Stand Your Ground Law

Stand Your Ground Law, The killing of Trayvon Martin was only the most infamous Florida homicide complicated by the legal inanity known as “Stand Your Ground.”

Police in Sanford, maddeningly hesitant in their dealings with the 28-year-old neighborhood watch zealot who shot young Martin, have been widely disparaged for citing the 2005 Florida statute that grotesquely altered the doctrine of self-defense.

But just last week, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beth Bloom bolstered the Sanford cops’ contention that state law now trumps common sense. She sprang another stand-your-ground killer.

Stand Your Ground, the way the law has been interpreted, has proven to be a wild misnomer. Like Trayvon Martin, Pedro Roteta was pursued down a city street by his killer.

On Jan. 25, Roteta had apparently been trying to steal the radio from a truck owned by Greyston Garcia, parked outside his apartment in southwest Miami. Truck burglary’s a crime of course, but not a capital case. Not before 2005.

Clay Duke Video

Clay Duke Video, Reports that the man held a school board meeting in Florida with a deadly weapon and opened fire after walking on stage and smearing a V symbol in a circle of spray paint on the wall

This symbol is familiar to many comics’ readers and fans of film like the symbol used by the V character in the comic and the movie V for Vendetta, a reworking of the famous symbol Anarchy, if the red paint is indicative film more than comics.

Identified as Duke of clay, whose wife has just lost his job at the school, he was shot by former District School Board and member of the security chief Mike Jones, who was alerted to the incident, and the paper estimates that the duke died as a result. They also claim that the weapon of Duke was a firearm in the CAP.

The images of V for Vendetta, especially that of Guy Fawkes was popularized by a series of protest groups since the release of the film, which the group Anonymous.

School Board Shooting Video

School Board Shooting Video, (AP) – The ex-prisoner who quietly held a school board at gunpoint and began randomly shooting had circled the date on a calendar found in his mobile home, proof that he had been planning the attack for some time, police said.

Shooting at the meeting Bay District Council was not “a spur of the moment thing,” Panama City Police Chief John Van Etten told the Associated Press. Police also found paraphernalia anti-government at home s Clay A. Duke, but the head did not provide details.

“He was obviously not happy with our government,” said Van Etten.

Video of Tuesday’s show meeting Duke, 56 years, complaining about taxes and his wife by the fire district before shooting from close range as the superintendent begged, “Please do not.”

A few minutes earlier, the room was filled with students from accepting prize, but nobody was hurt, except the Duke, who shot himself after exchanging gunfire with a security guard, said the police.

“It could have been a monumental tragedy,” said Superintendent Bill Husfelt. “God was standing before me and I’ll go to my grave believing.”

A video shows the Duke rising from his seat, spray painting a red V on the wall and waving a handgun 9mm Smith & Wesson and ordered everyone to leave the room except the men on the board. They dived under the desk long they had been seated behind as he shot them.

Duke motivation was still dark on Wednesday. He rambled to the Commission on tax increases and his wife, but apparently also created a Facebook page last week that refers to the class struggle and laced with images from the film “V for Vendetta,” in which a mysterious figure fighting a totalitarian government.

The school board was in the midst of a discussion of routine when the Duke went to the front of the room.

“We could tell by the look in his eyes that was not going to end well,” Husfelt told the AP.

Husfelt was calm as he tried to convince the Duke to drop the gun, but the Duke shook his head. The only woman on the board, Ginger Littleton, had been ordered to leave the room too, but she slipped back behind him and stumble his arms fire with his large brown handbag.

“In my mind, that was the last attempt or possibility of diversion,” said Littleton.

Duke, a big fat man in a dark sweater coat became angry and turned around. She fell to the ground, as council members pleaded with her to stop. Duke pointed the gun at his head and said, “You stupid b —-,” but he did not shoot him. She does not know why.

She joked at a press conference Wednesday that his three daughters asked, “Are you just stupid? What were you thinking? I have no answer for that. ”

After several minutes, the video showed Duke slowly raising the gun and leveling Husfelt, who pleaded “Please no, please do not.”

Duke shot twice Husfelt about 8 feet away and squeezed several more laps before the district security chief Mike Jones, a former policeman, bolted police said on Wednesday the pair exchanged at least 14 shots, with Jones Duke hit four times, killing him. Duke then shot himself fatally in the head. Police said he had at least 25 more rounds of ammunition.

Somehow, nobody else in the small room was injured in the clash that lasted several minutes. Husfelt said at least two rounds lodged in the wall behind him.

In brief exchange with the Duke board, he said his wife had been fired by the Northern District of Florida, but never said Husfelt or council that she was or what she did. The members promised to help him find a new job, but the Duke shook his head. Husfelt said Duke does not remember his wife, but would be responsible for his dismissal if the board members should be allowed to leave.

“He said that his wife was fired, but we do not really know what he was talking,” Husfelt told the AP on Tuesday at his home in Panama City.

Duke woman had apparently lived with his mother near Lynn Haven. It was unclear how long they were not living, “said the chief.

Video of the meeting shows Husfelt said Duke: “I have a feeling that you want the cops to come and kill you because you said you’ll die today.” Later, the head of more than 30 schools in the district that includes tourism and beach Air Force Panama City said he was sure someone would be killed.

Tommy Lou Richardson, director of the school district personnel, was at the meeting and called Jones a hero. As Duke was lying on the floor, colleagues cheered the agitated man, who said he never had anyone shot before.

SWAT officers then stormed the room and ordered everyone onto the floor. School officials told them that the Duke was shot and seemed dead. His feet could be seen near the seats of the council.

People gathered at the home of the Duke Women’s Tuesday night asked reporters to leave. On a Facebook page under his name, the entries are dated December 7 and 8. The page displays a cryptic message in the “About Me” section.

“My Will: Some people (the media sponsored by the Government) will say that I was evil, a monster (V) … no … I was just born poor in a country where the rich manipulate, use, abuse, and economically enslave 95 percent of the population. Rich Republicans, Democrats Rich … same same … rich … They take turns to cheat us … our few dollars … pyramid of wealth for themselves. ”

Her Facebook profile picture is the red symbol V, spray painted on the wall at the meeting, and his page with photos of the movie version “V for Vendetta”, who was also a graphic novel.

It quotes the billionaire Warren Buffett, who told the New York Times in 2006: “There is class struggle, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class who make war and we win.”

Duke was charged in October 1999 with aggravated stalking, or launching a missile into a building or vehicle and obstruction of justice, according to state records. He was convicted and sentenced in January 2000 to five years in prison and was released in January 2004. Records indicate Duke was a certified massage therapist before his arrest, but it was unclear whether he was employed.

Attorney Ben Bollinger, who represented Duke at his trial, told The News Herald of Panama City that the Duke was waiting in the woods for his wife with a gun, wear a mask and a bulletproof vest. She confronted him and then tried to leave in a vehicle and the Duke blow the tires.

It was not immediately clear if the woman in Crime 1999 was the same woman Duke was referring to the school board meeting.

Bollinger said in the context of the sentence at Duke, he was required to complete counseling. Bollinger did not return a phone message from the AP.

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