Februaiy 26, 2014
The
Portland Observer
Black HistOiy Month
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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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