Are Florida Lawmakers Actually Planning ‘Stand Your Ground’ Hearings?

After weeks of protests in Florida and a take-over of Governor Rick Scott’s office by the Dream Defenders, Republicans have made an abrupt about-face on the Sunshine State’s “Stand Your Ground Law”.

Responding to protesters? demands?in the wake of George Zimmerman’s acquittal for killing unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin?Florida lawmakers will hold Stand Your Ground law hearings, Reuters reported.

House Speaker Will Weatherford (R-Wesley Chapel) revealed Friday, in a Tampa Tribune editorial, that hearings are slated to take place this Fall.


Weatherford enlisted State Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Niceville), House Criminal Justice Subcommittee chair, to lead those hearings. The Speaker nearly likened the building pressure for some action to blackmail:

I have been asked to repeal it. “Asked” is a generous term considering the threats of boycotts, union-sponsored protesters overtaking the governor’s office and Hollywood elites disparaging our state and threatening the livelihood of hard-working Floridians.

Weatherford also railed against Zimmerman trial-fueled anger against the ?Stand Your Ground? law. He chides protesters for ?ignoring? that Zimmerman’s attorney’s never used the law as a defense strategy.

Even so, Stand Your Ground played a factor during jury deliberations, according to Juror B37. She stressed that during an Anderson Cooper interview:

The law became very confusing. It became very confusing. We had stuff thrown at us. We had the second-degree murder charge, the manslaughter charge, then we had self defense, Stand Your Ground.

Singer and entertainer Harry Belafonte became one of the Hollywood types allegedly ?threatening the livelihood of hard-working Floridians.? Belafonte joined protesters on July 26 at the Florida State Capitol, as Liberal America previously reported.He stressed protesters should be heard, before things got out of hand.

At the moment all of this is governable, (sic) all of this is in a place?where it can be debated and analyzed and discussed in a very peaceful,?calm, productive way.

Those protesters, calling themselves ?Dream Defenders,? had been at the state capitol since July 15, according to its Website. Dream Defenders mission is fighting for people to receive “quality education and to live lives free of police brutality, racial profiling, and mass incarceration.”

Edited and published by Jeromie Williams.

Photo: ?ThinkProgress

Jason Carson Wilson is a Chicago-based freelance writer with more than 10 years of journalism experience. Wilson previously worked as a staff writer for daily and weekly newspapers throughout downstate Illinois. He also contribute to the Windy City Times. Wilson, a gay, African-American, is a first-year Chicago Theological Seminary student. He covers stories about GLBT rights, human rights, marriage equality, politics, race, and religion.