What does #Justice4Travyon mean? Celebrities and everyday citizen alike have hit the social media circles showing support for the Martin family with the aforementioned hashtag. Does justice for Trayvon mean indicting and imprisoning George Zimmerman? If so, then what?
What about Bo Morrison? Remember him? He was also an unarmed young black male who was shot, weeks after Trayvon, while hiding on a neighbor’s porch after fleeing an underage drinking party that was broken up by police. His shooter was never prosecuted because he was protected by Wisconsin’s Castle Doctrine Law, a.k.a. Stand Your Ground.
Hundreds of Trayvon’s and Morrison’s have been killed around the country and their killers have been protected under this law. But none has received such media attention.
Since its passing in 2005, there has been a 300% increase in “justifiable homicides” (killings that were deemed legitimate) in the state of Florida alone.
Let’s not forget that the reason Martin’s story made national headlines, and outraged us all, was that in the days following the incident, Zimmerman admitted to killing an unarmed black teen and was not charged with any crime. That, and not the trial, was what sparked indignation.
For me, the Zimmerman trial is a sideshow to a bigger issue. An issue that will not be settled at the end of this trial.
My issue lies with the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, which helped implement the Stand Your Ground law in Florida back in 2005, and then promoted it around the country as a “model legislation.”
ALEC does not often make headlines, and the shadowy organization has been able to keep a low profile on the media circuit due to its powerful corporate force. ALEC is an organization that brings politicians, corporations and their lobbyists together to help promote and advance corporate interests. It is lobbying at its best.
“Think Global, Act Local” is not just a mantra for environmental action, it is also how ALEC pushes it’s agenda –one statehouse at a time. First you dine them, then you wine them, and after a few cigars at some exclusive resort, you send legislators back to their Capitals or Congress and fast track as many ALEC approved bills as possible.
Every year, ALEC pushes nearly 1,000 bills that promote the interests of their corporate funders, and of those, at least 200 become law somewhere in America.
The National Rifle Association is a longtime funder of ALEC. It also really wanted the Stand Your Ground bill to be passed. So, in secret meetings, they lobbied the state legislators of Florida to pass the law in 2005. When Governor Jeb Bush signed it into law, an NRA lobbyist was standing right there beside him. After the bill was passed, ALEC formed a task force to draft similar models that could be pushed in other states.
The biggest achievement of the law is that it removes the “duty to retreat” from the self-defense equation. For decades, one had the right to use deadly force when faced with an imminent threat to their lives…but only after exhausting all other options, including walking away. Now, someone who can evade danger doesn’t have to. They have been given a “license to kill.” In the state of Florida, George Zimmerman was given that license.
After the shooting of Trayvon Martin, and the public outcry that arose, ALEC announced that it would disband the task force that helped push the NRA’s Stand Your Ground laws. But, the laws that this same task force advanced over the last eight years remain on the books throughout the country, and with no dialogue of repealing.
Justice for Trayvon, to me, is not only repealing Stand Your Ground laws around the country, but also making it illegal for powerful organizations like the NRA and ALEC to legally bribe our legislators into advancing their private agenda. Especially those that endanger the lives of unarmed black men around the country.
