Oh Florida - Personal Responsibility In the Sunshine State

5 teens laughed as Jamel Dunn, 31, drowned

In many ways the state of Florida is something of a unique entity unto itself.

In the physical sense it's an oddity, connected to the continental U.S. in the north but jutting out on its own like an odd appendage, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

It's just a stones throw from Cuba and the Bahamas, and is arguably almost a part of the Caribbean.


Upon landing there in the spring of 1513, the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon promptly christened it "La Florida" (land of flowers), and from its vast swamps and wetlands to its hundreds of miles of beautiful coasts and beaches, it is a place of stunning natural beauty.

It is, as those who've visited there multiple times, or live there can attest, almost like another country.

But after reading the horrific story about the five teenagers aged 14 to 16 from Cocoa, Florida who stood next to the edge of a pond and watched 31-year-old Jamel Dunn struggle for his life before drowning while they mocked him and laughed back on July 9th, I gotta say that right now Florida doesn't feel like a part of the United States that I was born and raised in, and am proud to call home.

Like millions of other people who've expressed outrage over this incident, I feel a sense of sickening anger at those teens, at least one of whom used a cellphone to videotape Dunn drowning and then had the gall to post the video to Youtube.

 How hard would it have been to just dial 911 and call for help?  

Jamel Dunn just before drowning 

As CNN reported yesterday, a spokeswoman for the Cocoa Police Department, Yvonne Martinez, observed:

"I've been doing this a long time, probably 20 years or more... I was horrified. My jaw dropped."

Speaking as a former Boy Scout (and as a human being), it's simply mind-boggling that someone could see a person drowning and not at least attempt to help or call for help.

When I was working to get my Swimming Merit Badge, we learned the term, "Reach, Throw, Row, Go".

Those four words describe the sequence of steps one takes in the event you should come upon someone struggling in the water or starting to drown.

The first step is always Reach.

Use a stick, a branch, a belt, a pole or anything that can be used for the person in the water to grab a hold of so you can pull them to safety.

If they're too far in, grab something that floats (a floatation device, life jacket, anything) and throw it to them so they can grab on and steady themselves.

If nothing is available to throw and there's a row boat, canoe, kayak or motorboat available, then go out and get them - swimming out to get a drowning victim should always be the absolute last resort.

Unless you are a professional swimmer it's risky to swim out and save a drowning victim because once you reach them, the first thing they're going to do is grab you in desperation, and because they're likely going to be in state of panic or hysteria, they could unknowingly risk your life in their attempt to stop themselves from drowning or try and breathe.

Secondly, and I learned this trying to get my Life Saving Merit Badge (which I never got because it's unbelievably difficult), a body in the water is really heavy, especially if they have clothes on.

There are techniques to grab someone in the water and then use a sort of side-crawl motion to swim for safety.

Minneapolis PRI radio exec Vidal Guzman, 60,
drowned in January trying to save his son

But you have to practice them in the water repeatedly with a real body (something most people aren't going to take the time to do) and again, if the person being rescued is in a panic, they could put the rescuer's life in danger.

You know how you hear all those stories about how someone drowned while trying to save someone?

That's why.

Just last month a 57-year-old man drowned in Alabama while trying to save some children who were swimming in the Gulf of Mexico - sadly it happens all the time.

Back in January, Vidal Guzman, a well-respected executive for Minneapolis Public Radio International who was an advocate of diversity in the media industry, died in Puerto Rico over the Christmas holiday while trying to swim out to save his son on a beach 50 miles west of San Juan.

But to get back to those asshole Florida teens, what's also troubling is that the Republican-majority state legislature, notorious for being one of the most conservative in the nation, have never bothered to enact a law that requires that someone attempt to help, or at least call for help in the event that someone's life is in danger.

The same legislature that actively sought and passed Stand Your Ground legislation that makes it legal for someone to shoot and kill another person anywhere based simply on the abstract claim that they felt their life was in danger, have no law that makes it a criminal offense not to help someone whose life is in danger.

Now how does that make any sense?

It would seem that Florida Republican legislator's insistence on "personal responsibility" depends on which private interest group they're shilling for.

Florida District 54 Republican Erin Grall

For example, as reporter Michael Moline observed for Florida Politics.com, back in April, that same Republican-majority state legislature voted to repeal personal-injury protection insurance requirements for all motorists in Florida - proposing instead to make such insurance optional.

Sound familiar?

The sponsor of that bill was self-described "conservative Republican" Erin Grall, who was elected to represent Florida's District 54 in 2016.

"Today, we have the ability to start thinking about personal responsibility in a different way, and shifting that paradigm in the state of Florida and how we do auto insurance." she said of Florida HB 1063, the bill she sponsored.

Which of course benefits both the insurance industry and the litigators who negotiate for and defend them and act on their behalf.

"Individuals will have the ability to decide whether or not they need to purchase medical payments coverage in order to be covered in the event of an accident." she reasoned.

Yes, no doubt a young mother working at Walmart who gets injured by a tractor trailer that slams into her car while she's on the way home will want to "decide whether or not (she) needs to purchase medical payments coverage".

Obviously it's the same kind of asinine logic House Republicans in Washington talk about when they self-righteously pontificate about Americans having the "freedom" to choose whether or not they want to have healthcare coverage.

But it's not surprising given Erin Grall's political policy stances, which include opposing using state funds to expand rail service, blocking Syrian refugees from coming to Florida, "school choice" and of course opposition to women making their own reproductive healthcare decisions.

Oh and Grall is a lawyer and shareholder in her family's law firm who specializes in civil litigation - HB 1063 makes a lot more sense right?

But alas, once again I digress in the political sense.

Florida State Attorney Phil Archer

In the wake of the public outrage over the Florida teen's appalling lack of personal responsibility, last Thursday Florida State Attorney Phil Archer released a statement saying that there was no criminal charge that could be filed against them for refusing to help Jamel Dunn while he was drowning.

While the Cocoa Police have said they want to pursue some kind of charges in this case to hold the teens accountable, as Arriana Brockington reported for NBC News on Saturday, the only thing that it appears that they could conceivably be charged with from a legal standpoint is a violation of Florida Statute 406.

Which makes it a first-degree misdemeanor not to report a death to the local medical examiner.

But that's only a $1,000 fine, and given the depraved indifference the teens demonstrated in mocking and laughing at Dunn then posting a video of his death on Youtube, that hardly seems adequate in holding all Florida citizens accountable to basic standards of personal civic responsibility.

So consider this, racist killer George Zimmerman stalked, confronted, then shot and killed unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin who was walking back to his dad's place with a juice and a bag of Skittles back in February of 2012, but a Florida jury found that he was not personally responsible for the kid's death.

(Members of that jury are now trying to defend their decision by the way.)

But if a person were to walk by a river and see someone drowning, or walk by a house that was on fire and hear kids screaming inside, they are under no obligation by Florida law to, at the least, call 911 and report it.

The same Republican state legislators in Florida who have, in the words of federal judge Mark Walker, passed voter suppression laws on a mass scale that represent an "obscene undeclared war on voting rights", have never bothered to take the time to pass legislation requiring what most people in communities around the U.S. would do without being asked - call for help if they see someone's life is in danger.

Oh Florida.

Sometimes it really does seem that you are like another country, and I ain't talking about the humidity.

'Racist McShootface' Thwarts Zimmerman & Missouri Legislators Pass SB 656

Racist killer George Zimmerman

The use of the Internet and social media as a powerful tool for the targeted expression of rapid public response on issues where government, the judiciary and law enforcement have failed to act is impressive.

Nowhere was that more evident than the recent efforts of large numbers of online activists to prevent delusional racist psychopath George Zimmerman from auctioning off the handgun he used to murder innocent teenager Trayvon Martin back in 2012.

As ThinkProgress.org reported on Friday, Zimmerman first attempted to auction the murder weapon on GunBroker.com, but the site removed the auction minutes after it was posted claiming it wanted no part of the sale or the negative publicity it generated.

So Zimmerman then went to another gun exchange site called United Gun Group to conduct the auction, and the volume of Web traffic temporarily crashed the site.

After the auction began an anonymous Internet user calling himself 'Racist McShootface' joined others in rapidly flooding the Website with fake bids on the gun to drive the price up to $65 million.

Their actions were designed to prevent anyone from buying the murder weapon to thwart Zimmerman's efforts to cash in on murdering a black teenager and getting away with it.

As you may know, the name Racist McShootface is a clever twist on 'Boaty McBoatface', the name British participants overwhelmingly selected in an online poll to name a new government polar research ship; voters were disappointed after government officials decided to name the ship after noted  environmental researcher Sir David Attenborough instead.

17 year-old Trayvon Martin

One of the most egregious examples of state judicial systems failing to hold psychotic gun-happy lunatics accountable for killing innocent people was Florida's failure to convict George Zimmerman for shooting and killing Trayvon Martin.

Martin's death triggered global outrage after the teenager was walking back to his house with a bag of Skittles and a drink when Zimmerman, thinking the high school student was a criminal, began following him home.

Despite a police dispatcher instructing Zimmerman not to follow Martin, he eventually confronted the kid, starting a physical confrontation which ended with Martin being shot a stones throw from his own house.

A jury acquitted Zimmerman based in part on his lawyers invoking Florida's absurd 'Stand Your Ground' law which gives gun owners a free pass to shoot and kill anyone if they feel "threatened."

Since walking free 2013, Zimmerman has not only demonstrated no remorse over having stalked and killed Martin, he's actually bragged about it and actually gone out of his way to attempt to cash in on it.

He's showed up at gun shows to sign autographs like some kind of celebrity.

Last September he re-Tweeted a police crime scene photo of Trayvon Martin's dead body after one his "fans" had the gall to post the photo on Zimmerman's Twitter page with the comment that "Z-man is a one man army".

And yeah, that's the same Twitter page Zimmerman has used to call African-Americans "Apes" and "black slime" among other colorful descriptions.

Missouri SB 656 backer Rep Eric Burlison

Did you hear that after all the flood of public outrage and controversy generated by Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law, legislators in the state of Missouri recently passed their own version of the law?

According to a Friday press release from Everytown for Gunsafety, Missouri is the latest of over 21 other states with Republican-majority state legislatures that have bent to pressure from the NRA to try pass 'Stand Your Ground Laws'.

The Missouri chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America have condemned the passage of Senate Bill 656 which would allow certain felons, people with no firearms training to carry concealed weapons even though 76% of people in Missouri opposed concealed carry permits.

Republican legislators including representative Eric Burlison were the primary backers of SB 656 and the Missouri Moms are calling on Democratic Governor Jay Nixon to veto the bill.

SB 656 would also give gun owners the right to shoot to kill in public places even if they have the option of walking away from a situation they deem threatening.

Is the pressure being put in Missouri legislators by the NRA stronger than common sense?

After all it was pretty obvious to people around the world that Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law enabled a racist psychopath like George Zimmerman to murder an innocent teenager.

Florida movie shooter Curtis Reeves in court

How can it be in the public interest to pass such a bill in the same state still recovering from the aftermath of the tragedy of Michael Brown being gunned down in the street like an animal by a member of an overtly racist Ferguson, Missouri police department?

'Stand Your Ground' laws haven't made anyone in Florida safer.


They certainly didn't make it safer for 41 year-old Chad Oulson who was shot and killed in front of his wife in 2015 by enraged 71 year-old retired Tampa police captain Curtis Reeves in a movie theater after an argument over Oulson sending text messages on his phone during the movie trailers.

Reeves' lawyers quickly claimed he was using the 'Stand Your Ground' defense as justification for shooting someone in a movie theater with a gun for using a cell phone; the idea that these laws make people safer is absurd.

In fact research conducted by Everytown for Gun Safety showed that the rate of 'justifiable homicides' in Florida tripled after the law was passed, and states with 'Stand Your Ground Laws' experienced a 53% increase in homicides while states without 'Stand Your Ground' laws experienced a 5% decrease in homicides over the same period.

Were legislators in Missouri expecting a different outcome?

Or maybe, since the brunt of the impact of the spike in 'justifiable homicides' disproportionately affects communities of color, the statistics just don't matter to Missouri (and other state) legislators responsible for passing these laws.

Regardless, Zimmerman's actions should serve as a warning sign for any state considering passing a law that makes it okay for people (even someone as unbalanced as Zimmerman) to carry weapons in public and shoot and kill anyone they deem to be a "threat."

Not much question who the real threat is in these cases are.

Marissa Alexander: Glaring Disparities in the American Judicial System

My comments about Russia may have been a bit harsh in my Tuesday October 21st blog about the drunk plow driver colliding with Christophe de Margerie's plane at a Russian Airport.

I'm a big fan of Mother Russia, but like many others (in Russia, Ukraine, here and elsewhere) I just happen to be one of those people who hold humanity to a higher standard in a modern civilized world.

As far as rules governing behavior, laws that protect citizens and equal access to education and justice are concerned, that expectation goes for  my own country as well.

For example the systematic unequal application of justice in this country where prosecutions, application of the law and incarceration are concerned.

Case in point: a Florida mother named Marissa Alexander (pictured above center).

If any positives came out of the travesty of justice that occurred when George Zimmerman was found not guilty for following, confronting and then murdering innocent teenager Trayvon Martin, it was the increased focus directed on the tragic case of Marissa Alexander - and the questionable actions of a highly controversial Florida state prosecutor named Angela Corey.

Back in July of 2010, just nine days after giving premature birth to a baby girl, Alexander's abusive ex-husband Rico Gray arrived at her residence, physically attacked her, attempted to strangle her and threatened to kill her. Alexander, fleeing for her life, ran into the garage to escape but the door was locked.

With no other options she retrieved a legally registered handgun from her car and fired a single warning shot into the air to scare off her rampaging ex. The shot didn't hit or hurt anyone, it struck some drywall in the ceiling over Gray's head - and saved her life.

Enter Florida prosecutor Angela Corey (pictured below) a prosecutor known for excessively harsh sentences against black defendants, who would later gain national recognition for bungling the prosecution of George Zimmerman for murdering unarmed teen Trayvon Martin; and be the subject of multiple state investigations.

One for firing staff member Ben Kruidbos out of spite after he testified about improprieties in the prosecution of a criminal case, and another for  using tax-payer funds to pad her retirement pension.

Remarkably, Corey charged Alexander with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, then tried to convince the stunned domestic abuse victim to take a plea deal that would have meant three years in prison - for firing a gun in the air to protect her life.  

Alexander refused, insisting she had a right to defend herself. The case went to trial, she was found guilty and sentenced to a state-mandated sentence of 20 YEARS in prison.

Alexander had NO prior record and under the same Florida 'Stand Your Ground' laws that enabled George Zimmerman to walk free after killing a teenager, by all rights she clearly had a right to use the gun to protect herself from harm, right?

Controversial Florida prosecutor Angela Corey

That might seem obvious to us, but not to Florida state prosecutor Angela Corey (pictured left) who seems to be on some kind of vindictive personal vendetta to keep Alexander incarcerated despite mounting evidence from multiple witnesses (including her ex Rico Gray) that her life and physical safety were in fact threatened by her ex.

Is Corey stubbornly trying to protect her career rather than admit the original charges filed against Alexander were excessive rather than serve justice in this case?

A growing group including legal advocates, outraged citizens, the National Organization for Women (NOW), domestic violence advocates, the progressive activist group Color of Change, human rights activists and clergy members including the Reverend Al Sharpton and the Reverend Jesse Jackson all say yes.

Multiple witnesses, including women who had been in relationships with Alexander's ex Rico Gray, wrote letters to the state prosecutor's office offering to testify that Gray had a documented history of extreme physical abuse - but none were allowed to testify at Alexander's first trial.

But then on September 26, 2013, after Alexander's conviction, an appellate court ruled the jury in the first trial had been issued incorrect instructions and ordered a new trial; one month later, three years and four months after being attacked by Rico Gray, Marissa Alexander was finally released on bail pending her new trial.

But the nightmare isn't over for Alexander. Amazingly, Angela Corey plans to prosecute Alexander again; and has announced plans to seek THREE consecutive 20-year sentences.   

This past July, Alexander's attorneys tried unsuccessfully to be granted a new hearing to argue that the warning shot was permitted under 'Stand Your Ground' laws so she should be immune to prosecution but Circuit Judge James H. Daniel denied it.

The Florida legislature amended the 'Stand Your Ground' law this past June to include warning shots - but the judge ruled she can't use it retroactively since the amended law took effect after the incident occurred.

So Marissa Alexander will once again face prosecution by Angela Corey in December, only this time she's facing 60 years. That's a picture of the justice system in America.

Where Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' laws can be used by George Zimmerman to be acquitted of murdering an unarmed African-American teenager with no criminal record with a handgun; but the same law does not apply when a black woman uses a handgun to fire a warning shot to prevent an abusive man from trying to kill her.

What's the 'Stand Your Ground' law really for then? And who is it intended to protect?

You could ask US airman Michael Giles (pictured above) - he stood his ground too, shot his attacker in the leg and got 25 years. But the answer seems obvious doesn't it?

*There's still time to make a difference before the trial starts in December. Click this link to add your voice to a petition to Florida Governor Rick Scott to free Marissa Alexander and remove Angela Corey from her post as a prosecuting attorney.

Justice For Renisha McBride - Theodore Wafer Found Guilty of Murder

Theodore Wafer and Renisha McBride [Photo ABC News]

A court ruling last week reminds us that there are ocassional victories for the sense of humanity, decency and fair play that define what America is supposed to be about.

Back on November 15, 2013  when I blogged about 19-year-old Renisha McBride's death, I was feeling pretty pessimistic about the chances of her and her family getting justice from the court system.

The grisly shooting that took her life in the early morning hours of November 2nd, 2013 was part of a disturbing pattern that is more prevalent in the United States - an innocent and unarmed African-American with no criminal record being shot and killed by a white male on the premise of feeling "threatened".

Let's review the facts.

McBride had spent an evening doing what millions of other people do; drinking alcohol and smoking weed. She was legally intoxicated when she was involved in a single car accident in a Dearborn Heights, Michigan neighborhood.

After stumbling around in confusion for awhile, and with no power in her cell phone, at about 4:40am she walked up to 54-year-old Theodore Wafer's porch and knocked on his door to ask for help.

Wafer opened his door and shot her in the face with a shotgun through a screen door at point blank range, killing her instantly.

George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin

Just after the shooting, Wafer lied to police stating the shotgun had gone off accidentally.

He also falsely claimed McBride was trying to break into his house.

The shooting occurred in the wake of the controversy of George Zimmerman being found not guilty in the death of Trayvon Martin.


Did you hear that back in March Zimmerman was at a Central Florida gun show signing autographs and shaking hands with admirers?

Evidently smitten with the fact that he shot an innocent 14-year-old black kid walking home from the store to his father's home with a bag of Skittles and some juice, and got away with it.

McBride's death happened less than a month after a 27-year-old white North Carolina police officer named Randall Kerrick shot Jonathan Ferrell ten times and killed him.

Ferrell was an unarmed 24-year-old African-American college athlete who made the mistake of knocking on a woman's door and asking for help after a car crash.

In a panic she called 911, the cops showed up, saw Ferrell walking towards them (thinking they'd come to help him) tasered him, then promptly shot him ten times.

Jonathan Ferrell and former Charlotte-Mecklenberg
PD officer Randall Kerrick

In the context of those events, I felt like the prospects for Renisha McBride getting justice were slim, but the courts proved me wrong.

Last Thursday afternoon a jury of seven men and five women found Theodore Wafer guilty on three counts of second-degree murder, manslaughter and a felony firearms charge following nine days of harrowing testimony and two days of deliberation.


The racial implications in the McBride case are clear, but the jury's decision is much bigger than that.

In my view it sends an important message to the NRA, the Tea Party and Republican lawmakers who dangle at the end of the strings held by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) who are collectively responsible for introducing laws like 'Stand Your Ground' in Florida which allowed George Zimmerman to stalk, attack and murder unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in February 2012.

Or the 'Shoot First' law introduced in Michigan in 2006.

Laws which have the effect of conferring upon white citizens a sense of a right to use deadly force against citizens of color under the shaky and ambiguous pretense of  "fearing for their life" - therefore sanctioning a dangerous "shoot first ask questions later" firearms policy. 

Now Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law is not specifically written with language that suggests it's only for white people to invoke.

Ex-US Air Force Airman Michael Giles

But I use the term "white citizens" because cases like that of former USAF Airman Michael Giles (who is African-American) make clear that Florida prosecutors hold people who use a 'Stand Your Ground' defense after firing a weapon are held to totally different standards based on their race. 

Where George Zimmerman targeted, stalked, confronted and murdered Trayvon Martin and was able to convince a Florida jury he was justified because he was standing his ground, Michael Giles was punched in the back of the head and knocked to the ground during a 2010 melee at a Florida nightclub.

He took out his handgun, which he had a concealed carry permit for, and shot his attacker in the legs, injuring two bystanders with bullet fragments - the jury rejected his claim of self defense and he was found guilty of aggravated battery and sentenced to a mandatory 25 year sentence.

There's an ongoing grassroots social media campaign to get Giles, who served two tours overseas in the Middle East, freed.

But the outcome of the Renisha McBride case in Michigan makes clear that these laws do not give Theodore Wafer or any other citizen free license to kill innocent people with guns - especially when their lives are not actually threatened.

I think it also makes clear that Michigan wants to carefully distinguish itself from states like Florida, who's absurd 'Stand Your Ground' law is so abstract as to encourage mentally unbalanced people like George Zimmerman or Michael Dunn to commit murder - or Georgia where the state recently passed laws allowing people to carry loaded handguns into bars or even churches.

The jury decision in the McBride case reminds us that we are a nation of laws.

It won't bring back Renisha McBride's life, but if it serves as a warning for trigger-happy gun owners to think twice before shooting a human being and call 911 instead, perhaps it gives her death meaning and her family and friends some measure of solace knowing that the loss of her life could very well save someone else's.

I think the essence of the case boils down to a simple quote from the parents of Renisha McBride, as her father said after the court verdict, "That could have been anybody's kid."