Andrew Branca at Legal Insurrection deftly dissected a “study” purporting to have found racial bias in the application of Florida’s Stand Your Ground (SYG) law. The study’s abstract states, “We frame our study using Public Health Critical Race Theory (PHCRT) Methodology. PHCRT is a conceptual framework that builds upon critical race theory (CRT) …”
A Web search turns up this definition of CRT from UCLA’s School of Public Affairs: “CRT recognizes that racism is engrained in the fabric and system of the American society.” In other words, the study started with the assumption that racism is engrained in our legal system, and—surprise—found SYG to be racist.
Furthermore, it is based on a Tampa Bay Times examination of 237 Florida cases over 10 years. Branca examined those cases and found that SYG was applicable in only 56 of them. As A1F.org has previously reported, the Times’ own reporter has warned that its study was already too small to be conclusive.
