On Tuesday, President Barack Obama addressed the nation via The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The conversation touched on a number of issues, and the President also discussed Trayvon Martin and Stand Your Ground laws. This strategy worked out brilliantly as every outlet from E! to the Washington Post covered this news. Here is video of the relevant portion of that exchange followed by a transcript:
TRANSCRIPT
JAY LENO: ... about the Trayvon Martin case, and I could tell that you were speaking from the heart. Tell me about that.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, you know I think all of us were troubled by what happened, and any of us who are parents can imagine the heartache that those parents went through. It doesn't mean that Trayvon was a perfect kid--none of us were. We were talking off-stage, you know, when you're a teenager, especially a teenage boy, you're gonna mess up, and you won't always have the best judgment. But, what I think all of us agree to is (ticking off with his fingers) that we should have a criminal justice system that's fair, that's just, and what I wanted to try to explain was why this was a particularly sensitive topic for African-American families because a lot of people who have sons know the experience they had being followed or being viewed suspiciously.
JAY LENO: Sure.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: We all know that young African-American men disproportionally have involvement in criminal activities and violence, for a lot of reasons, a lot of it having to do with poverty, a lot of it having to do with disruptions in their neighborhoods and their communities, failing schools and all those things, and that's no excuse. But, what we also believe in is is that people--everybody--should be treated fairly, and the system should work for everyone.
[Applause]
So, what I'm trying to do is just make sure that we have a conversation, and that we're all asking ourselves are there some things that we can do to foster better understanding and to make sure that we don't have laws in place that encourage the kind of violent encounter that we saw there that resulted in tragedy.
(Emphasis added.)
That is a call to action, to remember Trayvon Martin, to find ways to end racial profiling and to work to change gun laws in Florida, and that's exactly the mission of the Dream Defenders. The President is working to change minds, and so are the Dream Defenders. In the next section, let's see what we're up against.
Please join us below the fold and in the comments to find out how you can help the Dream Defenders as they seek to change the world.
DREAM DEFENDERS: Changing Minds, Changing Polls
For some perspective, please consider this: In 2012, violent crime in the United States went down for the fifth straight year. According to a criminologist at Northeastern University, crime has continued to decline from a peak in the 1990s but now is decreasing at a slower rate:
"I call it the limbo stick effect," [Criminologist James Alan] Fox said. " You can only go so low. You're never going to get down to zero crime."
And yet, in a telephone survey conducted by the FBI at around the same time, the impression from the general public was that the crime rate was up. If you check the actual charts provided by the FBI from
1991 to 2010, you can
see for yourself that ...
Florida's Stand Your Ground (SYG) Law was signed by Governor Jeb Bush in
2005. Yet, as of July 31, 2013, Florida has issued
1,128,935 active concealed carry licenses, which are good for seven years. To put that into some perspective, the state has issued a total of 133,651 firearm licenses for actual security officers. The state has a total population of a little over 19 million people.
On top of that, there's the part that Hollywood and culture play in the American self-identity, from Charles Bronson in the Death Wish movies to The Godfather trilogy to first-person shooter video games like Grand Theft Auto. Movies such as "Life Wish" and "The Fairy Godfather" would sell less because they lack the drama. The reality is that the Wild, Wild West was a lot less wild than thought, with even Texas outlawing open carry and concealed carry handguns and other weapons back in 1871. Texas prohibited concealed and open carry with "An Act to Regulate the Keeping and Bearing of Deadly Weapons, Law of April 12, 1871, ch. 34, §1, 1871 Tex. Gen. Laws 25." The law was on the books until 1995. So why have recent polls suggested that SYG laws are favored? Let's look at a recent poll.
A week ago today, the Quinnipiac pollsters revealed national polling results on SYG laws with a press release. They claimed:
With large racial and gender divisions, American voters back so-called "Stand Your Ground" laws 53 - 40 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today....
White voters support "Stand Your Ground" laws 57 - 37 percent while black voters are opposed 57 - 37 percent. Men support these laws 62 - 34 percent while women are divided with 44 percent in favor and 47 percent opposed. Support is 75 - 19 percent among Republicans and 57 - 37 percent among independent voters, with Democrats opposed 62 - 32 percent.
Here's a screengrab of the data and "the question" as presented at the Quinnipiac site:
I have many issues with the question, the format and everything about this poll. First, this was a single question amongst many that dealt with President Obama's work performance, Congress' job approval, the NSA, abortion and miscellaneous other hot button issues. When dealing with the political questions, the pollsters come at all angles with questions about all sides of the issue. With the verdict in the Zimmerman trial, this was a good time for Quinnipiac to thoroughly poll the issue. My first two questions would have been:
Do you understand Stand Your Ground Laws?
(Yes)
(No)
Did you follow the trial of George Zimmerman?
(Yes)
(Somewhat)
(No)
Then, there should be either a stand-alone question dealing with discussion of the law or a response to the main question asking the polled audience if they would like to see additional discussion. For example, a question like that could read as follows:
Would you like to see further discussion about Stand Your Ground Laws?
(Yes)
(No)
(Don't Know, No Opinion)
Next, I would like to see, while polling on SYG laws, a question like this:
Do you believe that for the last five years the crime rate for violent crimes in the United States has ...
(Risen)
(Fallen)
(Stayed the Same)
(Don't Know, No Opinion)
I think you absolutely must have a question asking whether the individual realizes that the first Stand Your Ground law was enacted in 2005:
Stand Your Ground Laws were first enacted ...
(8 Years Ago)
(18 Years Ago)
(50 Years Ago)
(100 Years Ago)
(Don't Know; No Opinion)
Finally, I would change the actual question asked, as I think the Quinnipiac query was too steeped in American Folklore about rugged individualism. Specifically, the terms "fight back" and "retreat" have connotations attached to them that are out-sized in my opinion. Who retreats? Who doesn't want to "fight back"? I would change "fight back" to "killing another person" and "retreat" to "opportunity to escape." It might look like this:
If you have the opportunity to escape from a threatening situation without killing another person, should the law require you to do so?
(Yes)
(No)
(Don't Know; No Opinion)
This last question, I think, best exemplifies the concerns that
President Obama had when he discussed the issue on July 19th:
Noting racial disparities in the application of criminal law ranging from the death penalty to drug enforcement, Obama urged the Justice Department to work with local governments to reduce mistrust in the justice system and said states should ensure their laws did not provoke incidents like the Martin killing.
Obama specifically mentioned Florida's "stand-your-ground" law, which allows individuals to use reasonable force to defend themselves without any obligation to retreat or flee. Critics of the Sanford police department's investigation of Zimmerman say it was central to the decision not to arrest him immediately.
The law did not factor in Zimmerman's trial, though a juror cited it in acquitting him.
"I just ask people to consider, if Trayvon Martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? And do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman, who had followed him in a car, because he felt threatened? And if the answer to that question is at least ambiguous, then it seems to me that we might want to examine those kinds of laws," said Obama.
Simple ways to support the Dream Defenders
Tip
Recommend
Comment
Follow
Join
Diary
Republish
Edit
Like
Tweet #TakeoverFlorida, #kt2 (Kossacks Tweet Too)
Retweet
Report on-the-ground Florida activities in our comments
Donate.
About the Daily Kos group Support the Dream Defenders
The Dream Defenders are fighting for justice in Florida. Their mission is to enact Trayvon's Law in Florida, which would repeal the Stand Your Ground law, ban racial profiling, and end the school-to-prison pipeline.
Support the Dream Defenders is a Daily Kos community. We promote and support the Dream Defenders, online and off.
How To Join Us: Send us a kosmail.
How to Follow Us: Go to our diaries page and click the ♥. If you are a Kossack, when you Follow a person or group, their diaries will appear in your Stream. As an example, here is the Stream of Denise Oliver Velez. Note: Joining and Following are completely separate functions in DK4.
How to Find Our Diaries: Our next diary. All diaries published and republished by our group.
How to Find Our Groupmail Inbox: DK4 groupmail inboxes are notoriously difficult to find, because we receive no "You have mail" signal. If you have Editor status, and you want to participate, please bookmark our group kosmail inbox, and check it as frequently as you want to participate. That page does not refresh itself, either.
Kossacks in Florida: We welcome your reports and pictures about your orange feet-on-the-ground protests and organizing in support of the Dream Defenders. Please use our comments and/or group kosmail to confidentially locate nearby Floridians who support the Dream Defenders and build networks. If you have never written a diary, we will help you. Ask us anything.
Note: Support the Dream Defenders is a community of Kossacks. Each of us is opposed to the Stand Your Ground law in Florida. We are an action group dedicated to supporting the passage of Trayvon's Law in Florida. We do not need to debate the merits of SYG laws or 2nd Amendment issues in our action diaries. If you want to argue, go start your own DK group and/or go write your own diary.