Last night I had the chance to listen to this panel and I have to say it was an eye opener.
The first speaker was Clayton Cramer who was followed by Massad Ayoob, both were on the side of Stand Your Ground Laws and on lending the opposite view was Steven Jansen.
If you have read this blog in the past, you already figured out that I am all for STG so yes, I am going to be a bit biased, but I have to say I was first embarrased and then ticked off by Mr. Jansen’s motives why STG should be either eliminated or re-examined.
Clayton Cramer did a superb job in bringing the historic facts of STG all the way from the England of the 16th Century to modern days. Massad Ayoob, among other things touched in the sensitive (for prosecutors) subject of prosecutorial over-zealousness, the outright unfairness of it and he closed with the case of Jay Rodney Lewis, plenty mentioned in this blog.
Mr. Jansen appears to have an amazing set of merit badges, but here it came across like a spoiled child who has been told he cannot play with scissors anymore because he has been destroying the drapes and cut the cat’s whiskers. If you read the Florida Law, it is pretty obvious what the intention is, yet and according to Mr. Jansen, police officers, prosecutors and judges are having a tough time interpreting it and coming to a common ground about it so it wants it rescinded. So basically the excuse is “We are too damn stupid, don’t make out jobs harder, let us have the power to screw with your life.”
Now these people are itching for a Self defense case to come that way and nail the shooter wit no record, good family man and taxpayer with all the weight of the law;while having no qualms in making deals and reducing charges against career criminals in order to lower their case load. That an officer of the law in the same breath will give a hardcore offender thy benefit of presumption of innocence but deny it to a good citizen is makes my blood boil.
If the panel that Gov. Walker created has people like Mr. Jensen in the side against STG, we can rest assured that our law is safe and sound.
Just in case, let’s keep an eye on them.