ORLANDO — In his typical ant-2nd amendment stance, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. strongly condemned “Stand Your Ground” laws here Tuesday in a speech to the NAACP that addressed the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin.
The laws “sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods,” Holder said, by “allowing – and perhaps encouraging – violent situations to escalate in public.”
More than 30 states, including Florida, have passed “Stand Your Ground” laws, which allow people to defend themselves with deadly force, rather than retreating, if they feel they are in danger or a serious felony is about to be committed.
What is not reported by the Attorney General or others is that the FBI reports an overall decline in violent crime, and overall, men, minorities, the young, and those in urban areas are more likely to be crime victims. Is this a result of Americans exercising their 2nd amendment rights and the success of the Stand Your Ground laws?
Zimmerman did not cite the law in his trial defense. But police in Sanford, Fla. said it was one of the reasons the neighborhood watch volunteer was not arrested shortly after he shot Martin. In addition, the instructions given to the jury said that as long as Zimmerman was not involved in an illegal activity, and had a right to be where he was when the shooting occurred, “he had no duty to retreat and the right to stand his ground.”
“These laws try to fix something that was never broken,” Holder said, drawing extensive applause from the delegates. “The list of resulting tragedies is long and, unfortunately, has victimized too many who are innocent.”
Holder spoke in deeply personal terms to the delegates on Tuesday. He recalled being stopped by police in New Jersey and in Washington for no apparent reason, and described painful conversations he has had with his father — and, after Martin’s death, with his own teenage son — about the realities of being black in America.
Some Justice officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, and many outside experts have said that bringing civil rights charges against Zimmerman would be extremely difficult — perhaps impossible. But delegates here believe that it will be hard for Holder, the nation’s first African American attorney general, to ignore an NAACP petition seeking such charges that already has been signed by hundreds of thousands.
Comments are closed.