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There was a thread about what kind of death penalty should Mr Zimmerman receive. My response there is just as germane here.
My question is, Even with the severity of this issue, isn't this America?
Are you not innocent until proven guilty?
If he cannot get a fair trial, then he walks free.
I realize that this is a hot topic and there is a lot of real, and supposed real information out there, but the bottom line is, not a person here knows the whole story, and yet, he has been convicted. Kinda like that international banker accused of raping that maid in New York. Everyone THOUGHT they knew he was guilty, he lost his job, his credibility, and then it was found out he was being falsely accused. Think Tawana Brawley...
Yes, I believe that something bad happened, and I believe that Mr Zimmerman, was contributory to the incident, but until I KNOW who/what/why/how it happened in it's entirety, I am not going to put the death sentence on the table and trust me, I am ALL for the death penalty when required.
It's a hot topic, and there is MUCH disinformation out there, and even more being spread around, like "The police waited 3 days to contact Trayvon's family". No they didn't, they did wait three days before letting letting his father see or retrieve his son's body. Why? I have no idea, I am not familiar with the rules and regulations concerning things like this, or the investigation taking place.
I am reposting this, with permission, from another online discussion of Trayvon's tragic death:
"It occurs to me now that Trayvon is our "Rosa Parks."
Clearly racial profiling is something that the country is NOT taking seriously. With victims like Sean Bell, there was always some excuse that he brought it on himself. Media outlets would report on their criminal records, the past, etc. Heck, even being at a strip club was used against them.
Rosa was not the first who was considered to be used for the boycott. She was just the one that no one could criticize. She wasn't a male. She wasn't pregnant out of wedlock. She was just a nice lady who was mistreated. Now we have the same thing. A boy. No criminal record. No record of misbehavior. A sterling young man by all accounts. He was doing nothing but walking back from the store. The problem is unlike Rosa, he can't live to old age and smile about this. He is now a martyr. The fact that such a sweet young man had to die to make the world pay attention to the suffering so so many AA is just so horrible.
The comments that I have been reading during this coverage have been so awful. A black man who is very successful told of how he's been stopped more times than he can count because of driving a luxury car and being used to it. A boy living in a predominantly white neighborhood was accused of stealing his own bike and the cops entered his home and took the serial numbers. Another boy riding in the street was stopped and asked to produce a receipt for his own bike he was riding. Sadly he had it in his pocket already because he knew this would happen.
This is degrading and humiliating that we as African Americans are considered criminals and thugs first, who couldn't possibly own something nice without stealing it. Who can't possibly be in a white neighborhood unless we're there to steal something. Yes, we are the invisible people described in that poem. Despite my clean accent and politeness many white women are still scared and apprehensive around me. What have I done to make them feel so scared? Be tall and black? Should I feel lucky because I'm not a man?
Trayvon is dead. He's dead because an ignorant man took the law in his own hands. He didn't see a kid walking home in the rain. He saw a picture of his own suspicions and his own frustrations. He saw absolutely nothing but a figure of his own fears and imagination. How many of our sons have to have their futures destroyed by people like him? To be arrested because you look like someone involved in a crime? To be accused of something? This ironically is one of the biggest problems with the black community today. The fact that we cannot escape these stereotypes that are inflicted upon us means that we will always suffer from them, from birth to the grave.
Oh, black kids like to fight.
Black kids are lazy, don't expect them to do homework.
Black kids being put on meds because they're "out of control"
Black colleges aren't as good as white ones. -_-
To not getting jobs because of blackness. Not getting homes. Not getting loans. Being followed in stores. Being watched where ever you go. Being treated as irrational, violent, angry... and never really being seen at all.
I do feel that many black people are doing what they can to make this situation about race which in my opinion it is not, people of other races care but they aren't trying to exploit this death for political reasons like many prominent black people seem to be doing. I truly believe that a 17 year old Caucasian or Latino would have ended up dead just like Trayvon did.
Backspace,
I appreciate your first paragraph but your second paragraph, I believe, amply indicates that you just don't understand or appreciate the African American experience.
Black folk are not trying to make this situation into one about race. They would prefer nothing more than for it not to be the case. Their anger, mine included, is real and without ulterior motive because our collective experience tells us, without any evidence to the contrary, that race was a motivating factor in Zimmerman's decisions and those of the Sanford police department. Zimmerman's record of 911 calls, his choice of words during his calls, the reported history of the Sanford police department, do little to dissuade African Americans from what in their hearts and minds know to be true.
As for insinuation that there are political motivations underfoot, what would those motivations be; to win some election; to pass some legislation; to obtain some nonexistent block grant, an earmark perhaps? What? If there is any political motivation it is to force the powers that be in Sanford, the State of Florida and/or the federal government to see that justice is done by this young man, because without that political motivation this case was going nowhere. If you consider that to be some nefarious plot on the part of African Americans, then you know little about black folks, the black experience, or the history of this country and that is sad.
Posters with nothing better to do than make lame attempts to ridicule the names that people choose for their children in the face of one being killed are below contempt. It is not amusing. Nor is it manly to gang up on ChocLot, who's done a great job of making so many male posters look like perfect fools. My lily-white neighbor's granddaughter is named "Revilynn;"
does that make you think of a line of make-up? Again; this thread is about a murdered child...try to grow up and show some respect, or shut up.
This is degrading and humiliating that we as African Americans are considered criminals and thugs first, who couldn't possibly own something nice without stealing it.
And none of that.....whatsoever.....is bred by the Black community???
I thought he was with his father or family at the apartment complex. His girlfriend was on the phone with him at the time.
How could they not know for 3 days ?
He was visiting with his father yes. He left the apartment to go to the store. When Trayvon did not return, the father started calling around. Treyvon was on the phone with a girlfriend at the time of the incident.
I'm 31 years old. I THANK GOD that I didn't live during the horrors and injustices of the pre-1970's when black men were lynched as a source of family entertainment.
While I know that there are the murders that occur where no justice is received (usually at the hands of police officers), I've never lived through this type of "private citizen" murder in my lifetime.
It is sad to know that though we've come a long way, things like this can take you back to a time of such awfulness.
I feel like we've entered some terrible time warp. And I can imagine that some of the comments seen on this thread would fit in nicely with those made during the days of Emmett Till-style murders to justify the killings. Just sick, and sad, and pathetic.
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until proven otherwise.