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Februaiy 26, 2014 The Portland Observer Black HistOiy Month Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views o f the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. Page 19 O pinion What the Verdict says About Our Culture A wake-up call for all Americans by M arc H. M orial Another mother’s anguish. An other unarmed black teenager in Florida shot dead for no good rea son. Another indefensible instance of Stand Your Ground rearing its ugly head. Eight months after the stu n n in g a c q u itta l o f G eorge Zimmerman for the shooting death o f Trayvon Martin, justice again has been compromised in the fatal shooting o f 17-year-old Jordan Davis. On Nov. 23,2012, Michael Dunn, a 47-year-old white man, fired 10 rounds into a parked SUV after ar guing over loud rap music coming from the vehicle with Jordan and three other unarmed African Ameri can teenagers inside. Jordan Davis was killed at the scene. Like George Zimmerman, Michael Dunn claimed self-defense and used Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law to bolster his justification of the killing, as his lawyer stated in his closing argument, "His honor will further tell you that if Michael Dunn was in a pub lic place where he had a legal right to be, he had no duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force, including deadly force." Dunn claims Jordan Davis bran dished a gun so Dunn shot first. But there is one big problem with his story. Jordan Davis had no gun and neither did anyone else in the SUV. A jury found Dunn guilty of four counts, including three for the at tempted murders of Jordan’s three friends. But they deadlocked on the fifth count - first-degree murder in the killing of Jordan. Dunn may spend the rest of his life in prison for the four lesser counts. But the failure to convict him of murdering Jordan Davis raises critical questions about the devaluing of the lives of young black males in America and confirms the need for a repeal of Florida’s repug nant Stand Your Ground law which sanctions the use of deadly force by anyone who merely thinks - or claims - they are in danger from a per ceived assailant. Regardless of whether Dunn or Zimmerman chose to fully exercise Stand Your Ground provisions in their defense, this law was very clearly at the center of both cases. It is even clearer that the “shoot first” laws across the country are contrib uting to needless bloodshed and are ripe for unequal application based on race. A recent Urban Institute analy sis found that in Stand Your Ground states, “When the shooter is white and the victim is black, the justifi able homicide rate is 34 percent. When the situation is reversed and the shooter is black and the victim is white, shootings are ruled to be justifiable in only slightly more than 3 percent of cases.” Last September, the National Urban League, in collaboration with the bipartisan Mayors Against Ille gal Guns coalition and VoteVets, issued a report showing that in the 22 states with "Stand Your Ground" laws, the justifiable homicide rate has risen by an average of 53 per cent in the five years following their passage. In Florida, justifiable ho micides have increased by 200 per cent since the law took effect in 2005. These statistics and their un derlying racial disparities, tell us that expansive self-defense laws such as Stand Your Ground are doing m ore harm than good, and when coupled with im plicit racial bias and unfounded preconcep tions, young black m ales are es pecially at risk. D unn’s own bigoted Words in letters from jail clearly show his disregard for their lives, as he wrote: “The jail is full o f blacks and they all act like thugs. This may sound a bit radical but if more people would arm them selves and kill these (expletive) idiots when they're threatening you, eventu ally they may take the hint and change their behavior." and “The fear is that we may get a predom i nantly black jury and therefore, unlikely to get a favorable verdict. Sad, but th at’s where this country is still at. The good news is that the surrounding counties are p re dom inantly white and republican and supporters o f gun rights!" This view and those like it are why we m ust com m it today to action a g a in st the d e v a lu in g o f o u r young black lives. Even as the M ichael Dunn trial was getting underw ay, we learned th at T ray v o n M a rtin ’s k ille r, George Zim m erm an, had planned to capitalize on the death o f a young black male by participating in a “celebrity” boxing m atch - when his only claim to fam e is killing an unarm ed Black teenager - and getting off. Such a blatant disregard for the value of a black male’s life should be a wake-up call to all Americans. We must intensify our fight against Stand Your Ground laws - and the underlying mentality - that justify the killing of young black men whose only “offense” is being black. Marc H. Morial is president and chief executive officer o f the Na tional Urban League. Twin Tragedies of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis All children deserve same benefit of doubt by D e N een L. B rown On a cold night this w inter, 60 A frican- A m erican teenagers lined up in a banquet room. Each wore a suit and tie. Each had a straight-A grade point average. “I wish the media were here now,” said the president of the organiza tion recognizing the students in one of the best school systems in the country. “If there were some shoot ing, they would be here.” I was sitting at a table in that banquet hall, not as a reporter but as a mother. I wept at the truth of that statement. And I wondered why our society doesn’t see our black teen age boys for who they are — chil dren. . Why do these kids not have the privilege of walking freely through the world, un-judged? Why don’t they get the privilege “benefit of the doubt” bestows on other children? I wish the world could see what a black mother sees — how our sons laugh and study late at night. How before the sun rises, they’re up early, studying even more for a physics test. Some of them stand taller than 6 feet, but they still giggle at a plate of fresh-baked cookies. Or talk with their friends about calculus, chem istry, and AP exams. They pore over Shakespeare’s works, analyzing O thello’s relationship with Iago. But that’s a privilege we mothers of black A children don’t often have. Instead we have these con versations with our teens: Mom: Did you see the story out of Florida? Son: Which story? Mom: The one about the man who shot the black teenager be cause his music was too loud? Son: Oh, yeah. I saw that one. Mom: What could you have done in that situation to avoid it? Son: I don’t know. Mom: No, really, let’s talk about. What could you do if you were ever in a situation like that? Son: I guess I could just turn the music down and leave the store. Mom: That is a good idea — avoidance. Son: But it just seems like the man wanted to shoot somebody. Some times, I worry when I run home at night. Mom: You shouldn’t have to worry. You should be able to enjoy yourfreedom. You should be able to be a child and not carry that burden. Son: I know. Mom: But just know to listen to your gut. That inner-voice you have within you is the voice of God. You will be OK. She says that last line with overt confidence, but inside she’s tom up. Every time she reads a headline about another black teenager being killed, it hurts. It’s a feeling of fear so deep that it rides an inner core. She thinks about all those moth ers who probably had the same con versations. What did Emmett Till’s mother say to him before he went South, before he was beaten and thrown into the Tallahatchie River? What were the instructions of the mother of Tray von Martin, who was fatally shot by a man who stalked him as he walked home on a rainy night? W hat were the conversations Jordan Davis had with his mother? Davis was fatally shot by a white man who opened fire on him and three other teenagers as they sat in an SUV outside a convenience store. Prosecutors argued that Michael Dunn shot up the SUV after com plaining the teens’ music was too loud. A Jacksonville jury recently found Dunn guilty of attempted second-degree murder. But the jury deadlocked on the charge of first- degree murder. Jordan’s father, Ron Davis, told reporters that his son was a good kid. “There are a lot of good kids out there,” Davis said. “They shouldn’t live in fear and walk around the streets worrying about if someone has a problem with somebody else that if they are shot, it is just collat eral damage.” Black parents feel that father’s pain and wrestle with perpetual questions: How do we protect young black male children from a world that seem s to prey on them , in a society that considers them to be m enaces, guilty until proven innocent? How do we get the world to see who our sons are: children with universal privileges that come with being fully human? DeNeen L. Brown is a Washing ton Post reporter. 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