Since the death of Trayvon Martin, there have been a lot of people who seem to pontificate on what "stand your ground" actually means. They've claimed it means that if you say you're afraid, you can get away with murder. I'm not making that up, either, because I bet you remember those articles.
And Slate, while talking about trans people and "stand your ground," seems to have fallen into that trap.
See, it's a popular framing mechanism to use an anecdote to set the stage. We've seen in a thousand times, and Slate writers really love it. Then again, when you're on the internet and have essentially infinite space, you can do that. Hell, I do it sometimes, so I'm not judging here.
The problem is that all too often, the anecdote doesn't really mean what they think it means. Such as this time.
Last September, Ríhanna Kelver was standing outside the Crowbar & Grill in Laramie, Wyoming, preparing to start her bartending shift, when she noticed a group of men across the street. One of them was shouting in her direction, and Kelver heard several homophobic and transphobic slurs as he began approaching her. Moments later, according to court testimony and surveillance footage, the man shoved Kelver to the ground hard enough to injure her tailbone.
Kelver responded by drawing a pistol from her bag, chambering a round, and pointing the weapon at the man who had pushed her. She kept the safety on and never fired. The man and his companions retreated.
Today, Kelver, a 28-year-old trans woman, faces two felony charges—aggravated assault and possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent—which could carry up to 15 years in prison. The man who shoved Kelver and who allegedly initiated the confrontation, known only as “S. Durham,” has not been charged.
According to Wyoming Statute Section 6-2-602, people who are lawfully present do not have to try to retreat before using force to protect themselves from imminent death or serious bodily harm. This “Stand Your Ground” law echoes statutes in 29 other states: They remove the duty to retreat, allowing a person to use defensive force as long as they are not the initial aggressor. Kelver’s attorney argues that she acted squarely within state law. The aggravated assault statute under which she was charged exempts situations in which displaying a firearm is “reasonably necessary” for self-defense. Video evidence confirms that Kelver was alone, outnumbered, physically assaulted, and left on the ground facing multiple aggressors.
But Albany County Circuit Court Judge Robert Sanford, who presided over Kelver’s pretrial hearing, agreed with the prosecutor that there was probable cause that Kelver committed the crimes with which she was charged. Kelver must now argue her case in court, risking up to 15 years in prison if she cannot convince a jury that she was acting reasonably in self-defense. Cases like Kelver’s expose key contradictions at the heart of our cherished rhetoric of armed self-defense. The legal right to defend oneself has always proved far more fragile when exercised by the very people who most need protection.
Now, let me state that if the story is factual, Mr. Durham should have been charged with assault. That's a crime, and he shouldn't skate on that.
However, being pushed to the ground, even if it causes a tailbone injury, isn't a threat to life and limb. It's an assault, and if Kelver and gotten up and beaten the crap out of Mr. Durham, I'd say that Kelver should walk. That's not what happened, and that's important.
Especially when you consider that the entire point here is that supposedly, trans people aren't protected by Stand Your Ground laws.
This incident is very similar to another case I remember. In 2018, a man in Clearwater, Florida, named Michael Drejka got into an altercation with another man, Marquis McGlockton. McGlockton had apparently parked in a handicapped space. Drejka confronted him, and McGlockton pushed Drejka to the ground. Drejka drew his firearm and fired, killing McGlockton.
Pretty similar to Kelver's case, right? Yep. And with Drejka being a white, apparently straight, "cisgendered" man, he should have gotten better treatment from the authorities in Florida than what Kelver is facing, right?
Well, he didn't. He was convicted of manslaughter, and it was the right call.
Stand Your Ground laws hinge on something called the "reasonable person standard." In essence, it's whether a reasonable person would look at the situation and agree that there was a threat to someone's life. In Drejka's case, there wasn't. I watched the video of what happened. McGlockton shoved Drejka to the ground, but that was it.
Physical altercations aren't all created equally. George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin because Martin was bashing Zimmerman's head into the concrete sidewalk, an attack with a high probability that it could have killed Zimmerman. Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted because one of his targets tried to grab Rittenhouse's rifle--a threat to his life--while another hit him with a skateboard, which is a potentially lethal weapon, and the one Rittenhouse wounded had pointed his handgun at the kid.
These are clear cases of someone's life being in danger.
From what Slate is reporting, and how they started this piece, it's clear they think just being "attacked" is enough, which it's not.
You can't spend years telling people that Stand Your Ground laws are legalized murder without expecting some people to believe it, but I honestly thought the leftist media knew better and was just lying. It turns out that they probably are stupid enough to believe their own words.
