Endangered Species

I remember being at the movies with friends, in particular being at the movies to see Dreamgirls. There were a group of African-American teenagers seated behind us and they were chattering consistently throughout the film and complaining about the number of songs…yes this was Dreamgirls...the musical. Just as Jennifer Hudson was about to belt out her rendition of “And I’m Telling You, I’m Not Going" one of them yelled out, “Oh God, I know she’s not going to sing another song” at which point I turned around told her to shut the hell up. The audience applauded as we had all had enough. Now I suppose if I was in the state of Florida I could have simply turned around and shot her and claimed self-defense utilizing the Stand Your Ground Law as she was invading my space and I felt threatened. It may sound ludicrous but this is exactly what’s happening in Florida where African-American teens are in danger of extinction.

Ok these are the facts of the case at hand. Imagine you’re out of town for a wedding and you pull into a gas station. Next to you is a group of loud obnoxious teenagers blasting their music. As you sit waiting for your girlfriend to return from the convenience store attached to the gas station you ask them to turn down their music and being typical teenagers they tell you to kiss their ass and turn it up louder. So you get into a heated argument with them reach into your glove compartment, get a gun and fire 8 to 9 shots into their vehicle killing one teenager. You don’t wait for the police you instead flee the scene, drive yourself and your girlfriend to a nearby hotel and go to sleep…after all it’s been a long day and murder does take its toll. The next day you see on the news that one of the teens did in fact die yet neither you nor your girlfriend attempt to file a police report and instead drive 160 miles home as if nothing has happened. The police track your license plates to your home and you’re arrested for murder and attempted murder. Two days after your arrest your attorney states she plans to use the Stand Your Ground Law as a defense as you now claim you saw a shotgun in the teenager’s vehicle, feared for your life and shot in self-defense. However, this claim is not included in the arresting police report, no firearms were found in the victim’s vehicle, no other shots were reported fired and no casings were found other than those of your gun.

Folks, bad manners and loud music are never an excuse for murder. Teenagers are rude by nature but their rude behavior should not be a sentence to death. If the teenagers I told to be quiet in the movie theater had chosen to get in an argument with me instead of being quiet I would have simply got an usher and had them removed. Instead of being the mature adult and either intelligently walking away or calling the police this John Wayne wannabe chose to shoot up the vehicle and its inhabitants like he was in Gunsmoke or The Wild, Wild West. So why is it ok to shoot up a group of African-American teenagers? What is it about him feeling threatened that would justify his acts? Did he fall back on stereotypes and assume that because they were young, Black and listening to hip-hop they were violent criminals carrying weapons? Or is it that for some people the mere existence of Black people can seem life threatening. And please don’t tell me race is not at issue. Would he have acted differently if he had pulled in and there were a group of loud white bikers blasting their music? You do not get to invoke the right of scared white guy to gun down Black people when you feel threatened. His actions and then retreating to the Stand Your Ground Law are merely a new form of legal lynching and some drastic action needs to be taken before it happens again. We should not have to be fearful for our children to be out alone at night, walking in the rain or pumping gas afraid that some pent up drunken racist nut may be out stalking Black kids.