With parking-lot shooting, Florida 'stand your ground' law takes the stand
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Patrik Jonsson Staff writer
| Clearwater, Fla.
Dan Drake looked up in alarm on听July 19听when he heard the gunshots from the direction of the Circle A Food Store, where his teenage daughter had headed by foot. He relaxed slightly when she came running back down the sidewalk. Someone just got shot up on the corner, she said.
Mr. Drake thought it was a gang shooting 鈥� not unheard of in this Clearwater, Fla., neighborhood known as Greenwood. He then heard that a black man he knew by sight, Markeis McGlockton, had been shot and killed by an older white man, Michael Drejka, over a parking space argument. Mr. McGlockton was killed after pushing Mr. Drejka, who had confronted McGlockton鈥檚 girlfriend about parking in a handicapped spot.
鈥淢arkeis acted like any man would, protecting his family, and for that he was killed,鈥� says Drake, who is black. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 care about race. If you have the loaded gun in your pocket, you鈥檙e looking for trouble.鈥�
Why We Wrote This
When is it acceptable for one citizen to take the life of another? That question has erupted anew as Floridians grapple with what constraints, if any, should be placed on the use of force in self-defense.
For his part, Drejka has told local reporters that he feared for his life and acted within what he understood to be the constraints of the law.
The local sheriff initially agreed with Drejka. Under the state鈥檚 so-called stand your ground law, the sheriff said, Drejka鈥檚 role in instigating the conflict didn鈥檛 matter if he felt that the shove suggested a reasonable threat to his life.
The state attorney disagreed, however, filing manslaughter charges on Aug. 13. Drejka pleaded not guilty.
Five years after George Zimmerman was acquitted after killing an unarmed black teenager named Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., the state that pioneered the 鈥渟tand your ground鈥� law is still grappling with听what constraints, if any, should be placed on the use of force in self-defense.
The law takes away any duty to retreat from danger, allowing Floridians to respond with deadly force to a reasonable threat.听Proponents say stand your ground has made Florida safer by empowering law-abiding gun owners, citing a dramatic dip in the violent crime rate since 1997.
But experts point out that drop began in 2005, and matches a two-decade decline in violent crime across the United States. And they say law has emboldened vigilantes 鈥� many of whom have been middle-aged white men.听Ahead of a bellwether election that will likely focus on criminal justice inequities in the criminal justice system, the McGlockton killing has only hardened racial and class tensions, mirroring closely the nation as a whole.听
In that way, the aftermath of what happened here on this Clearwater corner, experts say, may proffer larger lessons for a country on edge by giving a sympathetic glimpse into the humanity of victims and increased clarity on when self-defense听can and cannot be legally justified.
The Circle A shooting shows how 鈥渟tand-your-ground is a wink-and-a-nod law, open to interpretation,鈥� says Harvard University historian Caroline Light, author of 鈥淪tand Your Ground: A History of America鈥檚 Love Affair With Lethal Self-defense.鈥� 鈥淧eople like Drejka, they are paying attention to what is happening 鈥� the outcome of the Zimmerman case, to all the other cases 鈥� and it is showing them that there鈥檚 a pattern by which certain kinds of vigilante acts are going to get excused.鈥�
The roots of stand your ground
The听fundamentals of the law are not shaded by race. English common law underscores the duty of people to retreat until retreat is no longer possible. Several New England states still embody that standard. But Western and Southern states, by character, nature, and necessity, have historically embraced a different standard that by the 1930s had been written into common law in most states, writes Richard Maxwell Brown in 鈥淣o Duty to Retreat: Violence and 海角大神 in American History and Society.鈥�
United States Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes used the phrase 鈥渟tand your ground鈥� in explaining a 鈥渞easonable belief鈥� standard for justifiable homicide. Holmes memorably noted that 鈥渄etached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife.鈥�
In 2005, Florida became the first state to enshrine the right to use deadly force in self-defense, even when retreat is possible. More than two dozen states have since passed similar legislation.
The Florida legislature beefed up stand our ground last year, which likely contributed to the the听Pinellas sheriff's initial听decision听not to charge Drejka.
The legislature 鈥渟hifted the burden of proof in a pre-trial hearing from the defense to the prosecution,鈥� explains Charles Rose, a law professor at Stetson University in Gulfport, Fla. 鈥淭hat leaves the possibility that if you indict someone and it doesn鈥檛 hold up during the hearing, then you may be facing an allegation of false imprisonment by the individual who was asserting stand your ground.鈥�
To critics, that shifts the reasonableness standard too far, creating a special class of armed citizen vigilantes who have more rights than their victims. That concern is heightened in a state where 1 out of 15 residents have a concealed-carry permit, the largest proportion in the US.
鈥淧eople are emboldened 鈥� they know they have this right under Florida law to shoot first and ask questions later 鈥� and it is a deadly combination,鈥� says Laura Cutilletta, the legal director for the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in San Francisco.
She points out that last year the Urban Institute found that when a shooter is white and the victim is black, the homicide is than if the roles are reversed. 鈥淪o,鈥� she concludes, 鈥渢he way the law is structured in Florida 鈥� and it is not alone in this 鈥� it is really skewed in favor of someone walking around with a loaded gun. Add prosecutorial and jury biases and it favors white people that are armed.鈥�
An American microcosm?
The Circle A Food Store sits on a national faultline 鈥� a suburban听crossroads perched atop the glimmer of Old Clearwater Bay. Mere blocks, according to Zillow, separate $350,000 stucco ranches from similar square footage homes that sell for $80,000 in Greenwood. Yet people of all races frequent the Circle A.
This is where a memorial marks McGlockton鈥檚 death, next to an overflowing dumpster. The neighborhood听is smack in the middle of the 10-county Tampa Bay media market, the largest in Florida, containing 24 percent of the electorate.
Residents are still wrestling not just with the proximity, but the complexity of the shooting 鈥� and what it means for how Floridians behave toward each other.
One resident, a wiry YouTuber and marketing guru named Tommy Collins, has lived all over the world 鈥� from Alabama to Abu Dhabi 鈥� and sees an American microcosm here in the Florida burbs and its racial boundaries, overlaid with 鈥渞age and edginess.鈥�
Watching a video of the shooting, he had a flurry of sympathy for Drejka.
In part, he understands how someone can feel threatened. 鈥淚t was a hard push, but it also seemed the other guy saw the gun and was stepping back.鈥�
And he acknowledges that race simmers below the surface. 鈥淵ou won鈥檛 hear the N-word with three people in the room, but you will with two,鈥� he says.
鈥淚 just think about if it was in reverse,鈥� Mr. Collins says.听鈥淚f a black man kills a white man after harassing the man鈥檚 family, does he walk away?鈥�
The flaw in the law, critics say, may not be that it empowers a particular group of people like gun owners 鈥� but that it makes everyone more susceptible to making deadly mistakes.
鈥淭he problem is it flows into implicit bias issues鈥� that don鈥檛 always fall along racial lines, says Professor Rose. 鈥淚mplicit bias is what people rely on to make snap judgment decisions when they feel threatened. You don鈥檛 want laws that play into and support the biases that exist in all of us, because it is too easy for those to be misapplied.鈥�
Whether Drejka will be convicted hangs over a state that is already seeing racial tensions rising,听says University of Florida emeritus professor Susan MacManus, an expert on Florida politics.
Democrat Andrew听Gillum, a former Tallahassee mayor who is black, is now set to take on Rep. Ron DeSantis, a fervently pro-Trump Republican, for the governorship. Mr. DeSantis caught flak for his suggestion that Mr. Gillum would 鈥渕onkey this up,鈥� meaning the strong Florida economy. Monkey references have deep historical roots and are widely considered racial coding. DeSantis called that idea 鈥渁bsurd,鈥� though Fox News apologized for the reference after the interview. And last week, a featuring minstrel language and jungle sounds was sent out by a neo-Nazi podcast.
In that light, the nomination of Gillum and his promise to reform stand your ground will 鈥渞emind voters who have been concerned for years about racial inequities in the criminal justice system to get out and vote,鈥� says Professor MacManus. 鈥淩emember, Florida is a bellwether in large part because its racial and ethnic diversity mirrors the country.鈥�
Across from the Circle A is Cole鈥檚 Gun Shop, where a rough concrete block exterior gives way to a neat showroom of weaponry. Rocco, one of the salesmen, says his shop did not sell Drejka his gun.
He represents a key demographic in a state beholden to the influence of the National Rifle Association. But instead of supporting his fellow gun owner, he fully supports the arrest and prosecution of Drejka. He isn鈥檛 sure the law needs to be changed, but hopes the trial will clarify its limits. Force, he says, has to be commensurate with the threat.
If even a well-meaning law that supports gun rights begins to reinforce vigilantism, it should be reevaluated, he says.听
鈥淲hen they issued my concealed-carry permit,鈥� he says, 鈥淚鈥檓 pretty sure it didn鈥檛 come with a cape.鈥�
