Stand Your Ground Law: Stand Your-Ground Laws

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“Daddy, am I next?” were the first words heard by Nathan Scovens (Preacher at Galilee Missionary Baptist Church) from his twelve year old son after the not-guilty verdict of George Zimmerman was delivered to world (Scherer, et al). George Zimmerman a white adult male who shot and killed an unarmed black teen. Trayvon Martin (teen) was simply walking home from a convenience store, in a predominantly white neighborhood when Zimmerman approached him. Trayvon Martin fell at the hands of George Zimmerman, after an altercation. The laws that allowed George Zimmerman to walk as a free man after committing murder were the stand-your-ground laws, formerly known as Castle Doctrine laws. These laws protect people whom have enough reason to believe their …show more content…

As stated in the article “Castle Doctrine Laws Increase Homicides” by Cheng Cheng and Mark Hoekstra, a recent study done by the F.B.I. used state crime data to analyze the effect stand-your-ground laws have in the states this law has passed: “[T]he laws lead to more homicides--an eight percent increase across the states with such laws, which translates to six hundred additional deaths per year”. The most recent and controversial was the killing of a young teen in Ferguson, Missouri by a white cop. The officer’s defense was because Michael Brown (teen) was physically attacking him so he had to pull his gun. However, Michael Brown was on his way home and perhaps had fear himself of what the police officer could do which is why he reciprocated the way he did. This is only one of the six hundred killings caused by …show more content…

In the film “Crash” an off-duty white police officer shoots and kills a young black teen in his car. Due to the fact this Officer already had an existing fear towards the black community, he translated many of the victims’ body language as suspicious. This can be seen correlated with actual cases such as Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin. George and Officer Darren both already had ideas of the black community implemented and getting into altercations with the fallen teens only heightened their fear and gave them permission to kill. As said by Langston Hughes in his poem “Democracy” “Democracy will not come [t]oday, this [n]or ever [t]hrough compromise and fear.” Stand-your-ground laws are based on fear. When today’s society already lives with fear of one another caused by stereotypes, allowing this law to continue to exist is simply giving the right to kill to

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