Page 20 - Florida Sentinel 8-3-18

National News
Al Sharpton Announces Rally In Clearwater Florida To Protest ‘Stand Your Ground’ Killing Of Markeis McGlockton
On Sunday, the Rev. Al Sharpton announced that he plans to line the streets with demonstrators in Clear- water, Florida on August 5 to protest the shooting death of Markeis McGlockton.
Sharpton tweeted: “I will be protesting the death of#MarkeisMcGlockton next week with the National Ac- tion Network, here is the in- formation if you would like to join us.#PoliticsNation”
The “Rally for Markeis McGlockton” will take place at St. John Primitive Baptist Church.
Thursday, July 19, an ar- gument over a handicapped parking spot ended in 28- year-old Markeis Mc- Glockton being shot and killed in front of his 5-year- old son in Clearwater, Florida.
In video footage, Michael Drejka appears to be con- fronting McGlockton’s girl- friend over a parking space. When McGlockton emerg- es from the store he pushes Drejka away from his wife. Drejka fell to the ground and shot McGlock-
Markeis McGlockton and his girlfriend, Britany Jacobs with their children.
the case to the State Attor- ney’s Office for a final deci- sion, Gualtieri said.
The altercation began when Drejka, who accord- ing to store regulars had a history of antagonizing and threatening patrons over handicapped spaces, con- fronted McGlockton’s girl- friend, Britany Jacobs, about parking in a handicap space without a permit.
Jacobs, who had been with McGlockton since they were in high school and is the mother of his three children, fought back tears talking about the killing and says that the shooter insti- gated the incident by coming up to her car.
She says McGlockton was the one defending her.
“He’s getting out like he’s a police officer or something, and he’s approaching me,” she said to the Tampa Bay
Times. “I minded my own business. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
In 2012 a driver accused Drejka of pulling a gun dur- ing a road rage incident. Drejka denied he showed the gun, and the accuser de- clined to press charges.
A couple of months ago, Rick Kelly says he stopped by the store, parking his tanker truck in the same handicap spot. Much like what happened on Thursday, Drejka walks around the truck checking for decals, then confronts Kelly about why he parked there.
Kelly says a fight esca- lated and Drejka threatened to shoot him.
“It’s a repeat,” Kelly told the Tampa Bay Times. “It happened to me the first time. The second time it’s happening, someone’s life got taken. He provoked that.”
ton in the side as he tried to walk away.
Drejka is reportedly using the “Stand Your Ground” law, the notorious Florida law that has al- lowed George Zimmer- man to get away with the murder of Trayvon Martin.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri announced that Friday that they will not arrest Drejka.
Gualteri said that the senseless killing falls under Florida’s “stand your ground” law which gives im-
munity to those who claim to be in fear of their lives and use force to defend them- selves.
“The shooting is within the bookends of ‘stand your ground’ and within the book- ends of force being justified,” Gualteri said, later adding, “I’m not saying I agree with it, but I don’t make that call.” The department will forward
Black Murder Victims Are Least Likely to Have
Their Killers Arrested
Killers of Black people are less likely to be arrested than those who kill White peo- ple, according to a recent re- port by The Washington Post on Wednesday.
The Post looked at homi- cide arrest data from the na- tion’s 52 biggest cities where the victim’s race was identi- fied and found that out of al- most 26,000 cases in the last ten years, over 18,600 vic- tims were Black.
Despite a higher rate of death at the hands of an- other person, only 47 per- cent of those crimes led to an arrest, per the report. When the victim was White, 63 percent of arrests were made.
Police officers from differ- ent cities across the country told The Post that they work hard to solve the murders of Black victims, but they get resistance from witnesses, which hinders the case.
“We don’t care what color
you are,” Boston Police Com- missioner William Evans told the Post. “Sometimes, because a case goes un- solved, people get the per- ception that we forget about their loved ones...We never forget about them.”
According to the study, there were more than 7,300 Black murders with no ar- rests in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia. The figure was much lower in white-majority cities such as Columbus, Ohio, Buffalo, Nashville and Omaha, where 1,026 Black murders went unsolved.
“Black life is seen as not as important,” Rev. William Barber told the Post. “The black community gets cut by both edges of the sword. There’s no big rush to solve a case when it’s consid- ered ‘black on black.’ But if it is a black-on-white killing, then everything is done to make an arrest,” he added.
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