‘Stand your ground’: Charges against officer who killed black man carrying air rifle dropped

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

A judge dismissed charges against a Florida sheriff’s deputy who shot a 33-year-old black man carrying an unloaded air rifle in Broward County in 2013, saying the law enforcement officer was protected under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” self-defense law.

Peter Peraza, 37, testified during a hearing that Jermaine McBean initially refused commands from him and other deputies to drop the authentic-looking weapon and then turned and pointed it toward the deputies, the Associated Press reported. Peraza fired three shots, killing McBean. The deputy was the first Florida law enforcement officer criminally charged for an on-duty killing in more than three decades.

Peraza had faced a potential 30-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors told the AP that they intend to appeal Circuit Judge Michael Usan’s dismissal.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]


Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/07/27/stand-your-ground-law-cited-as-charges-dropped-against-deputy-who-killed-black-man-carrying-air-rifle/?utm_term=.65ee13094628

---

By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. July 27 at 2:29 PM

[ManiacJoe]

1. As presented, this is a simple case of self defense.

How does Stand Your Ground enter into this?

[Travis_0004]

3. Not sure

Before stand your ground, in most states, a civillain had a duty to retreat, but a police officer has never had a duty to retreat.

Assuming the facts are true as mentioned in the story, why the hell was the officer charged? I can't blame him for shooting if somebody is pointing a realistic looking rifle at the officer.

[msanthrope]

17. It precludes a civil suit, with a lower standard of proof. Police unions ain't stupid. nt

[yallerdawg]

2. Another example of Second Amendment rights.

When you exercise your "Constitutional right," you authorize law enforcement to legally execute you.

Enjoy your right.

[7962]

4. Well, you dont have the right to aim a weapon at another person,

without the expectation of a reaction.
We dont have THAT amendment

[yallerdawg]

7. If you have "the right to keep and bear arms"...

which "shall not be infringed" - why are there so many exceptions?

Your perception that I am aiming my gun at you is what?

[hack89]

9. That the end of the barrel is pointing at me?

Don't be so fucking obtuse- we all know that the 2A allows plenty of restrictions.

[yallerdawg]

20. So if you're out hunting with your buds...

and one of them inadvertently points his gun at you - and he can't hear you because of ear plugs or muffs - you feel justified in "defending" yourself?

So we have officers executing our fellow citizens for carrying relatively harmless "lookalike" BB guns, air rifles, toy guns, things that may possibly look like guns - and this is perfectly alright?

We have the unrestricted right to buy any kind of gun we want - that is YOUR argument - but that's where our "rights" end?

Getting your ass shot for exercising your Constitutional right is no "infringement"?

[hack89]

25. Why do you think I support unrestricted gun ownership?

I happen to support many restrictions.

[christx30]

36. If you're hunting and one of your friends

accidently points a weapon at you, you can tell him to knock it off and be careful, because you know this person, and you know they are not a threat to you.
If you're a cop, and you're called to a store where you are told someone is waving a gun around, you tell that person to drop their weapon, and they point it at you, you are absolutely justified in shooting him. Because this is a stranger, you don't know what he's doing, and you doing know what his intentions are. Is he just playing around? Is he planning a mass shooting? Is he going to shoot you? You just plain don't know.
You have the right to carry. You don't have the right to brandish your weapon at innocent people. And as far as the earplugs/music go, if you're holding a weapon (even a lookalike) see a cop screaming at you, he's not playing. Most people would understand in context that he probably wants you to put the weapon down, and not point it at him. If the cop is yelling in Spanish, Russian, or even Klingon, you see the uniform, you see his weapon, you should know what to do.
Look at the weapon on the ground in 29. If a stranger was pointing that at you, would you question if it was a real weapon? Any reasonable person would be scared of getting shot in those circumstances.

[yallerdawg]

37. Uh-huh.

When I exercise my "right to keep and bear arms" (including a toy gun, a BB gun, an air rifle, an unloaded gun, an unfired gun, no law broken, no crime committed) everything changes.

I am now a criminal who may be legally executed by anyone else with a gun if I don't "behave."

Some freakin' constitutional right, isn't it?

[christx30]

39. The second amendment to keep and bear arms

means that you can own the weapon and use it in self defense. It doesn't mean that you can point it at innocent people or police. It doesn't mean that if you're ordered to put it on the ground, you can refuse those orders without consequences.

[yallerdawg]

40. You got all that out of...

"...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

So you all aren't "strict constructionists" on the 2nd Amendment - except for the part about buying and selling guns.

Got it.

[christx30]

41. It means that you can own one for self defense. n/t

[7962]

18. Are there exceptions to free speech? To freedom of movement? yes to both

Our rights are not totally without limit.
You just choose to be ridiculous about the 2nd.
Show me the right we have to threaten another person?

[yallerdawg]

22. So our gun rights pertain to...

buying/selling any kind of gun you want, and after THAT the restrictions and exceptions begin.

Got it.

[7962]

23. obviously you have a tough time reading the laws or the constitution.

or you're just intentionally being obtuse for personal enjoyment

Our rights are easily understood. By most

[yallerdawg]

24. The 2nd amendment - the part you all recognize anyway -

is short and sweet- "...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Aren't we strict 2 A Constitutionalists here? Why are you all arguing "exceptions" and "infringements"?

Could you give me a list of all these things I'm not "reading" which legally cost me my life and rights for exercising my 2 A right?

[hack89]

26. Go read Heller. It will make things much clearer. Nt

[7962]

31. Guess i should have led off with that!

I'm sure he's fully aware of it, just trying to be cute among the easily amused

[hack89]

5. Ignoring cops and pointing a gun at them is not a constitutional right

All he had to do was comply with the officer.

[yallerdawg]

8. It's an air gun.

He had ear buds in playing music.

"Stand your ground."

[hack89]

10. An air gun indistinguishable from the real thing. Nt

[yallerdawg]

11. If we have the right to keep and bear arms...

why is carrying a freakin' air gun - CARRYING A GUN - gives law enforcement - or any other armed individual - the right to legally execute you?

You don't see how absurd this is?

[hack89]

14. He was not shot for carrying a gun

He was shot for pointing it at a cop after the cop ordered him to stop.

[donnasgirl]

16. YallerDawg just a question,

How was the Police officer supposed to know the air gun wasn't real?

[yallerdawg]

21. If we have the Constitutional right...

to "keep and bear arms" why would having a gun - real, harmless, toy - be a problem?

[donnasgirl]

27. I understand your argument,

but in my opinion a toy should not look as real as they do, my neighbor who gives the ccw course say's the same exact thing. I went to a class that he gives, during the course he laid out 5 different weapons 4 of which were fake, and out of a class of 40 people not one of us could tell the difference until we picked it up.

[cstanleytech]

12. It being an airgun is immaterial.

Now if the government could prove the officers knew for sure that it wasnt a real gun then there might be a case against the officer but otherwise I dont see the DA being able to get a conviction which makes me wonder if someone in the area might be pressing forward with this case for a political reason.

[KeepItReal]

6. You forgot to add "while Black".

This gentleman pointed an assault style weapon at law enforcement and went on his merry way afterwards.

He also was brought to justice peacefully weeks and weeks later.

[tom_kelly]

15. What dya think this feller is facing? 10 years?

[KeepItReal]

33. Certainly not the death penalty

Unlike countless other victims of police violence who never threatened a cop by pointing a weapon at them. Tamir Rice... Eric Garner... Freddie Gray... Sandra Bland...

[7962]

19. Looks like he's a tourist attraction

[LanternWaste]

38. Looks like he's aiming a firearm with intent.

Looks like he's aiming a firearm with intent.

[Igel]

34. A few days ago in Houston a guy was shot for reaching for a pellet gun.

He had it in his waistband. He was shot.

I think he lived, but that's because it's hard to be an ace shot at all times. The cop missed. The guy was severely wounded, though.

Just another case where if you're black you're shot but if you're white you're left to walk free. That's the rule. That's how it always works, and all those videos and stories we hear can't be wrong.







Except the guy with the pellet gun was white.

Ben Franklin: Half the Truth is often a great Lie
Ben Franklin: A Lie stands on 1 leg, Truth on 2.
Mark Twain: A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies.

Or, the modern Big Data approach to that--data-dredging.

[7962]

42. Oh hell, you've done it now!!!

You will be the subject of immediate scorn for pointing out that whites are getting shot too. And abused. And not in some tiny insignificant number
Although the case you cite is not an example of bad conduct by the cops, but bad decisions by the subject. Just like the OP

[Initech]

13. Why don't they just make "The Purge" real and get it over with?

[Blue_Tires]

28. Sweet... More legally-sanctioned murder of black folks

GJGE Florida...

[yallerdawg]

29. What do you think? *GRAPHIC*

?w=750&h=500

[Eleanors38]

32. The weapon looks like a rifle.

[7962]

43. Yes, it does. But He'll state that the 2nd gives you the right to point it at people

Look upthread

[Eleanors38]

44. Well, folklore blossoms eternally.

[7962]

45. Now thats a good one!

[jtuck004]

30. This seems much more like an occupation than just policing. n/t

[NWCorona]

35. ...