stand your ground

Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook Buys WhatsApp, Jordan Davis’ Family Asks, What’s Up?

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Theme:– Operation C.R.U.S.H. Against Gun Violence, Bias and Clouded Vision

How to explain to parents the killing of their child for no reason? In the eyes of the shooter it’s because he thought he saw a gun. In the eyes of our culture it’s because the kid was black. In the eyes of the law/jury it’s in Stand Your Ground. So a guy with a hoodie buys “WhatsApp,” while Davis’ family asks, what’s up?

That’s the dilemma with the recent hung-jury factor in the Jordan Davis trial. They couldn’t agree on the first-degree murder charge. But, on the other charges that didn’t involve death, they could agree. It makes no logical sense but more importantly, the Stand Your Ground law doesn’t even make gun sense.

Michael Dunn did more to inflame a situation than to contain it. Remember, he was at a gas station where you’re not allowed to smoke much less smoke-out someone’s life. The Stand Your Ground provision in the law is a bad cocktail because it doesn’t even make legal sense to shoot first and verify later.

Those trained in law enforcement are schooled on taking-up a position of safety where possible in the event their life is threatened. Typically in an active shooting situation you’ll see them taking cover. In the Davis case, Dunn took cover after the shooting by going home, ordering pizza and not calling police.

Dunn suggests he was lost in the moment. So he didn’t think about notifying authorities. Forget the legal sense and gun sense for a second. His explanation doesn’t even make common sense. What would cause him to come-up with such a crazy excuse? Maybe it has to do with personal/system biases.

His fiancée’s testimony and written statements from Dunn make reference to his racial views. Plus, we might need to consider whether the system gives similar ‘benefit of the doubt’ to unarmed black boys as it does to the armed or unarmed of another racial background. If not, then something’s gotta change.

Zuckerberg’s Facebook keeps pushing the tech frontier. They’re always looking to expand their business. The Stand Your Ground experiment seems to be doing just the opposite. It may be giving people “the cover” to kill emerging potential. This isn’t the way to expand the benefit of equal protection under the law.

Footnote: Personal fears/biases and some system inconsistencies that go un-checked cause black boys to get caught-up in two ways or waves. It’s like the ocean wave that washes-up stuff on the shore being treated as trash and the ocean undercurrent that drags stuff back being treated as forgotten.

Jordan Davis’ Attorney Set to Put Michael Dunn on the Hot Seat of Justice

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Theme:– Operation C.R.U.S.H. Against Gun Violence, Bias and Clouded Vision

There’s another wrongful-death shooting trial in Florida where Jordan Davis was allegedly killed by Michael Dunn who’s pleading self-defense. Dunn fired eight shots into a vehicle (says he saw a gun) after he told teens to lower the car’s radio. Now Davis’ attorney is about to put Dunn on the hot seat of justice.

It’s hard to understand the kinds of senseless violence we hear reported in the news. Sometimes it’s gang-related while other times it’s about a person in an estranged relationship seeking revenge. There are some recent cases due to mental illness but the common element is the weapon used.

Many debate if the problem is the weapon or if it’s the user of the weapon that needs to be put in check. Interestingly, that’s not a question being asked when a teenager first has to get a driver’s license. There’s a whole permit-process by which they have to get practice, get tested and get certified before driving.

Remember when seatbelts were not being used and the government realized that avoidable highway deaths were become a public health issue? Maybe the same view needs to be taken when dealing with senseless gun violence. Otherwise we’ll have a culture of repeated tragedies due to an outlaw mentality.

There are those who compare this case to the Trayvon Martin incident. While Dunn has not presented a ‘Stand Your Ground’ defense he is being seen in a similar way. The danger with over-comparing the two cases is getting caught-up looking into the forest and not seeing trees of inconsistencies in our system.

Footnote: If a teenager as a rookie driver has to go through a permit-process before driving to help minimize hazardous drivers on the road, maybe a similar process could apply with first-time firearm purchases to help minimize senseless violence in our nation. (But maybe that’s just too logical.)