Common sense and common law
by digby
“It’s time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods,” Holder said in a speech to the NAACP in which he again called the death of Trayvon Martin “unnecessary.”
“These laws try to fix something that was never broken,” he said.
On Tuesday Attorney General Eric Holder took issue with the so-called ‘Stand Your Ground’-type of laws during a speech at the NAACP Annual Convention in Orlando. Meanwhile, demonstrations over the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial continued, with one protest in Los Angeles turning violent on Monday night. NBC’s Ron Mott reports.
“There has always been a legal defense for using deadly force if — and the ‘if’ is important — if no safe retreat is available. But we must examine laws that take this further by eliminating the common sense and age-old requirement that people who feel threatened have a duty to retreat, outside their home, if they can do so safely.“By allowing — and perhaps encouraging — violent situations to escalate in public — such laws undermine public safety. The list of resulting tragedies is long and, unfortunately, has victimized too many who are innocent.
“It is our collective obligation. We must ‘stand our ground’ to ensure that our laws reduce violence and take a hard look at laws that contribute to more violence than they prevent.”
This stand your ground BS is the fever dream of macho man wannabes like George Zimmerman and other delusional NRA cowboys. There is a reason that common law developed over centuries that said a person should retreat if it was safe to do so. It saved lives. There was a time when people understood that mattered more than swaggering around like a comic book hero saying “come to papa.”
Good for Holder. I’m sure those comments caused the wingnuts to blow their tops, but so what? That’s a daily occurrence with them anyway.
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