Tonight's COPS on the Fox Network couldn't have been aired on a more timely night. The third segment dealt with a neighborhood dispute between a woman who claimed she was the victim of aggravated battery at the hands of her neighbor. This case occurred in Hillsborough County, Florida. According to the neighbor, he said a neighborly "hi" to the woman as she passed by, which caused her to freak out and come into his house and attack him, causing him to get a knife and come after her in self defense. The woman claimed that she was the victim of verbal assault, and when she confronted the man, he came at her with a knife, and another man on the property used a pipe to attack her boyfriend. But the "he said, she said" portion of the story isn't why I invoke the name of Trayvon Martin.
As the police question the accused men, they first claimed that the accuser was not telling the truth. They claimed that the woman opened the door of their home, and that they felt threatened by her, and that the only action taken was self defense. He admitted that they chased them away, while claiming it was in defense of their lives. As the policeman asked a follow-up question that implied that he didn't buy their blanket denial, the second man said:
"Let me tell you something. This is Florida. When someone walks in the house... we are standing our ground. WE ARE STANDING OUR GROUND."
If this were Sanford, FL, and this were the Trayvon Martin case, it would have been the end of the story. But it wasn't. The police recognized that the knife-wielding man and his pipe-wielding accomplice forfeited their defense when they ceased
standing and started
pursuing, and arrested the two men. They said that the men were free to make their claims to a judge, but that they were under arrest for their actions.
I find it serendipitous that this would air this week, in light of the national attention on both the Martin case and so-called Stand Your Ground laws. A couple of things really stood out to me. First, that these men knew to invoke not only the concept, but the actual words "STAND YOUR GROUND." These did not seem to be particularly legislatively-interested men. Yet they were, even when drunk, familiar with the concept that allowed them to get into an altercation with someone and then claim "Stand Your Ground" when they respond to the provocation. Second, it stands out that the police didn't stand around discussing whether or not the claim was valid... they made the arrest. THIS is how the justice system is supposed to work: the police arrest, and the judicial branch adjudicates innocence or guilt. Period.
Perhaps if the Sanford Police or State Attorney had paid closer attention to Criminal Justice 101, or even the first 30 seconds of an episode of Law and Order, and had done their jobs correctly, the country wouldn't hold them in such contempt. And if the gun lobby and ALEC didn't work so hard at getting "Stand Your Ground" laws passed and publicized, maybe the citizens of Florida - from citizens of Hillsborough County to George Zimmerman - wouldn't feel like they could be viglantes.
And maybe - just maybe - there would be one less dead seventeen-year-old.