She said he “certainly” could be charged with stalking. Saying something is certain is a bit different from saying it is a reach. And obviously she was wrong, as several posters pointed out.
[QUOTE=Stoid]
…a dead 17 year old boy who was an excellent student with a bright future and no record of any kind.
[/QUOTE] Cite.
:shrugs:
As if it were going to make any difference to her.
I missed the thread the first time around, so I visited it for the first time last night. Shodan, I think you are misunderstanding the argument in that thread.
The question was whether the relative probability of an alleged crime having occurred could be accurately estimated based on existing statistics about that type of crime. In that thread, you with the face and monstro correctly insisted that the relative probability of an alleged event having occurred could not be accurately assessed based on the cited statistics. In that thread, Bricker’s assertion to the contrary was incorrect.
It’s clear that whatever your point is, it’s gone into a desperate, bizarro-world place. “Unjustified reliance on reports” is one of the silliest things I’ve read on this board in a long time.
OK. Someone comes to you with a hole in his leg about a quarter inch in diameter. It’s through-and-through.
Other people claim he was shot in the leg with a .22. He claims he was hit by a meteorite.
Do you think there is no way to determine which account is more likely to be true, based merely on the fact that meteorite hits are rare but shootings much less so?
While this scenario is not comparable in anyway to what was discussed in that aforementioned thread (here’s a hint: interracial rape is nothing like meteorite injuries), how is this argument any different than positing that Zimmerman’s story is fishy because unarmed people are less likely to instigate violent attacks against armed people than the other way around?
If you really put stock in this probablistic theory of yours, you should find it too difficult to believe in Zimmerman’s innocence. Do you?
I don’t know if I was wrong. The only way for me to conclusively know that he is not 250 lbs is for me to weigh him myself, preferably on a scale that’s recently been calibrated and within a year of its warranty. Alternatively, I could refer to media reports that now put his weight at around 190 lbs, but how do I know these reports are accurate? “Unjustified reliance on reports” is supposedly what got me in trouble the last time. Everything is a gamble.
Shit, I don’t even know if his name is really George Zimmerman. It could be Jorges Zimmerman. And Trayvon Martin’s real name might be Tray-tray Martinez. We just don’t know.
Shodan (and Bricker), I think it would be useful to have a separate thread primer on how statistics may be appropriately used to illuminate a single data point. In fact, I think folks mentioned doing so in the referenced Pit thread, although I don’t know whether that actually happened. I’m not going to do that here because I think this thread has sufficient material already without adding another topic.
My point above was just that I don’t think you (Shodan) remembered the subject of the argument in that particular thread. That clarification was already setting things off in a tangential direction, so I apologize for that.
you with the face, you are constantly making the same sort of assumptions you accuse Bricker of making. You assume that because Zimmerman was armed, he must have gone out looking for someone to shoot. You assume that, because he’s white (even assuming he does identify as white, something I’ve not seen confirmed) that the police department must be on his side, and that he must have had a racial motivation for his actions. Just as in the previous discussion, the likelihood of interracial rape should not affect the credibility of her statement, the likelihood of any of the things I’ve mentioned should not affect the credibility of Zimmerman’s statement.
There’s no way you can say that we should accept Crystal Magnum’s statement that she was the victim of a crime as credible on the surface, then turn round and say we can’t accept Zimmerman’s statement of exactly the same thing.
Note, of course, that saying something is credible does not mean one believes it to be true, it means that one believes it’s possible that it’s true.
This thread has become entirely too focused on sniping analysis of each other’s logic and presentation of opinions. Let’s henceforth confine remarks to the content of the case, and get off each other’s asses, please.
Yep, pretty much. I mentioned it a couple of times, but I’ve never promoted it as a slam dunk.
I read that he was an A-B student, I mentioned it. Has that been disproved? If so, ok. I’m not wedded to it.
Not wedded to anything, really, except a ridiculously thorough investigation of the killing itself AND what the fuck happened afterwards that led to all this…