Florida’s so-called “stand your ground” law is a legal abomination and needs to be chucked.
However, Florida’s ridiculous invitation to murder, aka the “Stand your ground” law, had very little to do with the blatant injustice surrounding the execution style murder of teenager Trayvon Martin by a “Neighborhood Watch” thug named George Zimmerman.
To paraphrase 60s black revolutionary H.Rap Brown, the shooting of unarmed blacks guilty of nothing but being black is “as American as apple pie.”
Despite the existence of that heinous law, Sanford Florida police chief Bill Lee’s lame excuse that “stand your ground” forbade him from detaining, much less arresting the pathetic wretch of a vigilante George Zimmerman who defied Sanford dispatchers orders to stay in his car, is pure blarney.
There’s nothing in the law that prevented Lee from doing just that.
Just as there was nothing to prevent him from sending a homicide detective instead of a narcotics detective to the scene in the aftermath. Or for that matter to prevent him from conducting an alcohol or drug test on Zimmerman whose prior arrest photo make him appear drunk and stoned as opposed to the photos of young, healthy Martin in his high school football uniform.
Martin had a squeaky clean record.
Zimmerman? Not so much.
In 2005 he was arrested for battery on a cop.
Unlike his cold blooded execution of Martin as he begged for his lifej, Zimmerman was shown compassion and put into a diversionary program and charges were dropped.
In 2007 an injunction was issued as a result of a domestic battery complaint by his then girlfriend.
Citizens of Sanford, meet your protector George Zimmerman.
Most likely Police Chief Lee was unprepared for the storm hitting him now. Sanford and Seminole county’s long history of racism no doubt left him feeling that impunity was still in effect.
In the 19th century the black communities of Goldsboro, Georgetown and Midway were somewhat of an oasis for the descendants of slaves. Indeed, the black township of Goldsboro was the second Florida town incorporated by blacks.
But the days of relative freedom ended in 1911 when the white establishment in Sanford stripped Goldsoboro’s charter.
In no small thanks to “social media” the days of impunity in Sanford may well be over.
On Thursday last thousands of protestors converged on Sanford demanding the arrest of Zimmerman whose whereabouts are the best kept secret this side of Casey Anthony.
In response Chief Lee has “temporarily” stepped aside and Governor Rick Scott has sent in the FDLE and named a special prosecutor.
But nothing short of the sacking of Lee and the arrest of Zimmerman is likely to appease the mass movement demanding justice for Martin.
Yes, the “stand your ground” law needs to be thrown into the dustbin of history. But with or without that law, Zimmerman was a man on a murderous mission.
Odds are neither the “stand your ground law” or Zimmerman’s protector Chief Bill Lee will be able to thwart the momentum toward justice for Trayvon Martin.
In short the days of impunity in Sanford/Seminole county are numbered.
JACK MCCARTHY is former managing editor of the Florida Flameau, contributing Florida editor to onlinejournal.com and contributor to CounterPunch.
