When the most important verdict in his state's recent history came down, Gov. Rick Scott was a thousand miles away in New York. He didn't exactly rush back to Tallahassee to face protestors upset at George Zimmerman's acquittal, finally returning to the capital on Tuesday, but quickly decamping for the Panhandle. Yesterday, Scott at last met protestors and addressed the media.
Scott heard out the protestors for half an hour before announcing there'd be no special session to consider Stand Your Ground and reaffirming that he supports the law. That meeting came after storming out of an earlier press conference after answering a single question about the law.
The awkward exchange with reporters came in Tampa earlier on Thursday, where Scott had traveled to talk about the Bollywood awards coming to town. When a reporter instead asked about Stand Your Ground, this happened:
Later, Scott traveled to Tallahassee and met with seven members of the Dream Defenders, a group that has staged a sit-in at the capital to demand that Stand Your Ground be taken off the books.
Scott had earlier said he wouldn't meet with the group, but apparently changed his mind after talking to Trayvon Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton.
The group's leaders talked to the governor for about half an hour, but left empty handed.
"It did not end the way we wanted it to," Phillip Agnew, the group's executive director, told supporters on a video stream after the meeting.
Scott listened to their concerns but said he still supports the law and won't call legislators back to Tally to reconsider it.
"I believe Stand Your Ground should stay in the books," Scott told the group, the Herald reports.
The protestors have promised to keep their sit-in going.
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