You don’t have any problem to walking up to a group of teenage black male basketball players and saying, “You boys are playing well.”. You don’t think they might be offended?
The initial report of 250 lbs. turned out to be wrong, but 170 seems too light. A Zimmerman family member said he weighed around 190 at the time of the incident:
My guess is the man shown in the police video weighed at least 200 lbs.
No, that’s ridiculous. Observe: A boys’ basketball team. Such ignomy!
not in the slightest.
Really, this is ridiculous.
17 year old males are boys. They are not men. I never said anything about callling anyone boy.
And when black people talk to each other they will use terms that will be offensive if a white person uses them . Explain to me exactly why it is different to use a term behind their back that you won’t use to their face?
For the record, Trayvon Martin turned 17 three weeks before he was murdered.
Did he kiss Elaine Benes?
And you are assuming that Trayvon was going to stop doing stupid things in 11 months when turned 18? You are assuming that that Trayvon had no responsibility for his actions. Even teenagers are supposed to know the difference between right and wrong and know that you aren’t supposed to go around punching people out. The is why we have to option of trying teenagers as adults.
I suspect Trayvon knew exactly why Martin was eyeing him and it pissed him off. “Why are you following me?” is not something you say to somebody you think is a mugger. When Zimmerman didn’t flash a badge, then Martin punched him.
Because it is.
I do not go up to strange teenagers and strike up conversations out of the blue. By mutual consent.
Occasionally, I have cause to say something, such as “Watch out for that patch of vomit” or “Do you know whose baby this is?” or “Whoa, that’s a large snake!”* In this case, adding the term Boy doesn’t make any more sense than adding the term Woman or Man or Man Dressed Poorly in Woman’s Clothing Who Really Isn’t Putting in the Effort to be a Transsexual. Jeez, I don’t even say boy to an unknown six-year-old, who I suppose is a boy even by your standards. I might say hon.
I am also afraid that if I did not know the person, I would inadvertently call a youthful-looking 25-year-old a boy.
And teenagers don’t necessarily like to be reminded that they are teenagers. It can come off as condescending (so can calling them, directly, men or young men. Best to just call them by name.)
I do, however, say things like “How’s your boy?” to mothers.
But we have spent far too much too much time on this tangent, which I suppose you intend to show that Trayvon had the common sense and the savvy of any grown adult out in the world and thus is responsible for his own death. And it’s ridiculous.
*All samples of conversation in this part are actual things that I have uttered to unknown teenaged black boys in my neighborhood. I should move.
Wouldn’t it piss you off? But I’m sure they have stick-up boys (huh. there’s another term) in Florida, and I’m sure Trayvon had heard of Jeffrey Dahmer, if not John Wayne Gacy and Dean Corll. Lots of reasons to be scared of someone who follows you in a car, then appears on foot.
He wouldn’t have a front holster with that jacket. A front draw is something he might wear with a sweat shirt. I figure an inside the pants side draw holster or a small of the back rig like the picture I linked to. If he had a side draw, then he shouldn’t have a problem drawing unless he couldn’t get his right arm free. Of course the bond hearing suggests a different scenario.
That would be consistent with a side draw holster and would explain why Martin could see the pistol. Zimmerman just couldn’t get a hand free until Martin tried to suffocate him. The State’s questions imply that they didn’t find Martin’s fingerprints on the pistol or they are just implying that Martin couldn’t have both hands on Zimmerman’s face and fighting for the firearm at the same time. Also not being able to breathe would explain Zimmerman’s panic. It is amazing how scary it can be to not be able to breathe.
Have the autopsy results shed any light on what happened (including any ballistics tests)?
One cannot scream and suffocate at the same time, but during the one 9-11 call, there is fairly continuous screaming–loud, not muffled-- for the two minutes immediately prior to the gunshot.
If Zimmerman was the one screaming for help, he could not have had Martin’s hands blocking his airway (at least not effectively)
If Martin was blocking Zimmerman’s airway, then Martin would have been the one screaming for help.
To me, btw, the screams do not sound as if actual blows were being exchanged. If you are screaming while being punched or having your head knocked against the ground, the screams will sound sort of punctuated. I could imagine that screaming happening while two people wrestle over a gun, though.
Autopsy hasn’t been released yet.
I would have called 911 as soon as I saw somebody eyeing me. Waiting until you are sure you have a problem before you call 911 is stupid. Just being seen making a phone call is enough deter some people. I’ve never gotten into a fight with a stranger in my entire life. I’m not a pacifist. I just don’t see the upside. I also don’t give corrective hand gestures to people who cut me off in traffic. No upside.
I never heard the term stick up boys. Is armed robbery common enough where you live to need a special term?
Are you seventeen?
And yes, I used to live in Baltimore.
It was 45 seconds and it wasn’t continuous. I mapped it out from the 911 recording. When I deleted the non screaming parts I have 15 seconds left before the gunshots.
Now that you mention it, the last scream might be Martin when he feels the muzzle against his chest. When I removed the non-screaming parts, the last two screams sound completely different. My first reaction when I heard it was, “That is two different guys or somebody got kicked in the balls really hard.”.
that’s not how it’s being used in this discussion. Nobody is addressing anyone in the first person pronoun. “Boy” is correct. “Teenager” is correct. “Young man” is correct. None of these would be used in the first person because it wouldn’t make sense unless you’re old and addressed someone as “young man”.
Do you know the names of three streets? That includes the one you live on too.
CMC fnord!
When I was 17, 911 didn’t exist much less cell phones. My parents commented that I had a had a rather abnormal adolescence. They kept waiting for me to go nuts like my brother and sister, but it never happened. I guess I can’t really comment on the feelings of normal teenagers. Frankly I don’t remember anybody at my school acting like teenagers do now. The bad boys were the one’s smoking cigarettes behind the gym. I remember when Mike and Billy tried to put their shotguns in their school locker, but they just got chewed out by the vice-principal. “I don’t care if the XXXXXX lock on your XXXXXXX truck is broken. You can’t bring you shotguns into the school.” Different world.