Black Children Slaughtered: Mistrial in the Murder of Jordan Davis

By Carl Dix

The case of Michael Dunn, the white man who murdered 17-year-old Jordan Davis after arguing with him over the loud music Davis and his friends were playing in a gas station parking lot, shows once more why we need to make revolution to get rid of the capitalist system that has subjected Black people to brutal oppression since the first Africans were dragged to these shores in slave chains. Sixty years ago it was Emmett Till. Two years ago it was Trayvon Martin. Now it’s Jordan Davis, another Black youth murdered by a white man out to put Black people “back in their places.”

While the jury convicted Dunn of secondary counts, THEY DID NOT REACH A DECISION ON THE MURDER OF JORDAN DAVIS!!! ONCE AGAIN THE MESSAGE IS CLEAR: BLACK YOUTH-ALL BLACK YOUTH-HAVE TARGETS ON THEIR BACK. Dunn’s defense came down to saying any white person has the right to kill any Black person he or she feels is a threat to them. And the jury did not contradict that!

By not convicting Dunn for the murder of Jordan Davis, Amerikkka is declaring, once again, that Black people have no rights that white people are bound to respect. How long are we going to put up with Black people being gunned down, or lynched, by racists and by the police? Nothing short of revolution is needed to uproot the white supremacist capitalist system that is responsible for these racist murders. And as part of getting to the point when it’s time to make revolution, we have to powerfully come together against these outrageous injustices…These murders have been going down too damned long. They must be stopped, once and for all.

Let’s look at what really happened. After picking a fight with the youth over their music, Dunn fired 10 shots at their vehicle while the youth sat in their car, killing Jordan Davis. Dunn even continued firing after the youth were driving away from the gas station, fleeing for their lives! The youth called the police right away, but Dunn drove back to his motel with his fiancé, took his dog out to “go potty” and ordered pizza for dinner. He got in the car the next day and drove almost 200 miles to go back home.

Again, everybody-Black people, white people, people of all races and backgrounds, everybody who has an ounce of justice in their hearts-needs to take to the streets in outrage over the failure to render justice for the murder of Jordan Davis. Our cry must be JUSTICE FOR JORDAN DAVIS! And this cry must be continued into the Day of Outrage and Remembrance for Trayvon Martin on February 26. And carried on till we end these outrageous murders, the white supremacy out of which they spring and the whole goddamned capitalist system that is responsible for this and many other horrors inflicted on the people.

Color of Change “Black Lives Matter” petition on Stand Your Ground and Jordan Davis.

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Black Children Slaughtered: Mistrial in the Murder of Jordan Davis
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13 thoughts on “Black Children Slaughtered: Mistrial in the Murder of Jordan Davis

  1. 3

    The problem here is that he was charged with first degree murder (premeditated murder). The evidence isn’t there to convict on that. This seems more like second degree murder since he shot in a fit of rage. He was convicted for attempted second degree murder by shooting at the other three in the car. It’s impossible to know for sure of course, but it is likely that the jury couldn’t decide which one of these they would convict him for.

    He wasn’t acquitted on the murder charge, the mistrial simply means there will be a new trial where he almost certainly will be convicted for second degree murder.

  2. 4

    You left out an important part of the narrative. After arguing with Jordan over his music, he turned his back on the truck he where he believed Jordan was pointing a gun at him, walked back to his truck, reached into his glove compartment to get the gun he was legally licensed to carry, and began shooting at the SUV…continuing as the SUV attempted to flee the gunfire. What does it tell society when you are convicted for NOT killing someone. Had all those kids been dead, he likely would have walked free under the insane stand your ground laws. Remember Marissa was convicted because warning shots are not allowed. Had she killed her ex-husband, she would not have stood trial. The take home message here, is that you’d better damned well kill whoever you are shooting at.

  3. 5

    Given that he was convicted of multiple counts and is looking at spending his life in prison even without the murder count, and given that it is unclear but likely the jury just couldn’t agree on what form of murder to convict him of, this seems awfully thin.

    Further, this focus on the “Stand Your Ground” laws seems misguided. The biggest injustice is the mandatory sentences, which take borderline cases and harshly punish offenders. We know people are more likely to be convicted if black; the mandatory sentences cause huge disparities in what actually happens to them. Stand Your Grounds laws don’t.

  4. 7

    If Michael Dunn doesn’t go to jail, then no one deserves to be in jail. Why did he have to get into Jordan’s
    business. He could have driven away. I dare anyone to debate me on this.

  5. 8

    If Michael Dunn doesn’t deserve to be in jail then no one deserves to be in jail. Teenagers have always been
    known to play loud music. I’m listening to my 19 year old son’s music blaring now and I don’t like it. I think
    I’ll go to a quieter place. Michael Dunn should have driven away. He is a fool. I DARE anyone to debate me
    on this. I am an old white woman.

  6. 9

    It is true that they shouldn’t have gone for 1st degree. But damn it, playing your music loud and telling a man to go fuck himself is not worthy of the death penalty. This case makes me almost crazy with rage. And it terrifies me.

    It enrages on a general, social level. I hate that this is a country where this sort of thing can still happen. I still remember–in early 60s South Carolina–a neighbor being appalled that my mother didn’t keep a separate plate and glass to give lunch to the woman she hired to help with housework and do the ironing. I think I was about 10. I was shamed by that nasty old (to me) woman. Yes, things are, mostly, better than that now, but not goddamned good enough. Not even close. Not if a jury has any problem saying “Dunn murdered that kid”.

    It terrifies me because my eldest grandson is black. He’s 13. I’ve known since I was a teen that you parents and grandparents of color have had to fear this all your lives. I knew that intellectually, and I have enough basic empathy to have often felt absolutely sick about it. But now I have to live with that fear as a visceral, personal pain, far above the normal fear that loving anyone leaves you with.

    I don’t know how you do it. Face it every day. I guess you have no choice, just as I don’t anymore.

    I’m not asking for sympathy here. I have it easy and I damned well know it. I just need to say something about it that isn’t a scream of rage.

  7. 10

    Schlumbumbi, your comment speaks to exactly how much you, and so many others, don’t get it.

    Pointing out the existence of a racist culture is NOT THE SAME as being racist. Please learn how to distinguish between the two. Calling the US “Amerikkka” is a little hyperbolic, but it isn’t entirely inaccurate. The author is employing wordplay to make a point. That isn’t a racist sentiment, despite what you think.

    I often comment on racist imagery on the FB walls of friends or family, making my argument about what is racist about a graphic. Almost immediately someone will accuse me of “playing the race card”, whatever the hell that means. Then they call me a racist, for pointing out racism.

    Of course, everyone, including myself, is racist to some degree or another. I’m also a sexist and an ageist. It’s a matter of self-awareness and challenging the scripting we’ve been handed by family, community, and society. Your scripting tells you that black people are racists and no better than white racists. Challenge that.

  8. 12

    It is true that they shouldn’t have gone for 1st degree. But damn it, playing your music loud and telling a man to go fuck himself is not worthy of the death penalty. This case makes me almost crazy with rage. And it terrifies me.

    Indeed. I have to remind myself that it’s easy for me to sit here as a white middle-class heterosexual cis male, and split hairs over first-degree murder vs. second-degree murder. And, to a certain extent, there is truth in that kind of dispassionate analysis. The jury may have convicted if the prosecution had gone for 2nd degree; it may have been a more appropriate charge; etc…. but none of that mitigates the horror and anger of justice miscarried. That it’s so easy (and tempting) for me to act like the latter doesn’t exist, that’s privilege at work right there. :/

    1. 12.1

      James, they could have convicted him on second degree murder, that option was on the table. The jurors who hung the decision didn’t want to convict him at all for killing Jordan Davis. Period.

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