You may have heard of the tragic shooting of Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old African-American on 26 February. The shooter was a neighbourhood watch volunteer* who believed the young man was acting suspiciously.
There has been an outpouring of sentiment for the plight of young Black males in America and much chastisizing of the racist bias, racial stereotyping and violent culture which made such a crime possible. The most interesting article I've read on the subject however deals with Florida's self defense legislation which made it difficult for the police to investigate or prosecute the shooter. I think this might be of particular interest to those of you interested in the American legal system.
In 2008, the Florida legislature passed a "Stand your ground" law which extended the "castle doctrine" (you are allowed to shoot if you are at risk in your own house) to public places. If under attack you were no longer required to retreat as far as you could before using deadly force. The change was mainly directed at protecting victims of domestic violence who employed deadly force against their abuser. But, in fact, the concept of self defence was much broadened, and if that is what you were acting under, you could not be charged with the crime.
George Zimmerman has since been charged but there was about a week's delay before the police launched the investigation.
*you may have seen a form of this type of watered-down vigilantism in TV shows and movies. It was, for instance, recently featured on Dexter, season 4.
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