Jacob Ogles
Gubernatorial candidates Andre Gillum and Jeff Greene both called for a full repeal of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law during MSNBC interviews with Rev. Al Sharpton.
“The fact that you have an individual who becomes judge, juror and executioner all in there own minds under the protection of the law in the United States is a deep travesty of justice,” Gillum told Sharpton.
Both Democratic candidates appeared on Sharpton’s “Politics Nation” to discuss the law following the July shooting death of Markeis McGlockton, described on air by Sharpton as a “28-year-old black man shot by a white motorist after an argument at a gas station.”
Both Greene and Gillum saw parallels between the shooting and the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin.
“Florida can’t be this place where we have this white-on-black crime going on constantly,” Greene said. “Why haven’t we learned enough after Trayvon Martin?”
Martin’s killer George Zimmerman in 2013 was acquitted by a jury of murder charges based on the Stand Your Ground portion of Florida’s self-defense statutes.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri in July announced he would not arrest McGlockton’s shooter, Michael Drejka, based on the law, and would leave the decision on charges to the State Attorney’s Office.
Sharpton devoted time on the show to discuss the July death of in advance of a rally he’s attending today in Clearwater.
Come out Sunday to rally for justice for #MarkeisMcGlockton in Clearwater, FL. McGlockton was fatally shot on 7/19 in a parking lot in FL. His killer is protected by the FL ‘stand your ground' law that many of us have been fighting since the killing of #TrayvonMartin 6 years ago. pic.twitter.com/vr44F0KXgR
— Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) August 1, 2018
Gillum stressed the law creates an environment in Florida that puts black lives in particular at risk.
“As the father to two black boys, this is extremely personal to me,” he said. “I’ve watched too many of these tragedies take place and unfairly snuff out the lives of the people who we love.”
Greene on Sharpton’s show called for the law to be taken off the books. “This is legalized murder,” he said. “This doesn’t need to be changed. This law needs to repeal, and the day I get to Tallahassee, Reverend, I’m going to fight for criminal justice reform and ending this law immediately.”
Gillum noted he has long called for the law’s repeal and thanked Greene for joining him in that position. He repeated a call for Gov. Rick Scott to issue an executive order suspending the law for emergency review for 60 days.
“So long as there is confusion over this law, people’s lives are on the line,” Gillum said.
In the McGlockton death, groups like the National Rifle Association allege the Stand Your Ground law has been misapplied.
Greene, though, said the NRA shares responsibility for any application of the law, calling out the organization’s lead Florida lobbyist by name during the interview.
“Marion Hammer and the NRA should be ashamed of themselves,” he said. “This is one more murder that should be on their hands.”
7 comments
Steven Harris
August 5, 2018 at 9:53 pm
These clowns running for governor have no idea what the law says and how it applies. Let’s not let them influence the legislative process.
fsilber
August 6, 2018 at 7:14 am
“`Florida can’t be this place where we have this white-on-black crime going on constantly’, Greene said. `Why haven’t we learned enough after Trayvon Martin?'”
Not to take a side in this last case, but one way to prevent this sort of thing is to have black people cease trying to beat up white people.
revjen45
August 6, 2018 at 10:28 am
Note also that Stand Your Ground was not an issue in the Trayvon Martin shooting. It was simple self defense, since Saint Trayvon was doing ground and pound on Zimmerman.
Does it occur to the people who want to repeal SYG that the reason for more SYG/self defense shootings of black people by whites than the other way around is because there are more assaults by blacks on whites? Actually, that probably doesn’t matter to them, since they don’t believe in armed self defense in any form.
Barry Hirsh
August 6, 2018 at 1:13 pm
What purile leftist poppycock. Newsflash: In the immediacy of a violent potentially lethal attack, the law (pursuant to natural law itself) vests life-and-death authority in the victim.
This asinine rhetoric about being “judge, jury and executioner” is a holographic tiger, real only in the sense that its disingenuous projection makes it appear so.
Whenever jackwagons like these guys spew this nonsense, they should be emphatically admonished to shut up.
jack burton
August 6, 2018 at 5:59 pm
At the time he was shot by George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin was already a suspected serial burglar, stolen gun trafficker, and multiple drug abuser with a self-documented history of committing violence against other people, and enjoying it. It is nothing more or less than a statement of absolute fact to describe Trayvon Martin as matching the dictionary definition of a “thug” well before he ever encountered George Zimmerman.
George Zimmerman was on his way to the store when he noticed a figure in the rain lurking outside the window of a home in his community which had just recently been burglarized. This is very suspicious activity, and Zimmerman called the police dispatcher and followed the suspicious character from a distance while relaying information to the dispatcher, including when asked that he was unsure of the race of the individual.
When that figure noticed Zimmerman following him in his truck at a distance, he sprinted away between buildings, and quickly disappeared in the dark. Zimmerman left his truck in a vain effort to keep the suspicious person in sight for responding officers, but gave up his attempt when the dispatcher told Zimmerman “we don’t need you to do that.” Zimmerman then walked to the next cross street to provide the dispatcher the address of the last known location of the suspicious person, hung up his phone, and began walking back to his truck.
The first part of the whole Martin-Zimmerman incident was over when Martin was standing safe in front of his home, and Zimmerman broke of to return to his truck to meet the police. More than four minutes had passed since Trayvon Martin ran away.
The second part of the whole M-Z incident was initiated by Martin when he CHOSE to double back, confront and assault Zimmerman. Trying to blame Zimmerman for that decision is pure dishonesty.
Out of the darkness, Trayvon Martin came up behind George Zimmerman, and said “what you followin’ me fo’?”
Martin then sucker punched Zimmerman, knocked him to the ground, mounted him like an MMA fighter, and began raining down blows along with smashing his head back into the concrete sidewalk. Zimmerman repeatedly cried for help from his neighbors, and while several called 911 at some point in the fight, only one man stepped out briefly to yell at Martin to stop attacking Zimmerman, but he offered no help in stopping the attack. Rachel Jeantel, the girl who was on the phone with Martin, later said in an interview with Piers Morgan on CNN that she believed Martin thought Zimmerman might be gay, rendering the attack a gay-bashing.
After enduring an attack estimated at more than 40 seconds in length Zimmerman drew his pistol and fired one shot in self defense. It was later proven in court that Zimmerman shot Martin in self-defense. The use-of-force expert who testified during the trial said that he was surprised that Zimmerman waited as long as he did to draw his gun and fire upon Martin, and that he would have been justified in doing so much earlier.
George Zimmerman was reacting to suspicious behavior, and did not know or care about the race of the person he was following. He did not initiate contact, and did not fire until well after he was attacked and well after he was legally justified in using his gun in self-defense. He did nothing criminally wrong the night he was forced to shoot Trayvon Martin, and only made the tactical mistake of leaving his vehicle and exposing himself to attack from a violent young predator.
The facts are in. The jury decided correctly based upon those facts. It is up to each individual whether to accept the clear facts, or stand on illogical emotion. Standing on emotion means helping perpetuate the race problem. Yes, it is sad that Martin was killed in this incident, but the facts show that he wantonly attacked Zimmerman, and Zimmerman had every right to defend himself against this unlawful, felonious, and deadly aggression.
Loveriot
August 12, 2018 at 10:23 am
I consider this case different from the Trayvon Martin case because she had committed an illegal act by parking (illegally) in a handicapped parking space whereasTrayvon Martin did nothing illegal. The woman and her boyfriend were both overly contentious. I had watched a video at CBS website where the woman says, “I can park wherever I want to”. Well, no, no she can’t. If you don’t have handicap parking privilege, then you cannot park in the handicap parking, and the man calling her on it doesn’t deserve to be bullied and attacked over it. McGlockton was bigger, stronger, younger than Drejka when he came storming out and shoved him, never once trying to assess the situation and handle it more appropriately. How differently this would have been if the girlfriend owned up to her misdeed and simply moved her car. There was even a better parking spot right in front of the door! I see McGlockton and his girlfriend as bullies.
fsilber
August 12, 2018 at 1:32 pm
“whereasTrayvon Martin did nothing illegal. ” Up until briefly before he was shot, when he started viciously beating Zimmerman for legally and nonviolently trying to get police to check out Martin’s legal but suspicious behavior.
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