When Zimmerman shot and killed Travon Martin the law assumed that it was self defense and that the Stand Your Ground law would apply.
When an abused woman, Marissa Alexander, was threatened by her violent husband 10 days after she had a baby, she didn't shoot her husband, she shot the ceiling as a warning. She had a permit for the gun and the husband had a record of violence. This should have been a prime example of Stand Your Ground, except that no one was hurt so no one should have been charged anyway. The woman should have been given an award for her restraint.
But the judge denied Stand Your Ground in this case. What is horribly incredible is that the woman was ripped from her children and sentenced to 20 years prison.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/05/fl...Meanwhile in the Travon Martin Case someone made thousands of targets of a silhouette that looked like Travon complete with the hoody, skittles and ice tea. They sold out in no time. Apparently there are a lot of folk down South that think Zimmerman was right to stalk and murder innocent black kids.
In our country there is a history of blaming the victim, especially if they are black. When Travon was murdered, they tested his body for drugs and alcohol but they didn't test the murderer's.
80% - 90% of women in prison are the victims of sexual and/or physical abuse yet very few have had the opportunity to have any counseling or treatment for that abuse. As a result they sometimes self medicated and that is what sent most to prison. It wasn't violence. While only 3% of men loose custody of their children 11% of the women loose custody of their children, despite the fact that the men are often convicted of violence and the women rarely are.
Why is this? In the Conservative world view it is the men who are supposed to be the bosses and the women are supposed to be subservient. The legal system still treats women as the property of men, so if they are raped or beaten, the victims are often treated worse than the criminals. (They deserved it for dressing provocatively)
http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/resear...The Pentagon announced that our women warriors have suffered a 64% increase in sexual assaults and a Fox News commentator says what did they expect?
http://mediamatters.org/blog/20120214000...The Republicans are refusing to fund the Violence Against Women Act. (Do they actually think it is OK to beat women?)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/10... The Republican war on Women isn't restricted to reproductive rights it is turning into an actual physical war.