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

i don't think i can actually stomach the victim-blaming turn its taking in the right-wing media.

I hope you never read any media reports about sexual assault victims.

The physical evidence that wasn't collected by officers actually interested in conducting an investigation. We'll never know what it might have been. Footprints, blood stains, torn up lawn, whatever.

Also eyewitness evidence is notoriously unreliable, and the later the questioning, the worse it is.

Fashion advice from Thomas Sowell:

It is not often that I agree with Geraldo Rivera, but recently he said something very practical and potentially life-saving, when he urged black and Hispanic parents not to let their children go around wearing hoodies.

There is no point in dressing like a hoodlum when you are not a hoodlum, even though that has become a fashion for some minority youths, including the teenager who was shot and killed in a confrontation in Florida. I don’t know the whole story of that tragedy any more than those who are making loud noises in the media do, but that is something that we have trials for.

People have a right to dress any way they want to, but exercising that right is something that requires common sense, and common sense is something that parents should have, even if their children don’t always have it.

I hope you never read any media reports about sexual assault victims.

― Respectfully, Tyrese Gibson (Nicole), Tuesday, March 27, 2012 2:09 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well obv i have, and i can't stomach them either

dressing like a hoodlum has lately become a fashion for minority youths? and not, like, all youths, sine the invention of the teenager?

who are these eyewitnesses? neither CNN nor nyt is reporting zimmerman's story as anything other than zimmerman's story. nothing about any eyewitnesses seeing trayvon slamming zimmerman's head into the ground.

Do people like Geraldo and Sowell just conveniently ignore how many upper-class white women wear Victoria's Secret or Juicy hoodies? This line of argument is so infuriating.

I'm just bitter about this, because some people seem surprised about how Trayvon is being treated and the reality is victims are blamed all of the time. xxxp

i'm not surprised, just sickened

^^ otm

http://www.nationalreview.com/sites/default/files/nfs/uploaded/page_2012_200_sowell_square.jpg

the national review: your source for fashion advice

"I don’t know the whole story of that tragedy any more than those who are making loud noises in the media do, but that is something that we have trials for."

hmm, i guess you don't know anything about this tragedy because THERE IS NO FUCKING TRIAL AT ALL, THAT IS THE SUBSTANCE OF THE OUTRAGE, YOU FUCK.

late great: Any eyewitnesses, including fake ones. The ones interviewed quickly and sloppily (and in part ignored or corrected) by the police at the scene, the ones Zimmerman's defense team will produce if Zimmerman is put on trial, the ones the cops will produce if they are put on trial, etc. I simply mean from the perspective of good criminal justice, this case is already a disaster, and there is no putting that genie back in the bottle.

sowell is a world class troll

Takes one to -- no, I'll stop.

when will a conservative media outlet publish a style guide for minority youths on how to not be mistaken for criminals?

daily show had a good bit on that last night

if you want to avoid getting shot by white people you should dress nicely, like these folks

http://nicedeb.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/fruitofislam.jpg

http://www.highsnobiety.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/kanye-west-entourage-fashion-week-paris.jpg

there it is

but i suppose the right would argue that those cases could only be used to carry burglary tools

Also, why the hats? What are they trying to hide? Clearly they are up to something.

leopard print pants are clearly for camoflauge as they commit illicit crimes in urban paris

morning tv talk shows were dominated by the current Zimmerman defense arguments (Martin attacked Zimmerman, broke his nose), and the appearance of George Oliver, Zimmerman's (African-American) friend. The CNN Headline News anchor did not bother to ask Zimmerman's pal why Zimmerman did not listen to the police on the phone telling him not to follow Martin.

The police claim to have witnesses (plural) that back up much of Zimmerman's account. And yet, per the Sentinal piece: "There is about a one-minute gap during which police say they're not sure what happened." I believe this one minute, conveniently, is the point at which Trayvon allegedly hit him first.

I still want to know how long the girlfriend was supposedly listening in, at what point she signed off and missed out, because a lot of this story so far is a jumble of her account and the police/Zimmerman account, with these new "witnesses" leaning toward the cop/Zimmerman account (ie, he followed but was jumped, Zimmerman was the one yelling for help/getting beat up, etc.).

According to that same story (http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-03-26/news/os-trayvon-martin-zimmerman-account-20120326_1_miami-schools-punch-unarmed-black-teenager), Zimmerman was coming back from the store in his SUV when he saw Trayvon, then supposedly called 911, left his car and followed him on foot. So I guess he wasn't just lurking in his living room, peeking out the blinds. He was out and about, which I suppose (in vigilante logic) means keeping an eye on his fantasy perp.

Yeah, this should all serve to set race relations in this country back a couple decades or so.

Zimmerman outweighed him by 50 pounds, his neighborhood watch group was not properly registered, he had a history of calling 911 pretty often, and he has his own documented past history regarding physical altercations.

I heard someone suggesting on a news program that they wrestled over the gun and they were implying that Martin somehow shot himself. Are their fingerprints? Did they ever find Martin's cellphone?

there

people people stop making shit up

the only eyewitness that saw trayvon attack george is george

anyway doesn't trayvon have a right to stand his ground? for all he knew zimmerman was gonna put him in his backyard sex dungeon

there is a not so fine line between testimony which is "consistent" with zimmerman's story and testimony that "corroborates" his story, but that distinction seems lost on a few people.

^ xpost exactly

Wanting to play lawyer when there is no case -- NO CHARGES FILED AGAINST ANYONE -- is dumber than failing to see that distinction.

Yeah, totes. There has been no under oath stuff in this entire mess yet.

pithy or no, this fake Will Smith tweet actually does say a lot about america in 2012:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bE-dRCKHeXM/T3BOhfbfg8I/AAAAAAAADwM/QzfKquTNcYo/s1600/Trayvon_WillSmith.jpg

x-post
A month has gone by since the incident, and the grand jury is not empaneled until April 10, and there's lots of history and related issues and emotion, so the fact that people want to play lawyer now seems very human and understandable to me

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/03/new_orleans_cop_suspended_inde.html

new orleans cop that instigated an iffy traffic stop (in which two cops were shot and a young black man killed) makes some ill-advised and super racist online comments. under his own name.

two bits of context: a NO-based federal prosecutor resigned the other week after being exposed as a vehement and voluminous online commenter and the nopd shot another young black man (unarmed) during a "drug raid" (read: minor pot bust).

http://media.nola.com/crime_impact/photo/jason-giriorjpg-9a3ba54c5898648d.jpg

Have hair like a douchenozzle, act like one.

OK, come, only one racist shooting controversy at a time, please.

ugh yes, there is this awful blog run by a Chicago cop that has a comments section rife with racist cops and they are up in arms over that NOLA case, defending the douche

sorry, should have made clear: made some ill-advised and super racist online comments about trayvon martin.

If you can't be racist against a pot-smoking, hoodie-wearing, allegedly window-jimmying, up to no good goon who beats up innocent neighborhood watch folks who are just trying to keep their children safe, who can you be racist against?

Next thing you know you'll be telling me it's OK to stare longingly at white women. Which Trayvon might have been doing! At least, no one has suggested otherwise, and if you give me enough time I'm sure I can find a witness to back me up.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/26/craig-sonner-interview-lawrence-odonnell_n_1381578.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing5%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D146809

bottom line is racism will keep continuing because daddies tell their kids that racism was something that happened in 1950s-60s but magically ended after Martin Luther King died so they grow up and they still see people decrying racism and they ask their parents why, if racism ended, and the dad says something ironic like "it's cos black ppl like to complain and want us to nanny them" and dude grows up and then subsequently has a kid (unplanned at age 22) and then 7-8 years later teaches his kid the same thing.

^^ a scene that is played out exactly like this in hundreds of households every year, no doubt

well for one it's the main reason I was critical of Affirmative Action when I was in high school. and I only had passively-prejudiced parents.

ohhhh, so that's the bottom line. got it.

excuse dumb question but am I right that Zimmerman still hasn't been arrested?