Why should we have children?

The Jacksonville Sheriffs Office had four marked vehicles patrolling the gas station where
Jordan Davis was killed in the aftermath of a highly publicized case where the unarmed 17-year-old
was killed after an November 2012 argument with Satellite Beach resident Michael Dunn. (Photo by Will Brown)

By Will Brown

Every month my wife and I share a laugh and a high five when we know parenthood is once again postponed.  

We are aware raising a child, especially a black child, will be a rewarding challenge. Recent events in our native Florida have highlighted how difficult our task will be.

Whenever our child arrives he or she will enter a world where it will be perceived by some as a second-class citizen. Our daughters will be objectified. Our sons will be vilified. Meanwhile, we will be petrified at the possibilities of what may happen when they are not in our sight.

Travon Martin and Jordan Davis were perceived as threats, despite the fact neither of them weighed 160 pounds when they were killed. Genetics say it will highly improbable our child will be that slight when they are 17 years old.

If being mouthy and picking a fight can get Davis, Martin and too many others murdered, one can see why we would be concerned to bring a child into this world that will be tall, dark and opinionated.

That cold truth was splashed across our faces at a family dinner Saturday night when six of us went to a restaurant in a Jacksonville suburb.

Behind us was a family of five. To our left was a family of four. The first family had a husband, wife, two young sons and a daughter. The second featured a husband, wife and two young sons. All four boys appeared to be under 10 years old.

As we discussed Michael Dunn’s conviction on attempted murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle — but not of killing Davis — we realized the two boys at the table behind us will be perceived far differently than the two boys at the second table five years from now in part because they are black.

The perception of young black men was all the more apparent Sunday afternoon when I visited the gas station at the corner of Southside Boulevard and Baymeadows Road.

As I walked inside a uniformed officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office stood 50 feet away profiling me. The dread, anger and impulsivity that washed over me during the 15 seconds the officer was assessing whether I was a threat were all too familiar.

I have endured similar looks from law enforcement, store owners, potential employers and others during my lifetime to know when I’m being profiled. Having been previously profiled, I knew it was prudent to take off my sunglasses, tilt my hat higher so more of my face could be seen and wait patiently with my arms in plain sight Sunday afternoon while I waited on a friend to return from the bathroom.

Two other young black men walked into the gas station while I was inside. Both were sized up by officers as well in the time they walked from their cars.

Four police cruisers and at least that many uniformed officers were at that gas station Sunday because that was where Davis was killed. 

It’s not as though the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office did not have anything to do.

Since Saturday’s verdict eight people — yes, eight — have been shot in two separate nightclub incidents in Jacksonville. The identities of the victims, or the suspects, have not been released. Regardless, it’s a tragedy.

What is also sad is the realization that no matter how smart, gregarious and courteous our child may be there is a significantly higher chance he or she will be the victim of homicide than any other racial or ethnic subset in America.

The FBI reported there were 12,765 homicides in this country in 2012 with 6,454 or 50.5 percent, of those deaths being blacks.

If such statistics do not sound intimidating that is because it was not your son, daughter, mother, father, spouse or friend who was eulogized.

The FBI statistics indicate that strangers are much less likely to commit homicide than one’s family, friends and acquaintances. However, when strangers, like Dunn and George Zimmerman are allowed to accost, shoot and not face consequences for their quick triggers and tempers it is a reminder of why some still subscribe to Richard Pryor’s observation about American prisons: “you go down there looking for justice, that's what you find: just us.”

When Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States, publically admitted last summer that he spoke with his teenage son about how to act when interacting with the police and strangers, it was enough of a jolt to make me question whether it is worth it to have children.

At the time Holder stated this is a sad reality in a nation that is changing for the better in so many ways. So long as that is a reality, I am just as fearful for my child as America is of my child.

Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb

What’s a thug?

Jordan Davis was a 17-year-old who did what a lot of kids his age do. Listen to loud music and goof off with his friends at a gas station. Someone didn’t like the music Davis and his friends were playing at a Jacksonville gas station last November. Words were exchanged. A gun was fired. Davis wound up dead. 

While awaiting trail, the man accused of killing Davis, Michael Dunn, reached out to one local television station. Being the rabble-rousers they are, the station led a newscast with the writings of a man who turned Black Friday into a day the Davis family will forever remember for all the wrong reasons.

“This case has never been about loud music,” was just one quote in Dunn’s writing to the television station. “This case is about a local thug threatening to kill me because I dared to ask him to turn the music down.”

Yes, the man who stands accused of murder called the victim a thug.

There were other quotes, including the accused’s thoughts about the District Attorney in the case, how he has been around firearms most of his life and etcetera. But, what stood out was the fact Dunn went to the Zimmerman-tried-jury-approved tactic of labeling the victim, in this case Davis, a thug on multiple occasions.

In some ways, the Davis case is more of a tragedy than what happened to Trayvon Martin last year. The latter got in a fight when he was approached by a stranger. The former was in a car hanging out with his friends, and never left his vehicle, yet still wound up just as dead as Martin.

To add insult to insinuation, one television station stumbled over Dunn’s racially insensitive tripwire and reported Dunn’s bile about Davis at the top of its newscast.

There is a part of me that wonders whether local media would have jumped on the writings like Dunn’s had the accused been a minority. But, I’m reminded that 90 percent of newsroom supervisors in this country are white. Rather than using news judgment, one Jacksonville television station allowed Dunn to cast judgment, and its viewers were none the wiser for it.

When I told a close friend what the accused was allowed to say without comment from the victim’s family, associates or State Attorney reminded me the incident was another case of “white journalism.” His point was that had a minority been in a position to make a decision, there is a strong likelihood that someone points out the folly of allowing a man accused of first-degree murder the privilege of calling the 17-year-old he’s accused of killing a thug.

To me, it doesn’t matter what the victim looks like in this case, it matters that the person accused of murder has defecated on the memory of the deceased.

The dictionary defines a thug as “a cruel or vicious ruffian, robber, or murderer.” Tupac’s definition explicitly states thugs play the cards they were given… pack a nine until it’s time to go to prison. Either way, which 

person reminds you more of a thug, Davis or Dunn?

Just because the decision-makers are not minorities does not mean a sound decision about the letters could have been reached.

The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville’s newspaper of record, also published an article about the letters. Not surprisingly, the newspaper’s version features more context and notes that the accused believes he has been railroaded, the saw a weapon in the victim’s car the night of the shooting and that the jail is filled with thugs.

“I’ve never been exposed to thugs like they have here,” Dunn wrote in one letter, which was obtained by the Times-Union in a public records request. “The jail is chock full of blacks and they all appear to be thugs, along the line of 90 percent of the inmates.”

Clearly, Dunn has proven he’s a man who won’t let his version of the facts interfere with a good story, because only 52 percent of the people who were admitted into the Duval County jail when the most recent statistics were available were black.

Then again, something has to fill the airwaves. And there are no laws preventing one gullible news outlet from spending that time subtly soiling the legacy of a young man who received a death sentence for listening to the wrong music at the wrong time at the wrong volume.

Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb

Do Florida sheriffs know the definition of unanimous?

Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law has come under scrutiny in the last 18 months due to the shooting deaths of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis.

The judicial process regarding the former was resolved last month, while the man accused in Davis’ death at a Jacksonville gas station in November 2012 had his trial delayed a few more months Wednesday.

In case you are curious about the specifics of Florida Statute 776.013 it states:

“A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity, and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with 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 or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”

Despite vociferous objections from the Dream Defenders and other groups, it appears the lawmakers in little rush to change that law. A poll of the legislature found there was not enough interest in Stand Your Ground laws to conduct a special session about them.

On Aug. 9 the Florida Sheriffs Association threw its support behind the legislation. They triumphantly trumpeted its membership unanimously supported the 2005 law.

Surely all the sheriffs in the state can count, or know people who can, because they were elected to public office. The fact 15 percent of Sunshine State sheriffs were not in attendance at this annual meeting last week did not stop the association from saying Stand Your Ground had unanimous support. The association even sent a statement to the press announcing this mathematical impossibility.

“The right to self-defense is well-established in law. The Florida Sheriffs confirmed this position by voting unanimously, at the 2013 Florida Sheriffs Association Summer Conference, to support the Stand Your Ground law as it is currently written. Our current judicial system is comprised of multiple checks and balances to ensure fair and equitable application of all laws, including Stand Your Ground.”

It turns out only 57 of the state’s 67 sheriffs were in attendance. The association didn’t bother to figure out the 10 who were missing when it sent out its initial press release.

It turned out the sheriffs in Broward, Volusia and Flagler counties, men who protect 12 percent of the state’s population, would not have supported the FSA’s stance. Figuring out the other seven will be left to enterprising journalists and concerned citizens to determine because the FSA did not record who voted in this pseudo-official poll of sheriffs.

In a state with a colorful history of botching elections, it should not be a surprise that those who protect and serve us cannot count.

Laughs and liveliness,

-Wb

How long does it take to find justice?

When people want to bury news, it trickles out on a Friday afternoon.

By the time most of the media has had time to masticate on the magnitude of the topic, it’s Monday morning and the protagonists have spent the weekend consulting a public relations specialist.

This is probably what happened in the case of Gescard Isnora, a former undercover detective with the New York Police Department. Isnora was fired March 23 for his role in the 2006 death of Sean Bell, a 23-year old man who was hanging out with his friends in Queens the night before he was to be married.

Bell’s death made national news when he died that Thanksgiving weekend.

People demanded the immediate arrests of those who shot Bell. Others chanted and marched for justice. Truth be told, many people were disappointed when Isnora and the rest of the officers that shot at Bell were acquitted in 2008.

Sometimes “justice” is not always in a legal sense.

Isnora may be a free man, but his firing means he lost his pension. In a sense his future was taken away just like Bell’s; however, Isnora will have to think about the consequences of his actions while Bell is resting peacefully.

Remember Isnora when donning a hoodie or marching in the name of the late Trayvon Martin.

Martin, a 17-year old Miami resident, was shot Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla. when he went out to get a snack and a beverage. The person who admitted to shooting him, George Zimmerman, has yet to be arrested.

It is possible Zimmerman may not be guilty of murdering Trayvon. A grand jury has yet to hear evidence providing probable cause of the 28-year old Zimmerman’s culpability.

Celebrities, journalists and even Barack Hussein Obama II have lined in to comment about the case. In truth, I am no different than Roland Martin or Charles Blow or Jonathan Capehart, except that their platforms are larger.

Of course Martin’s parents deserve answers about what happened to their boy. The rest of us should demand answers of the men and women who passed the 2005 law that is currently used as a redwood crutch of Zimmerman’s defense.

The Orlando Sentinel, who has been out front of this story from the beginning, reported this week that there were on average 13 justifiable homicides per year in Florida from 2000-05. From 2006-10 that average jumped to 36 justified homicides each year.

Arthur Hayhoe, executive director of the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence told the Tampa Bay Times he’s witnessed a handful of stories like Martin’s. But none of them have received as much attention from the public. "Most of these cases don't go beyond the local paper," he said. "There's been more dialogue in the last three days than we've gotten for seven years.”

I am betting that on the day Trayvon was supposed to celebrate his 18^th birthday, more people in America will be concerned with other things. Unfortunately, it’s likely Martin and Bell will have an additional similarity as it will be forgotten by many except for those who loved him, remembered the incident, or are dedicated news junkies.

However, Friday’s news in the Bell case is a reminder “Justice for Trayvon” might not come when we expect it, but it will come.  Because someone has their freedom, does not mean they are avoiding punishment.

Writing profanity laced e-mails to the Chief of the Sanford Police Department, like one Melbourne Beach man did, or calling for a $10,000 bounty for Zimmerman, as one black organization did, will not douse the inflammatory rhetoric surrounding the Martin tragedy. Not even justice can do that.

Only time and consequences can.