I’d sure like to know.
Renisha’s family wants her murderer behind bars. So do I.
Peep this from the above link:
Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office spokeswoman Mary Mazur said McBride suffered a shotgun wound to the head and her death was ruled a homicide.
The Wayne County prosecutor’s office refused to issue a warrant earlier this week.
I see. Here is the definition of homicide:
Homicide is an act of a human killing another human.
And murder:
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human, and generally this premeditated state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide (such as manslaughter)
And manslaughter:
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder.
The law generally differentiates between levels of criminal culpability based on the mens rea, or state of mind; or the circumstances under which the killing occurred (mitigating factors).
~*~
But all of those things fly out of the legal window when you commit murder, or a homicide in one of the 47 states that have Stand Your Ground laws. Which is why there is all this stalling and balking and refusal to issue a warrant for Renisha McBride’s killer.
I find something singularly abhorrent about the concept that you can end the life of another human being and not have to take one ounce of responsibility. For ending the life of a person. For killing someone dead.
All you have to say is:
“I was afraid for my life”
“I was scared”
“I was protecting myself, my property, my family”
“I felt threatened”
“Oopsies! It was an accident”
And you can skip merrily on about your life as if nothing happened. You don’t even have to stand in front of a court of law and explain yourself and your actions. You don’t have to spend one minute behind bars.
That over and over and over again these laws are invoked when a white person kills a Black person or a POC is also something worthy of noting. When a Black person or a POC tries to invoke those same laws, suddenly they don’t apply to the situation.
Suddenly you have to serve 20 years in jail for not aiming your gun at and murdering someone, while someone who actually killed another human being is sitting at home munching on hot pockets and watching their favorite TV show.
Ironically there was a hearing about the Stand Your Ground laws in Florida today. Disappointing, but unsurprisingly they decided to keep those laws on the books, not even amend them and make them more clear – less wiggle room for murderers – but decided to expand them. Which I guess means adding even more wiggle room, I dunno, I was too disgusted to research further.
Also, why did it take two days for officials to contact the family? I must watch too many crime shows because I thought the family is notified right away especially when the dead person has her ID, was driving a car registered in her name etc.
~*~
Yes, I’m still calling out for the identity of this murderer to be released, leaked, doxxed, hacked, and spread out all over the world for everyone to know. Because he until he is charged with something, ie is within the legal system, they can’t/won’t.
I don’t care.
He didn’t care about Renisha’s life, so I’m not caring all that much about his.
Here is some more info on this person taken from Abagond’s post on Renisha McBride:
Maybe where she was killed: A house on the 16000 block of Outer Drive near Warren Avenue in Dearborn Heights(?)
I read elsewhere that he is a 54 year old white male and lives alone in his home he was so fiercely protecting.
Hacktivists do your thing.
~*~
Here is my First Post About Renisha McBride’s Murder in case you missed it and want to read how I write when I’m pissed off and have no fucks left to give.
I am reading articles about about how broken up and upset the killer is about what happened. All being told through his attorney who will not release his name.
How he thought someone was breaking into his home (giving reason for grabbing his shotgun instead of the phone, I guess), and that the gun fired accidentally.
1. I’ve been woken up with sounds of someone trying to break into my home. Twice in fact. Those sounds are never coming from the front door. Always the back or side entrances, or a side or back window.
2. I don’t own a gun. I am also a Black person in America, so I am leery of calling the police. But both times I heard someone trying to break into my home I called 911 with a quickness.
That one time I was woken up by my neighbor’s screams, I tossed my BF the phone and told him to start dialing while I ran out to see if I could help her.
Yeah, I know, but I never was one to follow the Hollywood script. Also, blame my brief experience in law enforcement. Half the time my initial reaction is to run toward danger.
3. He had to have the door open to have shot Renisha, accidentally or otherwise. There are no reports that he shot through his front door. If he was so afraid, why didn’t he keep the door shut?
Did he speak to Renisha at all? Did he just charge out his door shooting? Did he ask her any questions? Did he mean to hold her at gunpoint until the police came? The police he didn’t call, because he was so busy aiming his headshot at this supposed burglar?
If it was an accident, guns just don’t shoot themselves. He had to have had his finger on the trigger. He had to have had the weapon aimed at her head.
A simple “who are you, and what are you doing, what do you want” yelled through the door or window would have sufficed. He then could have decided to render aid, or tell her to move along.
Why all the gun pointing? The finger on the trigger? I know why. Do you?
~*~
If you shoot someone accidentally, you call the police, and paramedics and anyone and everyone who can help you and help the victim of your accident.
He didn’t do that. There is a fuzziness about when he “volunarily went to the police”. And then there are the initial reports about the body being moved, or him or the police saying she was shot in nearby Detroit and mysteriously dumped on this man’s porch.
You behave like a guilty, shifty, murdering killer, or an irresponsible trigger-happy, lying to the police gunowner: I’m going to go with that.
I don’t care what picture your attorney attempts to paint in the media.
And besides. Lest we forget. He took the life of another human being. On purpose. By accident. It doesn’t negate the fact that he took a life. He should be punished. Pay the price. Do the time.
_______________________________________________
Awake Black Woman 
Reblogged this on idealisticrebel and commented:
Very well written and important. What happened to this poor child.
Reblogged this on The ObamaCrat™.
This should’ve rightfully been classified as a MURDER..My emotions attached to this murder from the start for several reasons..It hits very close to home & I don’t even live in Michigan! But my eldest son does & is wrapping up his education there..Trust & believe he knows first-hand of which places to go in or around Detroit. It is clear as day to anyone of color..Sadly, Renisha McBride more than likely knew that also..There is a KKK compound(whatever they call it that is what it IS) not far from the Ann Arbor(exclusive) area which is where my son’s university is. My point is there is NO way that a 19 yr old soft-spoken BLACK young lady, by herself no less!, would have been trying to break IN to a house in an all-white upper-class HOOD. Unless? There was no other option for her to get help at that hour..Personally??? I wish she’d have been able to walk or crawl for help! At least should we be alive..OMG is this what it has come to?? That OUR youth can’t even walk about or seek help in certain HOODS? This man might as well have been wearing a white hooded sheet! Because that is what I feel he represents..IF he feels he did the right thing then why not announce him by name??? THIS STINKS. All of it..Scared for his life? From a 19 yr old young lady ? Pfft Call it what it is; bullshit! How scared are you when you OPEN the door??? Dear God I can’t imagine the pain & helplessNESS her parents are feeling..I feel it also and it isn’t even my child..BUT it could have been! And that is the point we all need to recognize. I’ve got 3 Black sons in America..This IS the kind of stuff that can give me nightmares..IF I didn’t believe in God..And even so it is pretty horrific..I want our POTUS to outlaw the stand your ground law. Someone needs to make this madness STOP. First I thought it was just because alot of folks are racist & mentally unbalanced in Florida(You should see how they drive!!!) ..BUT this is Detroit for God’s sake! A chocolate city for sure and yet this can still happen??? I’m glad I don’t watch scary movies(yep, I cover my eyes if I’m forced to watch one) ..There is no need with this stuff happening in real life
I’ve updated my post to add in a video which talks about something which I kept forgetting to mention.
Dearborn and other towns, counties etc in the suburbs surrounding Detroit are known as Sunset Towns. For people who live around the areas know how heavily segregated it is, and there is a history stretching back decades. You mention that Klan enclave – well there you go.
For those that don’t know as “Sunset Town” is town where “nigger, don’t let the sun set on you, in this town. Be out of here by dark. Or else.” Used to be these towns had actual signs that said such things and worse. The “or else” means you are asking to be beaten, murdered, lynched etc if you decide to hang around after sunset.
Nowadays you Of Course can’t have those signs up, but everyone knows which towns are, and which ones aren’t. Dearborn IS as sunset town. Renisha McBride never had a chance, did she? And coupled with laws that allow “homeowners” to never see any jail time when they kill someone, you a case of times ain’t really changed at ALL since way back then.
When you take that information into consideration, plus the other things I’ve discussed in both my posts about this case, the idea that this person’s shooting and killing of Renisha was an accident becomes harder and harder to believe.
Hey Berna, remember this post: https://awakeblackwoman.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/not-for-you/
This country’s laws were not made for us. They haven’t been from the jump.
I’ll check the video out..And you’re correct about who the laws of country were made for..Wasn’t US..Laws had to be added to include us..Then years later? Which is the here and now; those same laws have either been reduced or totally deleted..Again you’re right; Renisha never stood a chance in the town she was in..Wrong place at the wrong time takes on entire deeper meaning, when it means death.
Correction…*at least should we be alive* ..Should have been…’at least she would be alive*
Reblogged this on Berna's Vibe~The Way I See IT and commented:
I want to know also..Who Killed Renisha McBride??? It matters a great deal to me! And it should matter to you also…Sincerely re-blogged & felt by Berna
Reading about Renisha’s horrific end breaks my heart. It is immoral that her death has been ruled a homicide. I once woke to find an intruder in my house. He’d climbed the drainpipe and through my first floor bathroom window. Did I want to or attempt to kill him? No. I yelled and roared until he jumped right back out, then I called the police – within the space of about 90 seconds. I don’t understand the Stand your Ground Laws. Neither do I understand those people wanting to own and use guns if they’re not farmers, rangers or law enforcement. I hope that Renisha’s family get the justice that they so deserve.
The thing that people don’t like to talk about, is the history of guns in this country is very specifically for white people, especially white males. Guns carved out this country. Our own special brand of Guns, Germs & Steel.
Guns were used to exterminate and subdue the indigenous population, guns were used to keep slaves in bondage, and all of our current law enforcement entities: police, feds, etc came about from protecting the land and the interests of the white male elite who owned and ran everything.
These things are being perpetuated today. Look at the demographics of the NRA for example, and the kind of rhetoric that is used. Race trumps everything in this country. Even when little white babies were slaughtered in their school, no, that was not enough to rethink what guns mean to white male America. The fear of the Black body, the Black burglar violating your castle, trespassing on your sacred property, the fear of the Black male coming to violate your sacred white women, the must protect against the Other, the Alien, the Foreign, the fear, fear fear etc etc.
You can see the history of it all being played out over and over again in the present. Renisha McBride is not the first to fall victim to this, and she won’t be the last.
I can’t live here anymore.
Renisha should be alive today – if she were white she would be. This, like Trayvon’s death and others, makes me sick. The sad thing is that she will not be the last.
Absolutely sickening, indeed. In my first post about this I spoke about choices being made. That man chose to open his door and aim his weapon at that young woman’s head, with his finger on the trigger.
He also could have made the choice to stay inside his home, ignore Renisha like so many other’s did, or call the police, or I dunno do 10 other things than take the overt action of shooting someone in the head. Another reason I put up all those definitions. There is premeditation when you chose to grab your gun, check to make sure it’s loaded, cock it so its ready to go, put your finger on the trigger and aim it at someone’s head.
There is plenty of time after each one of those actions to stop and decide to make a different choice. And yes, in that nice Sunset Town, a young white woman knocking at his door at that late hour would not have gotten a bullet to the face.
Plus we have yet to hear of any stories like that ever happening. Repeatedly, often and over and over again. Our Black and Brown bodies are targets.
Do you have an answer to the carnage? How can we stop this? And how can the average person like me help?
I really don’t have any answers. But Google Dream Defenders, they are on the front lines fighting to get Stand Your Ground laws off the books or the very least reformed. They are on the front lines of a lot of stuff and I think their website has more concrete info on ways you can help out.
I’m exhausted, and I’ve done the marching, the picketing, the getting arrested. I now fight the good fight here on my blog, out there in the Twitterverse and out in the world, if I see injustice happening as I go about my daily routine. I don’t have the energy reserves for more. Dream Defenders is a great place to start, and also Google National Action Network.
Both of those have local chapters/people who are doing grassroots stuff right in your area. There is also the NAACP. There is a lot you can get into and participate in with your local chapters there too.
Good luck and YAY!
Blessings.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I’ve already been getting NAACP information from the time they were first online. I’ve read and kept up with news and various situations. I cannot do much but what I can I will. (I’m disabled, my right side doesn’t work.) I will look into that and see if they have anything I can do. I’ll be getting your blog news too.
Thank you again, and bless you!
Latest from an article I found on Aol’s Black Voices..I was going to open a new post; but prefer to just add to yours…Many questions are swirling about! Many in the comment section are now questioning IF the murderer was even White..I’m willing to bet my last buck he is White..Otherwise? It is my sincere belief , at the least, his name would be disclosed by now..Now? His attorney is saying he was justified..Yet? The murderer claims it was an accident..Can NOT be both..Are they stalling to get their stories straight? Or investigating as has been declared? The police department DID order a warrant; it was the prosecutor’s office who said to investigate first..Totally stink FUNK odor in all of this..Some are saying Ranisha McBride was shot in the face..Other accounts she was shot in the BACK of her head..Which IS it? The more I hear of this the more I’m perturbed by it..
“DETROIT — The lawyer for a man implicated in the shooting of 19-year-old Renisha McBride believes evidence will show her client’s actions were “justified.”
McBride died after being shot in the face in the early hours of Saturday on the front porch of a home in Dearborn Heights, Mich., according to police. She had been involved in a car accident over the city line in Detroit, and her family believes her cell phone died and she went to the home seeking help. Police put the timing of the crash at around 1:30 a.m. and the shooting around 3:40 a.m., according to the Detroit Free Press.
Bloomfield Hills attorney Cheryl Carpenter told The Huffington Post that the 54-year-old homeowner, who lives alone, contacted her after the events of that night. The man hasn’t been named by police and no charges have been filed in the case.
“On that night he was woken up. … Everything was dark in the house, and he was awoken by sounds of a person or persons trying to get into his home,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter said she would not comment on the alleged shooting or other details of the incident with the investigation underway, including a report that the homeowner told police he had discharged his shotgun accidentally.
“He called 911 right away,” Carpenter said. “On the night of the shooting, he completely cooperated with police on his own. He went in and made a statement to them.”
Speaking with the Detroit News, she said, “I’m confident when the evidence comes, it will show that my client was justified and acted as a reasonable person would who was in fear for his life.”
The case has received national attention, with many wondering how a young woman looking for help could end up dead, and why police have yet to make an arrest.
Though the shooter’s race hasn’t been identified, the fact that Dearborn Heights is a majority-white city has led many to speculate that he is white — and to draw comparisons between McBride and other unarmed African-American shooting victims, such as Jonathan Ferrell and Trayvon Martin.
“I thought that this is not a unique or original story,” said Dream Hampton, a Detroit writer and filmmaker who organized a rally Thursday calling for justice for McBride. “About every six weeks we basically have some racial killing story … to protest and mourn and be outraged about.”
Hampton said she hoped the gathering would pressure police to make an arrest. “We need transparency in this case,” she said.
While the Dearborn Heights Police Department submitted a warrant request to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, the office returned it with a request for further investigation Wednesday, saying the prosecutor “will not be able to make a charging decision until the requested work has been completed.” On Friday, a spokeswoman from the office confirmed that police are continuing to work on the requested items.
Carpenter believes the delay before making an arrest is reasonable. “Until criminal charges are issued, you can’t arrest anybody,” she said. She commended Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy for seeking more information and, in her opinion, “not rushing to judgment.”
“We believe that Kym Worthy will do the right thing,” McBride’s father, Walter Ray Simmons, told reporters after his daughter’s funeral Friday.
According to MLive, an attorney representing the victim’s family, Gerald Thurswell, said law enforcement officials should be given time to investigate.
“We don’t want to rush them,” Thurswell told MLive. “We believe the conclusion will be that he will be prosecuted.”
National figures such as the Rev. Al Sharpton have demanded justice for McBride’s family. U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) took the opportunity to condemn Michigan’s “stand your ground” law, which allows individuals to use deadly force without first retreating if they believe doing so is necessary to prevent imminent harm or death.
“There has been discussion about the impact of Michigan’s controversial stand your ground laws and whether they contributed to this incident. I have long opposed laws of this nature,” Conyers said in a statement. “I am confident that Wayne County prosecutors and law enforcement will conduct a thorough investigation to ensure that justice is served for Renisha’s family.”
Carpenter said she hoped the public would wait until further information has been released to make their own judgments.
“I would ask the public, including the media and the press, to not prejudge and not speculate on what is happening,” she said. “Everybody wants to put all the puzzle pieces together yet without having all the pieces, and it is not fair to anybody involved in this, including Ms. McBride, her family and the homeowner.”..
Dearborn, being one of the Sunset Towns that the locals KNOW and have known about for decades is something like %86 white, I believe I read that somewhere. Pretty good chance he’s a white guy, but since I’m determined like a lot of other people are to see this person named and charged, we’ll find out soon enough.
Notice how they refer to him as “the homeowner”. You have to google back to the first reports on this to see how he initially started out as “gunman” or “shooter”.
But still never murderer or killer.
Reblogged this on Smell Goods Shea Butter and commented:
Injustice!!!!!