The issues of racial discrimination and bias continue to have a negative impact today, especially in relation to law officials in Florida.
The National Conference of State Legislatures states Stand Your Ground laws give a person the right to use self defense to prevent themselves from receiving bodily harm. Florida state law further defines this by saying a person in danger doesn't have to retreat, and have "the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force," if it's believed necessary.
After exercising Stand Your Ground rights in Florida, if the person was able to prove that they acted in fear for life during a pretrial, then they were excused from trial. This was the process in Florida before a new bill passed in 2015.
The new bill made it so the prosecution is disproving that the person acted in fear of life. If the prosecution couldn't do so, the person who exercised their right was free to go.
The passing of this bill greatly changed the system. It was intended to better protect those who killed in self defense, but has proven to worsen the impacts of Stand Your Ground laws, specifically in relation to minorities in Florida.
When Florida made the switch of laws, it ultimately gave the prosecution the power to decide whether someone was guilty in a Stand Your Ground case. But how would the prosecution define if someone truly was acting in fear of life instead of anger? That's where it gets tricky.
An article in the New York Times titled A 'Stand Your Ground' Expansion That Expands Inequality by Caroline Light goes into depth about ways the prosecution deems whether or not someone is guilty. Light does this by looking at examples from past hearings, particularly cases where a female, minority, or someone from lower-class acted in self defense. In many cases people in one of these three categories, or a combination, were found guilty. Whereas, "white, property-owning men" have always been favored by the court, Light says.
Marissa Alexander, a African American Floridian, was charged with 20 years in prison in 2012 for firing a weapon at her husband, Light says. Alexander was firing the weapon in fear of life following a fight with her husband, after which her husband continued to attack her. Alexander did fire her gun at him, but no bullets touched her husband. The one bullet fired was shot into the wall.
The reason Alexander was charged to prison for self defense: State Attorney Angela Corey believed Alexander wasn't acting out of fear, but rather anger. However, in 2013 Alexander had an appeal case, which lowered her jail time to three years and two on house arrest, Light says.
The case of Marissa Alexander is just one example of the court having disfavor with people, specifically women, of color. But law enforcement, not just the court, has a history of bias towards people of color.
According to The Guardian, a database that keeps records on police shootings in the U.S., young black men are nine times more likely to be killed in a police shooting in comparison to other races. It further states that in 2015 black men, armed and unarmed alike, were killed twice as many times as each of the following races: Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and caucasians.
Another article published by the New York Times in 2015 titled A Florida Police Killing Like Many, Disputed and Little Noticed, by Frances Robles, details police shootings in Florida. Furthermore, it supports The Guardian about African American men being targeted more frequently in police shootings.
In his article Robles tells the story of an African American Floridian man being gunned down by a police officer for not dropping his weapon. But it's not what it appears to be.
Jermaine McBean was walking through his apartment complex yelling to himself, carrying a rifle on his shoulder. Witnesses say he showed no intent of using the gun as the police officer shouted multiple times for him to drop his rifle, but McBean didn't listen.
"Nothing, the officer swore under oath, prevented Mr. McBean from hearing the screaming officers," Robles wrote. So, McBean was gunned down. Witnesses saw the whole scene and agree with this story.
However, after being shot, McBean's rifle was discovered to be unloaded and a BB gun. In addition, years after the incident new photo evidence was found, which shows that McBean had earbuds in at the time. Robles says this suggests McBean was listening to music. But after McBean's death, those same earbuds were found in his pocket.
How the police officer could have missed the earbuds even after having gunned McBean down? He couldn't have, and an even better question is how the earbuds ended up in McBean's pocket.
Due to the new evidence, a lawsuit was filed for a wrongful death accusing the officer who killed McBean and the Broward Sheriff's Office of tampering with evidence and obstructing justice, Robles said. But this won't end racial discrimination and bias, especially in Florida where police shootings of African Americans are much higher.
The cases of Marissa Alexander and Jermaine McBean are just two examples that show how disproportionately laws are applied, especially to minorities, females, and lower-class citizens in Florida. There are many other cases, some of which go unnoticed, that illustrate the discrimination and bias law officials have towards these groups.
Florida police departments have a history of files going missing and evidence being tampered with when it comes to police shootings involving African Americans. Not only that, but countless Stand Your Ground cases find minority, female, or lower-class defendants guilty without solid proof to back up the verdict.
As much as people like to pretend these issues don't exist, they will continue to be a problem until law officials discontinue profiling people based on their racial bias and discrimination.
