ThinkProgress: On Wednesday, a South Carolina judge granted immunity from prosecution to a man who shot and killed an innocent bystander during a botched confrontation with a group of teenagers. The judge relied on the state’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law.As far as I’m concerned, that sign should constitute premeditation; Scott is one of the many sick fucks in America who fantasize about using a gun to kill someone. Just another coward with a hero complex and a gun.
Seventeen-year-old Darrell Niles was in his car, minding his own business back in 2010 when 33-year-old Shannon Anthony Scott shot and killed him.
Earlier that day, a group of girls had followed and threatened Scott’s 15-year-old daughter. They later drove past Scott’s house in an SUV. But when Scott walked out of his house with a handgun to confront the “women thugs,” as he described them, he instead fired straight into the 1992 Honda of Darrell Niles, who was unarmed. Niles was killed instantly.
Some questions remain in the case: The group of girls may have fired shots first, but testimony is conflicted on if shots were fired at Scott himself, or at all. There is also some indication that Scott was primed to shoot his gun at someone: Even prior to the shooting, he had a sign in his window that read, “Fight Crime – Shoot First,” according to a 5th Circuit Assistant Solicitor.
Stand Your Ground laws are bass-ackward idiocy that protect the exact wrong people. Without them, trigger-happy nuts would rot in prison, where they belong. They don’t need to be protected from prosecution, we need to be protected from them. Even if he’d shot the person he’d assumed he was shooting, it should be murder — a sane society does not put teenagers to death for bullying.
Stand Your Ground is a license to murder. All you have to do is say you were afraid and you can kill whoever the hell you want.
