Jennifer Carroll: Can Florida's lieutenant gov lead fight to reform 'Stand Your Ground'?
OPINION - Is Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll the right person to lead a task force that will review Florida's Stand Your Ground Law?,,,
Is Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll the right person to lead a task force that will review Florida’s “Stand Your Ground Law”?
Carroll is a lifetime member of the NRA, which wrote the law that gave George Zimmerman a six-week stay out of jail free card after he killed unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, and she voted for the measure as a member of the Florida legislature in 2005. She also voted in favor of Florida’s 2008 Take Your Guns to Work law, another measure proposed by the NRA, and she co-sponsored a law that prohibits the state from keeping a registry of gun owners.
The task force is supposed to make recommendations as to whether Stand Your Ground should be revised, repealed or remain the same. No doubt, the NRA will push for the latter.
theGrio: Florida governor announces ‘Stand Your Ground’ task force
Gov. Rick Scott called for the task force after nationwide protests demanding justice for Trayvon put a spotlight on the law that gives killers who claim self-defense immunity from arrest or prosecution. Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain, thought the hoodie-wearing 17-year-old looked suspicious as he walked home in a gated Sanford, FL community and followed him. He claims that he lost Trayvon, after which the youngster attacked him, putting him in fear for his life.
The Rev. R.B. Holmes, task force vice chairman, said the first meeting is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 11, in the governor’s office. That’s more information than Carroll, task force chair, has been willing to provide.
Though several of Florida’s black elected officials have been vocal with their opinions on Trayvon’s slaying, the state’s first African-American lieutenant governor has remained virtually silent about the case that has ignited allegations of racial profiling by Zimmerman and racism by the Sanford police department, and sparked criticism of Stand Your Ground.
Both Carroll’s office and Scott’s press office have failed to respond to repeated requests for comment from Carroll on her vision for the task force.
Scott made a point of noting Carroll’s blackness when he told CNN’s Candy Crowley that he had named his second in command to lead the review of Stand Your Ground.
One might assume this case to be the perfect platform for Carroll, the mother of a daughter and two sons, one of whom is only slightly older than Trayvon.
She is a lifetime member of the NAACP. Though she criticizes the organization as one that protects left wing interests and responds to issues in knee jerk fashion based on emotion, she says conservatives should join because it “started out [with] and should have the intent of making sure that black Americans have their justice that is needed.”
She hasn’t said whether she believes justice was initially denied for Trayvon when Sanford police cited Stand Your Ground as the reason for not arresting Zimmerman and forcing him to take his self-defense claim before a judge. An independent investigation resulted in him being charged last week with second degree murder.
Carroll has said that when she agreed to be Scott’s running mate, it was under the condition that she would play more than the perfunctory role of her predecessors. “I told him,” she said to a Republican legal society, ‘I’m not gonna be a hump on the log.’”
Yet her schedule is filled with hours on end of “staff and call time,” photo ops, groundbreakings and speaking engagements.
Carroll has said that the governor lets her do what she wants to do. If that’s true, she doesn’t want to do — or say — very much. At least about Trayvon, Stand Your Ground, or the task force.
That’s disappointing, given her history as a trailblazer who says she achieved despite sexism and racism. Carroll was born in Trinidad, came to the United States as a child, joined the U.S. Navy, became a jet mechanic, retired as a lieutenant commander after 20 years and became the first African-American female Republican elected to the Florida legislature.
Is Gov. Scott putting a muzzle on her? Or are the questions that may arise about her potential conflict keeping Carroll mum?
If ever there were a time for Carroll not to be a “hump on a log” it’s now.
As chair of the task force, her thoughts on Trayvon’s shooting and on Stand Your Ground matter.
Typically outspoken, Carroll delivers passionate speeches on national issues to Republican clubs, conservative organizations and at tea party rallies.
Her constituents, though, are every Floridian. Why the silence on a Florida issue that has the attention of the nation?
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