Over the past few years there has been a tremendous amount of unjustified murders across this nation. Whether it be white against black, police against citizen, citizen against police, thousands of lives have been taken without justice. One of those lives was Jordan Davis, a 17 year old just hanging with friends on a holiday weekend. Davis was shot and killed by Michael Dunn, a 47 year old man who claimed that after complaining about the loud music coming from the car Davis and his friends were in he feared for his life and felt that shooting this car 10 times would protect him. Dunn is currently serving life in prison for the murder of Jordan Davis.
Last night, we attended the screening of the HBO Documentary 3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets which was directed by Marc Silver and produced by Minette Nelson and Carolyn Hepburn. The film takes us from that fateful Black Friday night in 2012 to the second trial of Michael Dunn which finally found him guilty. The topic of the Florida “Stand Your Ground” law was revisited the same as in the Trayvon Martin case and used heavily in the trial but to no avail. Justice was served for Jordan Davis.

After the film, Jordan Davis’ parents Ron Davis and Lucia McBath answered a few questions moderated by Writer/Professor Jelani Cobb. Mr. Davis; a Harlem born activist; is at the forefront of the #BlackLivesMatter movement spearheading change in our communities. He spoke about our economic power and asked that we boycott Black Friday in honor of his son. Ms. McBath, daughter of a civil rights activist, asked that we strive for higher learning,

“Our people parish because lack of knowledge.”

We couldn’t agree more.

3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets premieres Monday November 23rd on HBO.

Photo Credit: Dorothy Hong/HBO