A judge in Miami rejected a self-defense claim by a white man who pulled a gun on Black teenage protesters and hurled racial slurs in an incident that was caught on video.
Circuit Judge Alberto Milian rejected Mark Bartlett’s claim that he was only protecting himself when the 54-year-old man got out of his SUV and pulled a firearm on a group of teen protesters who had held up traffic near the Brickell Bridge near downtown Miami.
The incident garnered national attention back in January of 2019 when the video of the confrontation went viral.
Bartlett and his fiancee, Dana Scalione, became angry after getting stuck in a traffic jam caused by the black teens blocking the roadway in downtown Miami as they protested a lack of affordable housing in Liberty City.
A video clip introduced in court showed Bartlett yelling “n—rs suck!” at the teens three times. Bartlett insisted that he was only responding to one of the young men in the group who called him a “cracker.”
Judge Milian declined to dismiss the case after a two-day “Stand Your Ground” hearing saying, “The use of racial comments shows he was simmering.”
“He was an angry man. He was inconvenienced. He wanted to go back to Broward County. There was no reasonable justification,” Judge Milian added.
Still receiving details. The earlier video was the *second* time she got out of the car to harass the teenagers. pic.twitter.com/lif03bR3SY
— Dream Defenders (@Dreamdefenders) January 22, 2019
