The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has announced that it will open an investigation into the killing of Trayvon Martin. It seems that the only way to get justice in Florida these days is to bring it in from out of state. If you haven’t heard the tragic story, a crime watch volunteer pursued, shot, and killed an unarmed black teenage boy as the boy was walking home from the store with an Arizona iced tea and a bag of Skittles. Skittles are not a deadly weapon. If they were, the NRA would demand that everyone be allowed to carry them everywhere.
The shooter, crime watch volunteer George Zimmerman, said he felt threatened by Martin. If you feel threatened by a kid who is running away from you, you have a pretty low threshold for feeling threatened. You probably shouldn’t be carrying a gun. But according to the NRA, there’s nobody who shouldn’t be carrying a gun. No crime was being committed before George Zimmerman shot the unarmed boy. And according to the way the cops handled it, no crime was committed in the act of that shooting. The police in Sanford, Florida made no arrest, hence the Justice Department has stepped in to investigate what is being called a botched investigation.
Florida has a “Stand Your Ground” law that essentially suspends all other laws, and makes guns themselves the law. In Florida, as long as you have a reasonable belief that your life and safety is in danger, you can use deadly force to defend yourself. In other words, if somebody makes you afraid, you’re free to shoot them in Florida. Under Stand Your Ground laws, there is no more right or wrong. Whoever has the gun is right. And if both parties have guns, the one who is right is the one who shoots first.
After the Stand Your Ground law went into effect, the number of justifiable homicides in Florida tripled. That should tell you that a lot of these homicides weren’t justifiable at all. The Stand Your Ground law turns Florida into the Wild West, except that a lot of the killings in the Wild West were at least technically illegal.
Listen to me Monday through Friday from 6 PM to 8 PM on WWRL AM 1600.
It seems that everybody wants to know what's been going on at the NSA. Everybody, that is, except for 53 US Senators. Last week Senators were given a briefing by high-ranking intelligence officials about the surveillance programs. Only 47...
Tea Party senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) says that "restoring faith in government" is "the wrong solution." Well then by all means, keep talking, Senator. Instead, Johnson says "we need to engender that healthy distrust, that healthy...
Senator Elizabeth Warren is fighting hard for government transparency, and it has nothing to do with the NSA. On Thursday, Senator Warren sent a letter to President Obama's U.S. trade negotiations nominee, calling on the Administration to...
While signing a Merry Christmas bill in June, legalizing usage of phrases like 'Merry Christmas' on school property, Texas Governor Rick Perry took the opportunity to appeal to his evangelical base. "I'm proud we are standing up for...
The Supreme Court ruled that human genes cannot be patented, because they are a product of nature. However, the offered a compromise which allowed synthetic, complementary DNA, known as cDNA, to be protected by patent law, because it is not...
Before last week, very few people knew the name Edward Snowden. Not the case now. It seems he's either a hero or traitor, depending on who you talk to and their political ideology. No matter what you think of him, however, we owe him a...
The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives will do anything to avoid getting any actual work done. As if 37 votes to repeal Obamacare didn't waste enough taxpayer time and money, the House GOP has decided to vote on a...
We need to have a debate over surveillance. Even more, we need to have a debate over exactly who is doing the surveilling. Government surveillance can be worrisome, but it's much more worrisome when the surveillance is being done by private...
Today, the United States Senate will begin debate on the so-called comprehensive immigration plan. Senators will consider the overall legislation, and dozens of amendments, before a final vote can be reached. The debate is likely to last...
Is Edward Snowden a whistleblower or a leaker? This story still has a lot of gray areas. For now, he's something like a whistle-leaker. To some people, Snowden is a hero, to others he is a traitor. To most Americans, he's the guy whose face in...
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has announced that 