I’m pretty sure Florida will survive if Englewood, NJ boycotts them.
ENGLEWOOD – Gerald Marion has spent his career fighting fires, not racial injustice.
The lifelong Englewood resident rose through the ranks and became the city’s second black fire chief, earning a reputation as a calm, steadfast advocate for his department who stayed out of the political fray.
But Marion reached a breaking point on Saturday, when a Florida jury acquitted George Zimmerman in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, during a confrontation in a gated community.
The chief entered the racially charged controversy surrounding the verdict this week, when he asked the City Council to boycott businesses in Florida and other states with “stand-your-ground” laws, which eliminate the legal requirement to retreat before people can defend themselves — with deadly force if necessary — if they believe someone is trying to kill or seriously harm them.
“I’ve never been an activist,” the 46-year-old said. “I’m fed up. It should not be a law that you get to murder because you’re uncomfortable.”
Marion, a firefighter for 24 years, said stand-your-ground laws disproportionately affect blacks, especially when law enforcement and others assume black youths have criminal intent while white youths get the benefit of the doubt.
“We read the news every day and you’re always coming across a story … an African-American gets shot because the shooter was threatened by their presence or the shooter was reacting to a stereotype,” he said. “It could be me. It could be my son. It could be my nephew.”
Marion may be the first public official in Bergen County, if not New Jersey, to ask a local government to shun Florida businesses in the wake of the verdict. But he is far from alone in calling for a boycott of the Sunshine State to pressure Florida business leaders, particularly in the influential tourism industry, to lean on state lawmakers to repeal the controversial self-defense law.
Someone needs to tell this moronic fire chief Stand Your Ground laws benefit blacks more than whites.