America’s gun culture costs lives and feeds our fears. Consider the most recent injustice in Florida, the verdict in the Michael Dunn case, and the most recent news about America’s “guard labor.”
In Jacksonville, Fla., Michael Dunn, a 47-year-old white man, was aggravated by the loud rap music coming from an SUV filled with four black teenagers in a convenience store parking lot. An exchange of insults ensued. Dunn, who was armed and clearly dangerous, claimed that he was threatened by Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old high school senior, and later claimed he saw the barrel of a shotgun coming from the SUV. There was no shotgun; no other witness saw anything that might resemble a shotgun. Dunn opened his door and fired 10 shots into the SUV as it drove away, killing Jordan Davis. Dunn then drove away without calling the cops, and without ever mentioning that the boys had a shotgun.
Under Florida’s inane “Stand Your Ground” law, however, Dunn had the right to use lethal force to defend himself if he “reasonably” thought his life was threatened. Dunn’s lawyer said, “I don’t have to prove the threat, just that Mike Dunn believed it.” The Jacksonville jury found Dunn guilty of three counts of “attempted murder” in his strafing of the car, but they couldn’t come to a decision on his murder of Jordan Davis.
In Florida, it is increasingly dangerous to be young, black and male.
In the New York Times on Monday, Samuel Bowles and Arjun Jayadev report in “One Nation Under Guard” that the U.S. now employs more private security guards than high school teachers. Tallying up all of what they call “guard labor,” including police officers, prison guards, soldiers, etc., they come to a figure of 5.2 million, more than all teachers at all levels. The “guard labor” share of the labor force in America has risen dramatically since the 1970s, as inequality has reached new extremes.
Read more here.
