Comments on: The Trayvon Martin Case: Lack of Outrage about Black-on-Black Crime Claim is Invalid.

By: Jim p

Jim p — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 16:51:49 +0000

First let me state that I am an elderly white man. I feel the lose of anyone’s life is tragic. The circumstances that led up to this event began way before that fatal night. Martin being suspended from school and visiting his father. Zimmerman feeling as though he had to protect his neighborhood. Who is doing all the crimes by the way? To many reasons leading to this tragic event. No one was innocent and one man died. This story will only be repeated with much more frequency until we come to grips with what makes the one race scared or pissed at the other. I for one think it is one of disrespect for human kind as a whole. Don’t take what doesn’t belong to you is one example of major disrespect to all. Why can’t we just stop committing crimes? Why? human nature is to destroy and not build. It is too hard to always do the right thing. Rape, murder, theft, drugs. Wake up human race. It is not a race issue. It is a human disrespect issue in a massive way. Work hard to do the right thing. It is always worth it.

By: Rameses

Rameses — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 14:41:39 +0000

I totally ahree flo I said the same thing last night….if he would have given his phone to zimmerman so he could call his dad and verify who he was, he would have been ok. Most people will say “why should he have had to do all that?” Would Trayvon been better off being right or wise? If I’, walking down a street, at night, and I see a black teen with a hoody on, I’m nervous myself. If you;re a young man, especially back, and a grown man asks you a question, your best response is “yes sir no sir.” Instead of “you can’t tell me what to do.” When I talk to the police I respect them. I say “yes sir no sir.” It doesn’t compromise my dignity to give them respect.

By: flo

flo — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 13:31:51 +0000

I meant to say what it wasn’t it wasn’t racist. And why is it racist for a white person to use unkind language towards another race but not for a black person to call a white person unkind things.

By: flo

flo — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 13:30:11 +0000

Travyon should have and could have called his father if he feared for his life not jump GZ. Both were guilty of this. And a person has a right to use whatever force to defend themselves if ever attacked and fears for their lives no matter what color they are. I have had someone I knew attack me and I thought I was going to die and if I had a gun he may not be here right now. This was a tragedy all away around. Both parties handled this wrong and it ended up badly and a young man lost his life, but lets not make it out to be what it was racist.

By: Satchel

Satchel — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 05:50:29 +0000

Can anyone disagree, if I said, George Zimmerman was the only person who could have prevented the death of Trayvon Martin on that night. Speaking Practically, GZ had multiple opportunities to prevent the death of Trayvon that night. Lets say that he had followed the 911 operators directions, and stayed in his truck, he would not have killed Trayvon that night. If GZ had not carried carried that weapon, he could not have shot and killed Trayvon that night. If George had properly identified himself as armed neighbor watch (assuming that is true), maybe Trayvon would have lived beyond that night. If George Zimmerman’s culture had not encouraged his entitlement he would not have felt comfortable carrying that weapon to confront another person. George Zimmerman hunted, confronted and provoked that alleged confrontation.

By: Shala Marks

Shala Marks — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 03:23:45 +0000

To NonOfYourBusiness:

Thanks for sharing your views, but I’d like to clarify one thing. I wrote, ““Having a law that allows anyone to kill another person in self-defense causes problems within itself (and is more of a political issue), but the point is how the law was carried out.” Perhaps I should’ve written “can cause” as opposed to “causes” because I was in no way saying the Stand Your Ground Law is completely wrong or should be abolished. What I meant was having a law like this where it’s based on something that can be subjective can cause problems.

A perfect example of this is what Alexis Francisco Carter, George Zimmerman’s former instructor, said today while testifying about what he taught about the law:

He explained that a person can make a self-defense argument if the person has a “reasonable apprehension” of death or great bodily harm.

“It’s imminent fear. The fact alone that there isn’t an injury doesn’t necessarily mean that the person didn’t have a reasonable apprehension or fear,” Carter said. “The fact that there are injuries might support there was reasonable apprehension and fear.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/03/george-zimmerman-gun-trayvon-martin-dna_n_3543097.html?utm_hp_ref=trayvon-martin

This “reasonable apprehension” is subjective, no matter if it’s clearly defined in the law or not ( I don’t have this information). What’s a reasonable apprehension of fear to one person may differ from what this means to another person. This can cause problems and misuse of the law if people go around killing or harming others in what they viewed as a reason for “self defense.”

Like the case this post derived from, if GZ really did confront Martin first, some sort of fight or scuffle ensued, GZ obviously felt like he was on the losing end and says he feared for his life so he used deadly force to defend himself. To him this may have been a reasonable apprehension of fear, but to to others, putting yourself in a scenario where you created the supposed threat and fear may not be.

I appreciate you reading and commenting.

By: NonOfYourBusiness

NonOfYourBusiness — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 21:44:56 +0000

“Having a law that allows anyone to kill another person in self-defense causes problems within itself (and is more of a political issue), but the point is how the law was carried out.”

Wow, so if a Klanner (KKK) had a knife to a Black woman’s throat and was about to rape her to death, she shouldn’t have the right to use deadly force to defend herself? How about if it was he daughter?

Just wow.

By: leroy

leroy — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 10:07:59 +0000

Well after listening to Rachel Jeantel on the witness stand, I now suspect that having had such a long discussion with Rachel, Treyvon took the gun away from GZ and shot himself

By: Scipio

Scipio — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 06:10:38 +0000

The Tampa Bay Times conducted a study in June 2012 on the effects of Florida’s “Stand your Ground Law,” and you know what it found? The defendants claiming “stand your ground” are more likely to prevail if the victim is black. Seventy-three percent (73%) of the people who killed a black person didn’t face any penalties compared to 59 percent of the people who killed a white person. The race breakdown isn't particularly informative. What would be useful to know is how many of the cases involved dead perps with criminal records. And referring to the dead in Stand Your Ground cases as victims is an inversion of the terminology usually used. The victims are usually the Stand Your Ground defendants who are holding off perps trying to rob or inflict physical harm on them. In 159 cases where the law was used as reasoning, the victim was not armed compared to 62 cases where the victim was armed. The victim was not committing a crime in 179 cases compared to 49 cases where he or she was. Also, in 128 cases, the defendant could have retreated to avoid the conflict and killing the person, as opposed to 34 cases where he or she couldn’t. Perps don't need to be armed to rob or inflict physical harm. It would be nice to know the age and weight differences between the victims and the dead perps and, of course, whether the perps had previous criminal records. The whole point of Stand Your Ground is that you don't have to let perps steal or destroy your stuff or beat you senseless, so the duty to retreat is irrelevant.

By: Apollo Dogg

Apollo Dogg — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 04:44:30 +0000

George Zimmerman’s Black Ancestry is Revealed
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2876811/posts

George Zimmerman: the black, Hispanic, Peruvian, kind-hearted non-white, not-racist poster boy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2876692/posts

George Zimmerman Has ‘Black Roots’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2876518/posts