In a disgusting if not surprising development, George Zimmerman has been found not guilty of killing Trayvon Martin. For coverage, see here.
Discuss, post links, etc below.
EDIT: This is a troll-free thread. If you’re coming here to gloat over the verdict, to use the verdict as an excuse to trash women or feminism, or post racist garbage, don’t. If you want to argue that the verdict was just and/or we live in a post-racial society, go somewhere else. None of us are in the mood for that bullshit.
I no longer wonder why my two sons are not so keen on
going for long walks in our neighborhood – or anywhere, for that matter. Bear country – if you’re a black male in the USA, everywhere you go is bear country. And a frightened bear is a dangerous bear.
RE: Robert
*sigh* Yeah. Poor kid. Almost makes me want to believe in an afterlife, just so he gets some justice SOMEWHERE.
Also, totally off-topic, but I can’t get gravatar to work. It looks like I’m stuck with the little green randomized splotch, y’all.
Lensman, your discomfort with the fact that racists exist is not a good reason to stigmatize mentally ill people who aren’t racists or murderers. Again, by talking about some imaginary mental illness you’re shifting the focus away from the fact that racism alone is often enough to motivate people to murder, because one of the things that characterizes virulent racists is that they don’t think people of races other than their own are actually people.
@ Shadow
(Hugs)
Took me a while to get gravatar to work too LBT, and it takes a while to update. What do you seem to be having trouble with?
What I don’t understand is how everyone is missing the obvious: If Zimmerman didn’t go after Trayvon, Trayvon wouldn’t be dead. He might have had to talk to the cops a bit, but still, better than dead. Regardless of what happened during the altercation, Zimmerman created that situation. And then he used that situation to get away with killing a kid.
And yeah, for anyone who’s still not seeing the way racism shapes this public conversation, imagine that Martin had been armed too. He was being followed around by some guy he’d never met before who was acting in a strange, aggressive way. If Zimmerman had approached and Martin had then turned around and shot him, what do you think the chances of him being acquitted would have been? The way the laws are interpreted depends on who the person “standing their ground” is.
@ SittieKitty
The way that a significant percentage of the public are reacting to this case is based on the underlying belief that Zimmerman had a right to stand his ground against the fact that there was a black kid in his neighborhood. Sorry, apologists, but there’s no way to spin the stuff that you’re saying that hides that rancid, fucked up way of seeing the world.
RE: CassandraSays
*snrk* My old roommate used to joke that any day now, they’d make Chronic Assholism into a DSM diagnosis, but it is yet to occur.
RE: SittieKitty
Gravatar just never sends me the confirmation email, so I can’t ever activate it.
LBT — you check your spam folder?
RE: Argenti
Yup. Nothing. The email just never comes.
Anonymous: Bwahaha, why am I not surprised that the manboobz losers are upset with this (straightforward, correct, evident) verdict.
You people are hopeless degenerates. There’s just no getting through to you, no matter what the topic-du-jour is.
Tell me, please, why you are upset with it.
Assuming, Arguendo, that it’s (legally) correct, what is it about it that you think isn’t worthy of disdain?
How, I wonder, did you feel about the OJ verdict?
Me, I happen to think the one was right, and the other wrong.
I think that based on the laws in place.
But you, you seem to think the Zimmerman Verdict (I keep thinking of the Zimmerman Telegram), is somehow laudable.
Do you think stalking black teens is to the social good?
Darth Conans
Actually, they care for a bit more than that.
Since Zimmerman didn’t try to exercise the “Stand Your Ground” defense, he has a different burden, and the burden is moderately high. On purely legal grounds I don’t see a legitimate claim to self-defense; not least of which because he initiated the situation, and was armed.
Here’s a longer take on it: The Zimmerman Verdict Was Bullshit
I’m pretty down today. I’ve been arguing on the phone with my girlfriend. She steadfastly refuses to acknowledge that Martin was targeted by Zimmerman because of race. She just denies that race played a part in this event at all. I’m stunned by what I perceive to be her utter obtuseness and mindless white privilege. We agree to disagree, but I’m not feeling good about it… Can I even “be with” someone who is so blind? Maybe off topic, but I’m as upset about the division between us as I am about my disappointment with the verdict.
@La Strega
Could it be an idea to point out that, even if Zimmerman was some entirely non-racist person who decided Martin was suspect, the verdict, how long it took to even question Zimmerman’s account, and the media narrative about the case were pretty obviously the results of racism?
And that whole “the witness can’t read cursive” shit…
Everyone else here is probably thrilled Zimmerman got off (if they know yet, they’ve had the decency not to cheer in front of me), that though? My brother “so? I can’t read cursive either”
RE: Argenti
Yeah. I can read cursive, but that’s probably in part due to who I’m married to. Lots of people can’t read cursive; it’s not exactly COMMON these days.
Oh dear gods Mac’s handwriting! Better than lawyer cursive though! (I can read it because I tend to write it when taking notes…except I can’t always read my own handwriting…)
And I suspect no one would be able to read pecunium’s cursive, his printing is enough of a nightmare!
Seriously though, how is “unable to read cursive” even remotely related to “is a reliable witness”?
I’m very good at reading cursive — because medical handwriting is some of the worst there is and trying to interpret notes is a skill lol. But that’s not even proper cursive, not by a long shot.
RE: SittieKitty
Oh lord, I worked in durable medical equipment for a while. I got very good at reading prescriptions, but there was this one doctor who took all his notes BY HAND and it was just… INCOMPREHENSIBLE. Like, with my speed-reading and the help of my supervisor, we managed to decipher ‘Hallux’ and ‘callus,’ and said fuck it, that’d just have to do.
What was so funny (and by funny I mean sad) about that whole, “OMG SHE CAN’T READ CURSIVE!” stuff is that I saw some of it on websites that had previously published articles talking about how cursive is unnecessary and should not be taught in school anymore. Oh, the hypocrisy.
I don’t have much to say that hasn’t already been said. Pecunium, I completely agree with you re: self-defense that made absolutely no sense to me (and how on earth could he demonstrate such? Shouldn’t Zimmerman have had the burden of proof there?) I don’t understand why, WHY, the only thing the jury was supposed to consider was the moment of the shooting, and nothing that led up to it. WTF sense does that make??
I really thought they’d go for manslaughter. I was floored by the aquittal. Fucking floored. I just… I can’t even. Fucking racist bullshit. I don’t get it. I don’t get this at all. I don’t know what to do with my anger here.
Marie, the DA might get a lot of things for free but they generally have the harder job of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt vs. providing any doubt.
Anyways, Zimmerman’s trial was mostly paid for by his “fans” (barf) so I’m not sure why the cost of trial has anything to do with this.
I’ve been seething over this all day. I was among the naive ones who thought that he’d at least get manslaughter.
It scares me too. I have African American relatives, and the thought of losing one of my cousins to some racist asshole makes my stomach tighten.
Marie
I can (and do) say he got away with murder. I’ve read the statute. I’ve read the presented evidence. I’ve come to an informed decision.
If you think people don’t do that, then tell me about Lizzie Borden.
“the DA might get a lot of things for free but they generally have the harder job of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt vs. providing any doubt.
But the core if a self-defense claim is admitting you did the thing in question, in this case, Zimmerman saying that yep, he shot Martin. And then you aren’t innocent until proven guilty anymore, you just admitted to being guilty. Now it’s on you to prove beyond that reasonable doubt that you acted in self-defense.
Of course, yeah, beyond a reasonable doubt is a very high standard. On one hand, he shouldn’t have been able to meet it considering wtf he did. On the other…there’s a reason OJ lt the civil court case, the burden of proof is lower.
Pecunium — Marie was Pell. But I agree.