Why is George Zimmerman allowed to roam free tonight?

garion333 wrote:

Stand your Ground timeline infographic: http://awesome.good.is/transparency/...

Pretty much.

That situation with the drunk who accidentally walked into the wrong house? That happened to me. My next door neighbor who died of brain cancer last year was pretty easily disoriented near the end and actually did walk into my house in the middle of the night thinking it was his place.

Stand your ground law or no, it is pretty unlikely I would have shot him, but there are more than a dozen folks I know that probably would have.

There is nothing new about this tragedy. I almost got fired from a job in 1987 because I thought it was horrific that a guy waited on his property in ambush of a motorcyclist who rode on the edge of his property. The landowner shot the motorcyclist dead as the man rode on the property. The guy probably never saw the gun.

Landowner got off on some BS that the motorcyclist was damaging his property and it was posted.

Not only did a nut job legally murder someone, my boss thought that thought it was OK and would be a warning to others.

I suggested that my boss post his land so I would not walk on it by accident and get murdered. He didn't take that too well.

City of Sanford has released a statement.

Petri at the WP wrote a column that pretty much sums up how I feel about it.

We live in a terrified age. You can’t ride a bicycle without a helmet. You can’t knock on your neighbor’s door. You can’t go on the Internet and talk to strangers beause the People You Don’t Know are Bad and Dangerous.

Not as dangerous as you are. You stab and stab at the shadowy Beast and discover it is nothing but a scared boy running along the beach.

Nice people don’t have racism, these days. What they have is something else. Localized fear. Fear of the life outside the gates. You go here. We’ll go here. This is your street. This is my street. This is my school. This is your school. Stay where you don’t look Out Of Place to George Zimmerman, and you’ll be safe.

This amped up shock jock radio fueled fearmongering has gone far enough. Seriously.

Paleocon wrote:

City of Sanford has released a statement.

I read it. What a load of horse sh*t.

Can't help but notice his convenient FAQ left off the question "why wasn't Zimmerman tested for drugs & alcohol?".

Spin, baby, spin.

Zimmerman’s statement was that he had lost sight of Trayvon and was returning to his truck to meet the police officer when he says he was attacked by Trayvon.

lol, yeah, sure, George. A 140 lb 17 year old kid attacked a 250 lb adult, with what, his bag of skittles? Martin was scared, and running.

Also, NO ONE CALLED TRAYVON'S GIRLFRIEND, who was on the phone with him when it happened.

Yup. City of Sanford has a pantload to answer for. The PD had his cell phone which was ringing off the hook while his body was rotting in the morgue for three days as "John Doe". WTF? Why not answer that question, Chief Lee?

Just watched an ABC News clip on it. Police didn't even bother sending a homicide detective to the shooting. They sent a narcotics detective.

Seriously, this is f*cked beyond belief. This community has a right to be outraged.

One cannot objectively look at this, and see it as anything but a police department not giving a sh*t about a dead black kid. This reeks of everything the African-American community is upset about.

Did we time travel back to 1955?

Jeff-66 wrote:

Just watched an ABC News clip on it. Police didn't even bother sending a homicide detective to the shooting. They sent a narcotics detective.

Seriously, this is f*cked beyond belief. This community has a right to be outraged.

One cannot objectively look at this, and see it as anything but a police department not giving a sh*t about a dead black kid. This reeks of everything the African-American community is upset about.

Did we time travel back to 1955?

This is truly coming across as some epic police incompetence at best and a possible deliberate cover up. If this were to have happened in a civilized state, there wouldn't be a single person in that department not facing a state inspector general's investigation.

So, let me get this straight.

I can't exercise my constitutionally protected first amendment rights by holding a placard in a park without getting arrested for terrorism, but I can chase down a unarmed black kid who I outweigh by 110 pounds and shoot him (presumably with my expanded 2nd Amendment rights under Florida law) and it is illegal for the police to arrest me.

Great fcuking country.

Paleocon wrote:

So, let me get this straight.

I can't exercise my constitutionally protected first amendment rights by holding a placard in a park without getting arrested for terrorism, but I can chase down a unarmed black kid who I outweigh by 110 pounds and shoot him (presumably with my expanded 2nd Amendment rights under Florida law) and it is illegal for the police to arrest me.

Great fcuking country.

SERIOUSLY.

Also I'm heavily leaning towards cover up. This is so far past negligence...I don't even know how that's possible. Granted, maybe it's just a cover up of negligence but some of this has to be deliberate.

SixteenBlue wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

So, let me get this straight.

I can't exercise my constitutionally protected first amendment rights by holding a placard in a park without getting arrested for terrorism, but I can chase down a unarmed black kid who I outweigh by 110 pounds and shoot him (presumably with my expanded 2nd Amendment rights under Florida law) and it is illegal for the police to arrest me.

Great fcuking country.

SERIOUSLY.

Also I'm heavily leaning towards cover up. This is so far past negligence...I don't even know how that's possible. Granted, maybe it's just a cover up of negligence but some of this has to be deliberate.

That Chief Lee reminds me of Dabney Coleman's character in that movie Amos and Andrew.

Oh, for the love of God...

"We are taking a beating over this. This is all very unsettling. I'm sure if George Zimmerman had the opportunity to relive Sunday, Feb. 26, he'd probably do things differently. I'm sure Trayvon would, too." Bill Lee, Chief of Police, Sanford, FL.

Are you kidding me?

What exactly did Trayvon do wrong?

Phoenix Rev wrote:

Oh, for the love of God...

"We are taking a beating over this. This is all very unsettling. I'm sure if George Zimmerman had the opportunity to relive Sunday, Feb. 26, he'd probably do things differently. I'm sure Trayvon would, too." Bill Lee, Chief of Police, Sanford, FL.

Are you kidding me?

What exactly did Trayvon do wrong?

That response blows my mind.

I am sure that Trayvon would have loved nothing more than to relive that day, if for no other reason than to, you know, live. Seeing as how he is dead. Because of a f*cking waste of a human.

Phoenix Rev wrote:

Oh, for the love of God...

"We are taking a beating over this. This is all very unsettling. I'm sure if George Zimmerman had the opportunity to relive Sunday, Feb. 26, he'd probably do things differently. I'm sure Trayvon would, too." Bill Lee, Chief of Police, Sanford, FL.

Are you kidding me?

What exactly did Trayvon do wrong?

This whole situation has the potential to blow up really bad. Marches were held today for Trayvon in Miami, and NYC, and it's possible calls for justice will spread, and if things don't play out in a certain way -- it could lead to a serious situation.

Right now, I'm glad the U.S. Justice Dept is involved, and not these incompetent hicks in Sanford.

Clearly he chose the wrong skin for that day. Instead of black and chic, he should have chosen metallic and bulletproof.

This columnist raises an interesting point:

I couldn’t help but notice today is the 7th anniversary of the day when the United States Senate stepped in to weigh the justice of another set of laws in Florida. Back then the Federal government intervened in a state matter on behalf of the parents of Terri Schiavo, to enact Terri’s Law II, authorizing her parents to seek a federal court review of whether Terri’s rights have been protected. Is it perhaps true, that laws are not always just?

This memory also made me wonder, where all of Florida’s pious, white, christian-conservatives are now…Those who held constant vigil around Terry’s parents? Why is all the right-to-life bluster so much more zealous when applied to zygotes and those barely clinging to a life they never wanted. Is the life of a vibrant teenage boy somehow less valuable?

CNN has a video up of an audio expert trying to isolate the words of Zimmerman on one piece of the 911 call. Some say he says "f***ing coons" but you will have to decide for yourself.

Like I said, even without the racial aspect, this case stinks to high heaven.

Jeff-66 wrote:

This whole situation has the potential to blow up really bad. Marches were held today for Trayvon in Miami, and NYC, and it's possible calls for justice will spread, and if things don't play out in a certain way -- it could lead to a serious situation.

London burned last summer lit by a smaller match than this.

Boy, I wish I saw more white people in that march.

My wife listened to the 911 call where you can hear Trayvon begging for his life and it really unnerved her. It's infuriating and terrifying to think that my beautiful son who everybody says is so cute now (he's 18 months) will someday soon be viewed as dangerous simply because of the color of his skin.

There is a lot of talk right now in the black community specifically, but in a lot of communities about "The talk". This is the talk that parents give their sons (mostly minority but I think lots of young men get the talk these days) about what to do and not to do in certain situations, how to talk to police and how to respond to potential danger and bad situations. I know for most of the black community, the talk mainly consists of what you do and don't say to police, the places in town you should never be in past dark, and the ways in which you can try to be as inoffensive as possible. In the end, f*ck pride, you just want your kid to come home in one piece but it really grates that we're still having to have this talk.

But this deep, bone-chilling fear that I have (and frankly, a lot of middle class black folks with kids have) is that that next bullet might be for us or our kids. That at any point in time, we can be murdered while walking down the street by the people who are supposed to protect us and our family might not have any recourse. That no matter what we do, we cannot protect our own children from crazy evil that wears their supposed authority like a force field.

I can't even listen to the 911 call. I can't handle it. My wife cried like a baby and held our son all night and she NEVER cries. Ever.

Feels bad, man. Feels bad. =0(

Benticore wrote:

My wife listened to the 911 call where you can hear Trayvon begging for his life and it really unnerved her. It's infuriating and terrifying to think that my beautiful son who everybody says is so cute now (he's 18 months) will someday soon be viewed as dangerous simply because of the color of his skin.

There is a lot of talk right now in the black community specifically, but in a lot of communities about "The talk". This is the talk that parents give their sons (mostly minority but I think lots of young men get the talk these days) about what to do and not to do in certain situations, how to talk to police and how to respond to potential danger and bad situations. I know for most of the black community, the talk mainly consists of what you do and don't say to police, the places in town you should never be in past dark, and the ways in which you can try to be as inoffensive as possible. In the end, f*ck pride, you just want your kid to come home in one piece but it really grates that we're still having to have this talk.

But this deep, bone-chilling fear that I have (and frankly, a lot of middle class black folks with kids have) is that that next bullet might be for us or our kids. That at any point in time, we can be murdered while walking down the street by the people who are supposed to protect us and our family might not have any recourse. That no matter what we do, we cannot protect our own children from crazy evil that wears their supposed authority like a force field.

I can't even listen to the 911 call. I can't handle it. My wife cried like a baby and held our son all night and she NEVER cries. Ever.

Feels bad, man. Feels bad. =0(

It is a disgusting thing. I just don't understand why race is still an issue in 2012, but it undeniably is.

Phoenix Rev wrote:

Oh, for the love of God...

"We are taking a beating over this. This is all very unsettling. I'm sure if George Zimmerman had the opportunity to relive Sunday, Feb. 26, he'd probably do things differently. I'm sure Trayvon would, too." Bill Lee, Chief of Police, Sanford, FL.

Are you kidding me?

What exactly did Trayvon do wrong?

Clearly, he wasn't pushing a lawnmower.

edit: This sort of crap really does remind me of the joke one horribly racist cop told me once that Amadou Diallo should change his name to Amadou What You Tell Me Next Time.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20...

The Sanford City Commission voted 3-2 that it had no confidence in Police Chief Bill Lee Jr. over his handling of the Trayvon Martin shooting Wednesday.

Velma Williams, the city’s only black commissioner, said she spent 15 years trying to bring together the black community and white community, and the Martin episode has taken an emotional toll.

“And now this. It’s a national embarrassment," she said.

Commissioners cannot fire Lee, as he reports to City Manager Norton Bonaparte Jr.

Williams implied that if Bonaparte doesn't fire Lee, she would review his contract the next time it comes up for renewal.

Bonaparte said he will take the commissioners' "strong statement" under advisement, according to the Orlando Sentinel, and said he wants to wait for the Department of Justice and the Brevard-Seminole State Attorney's Office to finish their investigations before he acts.

So, apparently, 40% of the city council still thinks he's doing a good job.

Malor wrote:

So, apparently, 40% of the city council still thinks he's doing a good job.

Well, according to their statements, they say they want to wait until the investigation before rendering a judgment. Sort of like if I blew a .18 after crashing my car into a shopping mall full of kids gathering for a birthday party at Build-a-Bear, they'd reserve judgment until after I had my day in court.

Malor wrote:

Boy, I wish I saw more white people in that march.

I thought the exact same thing and not just the marches, but the various indoor gatherings I've seen pictures of in Sanford. Where are all those good white Christian folks now?

Benticore wrote:

I can't even listen to the 911 call. I can't handle it. My wife cried like a baby and held our son all night and she NEVER cries. Ever.

Feels bad, man. Feels bad. =0(

I too, am very sorry that you still have to have this talk in 2012, and that this level of injustice still takes place. I sincerely hope that the Justice Dept will do right by Trayvon and the African-American community, and I really hope everyone involved (from the Sanford PD) in this 'investigation' is fired, or better yet charged with criminal neglect, if that's possible.

Jeff-66 wrote:

I thought the exact same thing and not just the marches, but the various indoor gatherings I've seen pictures of in Sanford. Where are all those good white Christian folks now?

Picketing abortion clinics for condoning murder?

And to think that Florida was among the states that petitioned the Justice Department to remove the restrictions on Southern states articulated in the Voting Rights Act on the basis that "there ain't no more racism in the South".

Great.

I thought the exact same thing and not just the marches, but the various indoor gatherings I've seen pictures of in Sanford. Where are all those good white Christian folks now?

I'm pretty antisocial, but if I lived there, I'd be out there with a sign. That is some messed up sh*t.

edit: well, maybe not with a sign. But I'd be there.