{"id":7334,"date":"2013-07-17T13:47:28","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T13:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=7334"},"modified":"2013-07-17T17:08:53","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T17:08:53","slug":"blacks-benefit-most-by-self-defense-law-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=7334","title":{"rendered":"Blacks benefit most from self-defense law in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Eric<\/a>
Eric Holder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

African Americans benefit from Florida\u2019s \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d self-defense law at a rate far out of proportion to their presence in the state\u2019s population, despite an assertion by Attorney General Eric Holder that repealing \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d would help African Americans.<\/p>\n

Black Floridians have made about a third of the state\u2019s total \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d claims in homicide cases, a rate nearly double the black percentage of Florida\u2019s population. The majority of those claims have been successful, a success rate that exceeds that for Florida whites.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, prominent African Americans including Holder and \u201cEbony and Ivory\u201d singer Stevie Wonder, who has vowed not to perform in the Sunshine State until the law is revoked, have made \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d a central part of the Trayvon Martin controversy.<\/p>\n

Holder, who was pressured by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other progressive groups to open a civil rights case against acquitted neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in the 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Martin, criticized Florida\u2019s \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d self-defense law in a speech Tuesday before the NAACP.<\/p>\n

The law was not invoked by Zimmerman\u2019s defense team but was included in instructions to the jury.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must confront the underlying attitudes, the mistaken beliefs and the unfortunate stereotypes that serve too often as the basis for police action and private judgments. Separate and apart from the case that has drawn the nation\u2019s attention, it\u2019s time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhood,\u201d Holder said to applause in his speech before the NAACP Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese laws try to fix something that was never broken. There has always been a legal defense for using deadly force if \u2014 and the \u2018if\u2019 is important \u2014 if no safe retreat is available. But we must examine laws that take this further by eliminating the common-sense and age-old requirement that people who feel threatened have a duty to retreat, outside their home, if they can do so safely. By allowing and perhaps encouraging violent situations to escalate in public, such laws undermine public safety,\u201d Holder said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe list of resulting tragedies is long and, unfortunately, has victimized too many who are innocent. It is our collective obligation; we must stand OUR ground to ensure \u2014 (cheers, applause, music) \u2014 we must stand our ground to ensure that our laws reduce violence, and take a hard look at laws that contribute to more violence than they prevent,\u201d Holder said.<\/p>\n

But approximately one third of Florida \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d claims in fatal cases have been made by black defendants, and they have used the defense successfully 55 percent of the time, at the same rate as the population at large and at a higher rate than white defendants, according to a Daily Caller analysis of a database maintained by the Tampa Bay Times. Additionally, the majority of victims in Florida \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d cases have been white.<\/p>\n

African Americans used \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d defenses at nearly twice the rate of their presence in the Florida population, which was listed at 16.6 percent in 2012. –\u00a0dailycaller.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

African Americans benefit from Florida\u2019s \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d self-defense law at a rate far out of proportion to their presence in the state\u2019s population, despite an assertion by Attorney General Eric Holder that repealing \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d would help African Americans. Black Floridians have made about a third of the state\u2019s total \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d … Continue reading “Blacks benefit most from self-defense law in Florida”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[4003,1684,156,2605,326,4004,1638],"class_list":["post-7334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-united-states","tag-stand-your-ground","tag-african-americans","tag-blacks","tag-eric-holder","tag-florida","tag-self-defense-law","tag-us"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ericholder.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7334"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7337,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7334\/revisions\/7337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}