I diaried about this shooting back when it first happened. I had a feeling we would eventually hear the Stand Your Ground nonsense before it came to trial and it has. The victim died 6 days after I wrote the diary so it is now a murder case complete with hate crime tag. More below the fold...
I figured after the Zimmerman trial outcome that Stand Your Ground would be invoked in this case. It was so remarkably easy to turn the victim into a murderous thug in that case why not do it with this case as well? It set the precedent for every racist fool out there to follow. It was the logical next step that I feared would come when the law was passed. It's a dream come true for every vigilante or wannabe cop or in this case not too bright drunken bigot out there. They can shoot people they don't like with impunity. Heck, they can harass, follow, and provoke someone until they can argue they feared for their life and had to shoot unarmed, scary Black people or as this fool put it: "I shot me a n***".
I'm seeing a pattern developing and it does not bode well for those of us that do not wish to live in the Wild West or Old South. I was reading the diary that was on the top of the rec list earlier about the SWAT team raiding a guy's house because the neighbor mistook his physical therapist for a hostage taking maniac. Of course, the therapist was Black...and scary. At some point we have to recognize this is not going to get better and it is only going to get worse but I digress. Back to the case of Walton Butler becoming a Stand You Ground defense...
I came across this article in my paper yesterday morning. It even made the front page. The town that the shooting took place is in isn't far from where we live, maybe a half an hour drive.
According to the arresting affidavit, Butler acted as if “inconvenienced” when put under arrest, saying he could not understand the problem as he “had only shot a (racial epithet).”
In the ensuing year, the case has seen a series of starts and stops and in the most recent developments, Butler has invoked Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law and plans to contend that deadly force was his last resort and that he is entitled to immunity from arrest and prosecution.
If you are not familiar with the case I urge you to read the entire article. The gist is that Butler had a history of using racial epithets and had used them in front of children. A friend of a neighbor went over to confront him about his language and he shot him in the face. He then finished cooking dinner and called 911 while the guy lay on his back porch bleeding out.
It will be interesting to watch how this plays out. Florida really doesn't need another national travesty under its belt but it appears that might be in the cards. I really hope people don't ignore this case. It needs to go national.