The two most pervasive problems in our country, gun violence and racism, were on display in two high-profile cases recently — one here in Kansas City, the other in Florida.
In the local case, which occurred last Sunday afternoon, 57-year-old Leonard Joyner III was gunned down by a 19-year-old punk after Joyner’s Lincoln Town Car accidentally rolled a short distance back down a hill into a car being driven by the punk’s 18-year-old girlfriend.
Joyner and the two people in the other car got out of their vehicles, and Joyner — probably realizing right away that he was dealing with a couple of hotheads — pulled cash out of his pocket and, according to witnesses, appeared to offer it to the two. But the 19-year-old punk, Treyvon D. Shepheard, went to the passenger side of the SUV, returned with a semi-automatic handgun and proceeded to shoot Joyner several times, including after he had fallen to the ground.
Shepheard and his girlfriend, Rafeasia Kirkland, got back in the SUV and drove away.
Larry Joyner
Meanwhile, friends of Joyner’s were waiting for him to return to the apartment complex where they all lived so they could go out to dinner. Instead, the friends heard about the shooting, rushed to the scene and saw their friend lying dead in the street.
The scariest thing about this horrible case is, once again, it could have happened to anyone. Could have been you, could have been me. Could have been my son or daughter. Could have been your son or daughter.
I don’t know how or why Joyner’s car rolled back down the hill on East 51st Street, where it intersects with Swope Parkway. Maybe he had pulled too far forward and put it in reverse to back up a bit. Or maybe he put it in neutral and it just drifted back a bit before he hit the brakes.
At the same time, I have no idea what prompted Shepheard to shoot Joyner. Maybe it was simply that he was a hothead with a gun. Maybe he was trying to impress his girlfriend…and had a gun. The gun, that’s the single constant element here.
Regardless, mishaps like Joyner’s car rolling back happen all the time. What isn’t supposed to happen — and may well not have happened in a civilized, sane society where guns are more strictly controlled — is for the guy whose car got bumped to pull out a gun and kill the driver of the bumper car.
This is the hill on East 51st Street, at Swope Parkway, where Larry Joyner’s car rolled back down the hill into an SUV with an 18-year-old driver and a 19-year-old passenger…Joyner’s Town Car would have been near the spot where the smaller car is.
Now, Shepheard is charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action and tampering with evidence; Kirkland is charged with tampering with evidence; and Joyner is gone forever.
It is hard to comprehend. And yet it happens all the time. Watch out.
The second case happened in the Stand-Your-Ground State…Oh, dammit! I meant the Sunshine State.
Maybe you’ve seen the video. If you haven’t be sure to check it out.
This horrific event occurred July 19 outside a convenience store in Clearwater.
A confrontation occurred between Michael Drejka, a 47-year-old white man, and Markeis McGlockton, a 28-year-old old black man. According to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, Drejka confronted McGlockton’s girlfriend, Britany Jacobs, about parking in a handicap space without a permit.
In the video, Drejka appears to be scolding Jacobs — for a minute or more — about parking in the space without a handicap permit. Suddenly, McGlockton emerges from the store, goes straight up to Drejka and pushes him to the ground — hard. On the ground, Drejka pulls a handgun. McGlockton takes about four steps back before Drejka shoots him once in the chest. McGlockton then stumbles back into the store, where he died.
While this unfolded, the couple’s 4-month-old and 3-year-old children were in the car. Their 5-year-old son was in the store.
…Even with Florida’s “stand-your-ground” law — made famous in the 2012 Trayvon Martin case — Drejka’s reckless, impulsive action was completely unwarranted. Was McGlockton wrong to shove Drejka to the ground? Of course. But the stand-your-ground law clearly says a person using deadly force in self-defense must “reasonably” believe deadly force is necessary. In this case, deadly force was not at all necessary, not with McGlockton having backed away and no longer posing a threat to Drejka.
And yet, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, who is white, refused to arrest Drejka, saying “he had to shoot to defend himself.” Gualtieri went on to suggest his office could be sued just for arresting the shooter.
Gualtieri
His position is so indefensible, however, that even the NRA said he misconstrued the law. Politico quoted Marion Hammer, Tallahassee’s NRA lobbyist, who helped shepherd “stand your ground” through the Florida Legislature, as saying…
“Nothing in either the 2005 law or the 2017 law prohibits a Sheriff from making an arrest in a case where a person claims self-defense if there is probable cause that the use of force was unlawful…Nothing in the law says a person can sue the Sheriff for making an arrest when there is probable cause.”
Fortunately, the state attorney in Pinellas County will have the final say on whether Drejka should be prosecuted. (That doesn’t mean justice will be served, of course, and my guess is it will go the way of the Trayvon Martin case.)
A facet of this case that strongly suggests Gualtieri’s assessment of the facts has racial overtones is the fact that during a press conference in which he explained his decision, the sheriff made no mention of the fact that McGlockton was backing away when Drejka shot him.
That, plus similar events that have taken place in Florida, makes me think that if McGlockton had been white, Gualtieri would have arrested him. I also think that if both shooter and victim had been black, Gualtieri would have arrested the shooter. But white on black? No way. This is Florida, where it seems to be OK for white people to use deadly force against black people for little or no reason.
And more broadly, like the Kansas City case, Drejka’s action would not have happened in a sane and civilized society where guns were more strictly controlled.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Actually, it is not the case that strictly controlling guns helps. Indeed, the data show just the opposite, which is why gun laws have become less, not more, restrictive. Gun violence has actually been decreasing as more honest citizens have been allowed to carry firearms.
The case in Florida is not a critique of stand your ground given that the victim was retreating. It is a critique of a moron with a badge. Whether race entered into his decision is conjecture. Florida has had several controversial decisions regarding stand your ground in what appears to be an attempt by law enforcement to portray stand your ground in a negative light. (Oh, and the defense in the Trayvon Martin case was not predicated on stand your ground. They explicitly waived that defense and used a straight self defense argument, which prevailed.)
Kansas has perhaps the least restrictive gun laws in the country and in SE Kansas a white man who shot a black home invader who had robbed his neighbor’s home was sentenced to jail for a year because the admitted thief was fleeing. Kansas has both stand your ground and Castle Doctrine and the shooter was not spared the full wrath of the law.
Currently, Kansas City is even more dangerous than Chicago on a per capita basis and the worst gun violence in the country occurs in those areas with the strictest gun control laws. Crooks need to be uncertain about the ability of honest citizens to defend themselves and the data clearly show that that uncertainty, not gun control helps reduce crime.
In viewing the videos of the recent rally in Tampa for Trump, justice in the Clearwater (across the bay from Tampa) killing won’t be served.
I just read an NYT story about Tuesday night’s rally, Bruce…I see what you mean. Trump’s continual pot-stirring of his constituency about “fake news” is putting journalists in harm’s way. I hate to think what could happen…
Stand your ground also states that the aggressor is culpable. Drejka started it; he should be arrested.
What happened to the good old days when guys just duked it out?
Just this afternoon, a woman was killed during what police called “a large argument” outside her home in the 5000 block of Chestnut Avenue. It was unclear if she was involved in the altercation.
KCPD Officer Jake Becchina was quoted by reporters at the scene as saying,
“People argue all the time. It doesn’t have to erupt into gunfire.”
Kansas City is more dangerous than Chicago and it seems to be more of an inner city cultural thing than a firearms or gun control issue. I blame Sly for not using his authority to address the issue. His cowardice in not confronting the violence at its root is disgraceful and the blood of many children is on his hands.