This incident is worse than the Trayvon Martin murder where George Zimmerman got off. A white man, a bully, harassed a black woman sitting in her car in a handicap zone. Her husband came out of the convenient store and shoved the bully away from his wife. The bully shot and murdered the husband. The sheriff refused to charge the bully. Really! Trump effect?
The bully was never in danger of being harmed. The husband was standing his ground as the man was in his wife’s safe space. Not charging the bully for this murder should put the fear in all of us.
Here is the story as reported by Vox.
It seems like an obviously unnecessary escalation: An argument about a convenience store parking space turned into deadly violence. Michael Drejka, after being shoved to the ground, shot and killed Markeis McGlockton, who had pushed Drejka but started to back off.
But Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the authorities will not charge Drejka for the shooting, citing the state’s “stand your ground” law. Based on surveillance video and reports of the encounter, McGlockton and his 5-year-old son were in the Circle A Food Store in Clearwater, Florida, on Thursday when Drejka approached their car, which was parked in a handicap space. McGlockton’s partner, Britany Jacobs, was in the car with the couple’s other kids. Drejka and Jacobs began arguing over whether McGlockton and Jacobs were allowed to park there.
McGlockton then came out of the convenience store and pushed Drejka to the ground. As McGlockton began to back away, Drejka pulled out a gun and shot McGlockton in the chest. McGlockton then ran into the convenience store. He was taken to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead.
“Stand your ground” laws are almost as dangerous as the laws that protect police who murder. As long as you believe your life is in danger, you have a right to kill someone. Of course, the law will always hurt people of color more than anyone else because of implicit bias. Because of how the media covers crime and latent racism, black and brown bodies to many in every domain are considered threatening. Worse, genuine racist murdering private citizens and police understand the psyche of many of the public at large. They know that even with a video they can create a narrative that that person of color is the violent one or is the potential attacker.
When George Zimmerman got off, I made a video where I stated that his verdict would open the door for private citizens to kill without the worry of conviction. It is the case with rogue police officers and now with citizens. But there is a caveat. Do you believe if the bully was black and the husband white that that sheriff would see the murder as a “stand your ground” case? I would bet my blogging fingers that the sheriff would charge the black man with murder.
Just like George Zimmerman created the incident that resulted in the murder of Trayvon Martin — remember he took it onto himself to hunt Martin — so did the bully who murdered the husband. He went into the woman’s space, and that created the incident. These guys killed after creating the situation. Two black men dead for doing nothing wrong.