As mentioned in the previous post, the latest casualty of "Stand Your Ground," also known by yours truly as the "Empowerment Act for the Removal of Unsavory Negros," is 13-year-old Darius Simmons:
Frightened by the sight of a gun being pointed at him only five feet away from his chest, Darius raised his hand in surrender as Spooner fired one shot into his torso. Scared, wounded and confused, Darius took off running as Spooner aimed and fired another shot, striking Darius in the back.
Simmons had been accused of robbing 75-year-old John Henry Spooner's home, nevermind how the youngster was in school at the time of the alleged robbery. Not that it would have mattered - Spooner was dead-set on making an example out of him anyways.
Meanwhile, there's a unique case involving "Stand Your Ground," this time coming from Boulder, Colorado:
Many questions remain in the matter of Zoey Ripple, the CU grad who was shot after entering the wrong house -- an incident detailed in our original coverage below. But we've got more answers thanks to Boulder Police's release of an arrest affidavit, seen here, which quotes her as saying that after a night spent drinking, she thought she was at a pal's house until a bullet tore into her hip.
According to the affidavit, Timothy Justice and Doreen Orion were asleep in their spectacular College Avenue home -- an abode described in the affidavit as being in a remote section of Boulder accessible by a road on a steep incline. The property is well-fenced and the surrounding area is covered with rocks, trees and bushes, with only the lengthy driveway allowing access to the residence.
Suddenly, the report continues, Orion heard a noise outside the French door of the master bedroom. She initially assumed an animal was causing the ruckus -- at least until she saw a glowing light and watched as an unidentified person entered through a sliding screen door. The couple ordered the person to leave several times, they stressed to officers, before Orion told Justice, "Get the gun," which was conveniently located in a nearby nightstand. He grabbed the weapon, chambered a round and fired toward the light, striking the intruder -- Ripple -- in the hip from a distance of about six feet.
At that point, Justice switched on the bedroom light to see Ripple on the floor at the foot of the bed, incongruously making a cell phone call. An instant later, Orion dialed a phone of her own, punching in the digits "9-1-1."
Unlike Darius Simmons, Zoey Ripple is not an American male of African descent, therefore she wasn't "finished off" by her shooter, nor is the shooting being justified in the media as a "good one." Current media consternation involves whether it's fair for the district attorney to slap her with a trespassing charge after all she went through. Going to the wrong house shitfaced is apparently a tradition among CU students.
Then there's the case of Summer Moody, also not an American male of African descent, who thought it would be a good idea to accompany three of her friends as they trespassed on a private campsite with the intent to rob its occupants. Needless to say, it didn't go well. Unlike Ripple, Moody did not survive.
Before those two cases came up, I figured the best way to put an end to "Stand Your Ground" was to a)have a photogenic young American white woman killed in one of these scenarios, b)have a popular politician meet the same fate somehow or c)have a rash of white Americans killed "in self-defense" by legally-armed black Americans. Considering the response to both cases, I suspect option A has gone out the window.
