100%
Posted on 07/17/2013 4:56:27 PM PDT by neverdem
Critics of the state’s "stand your ground" law and Saturday’s acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of teen Trayvon Martin hope to make Florida pay.
Their message as they implore state lawmakers to change the law: Don’t travel to Florida, and don’t buy Florida oranges and other Sunshine State products.
The drumbeat of opposition has quickly grown on social media, while a group camps outside Gov. Rick Scott’s office in the Capitol demanding action against the law that remains strongly supported by Florida’s Republican leaders.
Meanwhile, negative perceptions of the state have been fostered on venues such as the faux news program, "The Daily Show," which has labeled Florida "the worst state." A sister program, "The Colbert Report," added that Florida "apparently no longer has rules or laws."
Scott, while traveling to cable media outlets in the New York area Tuesday, expressed "hope" that boycotts don’t work.
Business groups preferred to quietly wait to see how the public perception plays out rather than stoking the issue by commenting.
An Orlando area hospitality expert said Wednesday that in looking at similarly proposed boycotts, such as the reaction in Arizona to its stringent 2010 immigration law, there may be little economic dent unless groups start to cancel long-planned conferences.
"Within the next couple of weeks, if any major conferences are canceled, then you start to worry," said Abraham Pizam, dean of the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management.
In Arizona, opponents of the immigration law hoped their boycott would result in empty convention centers and sports venues. While a few musicians and business groups stayed out of the state, the Associated Press estimated that by the end of 2010 the state had taken a $145 million hit.
The Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C.-based liberal policy group, projected that Arizona’s convention business was down $45 million in the first four months after the law was enacted.
"If you have a beef with the ’stand your ground’ law, there are 19 other states that have the law as well," Pizam said.
But in the court of public opinion, the beef right now is with Florida.
Music legend Stevie Wonder says he will boycott Florida until the state abolishes the controversial law that allows a person to use force, "including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself." Wonder has also called for fans to support his boycott.
During an NAACP convention in Orlando on Wednesday, Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of slain civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., proposed a boycott of Florida orange juice.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam was not immediately available for comment Wednesday, according to his spokeswoman.
Zimmerman was found not guilty Saturday by a six woman jury that deliberated more than 15 hours over two days in the racially charged case. Zimmerman, 29, claimed self-defense in the February 2012 death of Martin, 17. Prosecutors contended that Zimmerman profiled and followed Martin.
While Zimmerman’s attorney didn’t raise the stand-your-ground law as a defense, the jury instructions advised that Zimmerman could be acquitted if they deemed he wasn’t engaged in an unlawful activity as "he had no duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force."
The reaction to the case has reached the Facebook page for Visit Florida, the state’s tourism arm. Under photos promoting the state’s sunny vistas, people are posting messages such as, "I will make an effort to boycott all Florida products and to spread the word until this situation is fixed." Meanwhile, other comments are critical of protesters, with one saying, "to all African-Americans boycotting Florida … Please don’t stop! It’s is much more pleasant here without you."
Meanwhile, Moveon, a liberal public policy advocacy group, has started a petition drive calling for a boycott of tourism to Florida until the law is overturned.
"If the murder of Trayvon Martin isn’t enough to get lawmakers’ attention, maybe a loss in revenue to the state would be," Moveon said in an email seeking signatures.
Asked about a boycott having an impact on the state’s important hospitality sector, Scott said during an appearance Tuesday on CNBC’s "Mad Money that he hopes not.
Scott, whose office deferred comment to his statements during the CNBC interview, pointed to the state’s reduced crime rate as evidence of efforts to keep Florida safe.
"We are having record tourism, 91 million tourists last year, two record years in a row, we’re on track, up about 4 percent last year, so we’re heading in the right direction," Scott said.
Officials from Visit Florida did not return requests for comment Wednesday.
Scott’s beliefs hadn’t stopped more than 8,800 people from signing the Moveon petition by Wednesday afternoon.
"If my sons are not safe in Florida against gun-toting vigilantes, then neither is my money," wrote Kimberly Melancon of Atlanta on the petition.
"How about boycotting their produce as well?" added petition signer Judith Cahill of El Prado, N.M.
On Twitter and Facebook a number of hashtags — #BoycottFlorida, #BoycottFloridaTourism and #NotFlorida — have been created in support of boycotting Florida over the Zimmerman ruling.
Julius Denson, a Moveon member from Temple Terrace, promoted another petition that simply seeks to amend the law so an individual would be prevented from "pursuing another person and being able to claim self-defense."
"It is completely irresponsible and dangerous to have such an ambiguous law in place that doesn’t consider the full circumstance of a given situation," Denson stated in a release.
A task force created by Scott last year to review the state’s 2005 "stand your ground" law recommended that the law not be overturned and suggested only a few minor tweaks.
Pizam said most boycotts in reaction to court rulings or new state laws in the past haven’t had a significant impact.
"For one, you might see those on the other side show their support for Florida, which could help balance things," Pizam said. "And even those who think about boycotting realize sooner or later that this is collective punishment and collective punishment hits innocent bystanders."
Pizam noted that Florida’s tourism industry did suffer about an 8 percent drop in visitors after nine tourists were killed in 1993, but the impact didn’t last long, even with the worldwide attention heightened by screaming British tabloid headlines and the Philadelphia Daily News declaring "The Sunshine State becomes a State of Terror."
"That was a significant crime against tourists, violent crimes, but in time people forgot it," Pizam.
We have stand your ground here too. It works
If you like hunting/fishing/boating/hiking Michigan would be thrilled to have you. We recently reduced the costs of out of state hunting and fishing licenses.
Oh please, please, please, stay the heck out of my State.
Specifically, buy “Florida’s Natural” brand in the carton— because it is made from all Florida juice.
There are others that are as well.The label will tell you. But not minute maid, or Tropicana— large brazilian juice content.
Yawn. 8800 morons who wouldn't have vacationed here anyhow. They probably don't even know where Florida is on a map.
How about “boycotting” all the crack and marijuana that flows to the inner-city tribal parasites, that they use their EBT’s to buy?
Yeah, that commie (and talented) ass Neil Young can stay up nawth too!
The popular analysis of that song has always pissed me off. There seems to be some question whether Skynyrd was agreeing or disagreeing with Young's Southern Man. So the debate seems to be "Are they good people who agree with Young, or bad people who disagree with him?" And I'm like "Uh, why isn't 'Good people who naturally think Young's a dick' one of the choices?"
Now, let’s see.... would I feel safer vacationing in Florida or should I go for a place with no stand-your-ground laws like Chicago or Detroit? Hmmmm, such a hard choice! In Florida we are talking fun in the sun, beaches, eye sugar, etc. In Chicago or Detroit we are talking bums urinating in the street, bodies of black teenagers laying in the streets, the Mexican cartels and city employees running drugs, etc. Yes, such a hard decision.
100%
Detroit has a stand your ground law.
Why have SYG?
Presumption if innocence, absent overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and absence of compelling evidence that another act of “homicide” is likely to occur without pretrial incarceration.
There was a case a few years ago, again here in Florida where a man was “charged with a homicide crime and detained in jail” for over a year, involving the inarguable homicide of his beloved child.
It was eventually discovered and proven beyond any doubt that a worker at the daycare center he responsibly placed his child in, while he worked, caused the death of his little child, and at least one other child.
That man lost his child, his job, his family, and all that he had managed to accumulate in his entire life...Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson did not take up the case.
Nobody anywhere seems to even care that he was incarcerated by the State of Florida for over a year on what was later accidentally discovered to be an entirely false charge of manslaughter.No evidence existed that the man had ever harmed his child in any way.Just a mere unfounded charge of murder, and the government used the charge to incarcerate him, for over a year
BTW, the man was a black man, not that his race is at all an issue. I don't know that poor persecuted man. I do know an inexcusable act of prosecutorial injustice was committed upon him by the State of Florida. I would appreciate hearing his opinion of the Zimmerman case more so than those of any of the talking heads on TV.
I would encourage people of that ilk to boycott Florida also. That is the best idea I’ve heard in ages. Imagine a vacation without having to deal with that trash!
Hi Basil...Come on down. I have nothing to sell but you will not have any trouble finding fun things to do and see here in the Sunshine State. Advisable to come in the Fall or Spring as our weather is cooler then.
One never knows—we just may drive over to Florida one of these days. It’s one of the few states I haven’t visited....
We’re not too cool here in Texas during the summer either......LOL!
And Custer was a great breveted General during the Civil War.
I don't think he sees a reason for the law! /s
Thank you for the rim-shot! I’ll be here all week. Try the veal!
Do they PROMISE?
This will make FL attractive to tourists.
No more thugs!
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