To: Wayne County Prosecutor's Office

Wayne Co. Prosecutors Office: Treat Renisha McBride's death as a crime

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"I'm scared of Black people" shouldn't be a valid legal defense. Bring charges against Renisha McBride's killer.

Why is this important?

Renisha McBride got into a car accident at early last Saturday morning, in Dearborn Heights, MI. Since her cell phone battery had died, she knocked on a door to ask for help. She was shot in the face. Neighbors reported the shooting to the police, and the homeowner is saying that he felt threatened and that his gun went off by accident. [1]

I guess the gun was accidentally pointed at her head, too?

Her killer was arrested and released, while horrifyingly, the prosecutor is still deciding whether or not to press charges.

Perhaps the prosecutors are trying to figure out if they can successfully bring a case since Michigan has a 'stand your ground' law, and the killer is claiming that he felt threatened because he thought she was breaking into his house. 'Stand your ground' is a law developed in 2005 by a National Rifle Association lobbyist [2] who decided that feeling threatened is enough reason to use deadly force.

Considering how many millions of paranoid, white gun owners there are in the United States, these laws have been a recipe for disaster. 'Stand your ground' has inflamed gun culture fantasies about a coming 'race war,' emboldening a wave of crimes where white perpetrators saw a Black person taking out the trash, coming home from the store, resting by a river bank with their family, or approaching the police for help after being injured, and shot to kill. Treating yet another incident like this as anything but a crime is a public safety menace.

It's for the prosecutor to decide what charges to bring. But either their office thinks it's some kind of crime to shoot a woman in the head or that it is, in practice, reasonable to assume that being startled by the presence of a Black person is a justifiable cause of mortal terror.

Tell the prosecutor: keep American families safe from the scourge of racist vigilantes by treating Renisha McBride's death as a crime.

[1] - "Renisha McBride's family asks for peace as they mourn her death" by Bill Laitner and Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press, November 7, 2013.
http://www.freep.com/article/20131107/NEWS05/311070119/Renisha-McBride-shot-in-face-not-back-of-head-Dearborn-Heights

[2] - "Obama Uses a Teaching Moment to Challenge "Stand Your Ground' Laws," by John Nichols, The Nation, July 20, 2013.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/175367/obama-uses-teaching-moment-challenge-stand-your-ground-laws