{"id":24235,"date":"2013-07-20T14:39:21","date_gmt":"2013-07-20T19:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/?p=24235"},"modified":"2013-07-20T14:39:21","modified_gmt":"2013-07-20T19:39:21","slug":"stand-your-ground-must-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/stand-your-ground-must-stand\/24235\/","title":{"rendered":"Stand Your Ground Must Stand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jeff-Knox\"(July 18, 2013) It didn\u2019t take long after George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin for the event to be portrayed as the act of a vigilante, or a one-man lynching party.\u00a0 A mug shot of a surly, mentally detached-looking Zimmerman juxtaposed to a 9th grade yearbook photo of bright-eyed, smiling, young Martin became staples of reports on the story, and, in a way, became the story itself.\u00a0 The President of the United States weighed in with a comment that if he had a son, he \u201cwould look like Trayvon.\u201d\u00a0 And that was the story that was reported for the next year and a half \u2013 and which continues to be reported today, even after Zimmerman\u2019s acquittal.<\/p>\n

It is the story of a dissatisfied, Walter Mitty, police wannabe, pudgy, white guy (who parenthetically identifies himself as Hispanic), who saw an opportunity to take out his frustration and racist hatred on a helpless, hapless, young African-American child innocently walking home from the local convenience market one evening.<\/p>\n

In this story, Zimmerman \u2013 whose mother is inconveniently Peruvian with a black grandmother, and who has a decidedly non-racist history (but luckily enough for the storytellers has a white-sounding name) and a Florida license to carry a concealed handgun (which proves he has self-esteem issues and probably a small penis).\u00a0 As a self-appointed \u201cneighborhood watch commander,\u201d (never mind that he was elected by his neighbors), he is patrolling the streets in search of a victim when he spots young Trayvon Martin, an African-American youth in a hoodie, walking alone so he draws his gun and confronts the youth\u2026
\nNo wait, he\u2019s too clever for that.\u00a0 First he calls the police to report a \u201csuspicious person\u201d in the neighborhood.\u00a0 This was obviously a way of building a cover story and establishing himself as just a concerned citizen.\u00a0 Then he draws his gun and confronts his victim\u2026<\/p>\n

No, still too obvious.\u00a0 Instead, he keeps his gun concealed and stalks his victim \u2013 while still talking to the police on the phone.\u00a0 When the police order him to stay in his truck and not follow the \u201csuspect\u201d who has run and disappeared down a sidewalk between houses, Zimmerman ignores them and continues stalking his prey\u2026<\/p>\n

Wait, wrong again, Zimmerman had already gotten out of his truck and walked a short way up the sidewalk looking for a house number so he could tell police exactly where the suspect had disappeared when the officer on the phone told him he \u201cdidn\u2019t need\u201d to follow the suspect.\u00a0 So Zimmerman obeyed the officer and began heading back to his truck, ending the call, but asking that police contact him when they arrived so he could direct them to where the suspect had disappeared.
\nThat\u2019s when the murderer\u2019s plan really came together.\u00a0 Moments after hanging up with police, Zimmerman cleverly managed to lure the innocent black youth out of hiding and instigate a violent confrontation in which he, the pudgy 5\u20198\u201d white guy, sustained significant injuries to his face and the back of his head before cold-bloodedly executing the unarmed, 5\u201911\u201d, 160-pound African-American child with a single shot from his hidden 9mm pistol.<\/p>\n

Police arrived moments later.\u00a0 They noted Zimmerman\u2019s injuries, rendered first aid to the wounded teenager, and transported the handcuffed killer to police headquarters where they interrogated him for 5 hours before releasing him on a bizarre technicality in Florida\u2019s \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d law which says that when a killer claims self-defense, he can only be arrested if there is some evidence indicating he is lying.<\/p>\n

The next day, Zimmerman returned with police to the scene, where he took them through a moment-by-moment reenactment of the incident, and where police interviewed various witnesses who corroborated Zimmerman\u2019s story, and Zimmerman was allowed to remain free, but ordered not to go far in case some new evidence surfaced that might put his story in doubt.<\/p>\n

That evidence soon arrived in the form of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and the media who rallied mobs of angry citizens \u2013 and the President of the United States \u2013 demanding \u201cJustice for Trayvon,\u201d meaning of course, the heads of Zimmerman and the police officers who refused to arrest him.<\/p>\n

A Special Prosecutor was appointed who eschewed the traditional Grand Jury process and instead had Zimmerman arrested and charged with second degree murder \u2013 in spite of the lack of evidence.\u00a0 Famous attorney and law professor, Alan Dershowitz, described the indictment as \u201cthin,\u201d and called it \u201dirresponsible and unethical.\u201d\u00a0 He suggested that the prosecutor had acted out of political motivations.<\/p>\n

On July 13, 2013, a jury of 6 women, 5 white, and one \u201cnon-white,\u201d \u2013 all but one of them mothers \u2013 found George Zimmerman not guilty both of second degree murder and of the lesser charge of manslaughter.<\/p>\n

The verdict was immediately criticized by the media and politicians.\u00a0 Predicted widespread rioting and violence did not materialize, though there were a few isolated incidents of vandalism, looting, and violence in the name of retribution for the verdict.\u00a0 The possibility of federal civil rights charges has not been ruled out by Attorney General Eric Holder, who took the opportunity of an address to the NAACP to challenge so-called \u201cstand your ground\u201d laws.<\/p>\n

In the end, those who accuse George Zimmerman of being a one-man lynch mob, and who continue to call for an actual lynching of Zimmerman \u2013 both by mobs and by the authorities \u2013 are now calling for the lynching of a self-defense standard which has been settled law in the US since the 1920s.\u00a0 Today\u2019s state Stand Your Ground laws like Florida\u2019s are based in the US Supreme Court decision of Brown v. US in which Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. stated; \u201cThe right of a man to stand his ground and defend himself when attacked with a deadly weapon, even to the extent of taking his assailant’s life, depends upon whether he reasonably believes that he is in immediate danger of death or grievous bodily harm from his assailant, and not upon the detached test whether a man of reasonable prudence, so situated, might not think it possible to fly with safety or to disable his assailant, rather than kill him.\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Justice Holmes went on to say; \u201cDetached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife.\u201d\u00a0 Or, it could be reasonably added, an uplifted fist or conveniently located slab of sidewalk.<\/p>\n

George Zimmerman will live the rest of his life with the memory of that evening.\u00a0 He still faces the possibility of federal prosecution and civil litigation, as well as the very real threat of someone taking personal retribution.\u00a0 Only he will ever know what was in his mind and heart in that terrible moment when he pulled the trigger.\u00a0 For the rest of us, we must not allow some doubt about George Zimmerman\u2019s motivations leave us with no option if we\u2019re ever faced with a similar choice of our own.<\/p>\n

Stand Your Ground must continue to stand as the law of the land.<\/p>\n

Permission to reprint or post this article in its entirety is hereby granted provided this credit and link is included. Text is available at <\/strong>www.FirearmsCoalition.org<\/a><\/span><\/span>. To receive The Firearms Coalition\u2019s bi-monthly newsletter, <\/strong>The Knox Hard Corps Report<\/strong><\/em>, write to PO Box 1761, Buckeye, AZ 85326. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2011 Neal Knox Associates \u2013 The most trusted name in the rights movement. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The material published here reflects only the opinion of the author, and does not necessarily reflect official positions of Outdoor Channel.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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