Guns / Firearms, Justice, Racism

Black People Are Not Even Legally Allowed To Be Afraid Of White People

Self-defense is just not a thing black people are allowed to do.

By  
on

We know that cops can legally murder black people, so long as the cops “fear for their life.” We know that civilians can “stand their ground” and murder black people, so long as they “fear” harm.

Can black people also defend legally ourselves against white people, if we are afraid of them?

Hahaha, j/k, that was a rhetorical question. OF COURSE a black person can’t legally “defend himself” against a white man. Every brother in here knows that black people can’t legally use force against a white person, no matter how threatening and dangerous that white person may be. Every black person I know knows that if they have to defend themselves against any white person out there, they’d best be willing to catch a homicide/attempted homicide charge. We don’t get to “stand your ground.” We don’t get to have “self-defense.” We get to run, or die. If we fight back, we get the full weight of the legal system crashing down on our heads.

The latest proof for this obvious reality comes from Georgia. Jessie Murray was out a bar with his ex-wife when he claims that he was attacked by four white men outside of the establishment. One of those white men was a former police officer, Nathan Adams. At least one of the white men was armed. Murray reached into his car for his gun, and claims he continued to struggle with the assailants. The gun went off, Adams was killed, and Murray was charged with manslaughter.

Murray attempted to get his charges dismissed by arguing “stand your ground,” in Georgia. Clayton County Judge Albert Collier denied that claim, last week. Murray claims that he was in fear of his life, but that the gun went off “accidentally.” Apparently that fact pattern gave Judge Collier just enough space to be entirely dismissive of Murray’s attempt to defend his life:

“The court cannot reconcile the defendants asking for immunity under a self-defense statute, by stating that the use of deadly force was justified, and then also stating that the use of deadly force was unintentional.”

Georgia defense attorney Titus Nichols tells me Judge Collier’s reasoning is just one of the “quirks” of arguing self-defense:

Sponsored

You have to take the stand and say, “YES, I HOPE THEY DIE, AND I HOPE THEY BURN IN HELL. . . .but I had to defend myself.”

You can’t say, “I didn’t mean to shoot them, but if I did shoot them, it was in self-defense.”

If Judge Collier had left it at that — some kind of “man, this is all kinds of messed up, but technically you have to intend to shoot your attackers to claim self-defense” — that’d be one thing. It’d still be a racist thing, because that technicality would never be applied to a white man trying to fend off four African-American assailants, but at least it’d be racist in a kind of standard way.

But Collier went further. According to reports, he stated that Murray did not fear of his life. And said “nor does it appear to this court that the other men in the vicinity were acting in such a way that would cause the defendant to reasonably believe that deadly force was necessary to prevent death or great bodily injury to himself or a third party.”

Now, white people have long taken the liberty of telling me how I really feel. While I was writing this post, I got into a Twitter war with a white guy who was telling me I don’t really fear the cops, because if I did I’d move out West and start my own free state like the Mormons.

But usually white people telling me how I feel doesn’t affect my life. Here, the judge telling Murray how he really felt directly impacts Murray’s ability to defend himself against a murder charge. The judge has decided, pre-trial, I might add, that Murray didn’t reasonably fear for his life just because he was being accosted by four white men.

Sponsored

Again, every black person knows this. We don’t get to defend ourselves against white men, unless we are willing to go to jail for it.

If Murray was white and the four men were black, Donald Trump would give him a medal.

‘Stand your ground’ defense denied for Black man in Georgia [Rolling Out]

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

Topics

, , , , , , ,