In the first time since he’s been governor, Rick Scott was the lead guest on a national Sunday morning public affairs program. And why not, as Florida is once again at the epicenter of a raging national story — the Trayvon Martin case. It was 28 days ago that the 17-year-old unarmed black youth was shot and killed by a neighborhood watchman, George Zimmerman, in Sanford. Outrage has been stoked by the failure of the Sanford police to arrest him.
In the past week Scott has authorized the FDLE and State Attorney Angela Corey to replace Norman Wolfinger to lead an investigation, as well as have Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll lead a task force (called the Task Force on Citizen Safety and Protection) that will include public hearings and a review of the state’s controversial Stand Your Ground law.
“You just feel your heart goes out to that family,” Scott said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, referring to Trayvon Martin’s parents. “No family ever imagines this ever happening to their child.”
When asked about the Stand Your Ground Law by CNN’s Candy Crowley, Scott said, “You want to make sure that everybody feels comfortable about public safety in our state, so as you know I put together a Task Force led by my Lieutenant Governor, who’s African-American, and I’m going to have different elected officials appoint individuals but we’ll look at all of it. But the first thing we’re going to do is really do a thorough investigation to see what happened here. No one can imagine this happening to their family….”
This article appears in Mar 22-28, 2012.
