As long as the laws have been on the book, Stand Your Ground is a vague law in which people think they have a license to kill while others are finding themselves at the mercy of an unjust judicial system because of their financial standings.
On Wednesday, April 2, Austin Metcalf, 17, was fatally stabbed by Karmelo Anthony, also 17, at a track meet in Frisco, Texas, a suburb about 30 miles north of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Metcalf was a student at Memorial High School while Anthony is a student at Centennial High School. Both schools are part of the Frisco School District. And it has been reported Metcalf and Anthony had been rivals in track and field.
Reports coming in are sketchy. Metcalf had reportedly been upset that Anthony was under the school’s tent resting up as he was talking to other athletes and told him to leave. Anthony refused and witnesses said he reached into his bag saying “Touch me and see what happens.” After that, Metcalf reported put his hands on Anthony’s person and tried to move him. Anthony pulled out a knife and stabbed Metcalf according to reports.
When police arrived, he told the authorities he had stabbed Metcalf who he was asking about health wise. Anthony has been arrested and charged with murder but the case has caused a debate on what constitute self-defense and what constitutes murder. The Second Amendment advocated have been talking about how someone putting their hands on you is grounds for you to open fire. Anthony had sought shelter under the tent because of rain as did the other athletes including Metcalf.
It’s funny we teach athletes to be cordial and encourage sportsmanship, but people seem to be side-stepping the fact that Metcalf had been the instigator and aggressor if the witnesses are correct. Those who say Anthony should’ve gone and gotten a coach or other faculty/staff are neglecting that so could and should Metcalf if he felt Anthony wasn’t welcome. But it’s more than likely a faculty or staff member might have told Metcalf to be more cordial. There are conflicting reports that Metcalf was bullying Anthony prior to the track meet.
According to his booking report, Anthony is only 5-foot-9 and weighs 130 pounds. Metcalf had been a linebacker for Memorial High. And pictures of him make it appear to look 200 pounds or more. So, we have an issue of a bigger person picking on a smaller person. So, why are more people willing to crucify Anthony?
Well, I hate to play the race card, but we’re going to have to. While Metcalf may not have said anything racial against Anthony, if a 200-pound black linebacker pick on a white 130 pound teenager who fatally stabbed him, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. The case would’ve been easily considered self-defense especially in Texas and Fox News and Newsmax would’ve made every show on how “race wasn’t an issue.”
What’s interesting is that witnesses are saying Anthony gave Metcalf not one but two warnings. If Metcalf felt his life or health was being threatened, he should’ve gone and gotten a school official or even a school resource officer if one was on the premises. He didn’t. He physically assaulted a person. Grabbing someone and trying to physically move them is considered assault. Anthony was standing up for himself by giving Metcalf a choice.
But it seems this is a repeat of the George Zimmerman/Treyvon Martin case where Martin was being followed by Zimmerman worried about his safety, but because Zimmerman had an anglicized name, he is acquitted. Let’s be honest, most BIPOC learn their first taste of racism from public education. As much as I feel educators are undervalued, many actually start the biases and prejudices early. And I don’t care how many fucking times that meme is shared, teachers decades ago cowered to some parents.
It’s all about the money. We have a system that gets its funding through ad valorem tax. So, naturally, you’ll be expecting to kiss the ring of the students whose parents are the bankers, industrialists, bigwigs and so forth. And because of redlining, a lot of students who may live in lower-income family and neighborhoods get screwed over. At my school growing up, they’d put the lower income students in the special education programs just so they wouldn’t affect test scores.
I mean, say what you will about Boomers, but they pretty much had the best time to be in schools. They might have had sadistic people who enjoyed paddling them for sneezing too loud, but all they needed was pens, pencils and loose-leaf notebooks. Now, you have to spend $35 on a backpack they want let you carry around between glasses because you might have a gun inside.
And all those people scoffing saying they used to have their hunting rifles and shotguns in their trucks all the time back in the day are exactly the ones who did these knee-jerk reactions on what students could and couldn’t have while in school. I mean are kids even allowed to have a compass because it might have a sharp point on it. What about pencils and pens? They’re sharp. Anyone who’s seen Casino, Grosse Point Plank or Saw V knows a pen can be used to stab someone in the neck.
Technically, anything can be used as a weapon. You can beat someone over the head with your math book. How come no one is asking why did Anthony feel so afraid that he had to carry a knife in his bag? Also, how many teenage students (boys and girls) are carrying pocket knives in Texas because that’s just how they were raised.
I passed by a guy at the supermarket the other day who had a knife in a sheath around his belt with a “Come and Take It” Second Amendment shirt on at one of those ATM machines. Easy there, hoss. People are just here to get some good deals on a weekend morning. All those hidden fees you’ll get deducted while opening your account up to scammers on one of those machines is more dangerous than anyone you’re going to run into on your weekend errands.
Gun-rights advocates have created a society that they think they have to carry AK-47s and AR-15s along with Glocks and Berettas strapped to their hips. It’s just proof they don’t trust anyone who doesn’t look like them or share their same thoughts. They are also the biggest threats. It doesn’t matter if you live in a community for six months or 60 years and you will never know the vast majority of people you see while out shopping.
And they will not know you. So, how the fuck are they supposed to make a ration determination when they see your brandishing a firearm during an active shooter situation while they’re on the phone to 911? Police in Pocatello, Idaho shot Victor Perez, also 17, who was reportedly holding a knife while his family was having a family barbecue. Perez was behind a chain-link fence when police shot him nine times as they reported he advanced toward them.
Do you think cops are going to give a shit that you’re a “good guy in a gun” when a frantic 911 caller gives the dispatcher your description? In the Pocatello case, the 911 caller should’ve minded their business. But the cops should just have relaxed. Instead they opened fire on a child, a Latino child, who reportedly had autism. Sadly, Perez’s family took him off life support on Saturday.
And that rag of conservative garbage that is now the New York Post felt it more important to run a story on how the DA’s Office in Frisco, Texas isn’t going to seek the death penalty against Anthony because of his age it’s prohibited. Anthony hasn’t even had his bond hearing yet and people are already wanting to string him up by the neck. Dylann Roof got get Burger King for killing nine people at a black church in South Carolina and Kyle Rittenhouse cried crocodile tears on the stand and cozied up to the judge.
And speaking of that little shit. He know works at Gulf Coast Gun & Outdoors in Milton, Fla., which is located about 30 miles northeast of Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle. The store is using Rittenhouse in its advertising where he is certified to teach gun safety classes. That’s because irony is something that is dead in this country now. But seriously, how long does Rittenhouse think he can stay at the place before they get tired of him?
According to the Florida Politics website: “Deputies from the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office (SRSO) executed a court order at Gulf Coast Gun in Milton, confiscating portions of business’ inventory as part of a legal matter between the shop’s owner and another company. Court records show that Circuit Judge James Duncan ordered inventory from the shop to be seized as collateral for a loan Gulf Coast Gun owner Chris Smith took out in May 2021 from Lakeland West Capital 48, a limited liability company that registered with the state of Texas in April 2024 but has affiliate companies registered in Florida.
“The value of the inventory totals between $600,000 and $1.2 million.”
The website does note these are matters that took place before Rittenhouse was employed. But Rittenhouse did get about $2 million in bail money after he was charged in the Kenosha, Wis. murders. One of the people who paid for his bond was former actor Ricky Schroder, who was arrested in the spring of 2019 on charges of domestic abuse. He wasn’t charged and the woman’s name was not made public. But it was the second time had had been arrested for domestic abuse.
So, it’s only natural someone like Schroder would support a teenager who crossed state lines to deliver his own form of vigilante justice. But the same people who felt Rittenhouse shouldn’t even have been charged are demanding the courts turn over the $350,000 that has been raised for Anthony’s defense to the Metcalf family.
Now, I express condolences to the Metcalf family. Parents shouldn’t have to bury their own child, especially one at 17. And despite what I mentioned earlier, I do feel that Metcalf could’ve just been acting like a dumb kid. We’ve all been there and done dumb things around that age. Too much testosterone and machismo makes people feel they have authority. But school rivalries are very childish once you grow up. I still laugh at the adults who go to these games and act all tough.
It’s been 20 years this month since South Park aired that episode of Randy Marsh getting mad at little league games and starting fights with other adults. But apparently not a lot got the joke. I’m assuming the people who start fights don’t watch South Park or at least they didn’t when the show was good instead of a reflection of the right-wing disdain Trey Parker and Matt Stone have now they’re in their 50s and no longer as popular as they once were.
Metcalf might have been a great student and athlete to those around him. But peer pressure can make the nicest people with logical thinking do bad thing. When I was in high school, my girlfriend was accused of keying the car of another student who mostly seemed nice and pleasant to others. I think the story was the other student’s father wouldn’t let her date some guy. So this guy got angry and keyed her car. Because she didn’t want him to get in trouble, she lied and said it was my girlfriend.
It happens. No one is born 100 percent honest and humble. There’s even stories that say Jesus Christ was like a Dennis the Menace as a child. However, we’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead unless they were absolutely horrible people. I’m sure Metcalf’s family, peers and educators had a few problems with him. These are the same problems that most youth seem to exhibit that when black youth exhibit, everyone believes in Old Testament Wrath of God justice.
And even if they think Metcalf went and got a school official to have Anthony removed, he would’ve had to come up with with a good reason. Therefore, he probably would’ve told a lie that he would’ve been caught in.
Like I said, I’m not pointing fingers or speaking ill of the dead, but I did spend 13 years in public education from kindergarten to the 12th grade having people think they can lie to get me and others in trouble for no other reason. People still do it on a regular basis, especially adults, probably a lot more than children per capita in any society.
And while people say Anthony shouldn’t have had a knife concealed in a bag, the U.S. government just said that Mel Gibson, who has a history of domestic abuse and violence, needs to be allowed to carry firearms now because of his Constitutional rights. It’s quite obvious the society we live in today creates dangers for black and brown-skinned people where even in Texas they feel they need to protect themselves. But we should tell them they need to go get school officials when they’re being bullied and harassed. Yet school districts are always biased toward BIPOC unless they are athletes or “one of the good ones.”
Even still, they’re not given the benefit of the doubt a white student would.
It’s been under seven years Botham Jean was gunned down in his own apartment by a white police officer who claims she mistook his apartment for hers. The conservative spin doctors argued Jean should’ve had a firearm to defend himself against a police office who had entered his apartment by accident. Yeah, how would’ve that played out if Jean drew on an officer aiming a gun at him in his own apartment?
Let’s be honest. If this was two white students involved in an altercation, the student who did the stabbing would be defended especially if he was 5-foot-9 and 130 pounds. If this was two black students involved in an altercation, they would’ve tried to say it was gang-related.
And it wouldn’t have made much news.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 