^^^^ No, I'm saying that has nothing to do with what, if anything, Zimmerman should be convicted in a criminal court of.


and there is no need for the consequences to be equal to begin with, and I think even you'd agree with that. What if, hypothetically, we agreed that the two parties were equally to blame for the tragedy? Would you then argue that the appropriate punishment for Zimmerman would be the death penalty?

7/13/2013 1:55:43 AM

http://www.flcourts18.org/PDF/Press_Releases/Zimmerman_Final_Jury_Instructions.pdf

Those jury instructions seem to bring to the forefront whether or not a self defense killing is justifiable.

[Edited on July 13, 2013 at 7:49 AM. Reason : Ll]

7/13/2013 7:45:55 AM

Quote :

"Remember the fear of white folks rioting in the streets when OJ was aquitted? Oh wait..."

Black people riot after feeling mistreated and disenfranchised. White people riot after... losing sports championships.

7/13/2013 9:07:04 AM

Quote :

"Zimmerman will pay for this with years of civil suits and eventually his broke ass will wind up in jail over a merchandise robbery. but, unlike OJ, he should be acquitted from the criminal case"

if he is acquitted, doesn't florida's law protect him from civil suits?

7/13/2013 10:29:22 AM

https://twitter.com/david0monroe/status/355830335008813058

7/13/2013 11:02:08 AM

Quote :

"Zimmerman will pay for this with years of civil suits and eventually his broke ass will wind up in jail over a merchandise robbery."

Nah son. He's gonna write a couple books about it and all of these Nancy Grace watching busybodies will make him rich.

7/13/2013 11:11:36 AM

Quote :

"Those jury instructions seem to bring to the forefront whether or not a self defense killing is justifiable. "

And if that's the question that has to be answered, I don't see how Zimmerman doesn't get off.

7/13/2013 11:19:33 AM

Quote :

"if he is acquitted, doesn't florida's law protect him from civil suits?"

does that apply to SYG defense or all "self defense" defenses? I couldn't remember. if he's protected from civil suits, then yeah, the right wing will make him fabulously wealthy

7/13/2013 12:00:47 PM

All self defense cases if the jury acquits http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0776/0776.html

776.032

7/13/2013 12:27:49 PM

Quote :

"Moreso than rioting by people who care about justice, if Zimmerman's acquitted I'm more worried about white men across the nation taking it as a cue that they can finally start hunting all those pesky black children stepping on their lawns."

This hurts my brain.
As a white man, I assure you that this situation does not make me want to go hunting black children; nor does it make me envious of George Zimmerman's position in any way.

But yeah, ignore the very real possibility of rioting and focus on the evil white men in your mind if it makes you feel better about yourself.

[Edited on July 13, 2013 at 12:28 PM. Reason : l]

7/13/2013 12:28:19 PM

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

7/13/2013 4:27:38 PM

i'm not quite sure about this, but i feel there might be a small amount of racism in that picture.

7/13/2013 5:42:25 PM

of course there is, and IMO you'd approve of it

7/13/2013 8:11:58 PM

seriously?

7/13/2013 9:00:29 PM

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/13/justice/zimmerman-it-firing/index.html

Quote :

"Sanford, Florida (CNN) -- An employee of the Florida State Attorney's Office who testified that prosecutors withheld evidence from George Zimmerman's defense team has been fired."

7/13/2013 9:50:24 PM

^ Yeah, I saw that earlier. That's kind of a big deal, I think, and if the verdict isn't acquittal, I'll bet we haven't heard the end of that story.


...but I'm calling it now: acquittal. The jury wouldn't convict on manslaughter without getting their previous question clarified and resolved.

7/13/2013 9:57:38 PM

LOCK AND LOAD

7/13/2013 9:59:28 PM

Zimmerman aquitted

On WRAL's page: Breaking News: A jury of six women acquitted George Zimmerman all of charges Saturday in the 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman, of Sanford, Fla., was accused of second-degree murder in the case.

[Edited on July 13, 2013 at 10:03 PM. Reason : .]

7/13/2013 10:02:09 PM

FLORIDA IS RIOTING

lol no

7/13/2013 10:05:46 PM

done.

7/13/2013 10:09:42 PM

done.

7/13/2013 10:09:42 PM

JUSTICE

7/13/2013 10:09:51 PM

So, you guys said riots would ensue, correct?

7/13/2013 10:14:07 PM

So, you guys said riots would ensue, correct?

7/13/2013 10:14:07 PM

It should have at least been manslaughter.

7/13/2013 10:14:18 PM

Quote :

"Manslaughter is the killing of a human being by the act ... of another, without lawful justification ... and in cases in which such killing shall not be excusable homicide or murder"

o rly?

7/13/2013 10:16:49 PM

This is going to be an ugly few days between white conservatives defending Zimmerman and on the other side those at the receiving end of institutional racism. Brace yourselves.

7/13/2013 10:25:11 PM

^^^ I think it's insulting to blacks that the threat of riots has been suggested. I hope I'm not proven wrong, but shit, we've got problems if that is even a significant threat.

7/13/2013 10:26:32 PM

I'm a white liberal and I think he's innocent, nice stereotyping

7/13/2013 10:30:27 PM

^^True

(unrelated... your boy Oberdorfer is going to solo next week.... stay out of south Texas!)

[Edited on July 13, 2013 at 10:30 PM. Reason : .]

7/13/2013 10:30:28 PM

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/sharpton-slap-face-those-who-believe-justice-country_739351.html

lolz

7/13/2013 10:51:34 PM

I'm glad that justice has prevailed.

7/13/2013 11:07:20 PM

I think he killed trayvon martin unjustly. but i don't think he should have been convicted in florida as the law stands. which is why the law is insane.

7/13/2013 11:08:31 PM

Actually you are right I stereotyped there and I apologize for that, however the problem if institutional racism is a real one even though it is no longer explicit in our laws.

7/13/2013 11:11:20 PM

^^ what law are you talking about?

7/13/2013 11:20:40 PM

you know i meant stand your ground.

but to be honest, this whole case was lacking in real evidence and the police groundwork likely lacking in the immediate aftermath. so really there just wasn't clear evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that he didn't fear for his life.

7/13/2013 11:25:54 PM

Quote :

"I think he killed trayvon martin unjustly. but i don't think he should have been convicted in florida as the law stands. which is why the law is insane."

I believe I heard that ALEC had a hand in writing that law (stand your ground). They are also writing many of the bills being considered in NC right now (here's a news link from earlier this year):

http://www.wral.com/state-house-leaders-off-to-alec/12405212/

Quote :

"State House leaders off to ALEC As House lawmakers debated whether to halve the number of North Carolina children eligible for free pre-kindergarten, several key members were missing from the chamber. House Speaker Thom Tillis, Rep. Tim Moffitt, R-Buncombe, and Rep. Jason Saine, R-Lincoln, left early Thursday to attend the ALEC Spring Task Force meeting in Oklahoma City, scheduled for Thursday and Friday. According to Tillis spokesman Jordan Shaw, the only state funds spent were for registration fees"

Quote :

"Many other bills bear striking resemblance to ALEC legislation, including proposals to repeal the renewable energy standard, offer school vouchers to parents, and reform environmental regulations. Tillis won the group's Legislator of the Year award in 2011."

7/13/2013 11:25:59 PM

Robert Zimmerman Jr for president

7/13/2013 11:38:26 PM

I think the biggest takeaway from all of this is that Latinos are now officially white. Welcome to the party!

7/14/2013 12:07:21 AM

*ahem*... "self proclaimed latinos"

7/14/2013 12:09:38 AM

Quote :

"you know i meant stand your ground."

OK, well "Stand Your Ground", aside from being pretty sensible and just an extension of the "castle doctrine" that is very widespread, was not argued in this case. SYG had nothing to do with Zimmerman's acquittal.

and of course i knew what you meant; i baited you into confirming that you have no idea what you're talking about, and therefore that your indictment of the FL law being "insane" falls on its face.

[Edited on July 14, 2013 at 1:12 AM. Reason : ]

7/14/2013 12:11:45 AM

if the stand your ground law wasn't in place it wouldn't have mattered, all that did was remove the duty to flee first. when the altercation started he didn't have an opportunity to flee, so stand your ground or not, the defense would have looked the same.

7/14/2013 12:15:58 AM

^^^^ Latinos have always been considered White according to official government demographics.

[Edited on July 14, 2013 at 12:16 AM. Reason : ]

7/14/2013 12:16:10 AM

Quote :

"^^^ I think it's insulting to blacks that the threat of riots has been suggested. I hope I'm not proven wrong, but shit, we've got problems if that is even a significant threat. "

Let's not kid ourselves- these type of high profile events have shown that riots are definitely a possibility.

I'm going down the path of why, but any group of people who feel like they're not being heard and have very little are known to snap and fuck shit up.

I'm the first to say I have no clue what it's like to be a black man. I won the lottery, I'm a white male born in USA.

7/14/2013 12:49:44 AM

I've seen way more white people ranting about this on Facebook, mostly complaining 1) that the "media" called Zimmerman white (when this is what the police put in the police report) and 2) you never hear about all the white people that get killed by blacks.

They don't seem to realize that a young black male could pretty much never shoot a white person and get acquitted. Blacks should just be happy there was a trial.

^ there's nothing inherently wrong with protests. I can't think of the last time there was a riot since Rodney King?

Not to mention crimes against all types of brown people sky rocketed after 9/11, and still haven't returned to pre-9/11 levels. That's 12 years of racially motivated violence that doesn't get attributed to the entire white race.

[Edited on July 14, 2013 at 1:29 AM. Reason : ]

7/14/2013 1:12:43 AM

my white friends must be a lot smarter. i haven't seen any of that.

7/14/2013 1:13:31 AM

^ +1. I block/unfried idiots.

7/14/2013 1:29:43 AM

The worst of the lot is friends of friends posting on friends' status. Odd that people feel comfortable posting blatantly racist things, when one person expresses any support for the acquittal. It's easy to lump these people all together...

There seems to be a racially agnostic 50/50 people support/against the verdict so far, but blacks are underrepresented in my friends list.

[Edited on July 14, 2013 at 1:31 AM. Reason : ]

7/14/2013 1:31:06 AM

Quote :

"^^^^ Latinos have always been considered White according to official government demographics."

Actually since 1980, the Census questions on race and Hispanic origin were separate, and about 2/3 of Hispanics said they were White alone (most of the rest said they were of "Some Other Race" alone, and nearly everyone who said "Some Other Race" was Hispanic); however, for a time in the past, starting in 1940, Hispanics were indeed counted as White: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2010/03/03/census-history-counting-hispanics-2/

7/14/2013 4:50:44 AM

Meanwhile

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57433184/fla-mom-gets-20-years-for-firing-warning-shots/

(CBS News) JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A Florida woman who fired warning shots against her allegedly abusive husband has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Marissa Alexander of Jacksonville had said the state's "Stand Your Ground" law should apply to her because she was defending herself against her allegedly abusive husband when she fired warning shots inside her home in August 2010. She told police it was to escape a brutal beating by her husband, against whom she had already taken out a protective order.

CBS Affiliate WETV reports that Circuit Court Judge James Daniel handed down the sentence Friday.

Under Florida's mandatory minimum sentencing requirements Alexander could receive a lesser sentence, even though she has never been in trouble with the law before. Judge Daniel said the law did not allow for extenuating or mitigating circumstances to reduce the sentence below the 20-year minimum.

7/14/2013 7:43:47 AM