Surprise! Some people are racists
There was a tragic shooting in Florida that you may have, or may not have heard about. An Hispanic man, neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman, shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The reasons aren’t clear, but controversy revolves around whether or not Zimmerman used a racial slur before he pulled the trigger. Somehow, making that determination will make young Martin less dead;
One focus of the FBI’s inquiry is whether Zimmerman muttered a racial slur seconds before shooting Martin on Feb. 26, as has been alleged. The FBI is trying to determine whether the audiotape of a 911 dispatch call between Sanford police and Zimmerman can be enhanced with sophisticated equipment that has been used in other cases. If it can, the tape will be transferred to the FBI laboratory at Quantico, one official said.
Enhancing the tape could be crucial to determining whether the shooting is considered a “hate crime” under federal hate-crime laws, according to law enforcement officials.
But the Washington Post is wringing it’s tiny liberal hands over the fact that, in the Age of Obama racists still exist, a if it’s some sort of revelation;
“It reminds you of Emmett Till,” said Bernadette Pruitt, an associate professor of history at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Tex., who has written about Southern racial history and can’t stop thinking of Trayvon Martin and his family. “This so-called post-racialism is a figment of our imagination. Race, unfortunately, is still the barometer by which everyone is measured.”
Yes, just like Emmet Till, a fourteen-year-old boy who was murdered because he spoke to a white woman in 1955. And one man’s murder of Trayvon Martin certainly doesn’t make all white people racists. Of course activists are demanding that the federal government step in and muck up the issue.
Um, folks, the federal government can’t stop people from being racists. No matter how distasteful racism is, there will always be people who judge you by the way you look and the group you belong to. Sorry, but that’s life. The feds can attempt to wipe out institutional racism, but they can’t touch individuals for being hateful. I know that’s not fair, but the government isn’t in the business of spreading fairness around either. The government has to be fair – that’s the whole reason that there is a Constitution – but they can’t make us treat each other fairly.
[Lula King, 75] continued: “But I’ll tell you, God is gonna take care of all of this,” she said to shouts of “Amen!” from the crowd. “Whatever men do wrong, it’s gonna come to the light.”
Yep, God will take care of all of this, but expecting the government to wipe out racism is just naive. They can’t even wipe out speeding and drunk driving.
Category: Politics
And one man’s murder of Trayvon Martin certainly doesn’t make all white people racists
Sure it does….especially if the shooter is Hispanic! Remember, only white people can be racists!
Over at DU, they claim Zimmermann is still white and Hispanic doesnt count as a race (except when its election pandering time)
And if it had been a black perp and white or brown victim?
Oh, right–AG Holder ain’t gonna prosecute “his people”.
It’s the name….it just sounds white, therefore, he must be a white supremecist
He overstepped the line when he chased down the boy and confronted him. He had no “Duty” to perform that act. He crossed the line and committed a homicide. …. the degree of which should be determined in a court not by a cop on the street. The investigating officers screwed the pooch by not preserving evidence on the scene and allowing Zimmerman to walk.
Here’s my problem with this whole story. I live in an area where almost daily young black people are being killed by other young black people and none of them, absolutely none of them ever get 1/10th of the attention this case does. It has become a running joke around here because the victim/perp are always characterized with the phrase “aspiring rap artist” or “promising athlete”. They are always good students who are never involved in gangs but invariably if they show a recent picture of the perp/victim they are dressed in gang attire flashing gang signs with a tough guy look on their face. In a lot of cases they now post pictures of the deceased from when he was 12 y/o.
If this guy did indeed shoot the youth with no real threat to his personal safety then charge him but can we stop all this damn race baiting crap. They should be more concerned about the free fire zone that is Chicago or any other large urban area.
The federal government cant stop people from being racist, you’re right. What they can do is step in to make sure the police actually do their jobs. 911 tapes reveal that the dispatchers told him to wait for police but “these assholes always get away” so he chased the kid down.
Police then started to lead witnesses to try to take blame off of Zimmerman, telling people it was the armed Zimmerman shouting help. The cops haven’t done anything, this is shameful. The guy chased down and shot a kid with skittles and ice tea in his pocket because he was black so he must be up to no good.
Doesn’t matter if Zimmerman is white, brown, purple or green you can tell by his tone and words in the 911 call he saw a black kid and freaked out wanting to lay down the law. I can only hope he actually realizes what he’s done when he is sitting in prison.
I also notice the press has managed to not notice the story about the white kid in Oklahoma who was jumped by two ‘aspiring rap artists’, doused in gasoline and then set on fire
Guess a racial crime against a white kid just doesn’t fit the storyline.
#6 Shhh, before Joe or some other troll calls you a racist for pointing out a serious problem that the African American community is (not) facing.
The initial reports indicated this was a gated community? If that was the case, something other than race was involved here. Some of my extended family lived in a gated ocmmunity in Georgia. You don’t just wander in and out of those areas; and the residents are known by the security/neighborhood watch folks.
Why does “pull my hoodie up and take off” even remotely seem like a good idea? If I’m not mistaken, didn’t Zimmerman identify himself?
It was raining, the hood helps keep the head dry.
Zimmerman is not a law enforcement officer giving him 0 legal right to stop anyone unless he was witnessing a violent felony. If a random guy pulled up on me and told me to stop and wasn’t a cop I would keep walking to.
Again, Zimmerman is not a cop and he was told by the Police to stop following him and real cops would come handle it.
Its apparent Flying Cow Dung has this all solved….. Carry on, carry on.
Troll away infantryjj, if you read the 911 tapes and the testimony given by 4 witnesses and a girl who was on the phone with the kid and still believe Zimmerman had any right to stop, much less shoot and kill a kid then you are too retarded to have honest discourse with.
Much love, hope you find your head up in your ass someday.
12 – Exactly. Zimmerman was in a car. He called the police who told him to stop pursuing the guy. He continued. He got out of the car and confronted an unarmed man. He was neighboorhood watch, not the police. He told the guy to stop without any authority to do so, which may scare the kid to death and cause him to run. He then started the confrontaion. Therefore, his self defense argument is bogus. The rules about not having to retreat do not apply when you start the confrontation in a public space. The kid committed NO CRIME. He was on the sidewalk/street; therefore he did not even trespass. As to the gated community thing, I think his non-custodial father lived in or near the community such that it was the shortest path to the store. Further, even in gated communities, you generally can’t stop someone from walking on the sidewalk/street.
The police in this case completely screwed the pooch. They did not perserve the evidence. While there are many murders in this country, this is news because of the police incompetent rather than the complexion of the parties.
This case aside, where the fuck are these “activists” regarding the white 14 year old kid who had gasoline poured on him by blacks and set afire while telling “you get what you deserve white boy!” only a couple weeks ago?
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-03-04/news/31122324_1_white-boy-fire-tv-station
16 – (a) that doesn’t fit the activist’s meme and (b) the police didn’t screw the pooch.
Are you serious 16? Are you so stupid that you can’t see the difference between a murder which is being willfully ignored by the local police and a possible attempted murder, or serious assault which is actually being investigated? Are you really that dumb? I hope to God that you’re not an NCO or an officer.
Of course I’m serious in asking that question #18; though it was mostly rhetorical regarding the amount of coverage of a definitive hate crime vs. only a potential here and how some folks are more equal than others), and I thought I clearly stated I wasn’t comparing the two cases (and yes I know someone died in this one, but I wasn’t comparing the two, you were).
“Am I really that dumb?” Well, I responded to you didn’t I Mr. Smartipants? Maybe I AM in fact that dumb to do that.
C-
Pouring gasoline on someone is no less despicable then what happened with Zimmerman and Martin, but the police are actually investigating it! That is why it’s not getting as much coverage.
That IS why I asked if Zimmerman identified himself.
And if you would read the transcripts of the call, rain had SFA to do with it. He was on the phone with his gf, said Zimmerman was following him, pulled up his hood, then took off – and THAT is why I asked if Zimmerman identified himself. Had he done so, this young may have engaged him and answered his question instead of being scared off. Either way, Zimmerman screwed up, be it as a human being AND as neighborhood watch.
IMO, there is too much changing in the news stories to be even close to 100% sure of what happened. I read in 2 different article that police found Zimmerman with a bloody nose, the back of his head bleeding and grass stains on his back. One witness said that Martin was on top of Zimmerman and punching him when Zimmerman shot him. Another said that Zimmerman was kneeling on Martins chest when he shot. A third witness has given interviews to the news that apparently contradict her statement to police. And the police have to sort through who actually saw something, who heard something, and who just wants their 15 mins on air with a reporter.
Not immediately handcuffing this guy and charging him with murder does’nt mean the police aren’t going to charge him if the evidence supports it. It just means they are actually doing their job. Eventually the truth will come out during the police investigation and if charges are warranted, they will be filed. Zimmerman may have made a serious mistake and broken the law when he got out of his car to confront Martin, but that doesn’t automatically mean that he was out for blood.
Also, I think a nice big douchebag trophy should be presented to the city council. The ink is barely dry on the initial police statements and they already passed a no-confidence vote on the police chief for not jumping the gun.
I’m going to have to disagree that if a couple of good ole boys in Kansas City doused a black kid in gasoline and said “you get what you deserve n—–” we wouldn’t be hearing about it even if it was being properly investigated.
“He crossed the line and committed a homicide. …. the degree of which should be determined in a court not by a cop on the street”. Agreed, it also shouldn’t be determined by ABC News, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the ACLU, the NAACP, The WaPo, the Sanford, Fl city council, “protesters” or online bloggers. At least, IMHO.
@23 Yes, Adam, you’re right. Does anyone here remember the Carr brothers?
*sigh* The media does seem to only cover incidents of interracial crime where black people are the victims. Does anyone remember the absolutely horrible case a few years ago- a young white Marine and his newlywed black wife were tortured and murdered by four-wait for it- black Marines who served under him. That case was on the news for a second, mainly in a couple of NYC papers because the guy was from NY, and the story went away. I say this because I’m black, have friends I visit in Fayetteville,NC and had relatives who were terrified for me the first time I went because they were sure that one of thousands of white racists in the 82nd were going to kill me, based on a well reported news story from about 10 or so years ago.