#140 of My Stupid State series
Screw you Rick Scott. Screw you and all you rednecks with legislative power who imposed this idiotic monstrosity on Florida.
Colt Thriemer and Thomas J Brown got into a fist fight at a Walmart Parking Lot. There were several witnesses who say that the victim, Thomas Brown, was walking away afterwards to his car when Colt Thriemer shot Thomas Brown after retrieving a handgun. Mr. Brown was shot 10 times at fairly close range both in the back while he was walking away and then when he turned towards Mr. Thriemer after being shot, apparently pleading him to stop. Mr. Thriemer then fled the scene.
When he was apprehended, he did what all murderers do now in Florida: claim he was in "fear for his life". The prosecutor agreed.
The prosecutor's statement summed up all that is fucking wrong with Stand Your Ground:
"The Stand Your Ground Statue makes no exception to the immunity because Brown may have been walking away from Thriemer when deadly force was used."
That's because the f_ing law was made by f_ing imbeciles.
What's worse, when they had the chance to fix the law after Travoyn Martin's death, the legislature refused. Rick Scott appointed a "panel" stacked with the law's proponents and authors who thought it was just dandy.
The bastards wouldn't even tweak it to say if you are who originally caused the violence, you can't then say you "feared for your life"
Right now in Florida, a man can stalk a woman, attack her, and if she say, knees him in the groin or throws a rock at him, the man can shoot her and claim he was "in fear of his life". Thankfully, most of our prosecutors and judges aren't fucking morons like our politicians, but Rick Scott and AG Pam Bondi are trying to change that.
In this case, the prosecutor opined that maybe the victim was walking away to retrieve a gun. Okay, if you thought that at least let this go to trial! But fuck it. These were "poors". And if you thought the latest "purge" movie was far-fetched, come visit.
On second thought, dear God, DON'T!!!
Note: I linked to David Pakman's video on youtube. If you cannot get it, several outlets picked up the story. Essentially, I covered a lot of what he covered in my post, but left out his poignant question at the end--what if someone shot an open carry member who walked into a restaurant with an assault rifle? Certainly the shooter would be justified in "fear for their life"? Yeah, right.
PS.. Pakman's previous story was about a social media specialist for a language school who was fired for writing about "homophones" because his boss thought he was "encouraging homosexuality". Pakman left the picture up of the specialist accidentally-he is no way related to this story.
PSS.. One reason police are reluctant to arrest murderers is because the law states there are financial penalties for police if the gunman is acquitted under Stand Your Ground. SNL did a great take on what it's like now to be a policeman in Florida.
The NRA and the FL GOP aren't slowing down. They moved to limit the public's access to SYG cases, in response to the Tampa Bay Times award-winning expose on how unevenly and unfairly SYG is applied.
Final.... We must change this regime. We invite you to attend the Kossack, candidate, and blogger meetup this Saturday. If you can't attend, please throw a few bucks to the disabled Vets and advocates organizing it. Don't wait for our side's elites or Party officials to save Florida... it truly is going to fall on us.
11:58 PM PT: Lest I leave you with the wrong impression, neither man in this case was an angel. (Except according to their respective families, or regarding the AG's memo, just the shooter.) Both were drug dealers who ran with gangs. There are PLENTY of examples of real innocent victims. Not my point. Nor the fact that precedence seems to always go with the shooter (since dead people can't defend themselves). Nor how non-impartial some of our AGs are, especially our top one who was ranked worst in nation.
SYG is applied according to however the prosecutor wants to interpret "reasonable fear", which often is based on personal bias. This case should have gone to trial, but even if you believe the prosecutor/shooter version of events, standard defense laws provide a reasonable threshold to let someone go. SYG allows anyone to go for no other reason that they claimed fear, even if they have committed murder in the past or their fear stems from running into an approaching minority.