The death of Trayvon Martin

Force said:

This, for whatever reason, made me laugh:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/poli...t-because-he-thought-zimmerman-was-gay/67235/

Click to expand...

Lagduf said:

"Stand Your Ground" is a misnomer.

There should be no "stand your ground" laws in much the same way there should be no "duty to retreat" laws.

Self defense is self defense.

Click to expand...

Earthquake24 said:

He..he really can't be serious can he? Sad.

http://www.vladtv.com/blog/170375/akon-advises-move-to-africa-after-zimmerman-verdict/

Click to expand...

norton9478 said:

Whoever shoots first gets away Scott free!

What a country!

Click to expand...

Wachenroder said:

His heart is in the right place.

Click to expand...

DangerousK said:

More like a puny maggot who needs to look like a real rebel.

Click to expand...

Kazuki Dash said:

Dude, as an aside, can you give the chest thumping a rest? Every time I start hoping that this topic might head in a more reasonable tone you start going on about liberals and stuff.

I don't mean to call you out, but this was the same thing that Lan Di did in another thread, where after a while you couldn't have any real kind of discourse because the guy couldn't go two sentences without throwing out ad hominems and insults. This shouldn't be a pissing contest, it should be an honest expression of viewpoints.

A kid is dead and the guy responsible was exonerated. Regardless of whose fault anyone thinks it is, they're both a lot worse off because of what went down between them. I don't even know if I'm making sense anymore so I'll just leave it at that.

Click to expand...

Kazuki Dash said:

Dude, as an aside, can you give the chest thumping a rest? Every time I start hoping that this topic might head in a more reasonable tone you start going on about liberals and stuff.

I don't mean to call you out, but this was the same thing that Lan Di did in another thread, where after a while you couldn't have any real kind of discourse because the guy couldn't go two sentences without throwing out ad hominems and insults. This shouldn't be a pissing contest, it should be an honest expression of viewpoints.

A kid is dead and the guy responsible was exonerated. Regardless of whose fault anyone thinks it is, they're both a lot worse off because of what went down between them. I don't even know if I'm making sense anymore so I'll just leave it at that.

Click to expand...

DangerousK said:

More like a puny maggot who needs to look like a real rebel.

Click to expand...

Lagduf said:

Haha.

You know that's not what I want.

Likewise, I recognize the fear that such could happen.

We don't know Martin's side of the story because he is dead and the only witness (Zimmerman) didn't testify.

How do you even begin to figure out what really happened in a scenario like that?

For what it's worth I think "duty to retreat" is not consistent with the core of the Second Amendment which is the right to lawful self defense. That said using language like "Stand your ground" is immature and dangerous. It emboldens morons who aren't responsible enough to carry guns.

A responsible carrier knows he has no duty to retreat, however, he recognizes that deescalation and avoiding confrontation are his chief prerogatives.

At the end of the day Zimmerman is a bad example of a citizen carrying a gun.

Click to expand...

SonGohan said:

The power of the warriors will eat your soul!!!

Click to expand...

norton9478 said:

I know, I'm just fucking with you.

I look at it this way if you make a retreat or attempt to, you have a strong self defense case. Plus, as a gun owner, you have a responsibility to prevent violence, not make more of it.

Remember the burden of proof for self defense is on the defendant.

Click to expand...

Martin v. Zimmerman: The media at its worst
Cross Cut | July 15, 2013 | John Carlson

Everything I initially wrote about the Trayvon Martin killing was based on network news reports. And it was almost entirely wrong.
In my KOMO radio commentary of March 23, 2012, I said the following about the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman:

“Thinking of 17-year old Trayvon the way we’d think of our own kids is exactly how to view this tragedy. The man who police say shot him, George

Zimmerman, is a 28-year old CrimeWatch volunteer, who apparently did just about everything a Crimewatch volunteer SHOULDN’T do, such as following the

17 year old teen when a 911 dispatcher advised him not to, confronting him when he had no business doing so, and shooting him. Mr. Zimmerman was not

standing his ground against an aggressor, he WAS the aggressor. And Trayvon Martin received the death penalty for walking home in the rain wearing a

hooded sweatshirt, and carrying a pack of candy.”

Everything I said was based on what the network news media had been reporting, and continued to report for months. And it was almost entirely wrong.

Eyewitness testimony and physical evidence backs up George Zimmerman’s claim that he was neither the physical aggressor, nor even “standing his

ground” that night. He was confronted by an angry Martin, who knocked him down with a punch to the nose and proceeded to pummel him. (There is no

evidence of a “fight,” but abundant evidence of an assault).

Trayvon Martin was shot not “walking home in the rain wearing a hooded sweatshirt,”but while straddling Zimmerman MMA style, beating him senseless,

bloodying his face and punching or pounding his head against the concrete sidewalk. The most disputed question that night — who was screaming for help before the shot was fired by Zimmerman? — has family and friends on both sides

divided. But it raises another question that essentially answers itself: Who would more likely scream for help? The person being beaten, or the one

doing the beating? One of the most important, and remarkably under-publicized facts that came out at trial is that one of the detectives, while interrogating Zimmerman

at the police station that night, told him that the entire incident had been caught on surveillance video. The detective was bluffing, but Zimmerman

didn’t know that. His reaction: “Thank God”.

“Thank God.” How many people who do something wrong, lie about it and are told it’s on tape react that way? Zimmerman certainly made mistakes that night; he should have stayed in his car. But they were mistakes in judgment. So weak was the criminal case

against him that many were predicting his acquittal two days into the trial before the defense had even presented its case.

So why are so many people upset and angry about the verdict?

Because they still believe what I believed in that commentary a year and a half ago.

The news media, aided by activists like Al Sharpton, made this entire saga about race from the very beginning. When the racial narrative didn’t fit,

the media distorted evidence, doctored audio tape or misled the public about the facts until it did. As Zimmerman’s attorney Mark O’Mara said after

the verdict, the press turned Zimmerman, a man who mentored young African American school kids, into a “monster.” Columnist John Nolte from Bigjournalism.com (the people who caught NBC editing a tape to make Zimmerman appear racist) compiled a superb timeline of

the media’s race-crime narrative, supplemented with links. Some highlights:

On March 13, 2012, Al Sharpton interviewed the Martin family’s attorney Benjamin Crump, who described Zimmerman as white and claimed that it was

Zimmerman who approached Trayvon Martin. The Associated Press had also erroneously described Zimmerman, a Hispanic, as white.

On March 21, 2012, CNN falsely accused Zimmerman of muttering the word “coon” when he called authorities. That was false, but not corrected by CNN for

two weeks, long after it had influenced the media angle that Zimmerman was motivated by racial hostility.

On March 22, 2012, when it became clear that Zimmerman was Hispanic (Latina mom, white dad), the New York Times used a new term to describe Zimmerman:

“White Hispanic.” Talk about reaching. People would rightfully take umbrage if the Times described the President of the United States as a “White

African American.”

Also on March 22nd, at a Florida rally designed to build racial tension and force an arrest of Zimmerman, Al Sharpton stated “Trayvon could have been

any one of our sons…” One day later, President Barack Obama echoed that line: “If I had a son," said the president. "he would look like Trayvon.” The

racial narrative was set in stone. It was reinforced by NBC four days later, when it edited Zimmerman’s call to police to make him look like a racist. Here is what NBC reported

Zimmerman said:

“This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.”

Here’s the actual exchange between Zimmerman and the police dispatcher:

Zimmerman: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good. Or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.”

Dispatcher: “OK, and this guy, is he black, white or Hispanic?”

Zimmerman: “He looks black.”

A few days after that, ABC claimed that Zimmerman wasn’t injured the night the shooting took place, airing a blurry video of Zimmerman at the police

station and stating that “a police surveillance video taken the night Trayvon Martin was shot dead shows no blood or bruises on George Zimmerman.”

As Nolte pointed out, ABC didn’t even bother to enhance the video before running with the report.

A day after that, when ABC’s report was sweeping the nation, NBC’s Chris Matthews backed up ABC’s version, even though one of his Hardball guests

pointed out, with pictures, that Zimmerman’s head did show cuts and bleeding.

On April 9th, PBS anchor Gwen Ifill, again described Zimmerman as “white” and that he shot Martin after a “disputed altercation.”

Two days later, Special Prosecutor Angela Corey charged Zimmerman with Second Degree Murder.

And you wonder why so many people still despise George Zimmerman?

Liberal Harvard Law professor, Alan Dershowitz, to his credit, says that Corey’s decision to charge Zimmerman with Murder 2 was outrageous,

politically motivated, based on a false affidavit and worthy of disbarment. Even when Judge Debra Nelson allowed an eleventh-hour request by

prosecutors to convict Zimmerman on lesser grounds of manslaughter, the jury still cleared him.

What happened that night in Sanford Florida is a tragedy that cost one young man his life and likely ruined the life of another. But as an

African-American minister told me, this trial needed to be about truth, not race. For the media, which distorted George Zimmerman’s ethnicity, his

words and his injuries, it was precisely the opposite.

Click to expand...

Xander Crews said:

reading the post and seeing the avatar, I imagine he's playing a role. I know that some people here prefer the milquetoast, or to talk about the games, but seriously, don't expect anything less than this in a thread about politics, religion, or which console is better. Either enjoy it, or don't open the thread. This isn't the place for a civil discourse on a sensitive topic. If you want that, go talk to your coworkers. They'll appreciate polite and civil candor.

Click to expand...

Xander Crews said:

I know that some people here prefer the milquetoast, or to talk about the games, but seriously, don't expect anything less than this in a thread about politics, religion, or which console is better. Either enjoy it, or don't open the thread. This isn't the place for a civil discourse on a sensitive topic. If you want that, go talk to your coworkers. They'll appreciate polite and civil candor.

Click to expand...

neobuyer said:

It looks like Trayvon was a little teenage thug badass, and George was a no-life pussy who couldn't win a fight to save his life. But the pussy had a gun on him...

Do not mix vinegar with baking soda.

This whole incident has been appropriated by political/race groups and the money whore media, and turned into something that has little to no relationship with actual reality. What we are approaching now, in American society, is something akin to 'The Matrix'. And it happened so fast I still can't even fucking believe it.

It's getting to be a Dark Knight Returns situation, but since this is real life- there is no fucking batman.

Click to expand...