How Race, Gender, and Violence Played a Role in the Case of Renisha Mcbride

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Marie Mathon Professor Leyro Soc 220 16 August 2014 Race, Gender, Violence, and Renisha McBride A courtroom in Detroit was packed with people on Thursday August 7, 2014 waiting for the jury’s to read a verdict in a murder case against Theodore Wafer. After only 8 hours of deliberations, jurors found Theodore Wafer guilty of second degree murder for killing Renisha McBride, a 19-year old African American woman, on his porch on November 2, 2013. McBride had been drinking hours before her death and had crashed her vehicle close to a half mile from Wafer's residence. She then walked towards Wafer’s residence and loudly knocked on the windows and doors of Wafer’s home. Theodore Wafer awoke to “unbelievable.” (White) pounding on his door and thought his home was about to be burglarized. Fearing for his life, he reached for his weapon and opened the door and fired a shotgun blast through his screen door, hitting McBride in her face. McBride had drunk vodka and smoked marijuana in the evening of Nov. 1st at home. Her mother than said, she and McBride argued because McBride had not cleaned the house. Mcbride became angry and left the house by car roughly 11:15 p.m. Shortly after leaving her home, she crashed her vehicle into Carmen Beasley’s car, at approximately 1 am. Beasley said she tried to get McBride to stay put as they waited for the police and ambulance, but McBride vanished. “She just wanted to go home,” Beasley testified. “She wasn’t belligerent. She was young and she just wanted to be at home. That was her goal, to be home.” (Friess) Although Theodore Wafer was wrong for killing an unarmed teen on his porch on November 2, 2013, think about it from a different point of view. She was young, underage, and under the influence. She probably left to go find alternative help or contact her family so she could avoid being charged with underage drinking

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