Open Thread: Zimmerman Verdict

Me.

I really, really wish I was shocked.

And:

Hard data shows that recent U.S. laws make it easy for blacks to be gunned down without anyone being found guilty of murder.

While I’m not surprised, that doesn’t make this verdict any less wrong or fucked up.

Nope, too angry to talk about this.

I just finished breastfeeding a few weeks ago. I’ll take that whiskey.

“A [b]six-woman[/b] jury found neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman not guilty of murdering unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, in a racially-charged trial that has transfixed the United States.”

(bold added)

Huh, I wonder what the MRM will make of that. Does this prove that all women are horrible racist murderer lovers, or will their racism make them defend Zimmerman and assume these were the only six not horrible women in the world?

Skybison, earlier the MRM argued that Zimmerman wasn’t getting a jury of his peers because the jury was all women. Women are not the peers of men, don’tchaknow.

But yeah, I’m sure they’ll try to (a) pretend they give a shit about black men, as long as (b) they can use it as a club against women.

Probably the correct verdict from a legal perspective, unfortunately. We can all see that it’s blatantly immoral and tragic to follow a teenager around, ignore police instructions to leave him alone, and then either confront him or freak him out so much that he confronts you, then shoot him when things escalate. Unfortunately, it’s not quite illegal. I’d suggest modifying our self-defense laws so that this defense cannot be used in situations where the person claiming self-defense obviously and directly ignored police instructions and put themselves in danger, and broadening duty to retreat to also include a duty not to be blatantly threatening and provocative but such a law wasn’t in place when Zimmerman shot Trayvon.
The worst part of all of this is going to be watching Fox news and everyone else on the right doing a little victory dance and acting like the fact that the law doesn’t allow convictions for racist jackassery resulting in the death of an innocent somehow does away with the blatant immorality of Zimmerman’s behavior.
I’m slightly unsure what you’re trying to say, cloudiah? The fact that a racist jury might have convicted a black kid in the same situation doesn’t really seem to influence the legal correctness of the verdict.

Darth, blatantly false. Ignoring police instructions, following a teenager around, those are choices. Those are premeditated actions. They aren’t spur of the moment. Saying “they always get away with…” shows a mindset. Confronting/stalking a teenaged kid when you have a gun, in a racially charged location such as the southern States, is an aggressive move. Zimmerman knew all about cop procedure, he’s taught classes. He has no excuse and should have been found guilty. He murdered that kid, and he didn’t do it by surprise or in self-defence. (If his testimony is to be believed) he created the situation where Trayvon defended himself against an older, white man following him around in his own neighbourhood, and then murdered him because of it.

How is following a kid around with a gun self-defense? What kind of ass-backwards logic is that?

“Legal correctness” that changes based on the race of the accused is neither legal nor correct.