Senate panel votes down self-defense bill (LA)

theadvocate.com ^ | 25 April, 2012 | MICHELLE MILLHOLLON

[marktwain]

Legislation inspired by Florida’s Trayvon Martin case failed in a Senate committee Tuesday amid concerns that it would cloud state law.

Senate Bill 719 by state Sen. Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb, D-Baton Rouge, would have rewritten Louisiana’s justifiable homicide law. Under the change, the law would not apply when the person committing the homicide is the aggressor.

“What I don’t want to happen in this state is that we have permission to murder,” Dorsey-Colomb told the state Senate Committee on Judiciary C.

Critics of the change complained that the measure would lead to confusion and possibly result in people provoking aggressive behavior in order to have an excuse to kill.

“I’m just afraid if we do this, and you’re the aggressor, you’re fair game,” said state Sen. Bodi White, R-Central.

The bill overwhelmingly failed with only Dorsey-Colomb voting in favor of advancing it to the Senate floor.

Another instrument still is alive in the House to address the uproar over the case of neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, fatally shooting an unarmed teenager in Florida. The victim, Trayvon Martin, was on an errand to the store when he was shot.

At issue in the Florida case is whether the volunteer can claim self-defense under the state’s “stand your ground” law, which does not require someone to retreat during a confrontation. Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in Martin’s death.

In Louisiana, a homicide is considered to be justifiable when someone believes he is in “imminent danger of losing his life.” Intruders can be shot inside a home, business or a car, regardless of whether there is a threat.

State Rep. Roy Burrell, D-Shreveport, filed House Bill 1100 to no longer allow a person to pursue an aggressor “if the aggressor retreats before deadly force is used.”

[marktwain]

A very deceptive headline. This was an anti-self defense bill.

[TLI]

Senate Bill 719 by state Sen. Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb, D-Baton Rouge, would have rewritten Louisiana’s justifiable homicide law. Under the change, the law would not apply when the person committing the homicide is the aggressor.

Stupid to-the-bone.

Shug, that IS the POINT. If you are attacking someone you can be shot.

DEAD.

What you are proposing is EXACTLY what the "black community" is doing to GZ.

Trial by public protest. Screech and throw a fit till the victim is put on trial, then have long drawn out litigation on "who was the real aggressor."

In the instance of GZ, the twisted logic of "demands for justice" attempt to create the illusion that GZ became the aggressor because he got out of a car as a volunteer on Neighborhood Watch in an area overrun with burglars.

Not gonna fly and the "black community" can throw all the fits and temper tantrums they like.

Look out Mrzzzzz Dorsey-Colomb, here comes a "big" word.

D-E-T-E-R-R-E-N-T

.D-E-T-E-R-R-E-N-T