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Earlier this year, my 2010 essay collection, Create Dangerously, was adapted for the stage and performed in Miami, where I live. Like the book, the play honors artists, particularly writers who have risked their lives to write their booksas well as the readers who have risked their lives to read them.

Its a legacy I know well, having grown up first in Haiti, then in the United States among Haitian expatriates. My friend Regine Chassagne, a singer from the indie rock group Arcade Fire, and I recently talked about how during the brutal Duvalier dictatorship in 1963 Haiti, her grand-father, the Haitian poet Roland Chassagne, was arrested at a Port-au-Prince publishing house for sharing contraband literature. He was taken to Francois Papa Doc Duvaliers notorious prison dungeon, Fort Dimanche, and was never heard from again.

Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis speaks at the Moms for Liberty Summit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2023. (Photo by Hannah Beier for the Washington Post.)

Many immigrants in Florida and elsewhere know at least one story like this one. In the past, a Floridian, Texan, or West Virginian might have dismissed such comparisons by saying, That could never happen here. Sadly, it is happening and will worsen if were not vigilant. Here in Florida, our current governor (and now presidential hopeful), Ron DeSantis, touts our state as a citadel of freedom. But in the past two years, DeSantis has signed a six-week abortion ban, a law allowing concealed weapons to be carried without a permit, and the Dont Say Gay bill, which was expanded by the Florida Board of Education to restrict instruction of LGBTQ+ issues in middle and high schools. Transgender youth can no longer start gender-affirming health care, and doctors can refuse to treat transgender people without consequence. The Unauthorized Alien Transport Program, reminiscent of 19th-century fugitive-slave laws, allows state officials to remove and transport migrants from Florida as well as other states. However, by law, those who transport undocumented immigrants into the state, including those in their families and churches, can be considered human smugglers and charged with a third-degree felony. Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, which might help address historical injustices, have been defunded at public universities; classes, majors, and minors involving race or gender studies are being censored.

DeSantiss signature Stop W.O.K.E. Act has led to the censoring of textbooks, as well as an Advanced Placement African American Studies course, and prohibits teachers, librarians, and media specialists from sharing books or presenting any material that makes studentsthat is, white studentsfeel that they bear personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress over past acts committed by members of their gender, race, or national origin. The law singles out Black-history instruction, noting that it should examine what it means to be a responsible and respectful person, for the purpose of encouraging tolerance of diversity in a pluralistic society and for nurturing and protecting democratic values and institutions.

The Stop W.O.K.E. Act has had some preposterous outcomes. In this climate, even spaces supposedly friendly to conservative agendas have been caught in the culture wars. The principal of a charter school that emphasizes classical education resigned in March after sixth graders at her school were shown a picture of Michelangelos statue of David, which one parent labeledpornographic. In May, the states Department of Education placed a fifth-grade teacher under investigation after she showed her class the animated film Strange World, which features a gay character. One parent, who attended protests organized by far-right extremists the Proud Boys and the parental rights group Moms for Liberty last year, filed a complaint demanding that the book version of Amanda Gormans 2021 inaugural poem, The Hill We Climb, be removed from the total environment and that it was not for schools. The K8 school responded by limiting access to the book to its middle-school students. (The parent also misidentified the author as Oprah Winfrey, who wrote the foreword to the edition.)

Jennifer Pippin, president of the Indian River County chapter of Moms for Freedom, attends Jacqueline Rosarios campaign event in Vero Beach, Florida on October 16, 2022.

Many teachers I know fear more might be at stake.

All it takes is one irate parent pushing the law to its limits to make an example of you and put you in jail, one high school English teacher told me. Over her decades-long career, she has taught Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye, James Baldwins Go Tell It on the Mountain, F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby, Ernest Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea, and many of Shakespeares plays. However, teaching even Shakespeare is now risky. Works such as A Midsummer Nights Dream have been removed from some course lists and libraries because of sexual content. (Who wants to tell those who complain that actors in Shakespeares time performed in drag because women were not allowed onstage?)

Many public-school teachers I have talked to consider their current reality dystopian. Afraid of breaking draconian laws, librarians and media specialists have had to empty their shelves or cover up their books.

I think they only want us to teach Republican white men,one history teacher told me. Sometimes Im unsure what place or century were in.

For me, the future seems clear because Ive seen and read about it before. Teachers and readers will eventually be jailed over books for the same reason others have been elsewhere: because, as the poet Audre Lorde once said of women, books are powerful and dangerous. They can also be platforms for liberation. Books that are banned are often ones that challenge the status quo, expose injustice and inequality, or try to build empathy and allyship.

Tyrants and small-minded people, of course, know this too well. In Florida, censoring and banning books is part of a more comprehensive effort to disenfranchise Black, brown, and LGBTQ+people that includes gerrymandering, voter suppression, and a full-on assault on public education. While public schools are underfunded, millions are poured into school-choice programs, subsidizing private institutions that are free to teach whatever they want. The odds are being purposefully stacked against mostly Black, brown, and immigrant families for whom public schools might be the only option. This feels both deliberate and familiar.

I trace it all to May 2020, when, after the brutal on-camera asphyxiation of George Floyd, hundreds of thousands in the United States and around the world protested, including groups of young people of all races and genders. As the playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith told PBS NewsHour, this was partly a result of how education has increased young peoples awareness of Black culture. Many of the youth had been influenced by writers like Morrison, she said: They have experienced this together, and they expect much more from the system.

I attended protests in Miami during the summer of 2020, including some organized by a group of young activists called Dream Defenders. In 2013, theyd held a monthlong sit-in at the Florida Capitol to demand a special legislative session on Floridas stand your ground law after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. In May of this year,Dream Defenders returned to the state capitol. They requested a meeting with Governor DeSantis. Instead of being able to engage in a dialogue across ideological lines, 14 of the groups members and allies were arrested for trespassing.

The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers, Frederick Douglass wrote in his 1845 memoir, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. At a 1982 event on censorship and literature, Morrison said, The same sensibilities that informed those people to make it a criminal act for Black people to read are the ancestors of the same people who are making it a criminal act for their own children to read, and I dont see a great deal of difference between them.

Banning books robs readers, she explained years later, of that dance of an open mind engaging another equally open onean activity that occurs most naturally, most often in the reading/writing world we live in.

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It Can Happen Here - Harper's BAZAAR

Less than 24 hours into his first visit to Sioux Falls, Minnesota native Ramon Deron Smith shot and killed Larry Carr Jr. and wounded two others.

A little over two years later, a state law took effect that lets those charged with a crime of violence make a self-defense claim before a trial and avoid one altogether if a judge rules in their favor.

Smith maintained all through his 2022 trial that hed only fired in self-defense. The jury nonetheless convicted Smith of second-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault. Hes now serving a life sentence in a Sioux Falls prison.

Shortly after that conviction, Smith appealed to the South Dakota Supreme Court, hoping to reverse his conviction on the grounds that hed been denied a self-defense hearing, and that prosecutors unfairly allowed testimony about his status as a felon with a firearm.

Circuit Court Judge Bradley Zell ruled that Smith didnt have the right to an immunity hearing for the 2019 crime, and that the disclosure of his status as a felon barred from firearm possession wasnt enough to declare a mistrial.

This week, the states high court issued a ruling that could keep Smith behind bars for the rest of his life, unless he files a successful appeal or receives a pardon or commutation.

The justices ruled that the stand your ground law did not apply in his case, because the shootings occurred before its passage. They also ruled that the mention of his status as a felon hed only recently been released from prison in Minnesota when the shooting occurred did not unfairly prejudice the jury.

Lawyers for both sides had agreed not to reference his felon status at trial, but a Sioux Falls police detective mentioned it from the witness stand.

That wasnt enough to meet the threshold for overturning a conviction, the justices decided. Smith was able to present his self-defense claim, and jurors were instructed not to consider his revoked right to possess firearms when evaluating the veracity of his self-defense claim.

That the self-defense claim failed to sway the jury was more a measure of the weakness of the claim than any disclosure about his gun rights, the court ruled.

On the day of the murder, Smith grabbed a handgun and left an apartment to confront a group of people whod been making threats on social media.

The fact that Smith was prohibited from possessing a firearm because of his status as a felon, but chose to arm himself before leaving the apartment, was at best tangential to the question of whether Smith acted reasonably for the purpose of self-defense, the decision says.

As to the question of the states stand your ground law, the justices said the law was not written to apply retroactively. As such, Smith was not entitled to the kind of immunity hearing now being used in South Dakota courtrooms by people with self-defense claims.

In view of this Courts determination that the statute did not apply retroactively, no question remains whether the circuit court erred in denying Smiths request for a hearing, the justices wrote.

The ruling was unanimous and authored by Chief Justice Steven Jensen.

South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: info@southdakotasearchlight.com. Follow South Dakota Searchlight on Facebook and Twitter.

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SD Supreme Court: 'Stand Your Ground' Law Is Not Retroactive - Yankton Daily Press

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) After the passage of permitless concealed carry, a longtime priority of gun rights supporters, a state senator says hes looking at next steps.

Some of the options Sen. Tom Brewer is considering include a stand your ground law and arming faculty.

Stand your ground means a person can use force against someone they think poses an immediate threat without having to retreat first.

Its really just cleaning up the language, said Patricia Harrold with the Nebraska Firearms Owners Association. You still have to apply the standards for which its justifiable to defend yourself.

Critics say this encourages more violence and disproportionately affects minorities.

Adding guns into our communities does not makes us safer; adding guns makes us in more danger, said Melody Vaccaro with Nebraskans Against Gun Violence. It creates war zones between neighbors. It heats up situations when theyve already been hot.

In a weekly update shared with Channel 8, Brewer says hes introduced an interim study resolution to examine school security issues.

He believes we should discuss letting public and private schools decide at the local level whether to use off-duty police officers, private security guards, or even key specially trained staff and faculty as armed responders in case of a deadly threat.

Its currently a crime for anyone other than law enforcement to carry a gun at Nebraska schools.

When a school makes a decision to arm staff, they arent receiving proper training in a lot of cases, said Jayden Speed with Students Demand Action. Law enforcement receives hundreds of hours of training, and thats why law enforcement is the only entity allowed to carry a firearm in our state schools.

Brewer said hes asked Sen. Dave Murman, chairman of the Education Committee, to hold a hearing on the resolution.

Hes planning to invite administrators, teachers and law enforcement to share their ideas.

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Arming school staff and a 'stand your ground' law being considered ... - KLKN

Body

Dear Editor:

On Monday, we mourned a Marion County mother who should not have died. A mother who was protecting her children from an unhinged neighbor. A mother doing what all mothers do; love their babies. This mother, A.J. Owens, knocked on a closed, locked, metal door and was shot to death through the door in front of her 9-year-old son. Her son now blames himself for the death of his mother, a tremendous weight that no child should ever carry. There were many victims that day. Four young children will grow up without a lifetime of special moments with their mother. A.J.s own mother, brother, and a number of beloved family members and friends are left to struggle through immense sadness, grief, and senseless loss.

Floridas Stand Your Ground law, along with other recent gun related legislation, enables a dangerous gun culture that abandons safety measures for all Floridians, and disproportionately affects gun violence victims of color.

The Democratic Womens Club of Florida calls for justice for A.J. Owens and her family. We further support all efforts to eliminate or amend Stand Your Ground and similarly reckless gun legislation.

We grieve for a mothers life cut short due to gun violence. We grieve with her children, family, and friends. Finally, we vow to support and affect gun legislation reform. Floridians have a right to enjoy safety in their communities. Sadly, A.J. and her children werent privy to that right.

Meri Forte-Namuj President The Democratic Womens Club of Florida

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR Justice for A.J. Owens - Osceola News-Gazette

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Left: Family of Ajike Owens/Right: Marion County Sheriff's Office

The white woman who shot and killed a Black woman who confronted her after she had thrown an object at her children has been arrested and charged with manslaughter culpable negligence, battery and two counts of assault.

The incident had made national headlines due to Floridas controversial stand your ground law, which gives individuals the right to use reasonable force, including deadly force, to protect themselves.

The suspect in question, Susan Lorincz, 58, had killed Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old mother of four, after a long-standing feud between the two, who had been neighbors for over two years, according to Marion County Sheriffs Office.

Ashley Remy lives next door to Ajike AJ Owens and her children.

Remy tells REVOLT Black News that everyone knew Susan Lorincz as a Karen.She says that Lorincz would often call the children in the neighbor derogatory names such as the n-word, Bastards, Black slaves, etc pic.twitter.com/r6TIRr2FIA

In avideo posted on Facebookthe towns sheriff Billy Woods said that the shooting was not a case of stand your ground, but simply a killing.

Now many of you were struggling to understand why there was not an immediate arrest, Woods said. The laws here in the state of Florida are clear. Now I may not like them. I may not agree with them. But however, those laws I will follow.

The video also showed two detectives and a deputy escorting Lorincz while her hands were behind her back.

The sheriffs office further revealed that Lorincz had grown frustrated because Owens children would play in a field close to her apartment.

On Friday night at around 9 PM, deputies responded to a trespassing call in the neighborhood, but upon arrival, they discovered that Owens suffered from a gunshot wound.

Deputies provided her with first aid before rushing her to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.

According to Woods, Owens had feuded with the neighbor for quite some time and there was a lot of aggressivenesswhether it be banging on the doors, banging on the walls and threats being made.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump has been hired to represent Owens family in the shooting and stated that the shooter HASNT been arrested or charged with anything by law enforcement for the unjust killing, according to astatementhe posted on Facebook at the time of the shooting.

Meanwhile, the local sheriff said at the time that the case is complex in nature due to Floridas stand your ground law.

On Monday, Owens family, their attorneys and community leaders gathered at a news conference in Ocalas to express their disappointment in the way the case has been handled following her death.

She was rendered voiceless, Owens mother, Pamela Dias said. We are here on her behalf. We are here on behalf of the four kids that are left behind, without a mother. She further added that her 9-year-old grandson was standing next to his mother when she was gunned down.

Anytime something this tragic happens, there are always a lot of questions, Woods said at the news conference. A lot of people dont understand how the laws in the state of Florida sometimes work.

Following the suspects arrest, Woods said that he wanted to thank Ms. Owens family for their patience as we conducted the diligent investigation that we were bound by law to conduct. Ms. Lorinczs fate is now in the hands of the judicial system which I trust will deliver justice in due course. As I go to bed tonight, I will be saying a prayer for Ms. Owens children and the rest of her family. Id ask all of you to do the same.

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White Woman Who Murdered Black Woman in What She Felt Was ... - Shine My Crown