Tag Archive for "stand your ground"

Posts Tagged stand your ground

Whose Gun Rights? Black Woman Incarcerated for Self-Defense

Last month Detroit-based environmental justice activist Siwatu-Salama Ra was sentenced to two years in prison for brandishing an unloaded gun in an effort to protect her two year-old daughter and mother from an aggressor. Ra’s “felonious assault” conviction is a blatant contradiction of Michigan’s stand-your-ground laws – yet we haven’t heard anything from NRA supporters, proving once more that the gun rights movement is only concerned with protecting the “freedom” of white men.

By Courtney Baxter • 10 years ago

Weekly Feminist Reader

New campaign works to humanize horrifying reproductive rights statistics.

On Tuesday, activists will gather before the Supreme Court as it takes up two challenges to the contraception coverage mandate and decides whether your birth control is your boss’s business. Tomorrow, join us and repro health advocates for a digital Google Hangout rally!

“Birth control is for people who don’t necessarily want to act responsibly.” – Another male government official.

On historically black churches and LGBT allyship.

“Police abuse is part of the life of prostitution.”

New campaign works to humanize horrifying reproductive rights statistics.

On Tuesday, activists will gather before the Supreme Court as it takes up two challenges to the contraception coverage mandate and decides whether your birth control ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 10 years ago

Marissa Alexander now could face 60 years in prison for defending herself

The state of Florida seems determined to punish Marissa Alexander for defending herself.

You may recall that in the fall, the black mother who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot into a wall to scare off her abusive husband, was granted a retrial. She was released, after three years in jail, in time to spend Thanksgiving with her family, but then the Florida State Attorney Angela Corey moved to revoke her bond.

Now Corey–who has the power to reduce the charges or drop the case entirely–says they’ll try to triple Alexander’s original prison sentence from 20 to 60 years if she loses the retrial in July.

The state of Florida seems determined to punish Marissa Alexander for defending herself.

You may recall that in the fall, the black mother who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a ...

By Katie Halper • 11 years ago

Daily Feminist Cheat Sheet

By Katie and Veronica

I mean, we already knew this, but it’s official: Transgender Equality Movement Will “Dismantle” Civilization, according to an op-ed in the Washington Times.

Why Marissa Alexander‘s supporters are petitioning for release and not a new trial.

Pakistani Taliban say Malala has done ‘nothing’ to earn human rights prize. I’m pretty sure that’s the best endorsement you can get for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Yesterday California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill allowing Nurse Practitioners, Certified Nurse Midwives, and Physician Assistants to perform first-trimester abortions, becoming the only state this year to pass legislation expanding abortion access.

A woman is forced to give birth alone without any medical help on the lawn of the Mexican health center ...

By Katie and Veronica

I mean, we already knew this, but it’s official: Transgender Equality Movement Will “Dismantle” Civilization, according to an op-ed in the Washington Times.

Why Marissa Alexander‘s supporters are petitioning for release and ...

By zerlina • 11 years ago

Chilling new ‘Stand Your Ground’ PSA reenacts the night Trayvon was killed

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has a new ad opposing so-called ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws that exist in 26 states. The ad reenacts the night that Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman. But for Zimmerman’s actions, Trayvon would be alive and laws like ‘Stand Your Ground’ give people the right to shoot and kill someone with very few consequences by just asserting that they acted in self-defense. Zimmerman didn’t use ‘Stand Your Ground’ in his defense at trial, but the law is the reason that Zimmerman was allowed to go home the night Trayvon was killed.

Watch the chilling ad below (transcript to come).

By zerlina • 11 years ago

#DreamDefenders force Florida lawmakers to hold hearings about ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws

In response to the verdict in the George Zimmerman case, the Dream Defenders camped out in the Florida capitol in the hopes to force Governor Rick Scott and Florida lawmakers to hold a special session to review and repeal “stand your ground” laws. Late last week, they achieved “a critical first step” as lawmakers now agreed to hold hearings to review the ALEC sponsored law.

Via The Miami Herald:

Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford announced Friday that he will order hearings this fall on the state’s “stand your ground” law, a victory for the young protesters known as the Dream Defenders who have spent the past two weeks protesting at the Capitol.

“It’s a critical fir

st step,” said Phillip ...

By Katie Halper • 11 years ago

8 things you can do NOW for this domestic violence survivor in jail for shooting a wall to scare off her abuser

If there is any good that can come out of the tragedy of Trayvon Martin’s death and the miscarriage of justice in George Zimmerman’s acquittal, it’s the raised awareness about other injustices. On Friday, speaking at the National Urban League convention in Philadelphia Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, said: “My message to you is: Please use my story, please use my tragedy, please use my broken heart to say to yourself, we cannot let this happen to anybody else’s child.” Fulton was urging people to organize against racial profiling and gun laws and Stand Your Ground, a law that exists in over 20 states, that gives people the right to use deadly force with no duty to retreat. ...