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“Stand Your Ground” Nation: America used to value the concept of retreat. Now we just shoot.
Slate ^ | February 25, 2014 | Dahlia Lithwick

Posted on 03/26/2014 5:51:02 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Ever since George Zimmerman gunned down Trayvon Martin in his Sanford, Fla., gated community, it’s become an article of faith that the rash of lethal shootings in public places—from the Florida moviegoer who was killed after a texting and popcorn-throwing incident to Jordan Davis, shot in his car at a Jacksonville, Fla., gas station to last week’s lethal shooting in an Arizona Walmart—is attributable to the “stand your ground” laws enacted over the past decade in 26 states across the country. Aggressive human interaction, post-Trayvon, now follows a painfully familiar pattern: An altercation occurs. Someone says he feared for his life. An unarmed victim (often young, black, and male) is shot and killed. The headlines either explicitly or implicitly invoke “stand your ground.”

Last week, Kriston Charles Belinte Chee, an unarmed man, got into a fight with Cyle Wayne Quadlin at a Walmart in suburban Arizona. Quadlin opened fire midargument and killed Chee. Officers decided not to charge Quadlin because, they concluded, the killing was in self-defense. According to the police spokesman, “Mr. Quadlin was losing the fight and indicated he ‘was in fear for his life.’” Just a week earlier, a jury in Jacksonville, Fla., found Michael Dunn guilty on four counts of attempted murder but did not convict him on the most serious charge of first-degree murder, in the death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis. Dunn shot and killed Davis, also unarmed, because the music coming from his car was too loud. Dunn claimed he saw something like a gun in the vehicle, and that was apparently enough for some members of the jury to conclude that Dunn hadn’t committed first-degree murder.

Given all this, it’s not unreasonable to argue that, in America, you can be shot and killed, without consequences for the shooter....

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: banglist; blackkk; dahlialithwick; demagogicparty; ericholder; florida; georgezimmerman; memebuilding; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; slate; standyourground; trayvon; trayvonmartin; zimmerman
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“America used to value the concept of retreat.”

Like we retreated from England in the Revolutionary war until England won? Or like the Union forces retreated during the Civil War until the South won? Or like the U.S. forces retreated in WWI until Germany won? Or like the U.S. forces retreated in WWII until Germany and Japan won?

Or like the way the FBI retreated from the 1930’s bank robbers until all the banks were robbed? Or like the way the FBI retreated from the Mafia until the Mafia won? Or the way the U.S. retreated from the Soviet Union until the Soviet Union won? Or like every comic book super hero retreated from every comic book villain until the villains won? Or like the way every TV hero from Matt Dillon
to Lucas McCain always retreated until the villains won?

Retreated like that? If so, then one of us is living in an alternate universe, probably Bizzaro World where very thing is backwards.


41 posted on 03/26/2014 6:24:47 PM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: cripplecreek
Yes...and at Tarawa I believe 1/3 of the landing force was killed/wounded.

Pretty brutal stats.

42 posted on 03/26/2014 6:25:10 PM PDT by ealgeone (obama, borderof)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Canadian Dahlia Lithwick, a female Piers Morgan, takes it upon herself to lecture Americans:

"Blah, blah, blah ..... guns bad, ... blah, blah, blah .... Travon murdered ... blah, blah, blah ...".

43 posted on 03/26/2014 6:27:16 PM PDT by Col Freeper (FR: A smorgasbord of Conservative Mindfood - dig in and enjoy it!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

and cops’used to actually serve and protect citizens instead of shooting them and asking questions later, before “officer safety” replaced that as the core operating principle.

we are not supposed to have to retreat before engaging someone intent on doing us harm. too many have been railroaded by this stupid idiotic requirement. let the criminals ‘retreat’. let them fear attacking the wrong people.

more people have died because of liberals’ worries about the poor criminals ambushing innocent citizens.


44 posted on 03/26/2014 6:31:21 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Americans used to VALUE the concept of retreat? Somebody been eating them happy mushrooms. What “americans” is this moron talking about? Just saw her pic in another post. She looks like she may have “issues”. Nevermind.


45 posted on 03/26/2014 6:32:04 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Trust no one.)
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To: skeeter

tactical retreat - so you can find a better spot to fight - as opposed to having to before defending themselves. totally different concepts.


46 posted on 03/26/2014 6:32:32 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: 98ZJ USMC

maybe the we she’s referring to are canadians.


47 posted on 03/26/2014 6:34:02 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: A_Former_Democrat

“Judge Procter Hug”

You can’t make this stuff up. No wonder she prefers, “advancing to the rear”.


48 posted on 03/26/2014 6:35:26 PM PDT by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Never bring a Canadian bitch to a gunfight.


49 posted on 03/26/2014 6:39:38 PM PDT by bunkerhill7 ("The Second Amendment has no limits on firepower"-NY State Senator Kathleen A. Marchione.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

America has never valued the concept of retreat. That cheesehead has a moldy brain.


50 posted on 03/26/2014 6:48:27 PM PDT by TigersEye (Stupid is a Progressive disease.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Damned right we shoot. When presented with multiple hostile targets wishing to do us harm on a daily basis? Damned right we shoot.

What does this idiot suggest? Harsh language?

51 posted on 03/26/2014 6:56:43 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Truth sounds like hate...to those who hate truth.)
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To: skeeter

Makes no sense


52 posted on 03/26/2014 7:01:04 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’d like to send her this link if I thought she had a shred of intellectual honesty, or would even read it...

But it’s worth a look for all of us...Jeffrey Snyder’s “A Nation of Cowards”...

http://www.rkba.org/comment/cowards.html

Arguing with Leftards is a waste of effort...


53 posted on 03/26/2014 7:01:27 PM PDT by elteemike (Light travels faster than sound...That's why so many people appear bright until you hear them speak!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Right, Dahlia... When we or our families are threatened, we should run and hide?

Yeah, that’ll work.


54 posted on 03/26/2014 7:08:29 PM PDT by ScottinVA (Obama is so far in over his head, even his ears are beneath the water level.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The truth is that the whole idea behind “Stand Your Ground” laws is to protect innocent people who defended their lives from overzealous liberal prosecutors. Without these laws, prosecutors will, I repeat will, arrest those who protected themselves from death or serious injury. These prosecutors will ignore the relevant facts of the case in order to push their agendas. The day the people can trust prosecutors to follow the law in a fair manner, maybe we can revisit “Stand Your Ground.” But until that day, “Stand Your Ground” is critically needed to protect the innocent victims from liberal political hacks.


55 posted on 03/26/2014 7:11:02 PM PDT by gusty
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I NEVER had a position of retreat, my first option, facing threats to my person, home, family, has always been to shoot. I don’t give a good God Damn what the Gubbmint says.


56 posted on 03/26/2014 7:12:17 PM PDT by Feckless (I was trained by the US << This Tagline Censored by FR >> ain't that irOnic?)
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To: Billthedrill

Well stated. I may steal it.


57 posted on 03/26/2014 7:22:19 PM PDT by marktwain (The old media must die for the Republic to live. Long live the new media!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Getting down to basics. I have a right to the space that surrounds my person. It is at my arm’s length. If someone threatens me and appears to be willing to invade that space, even if he is at a distance from my “space”, I am prepared to prevent him from doing so even if it means using my firearm.
Where did we get this idea that one has to flee? Running will just get you tackled from behind and unable to fire an accurate shot to the kill zone.
First rule is to avoid.
Second rule is to take whatever means required to prevent your own blood to be shed.

DO NOT LOOK FOR TROUBLE. STAY AWAY FROM THE FERAL BEASTS AND LIFE WILL BE GOOD.

NEVER CHALLENGE “THEM”. THEY HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE, YOU DO.


58 posted on 03/26/2014 7:32:24 PM PDT by BatGuano (You don't think I'd go into combat with loose change in my pocket, do ya?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This gal reminds me of Sen. Schumer. Jews who hate guns are proof that some people never learn.


59 posted on 03/26/2014 7:40:14 PM PDT by B4Ranch (Name your illness, do a Google & YouTube search with "hydrogen peroxide". Do it and be surprised.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Americans NEVER valued retreating. Only liberal east coast States had laws about that.


60 posted on 03/26/2014 8:16:43 PM PDT by CodeToad (Arm Up! They Are!)
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