I have had all this stuff swirling in my head, and it's making me a little crazy. I don't know why I can't just let it go like everyone else. I want to grab people by their face and shake them.
A. You have no clue what happened in the Trayvon Martin shooting. NO CLUE. The EVIDENCE (that stuff you demand we use when we're trying to convict a guy with multiple priors) suggests that George Zimmerman was mounted and having his head slammed into the ground. If you don't carry a gun, try to imagine that you do for a second. You're on the edge of conciousness because someone is slamming your head on the ground (by the way, mounting someone and slamming their head into the ground is not a "self defense" technique, thats what an aggressor does). Your last thought should be "if I lose conciousness, this guy is going to take my gun and kill me". Sounds fair. I'm not going to say whether or not Zimmerman should have gotten out of his car, because I wasn't there. I don't know. I will say that it's DOCUMENTED that the community was having a rash of burglaries being committed by African American boys. And let's be real for a minute, this is all about race. If Zimmerman had killed me after the community was having a rash of burglaries committed by a blond/blue white guy, you people would be celebrating him. ALSO, IT'S NOT MURDER. It's manslaughter. Stop calling him a murderer. Why can't we find any pictures of Trayvon after his 12th birthday? The media wants me to believe that he was coming home from leading a church service for orphans, right? Show me. Show me his good character. Show me that Zimmerman had to take his KKK hood off before taking the shot. OR, if you can't, stop painting the situation like that. Since George Zimmerman is the only prejudiced person left in the world, and the rest of us are so open minded it defies reality, then you won't have any problem reading this with your "open mind".
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/25/us-usa-florida-shooting-zimmerman-idUSBRE83O18H20120425
The worst part, quoted directly from the article:
"Let's talk about the elephant in the room. I'm black, OK?" the woman said,
declining to be identified because she anticipated backlash due to her race. She
leaned in to look a reporter directly in the eyes. "There were black boys
robbing houses in this neighborhood," she said. "That's why George was
suspicious of Trayvon Martin."
"declining to be identified because she anticipated backlash due to her race." Probably not from the white folk. How does Zimmerman get so much press that you've heard all about it, but this gets none:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/04/24/Mobile-AL-Justice-For-Trayvon
Yep, good thing America has no more race problems. Unless you were there, don't judge Zimmerman. Oh, and the judge thinking about revoking his bail is crap too. He's not a threat to anyone. If he were a homicidal racist, he wouldn't have stuck around and waited for the police after shooting Trayvon.
B. College kids. Shut it. Your interest rates on your loans are going to go to 6.8%? Don't take loans. America is such an "entitlement" society, we wouldn't even consider working a full time job and paying a little bit at a time. Life owes you nothing. I owe you nothing. The world owes you nothing. I get to interact with most of you at work, and you're a bunch of slackers. The reason you graduate and can't find work is because you have dedicated your school time to partying and getting wasted. The kids who work hard in college and develop good life habits are getting the jobs you think life owes you. Also, I would be willing to bet that more than 3/4's of you have credit cards. So don't bitch about paying 6.8% on your student loan when you're carrying a Visa at 19.99%. You sound like an idiot.
I think that's it for now. I feel like I'm on an island of reason and common sense all by myself, and the rest of America is laughing at me from the decks of a ship half submerged and going down.
I can empathize with your frustration on both counts, my friend. I have been similarly incensed by the public reaction to the Martin/Zimmerman conflict. I felt vindicated in my perspective when the Reuters article that you mentioned was published. You alluded to the public criticism of the Sanford Police Department, an aspect of the story which has especially concerned me. What I doubt the general public realize is that the investigators treat police officers in the same way they treated Zimmerman. I am not saying that Zimmerman received special treatment; to the contrary, I am pointing out that police officers get no special treatment. If two people walk in and only one walks out, the only thing that should be used to deduce what happened is the evidence, not assumptions or public opinion.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, you and I are both aware that there is almost never a conflict in which both sides are blameless. Did Zimmerman make at least one poor decision? Doubtless. Did Martin make at least one bad decision? No question. The public does not seem to be able to comprehend that what happened could possibly be a shade of grey complicated by the fact that the entire incident took place in mere seconds. Cool headed investigators with time, perspective and without emotion ought to make the decision about whether to prosecute. The decision must not be based on how angry the public gets.
And as far as college kids: I'm going to leave that one alone for now, except to say that if you think things are bad in the US, look up the student riots going on in Quebec right now. Disgusting.