An excerpt from a former Miami police chief’s NYT op-ed, calling for the repeal of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law: 

Police officers are trained to de-escalate highly charged encounters with aggressive people, using deadly force as a last resort. Citizens, on the other hand, may act from emotion and perceived threats. But “stand your ground” gives citizens the right to use force in public if they feel threatened. As the law emphatically states, a citizen has “no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground.”

During one debate, one of the law’s proponents suggested that if a citizen felt threatened in a public space, he should not have to retreat and should be able to meet force with force. I pointed out that citizens feel threatened all the time, whether it’s from the approach of an aggressive panhandler or squeegee pest or even just walking down a poorly lighted street at night. In tightly congested urban areas, public encounters can be threatening; a look, a physical bump, a leer, someone you think may be following you. This is part of urban life. You learn to navigate threatening settings without resorting to force. Retreating is always the best option.

Via NYTimes, Florida’s Disastrous Self-Defense Law | ThinkProgress

George Zimmerman, wannabe cop, neighborhood crank, 911 nuisance: 

For more than a decade, George Zimmerman dreamed of a life in law enforcement — but instead of becoming a real cop, he lived out his big blue fantasy by tracking down stray dogs, “suspicious” children and other intruders in his gated Florida community.

Before he gunned down unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin — an incident President Obama confronted Friday, calling it a tragedy — Zimmerman had been a nuisance to 911 operators. He would carry around with him a pistol and the hope that he would one day wear a badge.

… He had a license to carry a concealed weapon, and he started a neighborhood watch last September in his gated community in Sanford, Fla.

Well before that, he was calling cops for just the slightest, racially tinged suspicions.

As the watch volunteer at the 260-unit Retreat at Twin Lakes, he became a paranoid pest — peppering 911 with at least 46 calls. They varied in urgency, but in the last year focused mostly on black men or boys.

That included a “suspicious” 7- to 9-year-old boy with a “skinny build” and short black hair.

Via: The New York Post, “Trayvon’s Killer a Cop Wannabe on Paranoid Patrol” | inothernews

Do you realize how many disgruntled, angry wannabes are out there, just waiting for their big fantasy moment to stand their ground against the various and sundry threats that play on a constant loop in their own minds? The NRA would like to see Stand Your Ground laws spread throughout the nation.