" ... I'm an elderly white woman with health problems that limit my mobility, and even in my prime I was never physically robust. I've never been convicted of a crime, and haven't been arrested since 1964 when I picketed a draft board. But if, in some horrible future, a career criminal breaks into my apartment armed with a machete and hopped up on crank and angel dust, and I somehow manage to kill him with my grandfather’s WWI revolver, here's what I expect would happen. The police would read me my rights, and then politely escort me in handcuffs to the nearest ER for drug and alcohol testing. They'd get a search warrant for my car and apartment, subpoena my cell phone records, and confiscate my computer for the forensic IT people to pick over. I'd be fingerprinted and then spend many, many hours being interrogated with my lawyer present. All that would happen because I'd just killed one of my fellow human beings, and that is not something that civilized people dismiss lightly, regardless of the age, race, gender, or social class of those involved."The Stand Your Ground law, which some would have us believe is "common sense," is anything but. It is institutionalized contempt for human life.
Jeb Bush, glibly covering for his "common sense" approval of a radical law. Image via floridatoday.com |