xp - Stand Your Ground laws

GeraldoRivera

snp605:

After their involvement and whereabouts were hidden by their local community, they were captured. They did not wait for police to arrive, give as many statements and accounts as asked for, they did not voluntarily turn themselves in when faced with having their account decided by a jury. When many taxdollars were spent trying to find them failed, they were turned over by someone else who they had threatened. They then matter of factly stated, and the evidence supported, that they went out looking for white victims (they had attempted to rob 2 other people that evening). At that point they were arraigned and they were given benefit of a grand jury (something Zimmerman never got). No one has threatened their families, marched on their neighborhoods or screamed corruption despite charges already being lessened against 3 of the people involved before it ever goes to trial. In fact there has been quite a bit of outreach in the community about how to  heal feelings in the black community so young men might not feel compelled to do something like this again.

 

Despite admitting that the victim was singled out purely over race, no one has been charged with a hate crime.

 

So, they were arrested, prosecuted and now they're being tried. And I bet you dollars to donuts they'll be found guilty and will likely face the maximum penalty in your state, whether that's the death penalty or life without parole. 

Do you not see that this is why black people are so angry? Because when a black person kills a white person, the justice system springs into action immediately. But when a white person kills a black person, the system is much, much slower to act. For example, failing to even arrest George Zimmerman for 44 days after he shot and killed an unarmed black teenager. 

It's not about the crime itself - it's about the justice system's handling of that crime. It's about feeling that the system and the powers that be simply don't care - the police don't bother to investigate, they don't bother to process the crime scene properly, they don't bother to arrest the perpetrators, the white person is given the benefit of the doubt - they aren't drug tested, but the black victim sure is - the DA's office doesn't bother to prosecute or if they do, they do so half-heartedly, and if they actually do get a trial, the punishment is lenient.

This is what so many non-minorities fail to understand.

GeraldoRivera

snp605:

gonnabeJLBagain:

missymo:

The media spins everything.  Every flucking thing.  For real.  It doesn't matter what they are reporting on.  

Yes, I know.  Journalism is dead.  However, doctoring a 911 call to further their claim of racism...just plain wrong. 

What upsets me is that not everybody understands this, and takes what is "reported" in the media as gospel truth.  Way toooooooo many misinformed people walking about.

 

This. This is what interests me about the case.

A common myth in the case that I have seen posted on this board in just the past few days is that the detective seemingly begged to bring charges. In fact, the FBI report released reported EXACTLY the opposite. Sperino did NOT want to file charges. He was feeling pressured by 3 other officers to bring them (incidentally not responding officers to the scene and one of whom was friendly with the family). After the media mogul was hired to spin the unevidenced story of racism by a civil rights attorney connected to the family, the governor appointed Angela Corey as a special state prosecutor to investigate the case. Bill Lee, the police chief who had not brought charges and felt that there was insufficient evidence to do so, told Serino he must file a capias in order to give jurisdiction in the case over to the state vs. the Sanford police department. A capias has to have some recommended criminal charge as it is a type of warrant. Serino did as he was advised thus recommended manslaughter as that was the only thing he could see *might* be able to be charged. So essentially, in order to give the State Prosecutor the jurisdiction the governor called for he filed a form that recommended manslaughter. Not because he believed it to be so. 

 Someone stated that Zimmerman made 44 calls against black youth in the years preceding this. Obviously someone got this information from somewhere-either someone who makes gross errors or someone who was deliberately spinning the story. Either way this person's account was trusted and then shared despite it being provably and patently false.

Very little has been discussed about the lab whistle blower reported the prosecution in for not turning over his report to the defense  as required by law who has now been fired for disclosing this information.

There are still people who believe that Zimmerman was bigger than Martin and that Martin was a small, slight  middle school sized baby. Witnesses in court on this case testified that their very own testimony being used by the prosecution to convict him was SHAPED by the media reports.

 Martin did not live with either of his parents yet they have been the ones making all of the national appearances and collecting money off of his death despite not even knowing what his interests or likes were or even where he was the night he died. That makes me a little sick.

 No one is saying that there isn't rampant racism of all kinds in this country and no one (at least not here) is saying that a young person dying over a misunderstanding is anything less than sad. The problem is that when true and obvious racism rears its ugly head, people will have become jaded and numb to it a la the boy who cried wolf because of things like this.

 

 

Where are you getting this from?

Who did Trayvon live with?

GeraldoRivera

The only people who are saying that Trayvon Martin did not live with his mother are random conservative blogs, NONE of which cite any sort of source or evidence for this claim.

 Do you have some sort of evidence for saying he didn't live with his mother? 

cincychick35

GeraldoRivera:

The only people who are saying that Trayvon Martin did not live with his mother are random conservative blogs, NONE of which cite any sort of source or evidence for this claim.

 Do you have some sort of evidence for saying he didn't live with his mother? 

According to TM's stepmom, he spent 90% of his time at her house.

http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2013/07/open-thread-is-trayvon-martins-stepmother-out-of-line/ 

GeraldoRivera

cincychick35:

GeraldoRivera:

The only people who are saying that Trayvon Martin did not live with his mother are random conservative blogs, NONE of which cite any sort of source or evidence for this claim.

 Do you have some sort of evidence for saying he didn't live with his mother? 

According to TM's stepmom, he spent 90% of his time at her house.

http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2013/07/open-thread-is-trayvon-martins-stepmother-out-of-line/ 

Well that certainly seems to negate the claim that he didn't live with his parents. 

sandsonik

snp605:

lasposa425:

How are the previous three posts even relevant to the discussion in this thread?  In any event, I will agree that the media does have a powerful role but people aren't only interested in it because the media reported on it.  If you really think that, I guess I don't know what to say. 

 

So what stokes your interest in this case if not the media hype? Are you local? The details are actually rather dry. Locally we had a white teenager brutally murdered by 4 black youths. They admitted they specifically targeted him and another victim who escaped earlier in the evening because they were white. They shot him in the head and took the sandwich he was carrying and ate it. A few months before that 3 other youths in my town robbed a chinese delivery man, stole the money and chinese food from him after they lured him to a false address then went back to the cab after eating the food and pilfered his body and cab looking for other items to steal. I don't think nearly so many people are following those cases of truly heinous behavior. Not nearly so many people seem to be following the near genocide of black youth in the city of Chicago. I don't get the interest in this vs any of the other ones aside from media exposure.

Were the individuals you mention above charged? That is the difference. George Zimmerman wasn't and it caused an outcry. He was allowed to go home to bed while the police didn't even bother calling the Martins for 48 hours to tell them their son was dead, even though they'd reported him missing. It was the demand for a trial that brought the case national attention, similar to the Steubenville rape case which was initially swept under the carpet. The cases you are describing sound heinous, but I'm guessing the police didn't decide not to press charges and let the perps go, so I don't see the comparison at all.