The Trayvon Martin Clusterf*ck

I’d rather not link the entire history of this case of to this point because I’m a busy working man, but here’s a cursory introduction for those in Underarockville:

Trayvon was shot down by Zimmerman, a guy doing a neighborhood watch thing. Martin was not armed with any weapons. Z followed Martin because he looked suspicious and there had been several break-ins in his gated community. Z called the cops on a non emergency line. Cops said don’t follow. Z said OK. Next thing we know, Martin is on top of Z beating his ass (witness clearly saw this). Witness calls 911 and in the two minutes to the police arrival, Martin is shot dead. Z is treated for a busted up face on the scene by paramedics.

A month later, Al Sharpton, JJ and the Black Panthers are calling for Z’s head, literally, yo. Martin has been outed as a not so good egg, caught with burglar’s tools and what appears to be stolen women’s jewelry, has been kicked out of school for drugs (found in his bag) and has a gangsta rep on twitter. Oblahblah polarizes the crowd more by saying his imaginary son would look like Trayvon, whatever the hell that means. Black leaders, former heads of the NAACP say this case is BS and that the real problem is Black on Black crime, not the rare white or in this case “Honorary white” on black crime.

And now this:

[quote]
In the wake of the slaying of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, House Democrats are drafting legislation designed to prevent similar tragedies in the future.

The lawmakers want to adopt tougher rules for neighborhood watch programs, eliminate certain state gun laws, rein in racial profiling and require an examination of racial disparities nationwide.[/quote]House Dems eye policy responses to shooting death of Trayvon Martin | The Hill

[quote]
The Democrats behind the legislation – all members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) – say the steps might have prevented last month’s fatal encounter between Martin, 17, an unarmed African-American walking home from a convenience store in Sanford, Fla., and George Zimmerman, 28, a Latino neighborhood watch volunteer carrying a 9mm handgun.

Zimmerman, who was not arrested, says he acted in self-defense after Martin attacked him. Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law allows deadly force in some cases of self-defense. [/quote]

Now, I’ve been following this since it happened (god bless the Drudge Report) and watching it go supernova just shocked me. But when the Democrats started playing the race card, that was the call for the attack dogs, Sharpton and JJackson to go to work. :unamused: Then Spike Lee got involved. Then the BPP. Now, the brouhaha has risen to the CBC (Congressional Black Caucus).

[quote]
More Dead-End Demagoguery from the Democrats

The Democrats continue to try to make political hay out of the Trayvon Martin case. The Hill reports that House Democrats–all members of the Congressional Black Caucus–are proposing a package of legislative “reforms” arising out of the Martin case:

In the wake of the slaying of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, House Democrats are drafting legislation designed to prevent similar tragedies in the future.

Actually, there are plenty of laws in every state to deter and punish murder and manslaughter, if that is, in fact, what happened in the Martin case. Such statutes are a matter of state, not federal, law. What Congressional Democrats are now doing has nothing to do with law enforcement, and everything to do with stirring up their party’s base for this year’s elections.

The resolution – sponsored by CBC Chairman Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) and Florida Democratic Reps. Corrine Brown, Alcee Hastings and Frederica Wilson, all members of the CBC – refers to Martin’s killing as a “crime,” condemns “the inconceivable fact that his killer remains free” and claims “racial bias led to the use of deadly force.”

The non-binding resolution also “condemns unfounded reliance on Stand Your Ground laws to protect actions that extend far beyond historical use of self-defense … [and] urges any State legislature considering Stand Your Ground legislation to reject such proposals.”

This is the kind of thing that gives demagoguery a bad name. Whether Martin’s killing was a “crime” remains to be seen, and will ultimately be determined by some combination of law enforcement officials, a presiding judge, and a jury. I have written that I think the evidence, as publicly known, warrants a manslaughter prosecution. But to go beyond that and declare that what happened was a “crime” is an unwarranted interference with the judicial process, as is the assertion that “racial bias led to the use of deadly force.” [/quote]More Dead-End Demagoguery from the Democrats | Power Line

Agreed.[quote]

But if you parse the provisions of Florida law that apply specifically to the Trayvon Martin case, it is hard to quarrel with them. Florida law says that a person is “justified in the use of deadly force and does not have a duty to retreat” if “He or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.” Florida law provides further that a person who is doing nothing illegal and is in a place where he or she has a right to be “has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.” So if George Zimmerman was walking down the street and minding his own business and was attacked by Trayvon Martin, he had a right to defend himself, including the use of deadly force if he reasonably believed it was necessary to defend himself from death or great bodily harm. Likewise, of course, for Trayvon Martin.

Florida law specifically addresses the knottiest issue posed by the Martin/Zimmerman case: what happens if someone initiates a confrontation, but that confrontation escalates to a threat of deadly force against him? Can he defend himself, or has he lost any right of self-defense by virtue of having provoked the conflict in the first place? Florida law says that self-defense is not available to anyone who “Initially provokes the use of force against himself” unless he reasonably believes that he is in “imminent danger of death or great bodily harm” and has exhausted every reasonable means of escape other than to respond with deadly force, or else he has “withdraw[n] from physical contact with the assailant and indicates clearly to the assailant that he or she desires to withdraw and terminate the use of force, but the assailant continues or resumes the use of force.”

So under Florida law, even if Zimmerman initially provoked the confrontation with Martin–note that the word “provoked” is left deliberately vague in the statute–he still can respond to Martin with deadly force if he was in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm and had exhausted every other reasonable means of escape.

One might quarrel with these or any other statutory provisions, but they constitute a fair framework within which to resolve the Martin/Zimmerman case. The Congressional Democrats who are trying to gain politically from the case have nothing better to offer. On the contrary, their complaints are entirely demagogic:

Wilson, who represents the district where Martin lived, is working on legislation to create a national commission “to study race-based injustices, health disparities and economic disparities affecting African American men and boys,” in the words of the congresswoman.

Right. That’ll help. Note that her proposal includes no effort to study, or explain the reasons for, the vastly disproportionate number of crimes committed by African-American boys and men, the elephant that is always in the room when crime and race are discussed.[/quote]

The Florida Law is there too. Read it and be well. :thumbsup:

And don’t get me wrong, I think it’s terrible that TM was killed and that Z felt he had to shoot him. But I really hate the race card being played again and again and again.

Apparently in Wonderland it’s perfectly reasonable to shoot someone dead for busting your lip.

The Florida Stand Your Ground Law is quite clear.

Also, I don’t agree with your assessment of Z’s injuries.

Sad all round. Bottom line is, if your national laws allow mouth-breathers and wannabe paramilitary types to buy lethal weapons on the open market, people will get shot more often than you’d expect. And if your parents call you “Trayvon”, you’re likely to be one of those people who gets shot.

[quote=“finley”]Sad all round. Bottom line is, if your national laws allow mouth-breathers and wannabe paramilitary types to buy lethal weapons on the open market, people will get shot more often than you’d expect.
And if your parents call you “Trayvon”, you’re likely to be one of those people who gets shot
.[/quote]
that’s very Freakonomics of you to say. :thumbsup:

And yes, sad all around

Or, we could wait until the facts are disclosed before we pass judgment.

Or, we could wait until the facts are disclosed before we pass judgment.[/quote]That has been the problem with this case since day one.

Zimmerman, who weighs twice as much as the unarmed Martin, committed murder and needs to be prosecuted. And all evidence points to it being a racially motivated killing.

Have you seen all of the evidence, Chris?

I really think you need a link or two Chris. :thumbsup:

I don’t believe Z’s size has anything to do with it. An eye witness saw Martin sitting on Z’s chest beating his face in before he was shot.

So this is Hispanic on Black race killing, you think? :ohreally:

This is what happens when you let untrained halfwits walk around with loaded guns thinking they are cops.

People like Zimmerman are ne’er do wells, not do gooders and should be locked up.

I know there is a big move to spin this to the right now because the talking heads anticipate some red meat on the horizon and it will make them look good (plus the Duke lacrosse false accusation fiasco is still fresh in their mind), but this is different. A kid is dead, because someone irresponsibly shot him.

The stand your ground law, while well intended, is proving to be flawed and Florida is proving to be a state where murders are allowed to roam freely. Just ask that Anthony chick who got off for killing her kid.

Trayvon Martin case: Screams on 911 tape aren’t George Zimmerman’s: experts

[quote]Two leading forensic voice identification experts who listened to a 911 call from a neighbor at the Sanford, Fla., gated community where Martin was gunned down told the Orlando Sentinel that the screams didn’t match Zimmerman’s voice.

Using sophisticated voice match software, Tom Owen, forensic consultant for Owen Forensic Services LLC and chair emeritus for the American Board of Recorded Evidence, told the Sentinel that there was only a 48% chance that it was Zimmerman crying for help on the tape.

Usually, a positive match rates higher than 90%.

“As a result of that, you can say with reasonable scientific certainty that it’s not Zimmerman,” Owen said.

Owen, the former chief engineer for the New York Public Library’s Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound, also said he couldn’t be sure that the voice was Martin’s because he didn’t have a sample of the teen’s voice.

But a second audio sleuth said he heard the teen screaming for his life.

“I believe that’s Trayvon Martin in the background, without a doubt,” Ed Primeau, an audio engineer and forensics expert from Michigan, told the Sentinel.

[/quote]

Funeral director says Trayvon’s body showed no signs of brawl

[quote]Richard Kurtz said his examination of the slain Florida teen’s corpse revealed no cuts, scratches or bruises, only a gunshot wound to the chest.

Kurtz’s account appears to contradict George Zimmerman’s claims that he shot Trayvon during a life-and-death struggle.

“We could see no physical signs like there had been a scuffle [or] there had been a fight,” Kurtz told CBS News.

“The hands — I didn’t see any knuckles, bruises or what have you, and that is something we would have covered up if it would have been there.”

Trayvon “looked perfectly normal to me when he came in and the story just does not make sense that he was in this type of scuffle or fight in anything that we could see,” Kurtz added.
[/quote]

Been a while since theres been an OJ type trial, but my guess is they will charge Zimmerman eventually and then more details will come out in the trail, such as the extent (or lack) of injuries Zimmerman had. Im not sure if the audio analysis would hold up in court of if Zimmerman could find an expert to say it was more likely him, but if he is proved to by lying, it will be pretty much game over for him, IMO.

Hate to see the Dims politicize it, but Jeb Bush’s stance seems sensible to me. Of course, I don’t know all the facts and that’s what bugs me about Sharpton etc. getting involved. They are politicizing the issue and telling law enforcement how to do their job in a confrontational way by organizing rallies etc.

I really think you need a link or two Chris. :thumbsup:

I don’t believe Z’s size has anything to do with it. An eye witness saw Martin sitting on Z’s chest beating his face in before he was shot.[/quote]
Other witnesses said differently. And the police video shows that Zimmerman suffered no broken nose or damage to the back of his head.

Martin is also recorded on a phone conversation with his girlfriend that he was being followed. Later, Martin is heard screaming.

Tell me: how does a 140-pound teenager beat up a 250-pound, muscular adult? I don’t believe Zimmerman or that “eyewitness” for a second.

Sure, why not? Anti-black racism is alive and well in the US, no matter how much those on the right try to deny it. Zimmerman did say “f*ing cns”; that was caught on the phone recording and is clear as a bell.

It’s quite clear that Zimmerman killed Martin in cold blood.

A trial is in order to truly determine all the facts of the case.

QFT.

QFT.[/quote]

Bad people are going to get weapons no mater what. Restricting the open market only limits people from protecting themselves.

Just another thing for the Obama crowd to play the race card on while the economy goes down the toilet.

Shame that Martin died for attacking a guy - but the consequences of self-defense can be a hard lesson in real life.

What is sick is how this is being used to further polarize the country.

As more information comes out lets all hope some rational conclusions can be reached in this matter.

Yes, I agree: it’s sick that the right wing is using this issue to polarize the country. Perhaps it’s a desperate attempt to distract attention from the rapidly improving economy in the wake of the Bush-created recession.

[quote=“TainanCowboy”]
As more information comes out lets all hope some rational conclusions can be reached in this matter.[/quote]

That would be a good idea.

Even better if you followed you own advice, you don’t know Martin instigated an attack or if the killing was in self defense.

:roflmao: I actually blame part of the recession on the Congressional Black Caucus. They were one of the biggest proponents, along with Robert Rubin, in repealing Glass-Steagall legislation so that mortgages could be given to low income people, which many minorities would qualify for. Many of these people, black, white, pink, and every shade in between, had no business qualifying. Another example of special interests over sound economics.