Jordan Davis was only 17 years old when he was murdered at a gas station here in Florida.

Jordan and
his friends were listening to music when a white man in another car demanded they turn the music
down. His friend turned the music down but Jordan said to keep playing the song, which was “Beef” by
Lil Reese. The white man in the other car became angry that Jordan did not obey him. The white man’s
girlfriend testified later that he did use racist language to describe the music the boys were listening to.
The white man shot into the car of teenagers and kept shooting over and over and over again. His
bullets hit Jordan Davis in the lungs, heart and legs. As the teenagers drove away to stop getting shot,
the white man, Michael Dunn, kept shooting at the car. He did not hit any of the teenagers other than
Jordan. As the teenagers drove away, they noticed that Jordan was gasping for air because he was dying
and could not breathe. He was only 17 years old when he died.

It upset me when I learned that after he shot Jordan Davis, Michael Dunn went back to his hotel room
with his girlfriend and ordered pizza. It seemed like he was celebrating. He did not make any calls to the
police to say what had happened, even when he saw on the news the next day that Jordan Davis had
died.

The gas station thankfully had surveillance cameras that recorded the murder. When the police
questioned Michael Dunn, he lied and said that Jordan Davis threatened him with a gun or a stick. He
said this because he knew that Florida has the “stand your ground” law, which is a racist law that a lot of
racist people use to justify their violence. His girlfriend later said that the boys never threatened him and
the police search showed that the teenagers did not have any weapons. The police search also showed
that the child lock was on the backseat so Jordan Davis could not have opened the door to threaten
Michael Dunn like he claimed.

Because of the racist stand your ground law, the only charges that Michael Dunn received during his trial
was attempted murder. Jordan’s parents did not stop fighting and at the next trial, Michael Dunn was
sentenced to life in prison plus 90 years.

It makes me frustrated that there is the stand your ground law here in Florida and in some other states,
too. It is the same law that made it so George Zimmerman did not receive jail time for killing Trayvon
Martin. This law is also the reason that Ahmaud Arbury’s murderers cited when they killed him when all
he was doing was jogging. Laws like this one should not exist because it lets racist people off the hook
for pursuing and killing people of color. I think this law should be vetoed.

Something that made me smile when learning about Jordan Davis was that his mom refused to stop
fighting for him, even in his memory. His mom, Lucy McBath, went on to run for office and get elected to
Congress in Georgia. She is a fighter against laws like stand your ground and for gun reform laws which is
also important to me. She also mentioned being inspired by the students at Stoneman Douglas High
School, which is right by where I live and the high school that I am zoned to go to one day.

Another case that made me feel sad is Tamir Rice, who was 12 years old when he was murdered by
police. He had a toy gun and a caller told 9-1-1 that there was a male pointing a pistol at someone in the
park. The caller would later say it was probably a toy and he was “probably a juvenile,” but the
dispatcher did not report that to the police officer. The surveillance video shows the officer shooting at
Tamir Rice almost immediately when he arrived on the scene. That would have never happened if Tamir
was white, and that makes me really sad and angry.
I have noticed during these cases and also other cases I have learned about that black children are never
allowed to be children. They are always seen or treated as adults by the police or by other people, like
Michael Dunn who killed Jordan Davis and did not even care that a child had died. Tamir Rice was only
12 when he was murdered. He was not much older than me but the police viewed him as an adult. It is
not fair. When a white person kills a black person, the white person is sent home to watch a movie and
drink hot chocolate. Well, maybe not literally, but Dylan Roof did get Burger King bought for him by
police after he murdered black people in their church. I feel like the police would let him wear the
cardboard crown from Burger King for what he did.

The Jordan Davis and Tamir Rice cases upset me because they are just children like I am and they never
got to grow up and do all of the things they deserved to do. This is not fair and not okay. Police brutality,
stand your ground laws and racism all need to end and I want to do my part to make sure that can
happen.

By Ethan Joly