Tag Archives: Stand Your Ground

Human Life Amendment

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The Republicans want to ban abortion. This is from a draft of the proposal posted on Yahoo! News “The Ticket”.

“..the GOP will voice its support for a “human life amendment” to the Constitution.

“Faithful to the ‘self-evident’ truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed,” the draft platform states. “We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.”

This is Section 1 of the 14th Amendment – I’ve bolded for emphasis: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The amendment makes clear BORN or NATURALIZED – therefore it is not “self evident” that this would apply to the unborn. In fact unborn is the direct opposite of born. Furthermore, Stand Your Ground and Stop & Frisk DIRECTLY go against your 14th amendment rights. However, most people who come across these tactics cannot afford a lawyer that has enough care/time to fight their case based on this constitutional infringement of rights.

Just wanted to point this out there… notjustmythoughts

Marissa Alexander

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http://www.thegrio.com/news/marissa-alexander-sentenced-to-20-years-in-prison.php

Dang, she got 20 years. I can understand why they say she couldn’t use the Stand Your Ground Law as a defense (since she came back with the gun), but at the same time – she WAS scared for her life. She just escaped another assualt… an assualt that she’s endured numerous times before this one. Maybe while escaping danger, she finally had the gaul to show her husband I AM NOT AFRIAD. I WILL STAND UP TO YOU AND STAND MY GROUND. It was a warning shot, never intended to hurt/kill him. She was telling him, dude one more time and I will use this. It was a threat, to which she admits. BUT YET, she is charged with 20 years. The mandatory sentence is 10-20, she should’ve definitely gotten 10, done 5 and 5 parole/probation. SOMETHING less drastic. This is a bad precedent by the courts showing abused women: you don’t have power, you can’t stand your ground, you can’t stand up to your abuser, you must just suffer and bare.

I am sad for her, sad for all abused women, sad for this country.

Check out The Grio’s article.

notjustmythoughts

Stand Your Ground?

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Controversial law “Stand Your Ground” only works in your defense if you are NOT black. thegrio.com posted an article of the 10 most infamous stand your ground cases. The article (link below) could have been put together better, possibly linking longer more detailed articles about the cases. BUT what they did a good job at was showing pictures. I think this was important so that people reading the article can actually humanize the victims. And in this instance, the victim can also be the one sitting in jail. Take for example Marissa Alexander, she’s a woman and black – who after being attacked and threatened by her husband fired a WARNING SHOT (he was not hit) above his head faces 20 years behind bars. She claimed “Stand Your Ground” as defense and lost… A Spanish man, Greyston Garcia, claimed “Stand Your Ground” and won after stabbing a man to death for stealing his car stereo – he did not call 911 and sold all the stereos possessed by his victim (also Spanish). Garcia SHOULD be in jail. I mean the man is dead, after being stabbed to death. There should be a point when stabbing someone that you stop – before you’ve killed them.

Are the rulings in the Stand Your Ground cases racially driven? I am leading towards yes. Florida has a large Spanish presence, and from what I’ve heard and read,  light Spanish people in Miami run things. Garcia is from Miami. From the article it is unclear which part of Florida Alexander is from, but the key thing to remember is that she is black and DID NOT kill anyone. Yet she sits behind bars as Garcia walks free. I am not sure how a radio can equal a life. ALSO, when googling Garcia, he had a previous record. Alexander, as far as I could find, does not have a previous record. Although she was standing her ground, by trying to scare someone rather than kill them (which personally I would think is the better of the two, why does stand your ground mean you had to kill the person or you weren’t really scared enough? Maybe you were scared enough but you know you wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt of taking someone’s life – even if they may have “deserved” it).

Still, I am not 100% convinced it’s completely racially motived. I am leaning towards it, but I would need to research more of the cases before I could concretely say yes. With that said however, what is shocking to me is that there is no precedent set by the courts on what qualifies as Stand Your Ground. I mean, I am not sure how you can kill someone over a radio, but not be allowed to threaten with a warning shot someone who has beat you and threatened your life… It makes no sense. There is definitely some shadiness or bias going on here….

notjustmythoughts

article: http://www.thegrio.com/specials/trayvon-martin/10-most-infamous-stand-your-ground-cases.php