No justice for Banko Brown

And I thought that "stand your ground laws" were a thing in gun-crazed Republican states like Florida. Broad legal permission to kill in "self-defense" was how George Zimmerman got away with the murder of Travon Martin. But apparently under San Francisco D.A. Brooke Jenkins' regime, we may have such a rule in San Francisco.

Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony, the Walgreens security guard who shot Banko Brown at the store last week, was released without charges. The Chronicle reports:

On Monday, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement that “the evidence clearly shows that the suspect believed he was in mortal danger and acted in self-defense.” ....

“We reviewed witness statements, statements from the suspect, and video footage of the incident and it does not meet the People’s burden to be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury that the suspect is guilty of a crime. We cannot bring forward charges when there is credible evidence of reasonable self-defense,” Jenkins said in a statement. “Doing so would be unethical and create false hope for a successful prosecution.”

In the incident that led to Brown’s killing, “both threats of force and physical force were used,” she told The Chronicle, declining to divulge further details including whether Brown was allegedly armed. ...

Without further explanation, it sure seems that an armed security guard has a license to shoot an accused shoplifter. The cops seem to endorse that conclusion:

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said Friday that the shooting was “a shoplift that went bad. The person that was shot was allegedly shoplifting and it was a confrontation and the shooting happened from there.”

The Brown family and Banko's friends deserve more answers from the city. This homeless transgender youth was not anonymous in his world. He had friends, a lot of friends. A crowd held a vigil in his memory on Monday outside the Market Street store.

They recalled Brown as a kind and dedicated member of San Francisco’s transgender community, who’d worked extensively with the Young Women’s Freedom Center, which works to reduce the incarceration of young women and transgender youth.

Brown “was a connector,” said Julia Arroyo, the center’s executive director.

“He was constantly doing outreach, bringing people into YWFC,” she said. Brown struggled with housing, often feeling unsafe in city shelters or other programs, she said, and often said he wanted to be housed with other transgender San Franciscans.

There wasn't enough sanctuary in this famously liberal city for this unhoused youth ...