re: #219 Political Atheist

Since the GZ/Trayvon case is back in the news a little bit, I’m kinda curious about the Stand Your Ground issue. After all for very different reasons, we would just about all agree it should not apply. Even his defense attorney rejects it for his own reasons. Both sides agree it’s a non starter.

So, why is the case still closely associated with that debate in media coverage? Limited media attention span? Lack of nuance? Ratings ratings ratings? Seems to me the stand your ground debate needs to shift to another case or cases.

I think the critics of Stand Your Ground laws saw it as an opportunity to get rid of the law. The mantra started even before the details of the case were known and now it’s just become associated with the case even though it may not be relevant. The press coverage is just lazy and mentions of Stand Your Ground laws gets easy clicks from activists.
We see this all the time. When there’s a tragedy the noisiest people start pointing finders at their favorite target and wheeling out their favorite pet projects. Most of it’s just a preplanned agenda, not enough people are really interested in the tragedy in question.