them all reviewed by a grand jury. That would give the dead a voice, in case the claim of self defense is a miscarriage of justice.

[Scuba]

10. "Give the dead a voice." Jesus, man, think about what you wrote.

[AtheistCrusader]

11. Why? My state does.

I think it's a good safety valve on self-defense laws. We convene grand juries at the drop of a hat if there's anything fishy or not ENTIRELY clear about the use of lethal force in self defense.

Dead people don't get to tell their side of the story. Someone has to do it for them. Fact-finding work in front of a grand jury is a good way to accomplish that.

Keep in mind, this isn't just a gun issue. Self defense with lethal force encompasses more than just the use of firearms.

[aikoaiko]

12. So does habeus corpus.

So do a lot of laws.

OMG ONOZ

[earcandle]

14. Help us help the Trayvon Martin Amendment in Florida, one song at a time

We plan to donate 50% of proceeds. Its a great song and historical.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/rainy-night-in-florida-single/id677246078

[madville]

15. Make anyone previously convicted of a violent crime

Exempt from using it as a defense for starters. We don't let felons own firearms, why should the law protect them when they kill?

[lindysalsagal]

16. It's not just florida. If the Wiki is correct: nearly half of the country is nuts.

Alabama,[14] Alaska,[15] Arizona,[16] California,[17][18][19] Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa,[20] Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana,[16] Maine, Massachusetts (though the term is used very loosely there),[21] Michigan,[16] Mississippi, Missouri,[22] Montana,[16] New Hampshire,[16] North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma,[16] Pennsylvania,[23] Rhode Island,[24] South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee,[16] Texas,[25] Utah,[26] West Virginia,[16] Wisconsin[27] and Wyoming have adopted Castle Doctrine statutes, and other states (Iowa,[28] Virginia,[29] and Washington) have considered stand-your-ground laws of their own.[30][31][32]

There's no disputing the assertion that the U.S. is violence obsessed when nearly half of our states are willing to live like this. Add that to our gun culture, and the rest of the world would be correct to worry about us holding the vast majority of global nuclear weapons.

If only this were just an original star trek episode where the indigenous people were ripe to recognize their folly and evolve into a better society. But this is our country. I don't see it changing any time soon.

[Scurrilous]

17. K & R