Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman

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Pasquar
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Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman

Post by Pasquar » 20 Jul 2013 12:48

Would like to hear people's thoughts on the incident with George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin. George Zimmerman was found NOT GUILTY of homicide and manslaughter of Trayvon, a 17-year old kid in Sanford, FL.

If you don't know anything about the case, it is not difficult at all to look up and I want to refrain from explain it myself as to avoid my personal views and biases on the case.
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fatbagger
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Re: Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman

Post by fatbagger » 20 Jul 2013 15:02

GZ didn't break any laws and while I think that what he did was wrong and completely avoidable, I wouldn't advocate anyone being punished outside the law. I do think that the issue has been blown out of proportion by the media in an attempt to keep us bickering among ourselves instead of holding our elected officials accountable for making this country into something the people don't support. I still don't see how this case is important nationally. To sum up my opinions on the incident, GZ is a punk who went looking for trouble. He found it and should have taken the beating he deserved. He got scared and shot the kid. It's a tragedy that makes GZ look like a reckless fool but he did not break any laws and you cannot convict someone based on your own subjective morals.
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Jeremy
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Re: Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman

Post by Jeremy » 22 Jul 2013 18:40

It sounds like the law was applied correctly in the judgement, at least the US bloggers I read think so. I think you have to be cautious about commenting on legal decisions where a large amount of evidence was presented to a court, that you haven't spent days examining, and had the law carefully explained to you by experts, as is the case of the jury though.

I would agree with the sentiments echoed in the online discussions I've read, that it does seem like the laws involved here are unjust, and some degree of culpability should be applied in these kinds of situations. Certainly if this same event occurred in Australia, ignoring the firearm charges that would be brought about, Zimmerman would most likely be prosecuted for some kind of manslaughter/murder charge.

I saw today somebody on Facebook posting a story of Zimmerman helping some uninjured people out of minor car crash, and I think the fact that people think that's some kind of meaningful comment on this case really describes a big part of the problem of people taking extreme positions on this (to the point that they've apparently lost their ability to think). I know you should never read comments on news articles, but I did, and they were even more horrendous than usual.

Pasquar
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Re: Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman

Post by Pasquar » 14 Sep 2013 10:31

K so not too much traction on this, so I guess I'll give my (very brief) $.02

IMO, the law IS the problem.

The fact that the "Stand Your Ground" law in Florida protected Zimmerman's actions of shooting an unarmed teenager as an abomination. Just because a law is in place does not mean it is in any way moral. Being that everything is inter-sectional, I would like to point out something that perhaps applies to the Gun Laws thread: "Stand Your Ground" is a product of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC - http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed) which the NRA is a member, so big lobbying interests in the end have a say over what legislation may be in any state <http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/03/21 ... law/186459>
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Pasquar
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Re: Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman

Post by Pasquar » 07 Oct 2013 07:57

Kinda sad a discussion thread on peanut butter gets more hits than one on gun violence and racism. :(
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Strix
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Re: Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman

Post by Strix » 07 Oct 2013 20:48

Was it gun violence? Was it racially motivated? Or was the media spinning the issue for hype?

Come to find out Trayvon was supposedly a hooligan. Comments on his facebook and other information released would lead one to believe he may have not been the "innocent little child" the news made him out to be. All the time this case got way more media attention than it deserved.

Lets talk about real travesties...

http://www.chicagonewsreport.com/2011/0 ... b-gun.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=95475&page=1

http://www.sott.net/article/264095-Cops ... rges-filed

The list is endless. If you dig hard enough you will find countless cases last year where the police did some shady shit but Trayvon and Zimmerman took the lime light. So many cases police should be brought up on trial for. But yet a couple citizens get all the attention and bad cops slip by un noticed. There are allot of laws that are garbage and only protect the wrong people.

Pasquar
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Re: Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman

Post by Pasquar » 22 Nov 2013 09:40

Definitely.

It was for sure not my intention to downplay the prevalence and immunity of police brutality and murders by bringing this up. For sure, Trayvon Martin is somewhat of a case-study that for whatever reason got a LOT of media attention when the murder happened and when Zimmerman was acquitted. When things like this happen, I personally tend to go with the flow because though (one can argue racially motivated/complicated) killings happen every day, it usually goes under the radar. When one case actually does break through the media, which happens not often enough, I think it's best to keep that attention up while highlighting that it's a much bigger & broader issue. Your statement of police violence points that out, because arguably you wouldn't have brought that up if we weren't talking about Trayvon in the first place.

Now whether Trayvon was a "hooligan" or a trouble-maker or whatever doesn't make any difference to me in the context of his killing. The question for me comes back to : Did any of his actions justify being murdered? Zimmerman notified the police and was instructed specifically not to pursue Martin, so IMO the whole incident falls back on the one who had the deadly weapon and the one who pulled the trigger.

I'm so glad you brought the issue of police violence up, as it is a MAJOR issue that is even more under the radar than civilian casualties. Police are given far too much immunity and fire/kill far too often with pretty much no repercussions. As the saying goes, if you want to join the biggest/baddest gang, join the police :?
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