Trayvon Martin Killing

[marceline]

Let's predict what happens next. I'm guessing somebody leaks B37s name and we end up with a news cycle of her whining about death threats and begging for privacy. I suspect part of the reason they dropped this project is because the other jurors didn't appreciate this famewhore putting them in the crosshairs.

[Marco Dane]

http://nationalreport.net/george-zimmerman-files-civil-suit-against-trayvon-martins-parents-for-being-brutally-attacked-by-their-juvenile-son/

George Zimmerman Files Civil Suit Against Trayvon Martin’s Parents For Being Brutally Attacked By Their Juvenile Son

[Juliajms]

Please tell me you are kidding? I can't even process this.

[Steve]

Seriously?!?! Pardon my French, but that is just so fucked up! Zimmerman should be grateful he got away with profiling and murder.

[Wales2004]

I'm guessing that's someone's fantasy. Unless it's reported by a reputable (and I know the major stations get their info from Twitter so "reputable" has become a joke) news source, I wouldn't take any notice of it.

My pc about so I'll add my additional juror comments next time.

[Juliajms]

Yeah, it just can't be true. That doesn't look like a reputable source, but CNN is talking about book and movie deals for Zimmerman, so I hope the Trayvon's family files suit and wins. If this guy profits (any more than he already has) from what he did it will just be too disgusting.

[marceline]

People talked about book and movie deals for Casey Anthony too. They haven't happened. People claimed Joe the Plumber would become a politician. He's still the same failed loser just now with even more debt.

The meme that these infamous famewhores get rich from their bad behavior no longer works in the age of the internet. The backlash is too swift and it's too much trouble. That's why Paula Deen lost all her endorsements and her book deal. Not because those companies were so open minded but because the value of her supporters didn't outweigh the damage done by associating with her.

George Zimmerman will work the gun nut/right wing trash talk circuit for a while the same way Adam West and Burt Ward do comic conventions. But he's never going to get a decent job and he'll spend the rest of life dealing with death threats, slashed tires and restaurant workers spitting in his food. He'll spiral out of control again and eventually Darwin will take care of the rest.

[ChitHappens]

http://www.boxer.senate.gov/en/press/releases/071513.cfm

[marceline]

The civil rights angle is such a non-starter. It's time to face the fact that the system isn't going to give Trayvon justice.

[Max]

I haven't commented much because I did not closely follow this case. Based on what I know, I don't feel that GZ should have been tried for second degree murder. From what I gathered, many felt that the prosecution was overreaching, and should have tried him for manslaughter from the beginning. Many whites felt that the prosecution's last moment decision to press for manslaughter seemed like waffling on their part. Had the trial always been about manslaughter, perhaps the jury would have been persuaded to convict GZ on that charge.

White people obviously can't relate to the extraordinary hurting that is going on amongst African-Americans. I think that the main objection amongst whites was that they were upset over the race-baiting tactics used by the media to always identify GZ as white. This "white Hispanic" terminology used by the media was unsettling, and I think that tensions would not have been as bad had Zimmerman been referred to simply as "Hispanic." I know that there are far more nuances to race than just the normal white/black/Hispanic labels (as Wales has eloquently pointed out on many occasions), but many feel it is a double standard when the media applies such nuances to Zimmerman while seldom mentioning that the president is bi-racial (and instead assigning him the African-American label).

The other thing that is perplexing is that the media focused so much more attention on this story than on the "black on black" crime that is gripping many urban areas, most notably Chicago. I know that black on black crime doesn't present with it the ugly history of slavery and Jim Crow, but it seems as if more African-American youth are lost that way than to anything that is labeled racism. (I don't know if the claim I made in that last sentence is actually true, but that is the way it appears.)

[Eric83]

The issue is that black on black crimes, the perpetrators are arrested and convicted. With this case, the police department did not bother to try and identify Trayvon nor look and see if he was a resident, ran drug tests on him took Zimmerman's word for it and let him go home. Black-on-Black crime is horrible, but there are people out in the streets trying to stop it but the media does not care about that. They cared about sensationalizing this story because they knew they could play on the race factor and it was a very polarizing case when it comes to the gun aspect/ Stand Your Ground laws.

As far as Zimmerman and Obama both being bi-racial.... well Zimmerman looks white and the media ran with that. Obama is bi-racial but at first glance he looks African-American. I know lots of bi-racial who identify as black and lots of people who refer to people mixed with black and white as black. Not saying it is correct, but just how some see it. The "one drop rule" still permeates in society today. He was the first non-white man to be elected president, so I am not surprised that they ignored his interracial background when this was such a monumental moment in history and lots of people were excited about a black men being elected president.

[marceline]

Black on black crime is an amorphous label meant to distract from discussion of this case. When people say we should be talking about black-on-black crime, my next question is "Which black-on-black crime would you like to talk about?" Give me a case and I'd be happy to talk about it.

For me, this crime is more about guns than race. There's no law than could stop Zimmerman from being a violent racist but the law could've made it harder for him to get a gun.

[Max]

I appreciate the thoughtful responses I have received.

When Marceline asked us to bring up a specific case of black-on-black crime to discuss, she makes good point regarding the ignorance the white community has. Many whites can't think of a specific, famous case that immediately comes to mind (i.e., they would have to do research to talk about specific cases of inner city African-American youth killing each other), but that is because the media chooses to sensationalize those crimes where two races are involved. I believe that they do this for the primary purpose of increasing profits, and could care less if race relations were affected as a result. (If an "upscale" African-American nightwatchman had killed hoodie-wearing Trayvon Martin--and even stereotyped him because he "looked like a gangster"--I sincerely doubt the media would have sensationalized this case.)

[Wales2004]

In another life I might have been a sociologist because I swear that human beings fascintate me to my possible detriment.

I don't really get when emotions are racialized but that's me. It can't be that hard to imagine how it feels for someone who thinks his or her life is worth nothing. There are individuals (kids and adults) who feel that way on a daily basis regardless of race. It's not complicated. And I wilsh people would stop suggesting that "African-Americans" feel the same about everything and feel it the same way. I listen to black people say this and I listen to white people say this and I shake my head. We buy the Mowrys as being identical twins. They both went through a pregnancy. They had different experiences post-delivery. We can accept that twins don't have the same delivery experience...but we insist that millions of people who don't know each other feel the same way because we see less than 90,000 black people say so and this makes perfect sense.

Some people feel anger, outrage, diminished, etc. If your anger makes you throw things and mine makes me clean things.....it's anger but it's not the same right? Again, it's not complicated.

The media is going to focus on the most sensational story. "Liberal" media will focus on black people killed by white people and "conservative" media will focus on white people killed by black people. It's hard for people to see the bigger picture because they are generally distracted by the smaller ones.

For me it's not a question of not highlighting black on black crime as it is making it seem as if this one kid's life is more significant than other children who have been killed and their killers got away (whether white or black). Their lives count too but we can only focus on one.....that's how it works. One becomes more tragic than kids whose murderers aren't brought to "justice" either.

And it's not true that black people always go to jail or get arrested for killing other black people. Just as white people do not always pay for killing white people. Intraracial crime rates are higher than interracial ones and that's why it may seem crazy that more focus is given to the latter.

There are plenty of gang members roaming around Los Angeles who have killed people and have not been arrested or sent to prison for it. People don't just come forward and tell on them. So it's not true that black perpetrators always get arrested. They get to roam around free and terrorize neighborhoods. They may go to trail and intimidate potential witnesses and be set free. My experience is different from those who see George Zimmerman as the worst threat to black males. There are a lot of segregated neighborhoods in Los Angelles so I would say that the biggest threat to children living in certain areas are gangs. Those people who know their kids have to dodge bullets going to and from school everyday who claim their biggest fear is someone like George Zimmerman.... "Community Leaders" who want to pretend the same...... Be clear that none of this absolves George Zimmerman but it does show why it's hard to move forward when people don't want to tell the whole truthful ugly story.

[Wales2004]

This is another thing that perpetuates poor race relations. We're going to be stuck in a cycle indefinitely pointing fingers and looking at the hypotheticals--"fif a black man did it" or "if a white man did it" blah blah.

People already know that life isn't fair so we need to govern ourselves accordingly and work to change the things we can. I'm not a fan of constant whining and "if this" and "if that." I tried to rant once and let it go because another fifty episodes of it isn't going to change reality. Listening to too much sports talk shows me how wasteful I am. I listen to men hypothesize about what might happen and when the game is over, it's all about the ifs and the almosts. But the game is still over and the score hasn't changed and it cannot be undone.

I'm compassionate and practical at the same time.

On the road to being a good Christian you may hear that something happened to someone black one day and your reaction will be to think of that person as a human being instead of an "other." It takes a lot to filter out all the biases.....sometimes it's a daily struggle.

I'm not Trayvon Martin and I will never be but I know that he and all those others who have had their lives taken away from them should never be looked at as statistics. "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls...."