Coward Strikes Again

Ugh. It seems every few months I have to sit down and angrily type out some angry rant and it always seems to be the same damn story. An unarmed black teenager was killed over nothing, absolutely nothing. Down in Florida where this appears to happen on a semi regular basis, this we know, a young man was sitting in a car with friends listening to music in a parking lot. An overzealous jackass and yes this guy is a jackass in my eyes, felt the need to insert himself in something that did not involve him and he took a life. A 17 year old kid is dead because of his actions and three other teenagers barely escaped the same fate. 

The trouble all started when Michael David Dunn and his girlfriend pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store and she ran in to grab something as he stayed back. Nearby Jordan Russell Davis and his friends sat in a neighboring car waiting for a friend who also had run into the store. Here is where the story gets stupid in my opinion. The 17 year olds in the car were playing their music loud as 17 year olds are wont to do. Is it annoying sure? Does it justify murder? HELL NO. 

Hope you don't get too scared in prison.

 And guess what kids? Looks like this guy is using the “super fair and great” Stand Your Ground law to plead not guilty...sound familiar?  I’m sorry how this law remotely acceptable? You’re not standing your ground if you instigate a confrontation with someone. This guy started a fight, then unloaded bullets into a car of unarmed teenagers. This is a truth. And if he was so scared and was fearful for his life and as his lawyer said “acted responsibly and as any responsible firearms owner would have acted under these same circumstances.” A responsible firearms owner would not have sped from the scene like a thief in the night to his hotel and wait until it was released that a license plate had been recorded to go to the authorities. No this guy is a coward, no doubt about it.

And was it because it was a car full of black teenagers, probably listening to rap music that deemed them expendable to Dunn? It’s so engrained in society that this is what a threat looks like, a young black man who is listening to rap music. Well it appears that for the young black teenager, a middle aged man with a grudge appears to be his biggest threat. 

These stories always hit me hard. I have a nephew who is 18, I have cousins around this age, I have been in that situation where you’re perceived as a threat and you’re not doing anything. I understand people have to be cautious, but you can’t insert yourself into a situation, get mad because someone doesn’t do what you want then take their life. That’s not how this works. 

I don’t know what Michael David Dunn’s intentions were when he went over to that car, I don’t know if he is a racist, but I know that he extinguished a young man’s life and he shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it. Nothing that Jordan Russell Davis did warranted firing into a car of unarmed people because Dunn got scared.  

This isn’t a gun owner’s rights issue and it’s not a stand your ground issue. This is murder.