Willie Steadman, 26, was arrested Thursday night after a shooting in what police in Stanford, Florida are calling a “tapestry of justice”. Steadman had reportedly called 911 to say that he was being followed by a “big fat Nazi skinhead wif tattoos up da whazoo.”
According to a transcript of the 911 call, Steadman , who is black, asked the police dispatcher if he would be within his rights, under the Florida Stand Your Ground law, to confront the baseball bat wielding white man, adding that he himself was armed with the semi-automatic pistol he uses in his job as a security guard. Steadman was told that he should pick up his pace and try to outrun his musclebound stalker, rather than provoke a confrontation.
Stanford Police Chief Will Lee picked up the thread of the incident from here.
“As you probably know, we here in Florida through the grace of God and Governor Jeb Bush, have the Stand Your Ground law, which pretty much lets normal people off the hook if they happen to encounter someone who needs killing. They got the right to blast away at muggers, robbers, bushwhackers, conspirators, pan handlers and anyone else who might annoy them. Now in this case, with Steadman, you have a situation with a whole different complexion, what with Steadman not being one of the normals. At this point we don’t know why Brutus Henry, the white feller, was following Steadman with a baseball bat, but we do know from witnesses that he only whopped Steadman one time before he was shot dead, and this is in violation of Florida’s Three Strikes law. According to the law, Mr. Henry had two more free hits coming to him, just like the Three Strikes law in California”.
The Chief went on to say, “when Steadman called 911 he was told in no uncertain terms not to confront Mr. Henry, but to exercise his rights under the “Feets Don’t Fail Me Now” law, which gives non-normal people like Steadman the right to outrun their attackers, long as the fleeing don’t cause the pursuer to have a stroke or nuthing. Steadman chose to ignore the instructions of the police dispatcher and gunned down Mr. Henry after taking only one hit to the side of his thick skull. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from all this hullabaloo from the media, it’s that there must have been a slip up somewhere that allowed a non normal like Steadman to legally possess a firearm in the first place. All this tragedy could have been avoided if Steadman had just kept running like he was told. But no, he had to get all uppity and now we have a dead parolee cut down in his prime.”