This wiki article should explain who Trayvon Martin is
“Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old African American who was shot and killed by 28-year-old George Zimmerman…”
I am surprised you had no idea of who he was, you have been posting quite a bit on threads about him.
All Human life has some value, from a newborn to a 100yo man in a hospice.
Now that we have cleared that up, maybe we can go back to the issues here?
Well, at least we know the decision to use the pictures they have is working.
The purpose behind using the picture is not to make TM’s life more or less valuable, it’s to get the public to follow the story because of its emotional appeal.
Seems to be working on you.
People are already following the story. Shooting an unarmed pedestrian is egregious whether he’s cute and 14 or not so cute and 17. If you have further commentary on why it matters, I’m waiting to hear it.
What is “it” in your response?
Martin’s appearance. The pictures you were talking about that show him when he was a couple of years younger.
To the guilt or innocence of Zimmerman? It doesn’t. To flaming the public’s emotional response in order to take a side before all the facts are in? it might matter a lot.
You can see how this story has really gone away now that some more recent photos of Martin have been published. The fact that people who wanted to support Zimmerman shared some incorrectly identified or fake photos is … also revealing.
Reveals what? That those who don’t jump on the “convict Zimmerman now, bandwagon” immediately are racists?
That’s also revealing.
Why did you shift the topic from “people who posted fake or misidentified photos” to “people who didn’t jump on the bandwagon?” Those are two very distinct groups of people.
I don’t recall claiming that there were fake or misidentified photos. And I didn’t make the jump. Some on this thread are insinuating that to NOT reflexively call for Zmns immediate conviction is to be a racist. It’s a common theme from liberals. I’m sure you’ve seen it before.
Who called for his immediate conviction?
I don’t know enough about the process, but what I’ve read (and rings true) is:
Part of the problem with going to the grand jury is a) it indicates the AG didn’t think there was enough evidemce to support criminal prosecution and b) what is (and, more importantly, what is not) presented to the grand jury will not be known to the public.
In other words, the case will be presented by those who have already indicated they don’t think a crime was committed.
Where in the heck did that come from?!
Oh, I see. They ‘insinuated’ it.
hey hoop–
for the record, i never once thought trayvon looked cute or innocent. i didn’t make any emotional inferences from the photos; i just thought it was a person.
furthermore, the newer photos of Zimmerman just make me think he was in much better shape and thus more capable of defending himself physically if it comes up (NOT WITH A GUN. just with his physical self. in the police video he looks downright fit–his legs and chest look like a dude who works out. on the flip side, being 6 ft tall and only weighing 140lbs make me think of a lanky, svelt person…not muscular and fit as Zimmerman appears).
i think you’re just being dismissive of the overall polarizing effect of the case.
you maybe should accept the possibility no one, regardless of age, sex or race really deserves to be shot over skittles, esp the facts being what they are. looks of neither party matter all that much–the facts speak volumes to the polarization of the events.
in my opinion, i find the most manipulative aspect of the case is the fact they keep calling Zimmerman a Neighborhood watch captain.
from the start, it was “neighborhood watchman kills kid.” only he wasn’t on “duty” or patrol when this went down. he was on his way home from a buddies (which, DrDeth–is a part of why people think he might have been intoxicated. you said there’s no indications to speculate he was–but that’s only true if you omit the fact he was socializing with a bud and driving home from said social occasion–and the fact experts analyze the 911 calls and find his speech patterns indicative of a drunk person. socializing doesn’t necessarily mean ‘drinking,’ but the police didn’t administer any field sobriety or other test. according to what some lawyers have said about the case, it’s protocol to test both parties in shooting cases…but they just didn’t this time. they DID test Martin but didn’t test Zimmerman. which is dubious).
i think it is vastly misleading to call him a neighborhood watchman in this case. he didn’t act as a neighborhood watchman and never identified himself as such. he, in fact, acted as a vigilante. he forewent the “watch” part and skipped to an aspect of neighborhood watchmanship that doesn’t exist: actively policing.
this is where the trouble started…
The answer to the question is that it is 99.99% about race.
Democrats use every opportunity to play the race card in order to intimidate, marginalize and recruit. Republicans…
a. push back on principal and
b. tend to see the guy as only one of however many got killed/shot/murdered that particular day
Democrats wave the bloody hoody and cry injustice; Republicans are willing to let justice take its course.
so if the boy was Caucasian, this wouldn’t be as big of a deal? outrage would be more limited, news coverage less and public outcry quieter?
needless to say, you can only speculate on this. but i’d say you’re speculating wrong.
i think it’s an unnecessary component to play the race card in this thing (it’s not a hate crime–it’s just profiling)…but it also *IS *a matter of ethnicity since Zimmerman’s friends and family attest to (and insist on) the fact he was on the lookout for “young black males” due to what they presume was fair and warranted profiling on his part. “they” were responsible for a string of crimes in the neighborhood, so he was on the lookout for “them” in particular. and it’s pretty easy to understand his zealous (nearly obsessive) pursuit of Martin had more to do with Trayvon being a suspicious **BLACK **person more than him just being a suspicious *human *in general. “these assholes always get away,” he said. that seems to indicate a predisposed position on “them.”
i’d venture to say if trayvon was a white boy, he’d be alive today. i don’t think it’d have provoked suspicion as much. his initial “suspicion” was that “trayvon looked messed up or something. yeah this guy’s definitely on drugs or something…”
why would you need to physically apprehend or accost someone who you think might be on drugs…? why even would you think that was a good idea??
i think Zimmerman would have either not paid attention or would have handled it with a more even-tempered practical attitude. i’m only basing that on the insistence his friends and family keep coming at us with…about how blacks were a problem in particular and raised red flags based on past crimes…
i think people are–and would be–outraged over the case simply because an innocent minor was stalked and killed by a person acting unilaterally against police advice (and…common sense and…logic) regardless of race.
but i think it *IS *a matter of race because part of zimmerman’s defense is “black people were guilty so i was looking for black people. and he was black. so that heightened suspicion.” that’s not the GP “making it” about race. it’s that zimmerman did.
Not wanting black children to be executed for no reason by white people is “playing the race card.” Noted.
The principle of white supremacy.
Of the forty people murdered on an average day in the US, how many involve the victim phoning his girlfriend beforehand to report being stalked by a crazy person, the murderer calling 911 beforehand to essentially report that he’s about to commit a murder, and the police finding the murderer standing over the victim with a gun afterwards, and, after all that, the murderer not being arrested? I would wager this is, in fact, a unique case.
Republicans post doctored photos to Chimpout.com and applaud the decision to not “let justice take its course” which began this controversy.
I’m tired of this talking point about letting the process work. The DA refused to charge him. He was going to get away with it until the public uproar forced the FBI to take over the case. The process didn’t work. “Just shut up and let the legal system takes its course” means, in this case, “just let racists shoot black kids and get away with it.”
Hey Jumpy
Good for you. Me neither.
I haven’t seen the pictures, so I’ll take your word for it.
That could be. I think more accurately is my thinking that the polarizing effect of the case is on purpose. For a variety of reasons.
What makes you think I don’t? This is what I mean. I’m just willing, as is most people I know, to let the investigation run its course. I don’t think that makes me terribly pensive, nor does it automatically make me a racist.
I’m willing to wait until we know as many facts as possible. Arent you?
One might say the polarization speaks volumes as well.
Let’s say for a moment that the picture you’ve painted is an entirely fair representation of the events. I know of no one, and I would make this claim for everyone on this board, who would NOT want zmn prosecuted as aggressively as necessary. The question is: do you paint a fair picture? Maybe so, maybe not.
[quote=“Condescending_Robot, post:78, topic:617036”]
Most people I know don’t want ANY children executed by ANYbody. You have a different view. Noted.
As illustrated by this comment.
:smack:
Do you have a link? I’m unfamiliar with this site.
Exactly.
Oh? You know this how? What would be their motivation if they have evidence to charge him but choose not to? What do they gain?
.I don’t even know where to begin with this.
Someone wrote something about polarization?