Let's talk about Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, and how unbelievably fucked up this all is

i can't stop thinking about this though

i can see the logic behind a lot of ... well, maybe some right-wing positions ... but the one i could never really get behind was anti-gun control

i never understood what you'd want a gun for, really, if you weren't living by yourself out in the woods, and even then ... really?

hope this is the tipping point here

most anti-gun control stems from 80's right wing paranoia in which people insisted gun registration could lead to gun confiscation if a totalitarian government ever took over and they would be left defenseless.

You can really blame one scene in Red Dawn for that.

i never understood what you'd want a gun for, really, if you weren't living by yourself out in the woods, and even then ... really?

hope this is the tipping point here

It won't be because the debate now is about Stand Your Ground.

I was sort of hoping the debate would be exactly how many decades of sentencing for zimmerman.

The more I think of it, the more I can't believe that stupid Stand Your Ground law was passed. So let's say I see someone ... suspicious. I have a right to follow them (nothing illegal about that). But the person I'm following may be rightly suspicious, maybe even threatened, and if they're threatened ... they have the right to try and kill me? But if they try to kill me, even though I'm doing nothing illegal, than I'm being threatened myself, and I have the right ... to kill them? That is, wouldn't anyone on the killing end of some Stand Your Ground nut be within their rights to try and kill (er, defend) back? It's like a feedback loop of justifiable homicide.

Or am I missing some nuance?

#NRA

lawfullyarmed dot com

The more I think of it, the more I can't believe that stupid Stand Your Ground law was passed. So let's say I see someone ... suspicious. I have a right to follow them (nothing illegal about that). But the person I'm following may be rightly suspicious, maybe even threatened, and if they're threatened ... they have the right to try and kill me? But if they try to kill me, even though I'm doing nothing illegal, than I'm being threatened myself, and I have the right ... to kill them? That is, wouldn't anyone on the killing end of some Stand Your Ground nut be within their rights to try and kill (er, defend) back? It's like a feedback loop of justifiable homicide.

Or am I missing some nuance?

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, March 23, 2012 9:03 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think the secret purpose of the law was to depopulate florida so that it can return to its natural state. environmentalists IIRC.

poorly formed joek

I suggest we avoid yet another gun control derail on this thread, although I think the Stand Your Ground law is fair game here.

I'd be happy to talk about how my mom needs to use single-shot .22 rifles to keep groundhogs and deer out of her garden on the Gun Control thread, oh but wait most of ILX doesn't have a fucking clue about anything that happens in a non-metropolitan area so I think I'll pass. Handguns are evil and should be banned fwiw.

lol

needs it! think of the flowers!

who itt was wresting sleeve's mom's .22 from her?? my own mom relies on an electrified fence, but i'm pretty sure sleeve's mom will be safe from whatever the ramifications of the trayvon martin case turn out to be.

fuckin groundhog apocalypse i'm sure

your mom is cold

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2011/04/soul-hamsters-630.jpg

wonder which one sleeve's mom would shoot

it's awesome that she's an organic subsistence farmer tho

my former brother in law raised his kids on an organic farm in the mountains. their six goats got eated by a mt lion, too bad he wasn't packing at the time but good news is herrifs deputies got it while they was holed up in de yurt

sorry abt the typos, I'm typing on a phone while driving a prius thru a drive thru starbucks in a whole foods parking lot in a skyscraper

it's cool -- out here in flyover country the deer in hoodies are fucking asking for it

http://icouldbetrayvon.com/

sorry abt the typos, I'm typing on a phone while driving a prius thru a drive thru starbucks in a whole foods parking lot in a skys

http://www.notspendingmoney.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/clue-game-300x200.jpgcraper

ohhhhhhhhhhhhh boy

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-03-24/news/os-trayvon-martin-new-black-panthers-protest-20120324_1_gathering-third-protest-gated-community

sorry abt the typos, I'm typing on a phone while driving a prius thru a drive thru starbucks in a whole foods parking lot in a skyscraper

― the late great

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Bjo otm

Time to cancel my family vacation to Samford, Florida.

Former Orange-Osceola County prosecutor Esther Whitehead said the Panthers' bounty opens them up to civil and possibly criminal liability.

"I can't see how anyone can go out and take action as a private citizen without some government action like the issuance of a warrant," she said. "It doesn't make sense. It doesn't sound reasonable."

Well gee, it FUCKING WORKED FOR ZIMMERMAN.

Zimmermann's attorney pulled out a new wrinkle and said Trayvon broke his nose, and pointed out Zimmermann's injuries.....

....like why are people still pointing to this as some kind of smoking gun? I don't think most are disputing that at some point, there WAS indeed a scuffle between the two prior to the shooting.

I think it's pretty obvious though that George himself instigated the altercation, and there's no indication as to who was 'winning' the fight. Still doesn't qualify as 'stand your ground'. I actually have a friend that is very pro-gun/pro-self defense that still believes Zimmermann should be arrested. Even THAT crowd doesn't support him.

After listening to the recording, Zimmermann at some point mentions that Trayvon is looking at him, and coming towards him, right before he mentions that he starts running. My guess is that he was just naturally walking that way on the sidewalk, and saw George staring at him and talking on the phone, and as he began to pass by, overheard the call in which Zimmermann was describing him to the dispatcher, and got scared and ran.

going back up to the Panthers', as much as I understand the anger and can't possibly understand their perspective (being a white male), I can't say I support what they're doing at all.....although yes, the comment made by the prosecutor was sadly ironic.

Zimmermann's attorney pulled out a new wrinkle and said Trayvon broke his nose, and pointed out Zimmermann's injuries.....

....like why are people still pointing to this as some kind of smoking gun? I don't think most are disputing that at some point, there WAS indeed a scuffle between the two prior to the shooting.

Yeah, seriously, from Martin's perspective, he's being stalked around the neighborhood by what, for all he knows, is a sexual predator or kidnapper, so he decides to take action. But Zimmerman's supporters have painted themselves into a corner here, because the next thing they're going to have to say to condemn Martin's actions is that "Stand Your Ground" is Not For Black People.

The Miami Heat take a stand.
http://www.thenation.com/sites/default/files/user/17/miami_heat_hoodies_ap.jpg

It didn't seem possible, but now we take a turn for the even more absurd and stupid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3C-P0Rm1Ow&feature=g-logo&context=G217dc1eFOAAAAAAACAA

Like I don't even....

like even if 'goon' was what he said, does he not realize the violent 'thug' connotations of the word goon?

can be a term of endearment in certain contexts, but certainly not when coming out of the mouth of a dude who has called FUCKING 911 ON THE GUY.

"'goon' is apparently a term of endearment in the high schools these days"

lol

like are we just bending over backwards to make this go away by insulting everyone's intelligence now?

oh wait...

i dont know any ilxors under the age of 30 who use 'goon' as a term of endearment any more

dude didn't realize his own daughter was clownin him to look stupid on national tv

^bingo

zimmerman's not racist; he just hates blah people

give it two weeks, dude will get the Nobel Prize

is he implying that zimmerman used a term of endearment for martin before killing him

that's what fucking makes no sense!

"ahh, he's a good kid. shame I have to plug him."

they're seriously gonna go with the "zimmerman was lonely and just wanted a friend" defense

the old Lennie Small strategy

he just didn't know the strength of his gun! he thought a bullet was a term of endearment!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMkzdn2TDuI

otm

"aw shucks, those fuckin goons <3"

A good friend and I will call each other goon when we get mock-exasperated at each other but that's b/w us.

"I Shot Him But It Was Intended To Feel Like A Kiss"