“They always get away.” Yeah, they sure do, George.
Don’t take your kids to Disney World, folks. Someone might think they look suspicious and shoot them — and they’ll get away with it:
SANFORD, Fla. — George Zimmerman blinked and barely smiled as a jury found him not guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin.
Supporters of Martin’s family who had gathered outside the courthouse yelled out ‘‘No! No!’’
The jury had been given the chance to convict Zimmerman of manslaughter but did not do so, despite asking for a clarification of the charge earlier in the evening.
Zimmerman’s wife, Shellie Zimmerman, had tears in her eyes after the six-member, all-woman jury delivered its verdict Saturday night.
After hearing the verdict, Judge Debra Nelson told Zimmerman he was free to go.
Jurors heard two different portraits of Zimmerman and had to decide whether he was a wannabe cop who took the law into his own hands or a well-meaning neighborhood watch volunteer who shot the unarmed teenager in self-defense because he feared for his life.
Our system gets more and more dysfunctional by the day.
When will it stop?
Will the Florida GOP try to recruit Zimmerman to run for office?
Our system gets more and more dysfunctional by the day.
When will it stop?
Will the Florida GOP now try to recruit Zimmerman to run for office?
There have always been rules about where a black person is allowed to be and where not, especially after dark. There were armed patrols of volunteer “citizens” on the roads in slavery times. There were “sundown towns” in Jim Crow times.
Apparently there are vigilantes still allowed to kill in our times.
We are not going back to those times. We never left.
So . . . now does this mean that blacks are allowed to shoot whites in self-defense, since whites can shoot blacks for . . . nothing. Teapublicans like to claim America’s exceptional? Well this certainly is exceptional, though not in a way I take any pride in.
I heard an analyst on NPR this morning say that the prosecution did not lay out a clear and understandable route to the manslaughter charge. The speaker also said the prosecutors essentially had the role of defending the murdered Trayvon and simply didn’t have the metaphors and vocabulary to use to persuade the jury that the actual defence lawyer used with ease.
It seems to me that it was pretty easy for the defense atty to establish “reasonable doubt,” which, given the two people involved, and the defense’s use of code words for “big, strong, angry (that was emphasized over and over, I gather — I did not watch the trial, except for unavoidable snippets). I probably would have argued that Zimmerman had indicated a predisposition to aggressive action by not staying in the truck, but I might have been persuaded that enough doubt, reasonable doubt, was there to find him not guilty. However, had the jury had a better understanding the law underlying the manslaughter charge, they might have felt the doubt was overcome.
The real culprit in this situation is this horrible law passed by the Repub legislature and signed by a Repub governor, the “stand your ground” law, which seems to be actually a get-out-of-jail-free card to anyone with a gun who can lie or create believable situation which lets the shooter claim “fear for his or her life.”
I will not go to Florida, unless it’s some kind of absolute necessity.
I also will not go to other states which have such laws. Which will make traveling difficult!!!
From Wiki —
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand-your-ground_law#United_States
Alabama,[12] Alaska,[13] Arizona,[14] California,[15][16] Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa,[17] Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana,[14] Maine, Massachusetts,[18] Michigan,[14] Mississippi, Missouri, Montana,[14] New Hampshire,[14] North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma,[14] Pennsylvania ,[19], Rhode Island,[20] South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee,[14] Texas,[21] Utah,[22] West Virginia,[14] and Wyoming have adopted Castle Doctrine statutes, and other states (Iowa,[23] Virginia,[24] and Washington) have considered “Stand Your Ground” laws of their own.[2
End quote
The Wiki listing is not entirely clear as to which states make self-defense really easy, as FL does. So, some research is needed.
I won’t get off the interstate very far in PA or OH or IN.
Of course, had the neighborhood watch person been a black man, similar in size to Zimmerman, with a similar record of calling in any white person walking around his neighborhodd, who also ignored the police department’s request that he stay in his truck and not get involved, and he had taken out a white 17 year-old kid, does anyone think the outcome might not be opposite of what the jury found?
I hope Zimmerman is never again allowed to play neighborhood watchman, but, somehow, I bet he’ll be out there again, packin’ heat….
This was not a Stand Your Ground case. It was self-defense, and Florida requires guilt to be established “beyond a reasonable doubt,” which the prosecution did not accomplish. I don’t think it’s accurate to say this was a racist verdict. I think it was a racist KILLING, but the jurors can only decide on the evidence presented. This, on the other hand, should have been a Stand Your Ground case and I think it’s clear the woman was treated differently because she’s black:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57433184/fla-mom-gets-20-years-for-firing-warning-shots/