Florida Man Who Shot Black Teen After Loud Music Dispute Sent Racially Charged Letters From Jail

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Robert A. Vella

Jordan Davis – CREDIT: Photo courtesy of Ron Davis

Since the death of Trayvon Martin, reports of individuals who shot and killed others in the street claiming self-defense have proliferated. But one of the most prominent of all goes to trial this week, in a case involving a then-45-year-old man who shot and killed 17-year-old Jordan Davis after complaining about his loud music.

Defendant Michael Dunn claims he felt threatened after he pulled up next to victim Jordan Davis and his friends at a Jacksonville convenience store parking lot. After Dunn asked Davis and his friends to turn the music down they were playing in their sport utility vehicle, a dispute emerged between them. One witness heard Dunn say, “You are not going to talk to me like that,” according to the police. Dunn then allegedly pulled his gun out of his glove compartment and fired several shots into the SUV where Davis was sitting with three friends. Several witnesses to the shooting say they saw no physical altercation. Dunn then fled the scene and was apprehended by police a day later. Davis died in the arms of his friend in the car, unarmed, according to his father. No guns were found inside the car.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/02/04/3242661/florida-man-shot-black-teen-loud-music-dispute-faces-murder-charge-week/

American gun use is out of control. Shouldn’t the world intervene? | Henry Porter | Comment is free | The Observer

Posted on September 22, 2013 by digger666

American gun use is out of control. Shouldn’t the world intervene? | Henry Porter | Comment is free | The Observer.

Would, that Henry Porter’s stance was anything more than tongue in cheek; but there has long been a paranoid strand in US politics, aligned very closely with the same forces which cling to the Second Amendment as to a newly discovered lost Gospel, which never tires of warning against UN armies intervening in the US. Implicit in each of these warnings is that all Americans would oppose such a fanciful event. Henry Porter’s piece raises the question whether that need necessarily be the case under every circumstance.

That 212,994 more Americans lost their lives from firearms in the last 45 years than in all wars involving the US is a staggering fact, particularly when you place it in the context of the safety-conscious, “secondary smoke” obsessions that characterise so much of American life.

Everywhere you look in America, people are trying to make life safer. On roads, for example, there has been a huge effort in the past 50 years to enforce speed limits, crack down on drink/drug driving and build safety features into highways, as well as vehicles. The result is a steadily improving record; by 2015, forecasters predict that for first time road deaths will be fewer than those caused by firearms (32,036 to 32,929).

Plainly, there’s no equivalent effort in the area of privately owned firearms. Indeed, most politicians do everything they can to make the country less safe. Recently, a Democrat senator from Arkansas namedMark Pryor ran a TV ad against the gun-control campaign funded by NY mayor Michael Bloomberg – one of the few politicians to stand up to the NRA lobby – explaining why he was against enhanced background checks on gun owners yet was committed to “finding real solutions to violence”.

About their own safety, Americans often have an unusual ability to hold two utterly opposed ideas in their heads simultaneously. That can only explain the past decade in which the fear of terror has cost the country hundreds of billions of dollars in wars, surveillance and intelligence programmes and homeland security. Ten years after 9/11, homeland security spending doubled to $69bn . The total bill since the attacks is more than $649bn.

One more figure. There have been fewer than 20 terror-related deaths on American soil since 9/11 and about 364,000 deaths caused by privately owned firearms. If any European nation had such a record and persisted in addressing only the first figure, while ignoring the second, you can bet your last pound that the State Department would be warning against travel to that country and no American would set foot in it without body armour.

But no nation sees itself as outsiders do. Half the country is sane and rational while the other half simply doesn’t grasp the inconsistencies and historic lunacy of its position, which springs from the second amendment right to keep and bear arms, and is derived from English common law and our 1689 Bill of Rights. We dispensed with these rights long ago, but American gun owners cleave to them with the tenacity that previous generations fought to continue slavery. Astonishingly, when owning a gun is not about ludicrous macho fantasy, it is mostly seen as a matter of personal safety, like the airbag in the new Ford pick-up or avoiding secondary smoke, despite conclusive evidence that people become less safe as gun ownership rises.

Florida’s ‘Stand-Your-Ground’ law to get more scrutiny early next year

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Robert A. Vella

Reblogged from The Secular Jurist:

Florida’s Stand-Your-Ground law has come under intense scrutiny since the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Early next year, it will likely receive more attention during the murder trial of Michael David Dunn who fired shots into another vehicle last year after a dispute over the playing of loud music at a Jacksonville, Florida gas station. One of the occupants, 17-year-old Jordan Davis, was hit and killed.

Trayvon Martin’s Mother Speaks Out Against Stop-And-Frisk

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Tanya

Sybrina Fulton – Courtesy of blackenterprise.com

Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother, spoke out Sunday against the stop-and-frisk police practice in New York City on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” according to Black America Web. During her interview on the show, she said that neither police nor civilians have the right to deem someone as suspect because of their race. The story was reported by Black America Web on Aug 18, 2013.

Fulton said:

“You can’t give people the authority, whether civilian or police officers the right to just stop somebody because of the color of their skin.”

On the heels of a judge telling New York City that its stop-and-frisk policy was racial discrimination, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly defended the use of stop and frisk and said violent crimes would increase if the practice is forced to shut down. Not surprisingly, the city plans to appeal the judge’s decision.

Commissioner Kelly, while speaking on the CBS show “Face the Nation,” said:

“The losers in this, if this case is allowed to stand, are people who live in minority communities.”

What!? Apparently, even in the face of hard evidence that the practice has no basis in any real data, he insists that it is necessary for the well-being of minorities. Well, here’s some data for Commissioner Kelly to ruminate over:

“Over the past decade, New York police have stopped, questioned and sometimes patted down about 5 million people; 87 percent were black or Hispanic. About 10 percent of the stops spur an arrest or summons. Police find weapons a fraction of the time.”

To watch the video of Sybrina Fulton’s interview, go to blackamericaweb.com.

Matt Damon Talks New Film, Stand Your Ground Law and Trayvon Martin

Posted on August 10, 2013 by Tanya

Photo courtesy of media.tumblr.com

Watch video of politically savvy actor Matt Damon express disappointment in Pres. Obama’s second term. He also criticizes the Stand Your Ground law in regards to the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case.