It looks to me like the man who was shot & killed would have backed off after the gun was pointed at him. "Stand Your Ground" seems to allow a person to assume that anyone who attacks you in any way intends to kill you, so it's okay to kill that person...
Stand Your Ground?
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 3:02 am
by RayThom
Joe Guy wrote:It looks to me like the man who was shot & killed would have backed off after the gun was pointed at him. "Stand Your Ground" seems to allow a person to assume that anyone who attacks you in any way intends to kill you, so it's okay to kill that person...
It appears to me that had the bully who was shot not assaulted the (possibly handicapped) shooter to begin with he'd be alive today. Yes, macho man did appear to back off after the gun was drawn but had it not been brandished who's to say he wouldn't have gone on to another show of bravado just to show who's boss?
When all is said and done I feel the shooter will get the benefit of the doubt.
One thing for sure, the dead man will not be bullying again.
Re: Stand Your Ground?
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 3:15 am
by Joe Guy
Here's one of many articles written about the incident -
CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) - The shooting of an unarmed man, Markeis McGlockton, at a Clearwater convenience story is inflaming controversy over Florida’s Stand Your Ground law even though some legal experts believe it might not even apply in this case.
“I understand you have the right to stand your ground but not to fire out of anger,” said Clearwater defense attorney Roger Futerman.
“It [the video] shows him [the victim] moving in a different direction, which I think is a really critical issue,” said another prominent Clearwater attorney, Jay Hebert.
Both attorneys say the Stand Your Ground defense only applies when someone is in imminent fear of death or great bodily harm. Hebert says the law originated after a spate of Florida hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 when fearful homeowners complained of looters and Governor Bush pushed through legislation that tilted the law toward their right to defend themselves.
But a video recording of Thursday’s shooting in Clearwater shows McGlockton taking four or five steps backward and turning in another direction in the seconds before Michael Drejka fired the fatal bullet after being pushed to the ground by McGlockton in a dispute over a handicap parking space.
“His [McGlockton's] hands are out, he’s moving backwards, he’s turned away from the shooter [Drejka]—where’s the threat at this point,” Futerman said.
Hebert points out the confrontation unfolded in just a matter of seconds and it’s hard to get inside Drejka’s mind to determine exactly what he was thinking.
As defense lawyers, both men agree the Stand Your Ground statute is a good law and have used it to defend clients. Hebert says he was the first to use it in the Tampa Bay area in a fatal shooting involving a tow truck operator and insists it reinforces constitutional protections when properly applied.
“In our society there’s a presumption of innocence and in addition to that the burden of proof has always been with the government to prove their case,” Hebert said.
In this case, Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri has declined to immediately arrest Drejka because of the Stand Your Ground law. But the decision whether to file criminal charges in the fatal shooting rests with the Pinellas State Attorney’s Office.
Futerman believes Gualtieri’s initial decision puts more pressure on the state attorney to not file charges, but ultimately it comes down to whether prosecutors or a grand jury believe Drejka was in fear of his life when he pulled the trigger.
“If I were a juror objectively looking at this I would think that the shot was fired not out of fear but out of anger,” Futerman said
Here's the backstory:
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri announced he did not intend to charge 47-year-old Michael Drejka, who is white, over the shooting death of 28-year-old Markeis McGlockton, who is black. Mr. Drejka shot and killed Mr. McGlockton last week in a parking area outside a convenience store in Clearwater, 25 miles west of Tampa. Video showed Mr. Drejka aiming at and shooting Mr. McGlockton as he sat on the floor<sic>, after Mr. McGlockton had shoved him to the ground, after an argument over a parking space became heated. Mr. Drejka and Mr. McGlockton had apparently began arguing after Mr. Drejka got out of his car and began “harassing” Mr. McGlockton’s girlfriend, Britany Jacobs, for being parked in a spot reserved for disabled people. She told ABC her boyfriend, with whom she had been with since 2009, had come to her defence (Brit spelling, since I lifted this from The Independent — oh, and emphasis earlier is mine.).
Setting aside for the moment the issue of improper parking, I think some idiotic judge misinterpreted the intent of the "Stand Your Ground" law. Personally, I don't believe giving some ignorant, boorish, bullying, self-appointed parking enforcer carte blanche to open fire after getting pushed to the ground because you were too busy arguing with someone else to see it coming was what the author of the bill had in mind; however, this is Florida, where another self-appointed upholder of the law (George Zimmerman) claimed he was 'standing his ground' — and got away with it — when he shot Trayvon Martin back in 2012.
I also wonder how the sheriff would have acted and how the judge would have ruled if it had gone the other way and it had been McGlockton who had pulled out a gun and shot Drejka, and then claimed he was defending his girlfriend and had been standing HIS ground....
But in any case, the shooter had better hope his car insurance is paid up because I have a sneaky suspicion it will be a burned-out hulk inside of a week. In fact, if I'd been related to the guy who got shot, I could guarantee it. -"BB"-
Re: Stand Your Ground?
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 7:07 am
by Gob
I want to live in the USA so I can shoot people I don't like!!
Re: Stand Your Ground?
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 5:09 pm
by Joe Guy
Gob wrote:I want to live in the USA so I can shoot people I don't like!!
Move to Florida, Gob! That's where all the action is!
Re: Stand Your Ground?
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 8:39 pm
by Burning Petard
BB, I hope your opinion in this case is just as well supported as your opinion in the Zimmerman/Martin case. In the latter, the jury's decision is fully supported by the facts.
snailgate.
Re: Stand Your Ground?
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 8:53 pm
by Long Run
Bicycle Bill wrote:
Setting aside for the moment the issue of improper parking,
Getting back to this pertinent part of the story . . .
If the victim did in fact illegally park in a handicap spot, then he would be the
violator. This offense doesn't warrant getting shot,and neither does bullying a handicap guy and throwing him to the ground. However, you take one part jerk for illegal parking and second part jerk for throwing the handicap guy to the ground, and the victim gets a lot less sympathy. It is likely there will be more to come in this story.
Re: Stand Your Ground?
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 9:30 pm
by Big RR
Is there somewhere that says that the victim was handicapped? I might have missed it.
Re: Stand Your Ground?
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2018 10:56 pm
by Long Run
Big RR wrote:Is there somewhere that says that the victim was handicapped? I might have missed it.
Good point, I don't think he is. It was the way he was standing in the video and an earlier comment along the same lines (but I think it was just that he was hunched over while arguing with the women who parked illegally). Apparently, it is a situation of three people doing the wrong thing, with each step getting worse:
Jacobs concedes she parked in a handicapped spot Thursday outside the Circle A Food Store in Clearwater, and told "Good Morning America" that Drejka pulled up in a silver SUV and began yelling and cursing at her.
"(McGlockton) comes out and sees a guy yelling at me and I'm sitting in the car. So, by this time, my man is defending me and defending his children so he pushes the guy down," she told the ABC show.
* * *
It's not the first time Drejka has engaged in a confrontation over a parking space, store owner Ali Salous told CNN affiliate WFLA.
"He's always hanging out in the parking lot here. If he sees anyone parking illegal or something like that, he just wants to argue with them and fight with them," he told the station.
"This is a violent push. This wasn't a shove. This wasn't just a tap," Sheriff Gualtieri said during a Friday news conference.
Re: Stand Your Ground?
Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 2:33 pm
by Big RR
That's kind of what I thought; the shooter sounds like a guy who just was looking for a fight, possible because he was armed. It looks like he had confronted others before over their parking and seemed to be a all around pain in the ass.
The victim apparently broke the law by parking in the handicapped space, but the shooter had no business in starting up with Ms. Jacobs. It sounds like Glockton got pretty aggressive, but in a stand your ground state this is to be expected--he was defending his girlfriend and children and his personal space against a guy starting up with them. And when the gun came out the victim apparently backed away and the shooter shot him (possibly in the back). How this could be justified under stand your ground is beyond me.
Re: Stand Your Ground?
Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 4:56 pm
by Long Run
Makes you wonder if he was going for this:
Re: Stand Your Ground?
Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 5:10 pm
by wesw
gob s flippancy, almost got me.....
I have little sympathy for either of these characters....
the guy is lucky he isn t facing manslaughter charges...., and he still may....
...on the bright side...., that asshole that got shot won t be beating on me or you.....
(I think that gob is still pissed about the American revolution)
Re: Stand Your Ground?
Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 5:37 pm
by Big RR
Of course, the "asshole" who got shot wasn't "beating" (if a knockdown by a push constitutes a beating) until his girlfriend was accosted by a guy who had no real business in starting up in the first place. But then, he had a gun so why not?
Re: Stand Your Ground?
Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 7:25 pm
by MGMcAnick
Long Run wrote:
It's not the first time Drejka has engaged in a confrontation over a parking space, store owner Ali Salous told CNN affiliate WFLA.
"He's always hanging out in the parking lot here. If he sees anyone parking illegal or something like that, he just wants to argue with them and fight with them," he told the station.
It appears as though Drejka has done this sort of thing before. He's the parking lot's self appointed vigilante. He's packing a gun, ready to shoot someone if (more likely when) he's pushed or confronted. It's almost like he PLANNED to shoot someone.
On another note, the woman appears to be the one who was driving, and parked the car in a handicapped space. I'll bet she never does that again. Apparently it's a capitol offense in Florida.
I wonder if McGlockton was shot with a Glock. Sorry, my mind must be sick today.
