Backing Away Slowly...

[shipperx]

The Trayvon Martin case has been both heartbreaking and infuriating. Ultimately, it boils down to the fact that a boy was killed for going to the store to buy Skittles, wearing a hoodie, for a culture infatuated with guns, and because of racist stereotypes (and mindsets). This can't be divorced from racism because when listening to people argue about this case, the underlying racial problems are obvious when 'somehow' Trayvon is being indicted for the POSSIBILITY that he MAY have tried to defend himself in the 1 minute gap between the phone call and his being killed... indicted by the same people 'defending' Zimmerman by arguing that Zimmerman was 'just defending himself' and therefore justified for following Martin and--according to the phone call--confronting Martin. Why is it that Zimmerman's defenders see no contradiction in their indicting a slaughtered boy for possibly/maybe defending himself from the guy who had just stalked him on a dark, rainy street with their saying that Zimmerman is 'justified' for feeling 'threatened' after he stalked the boy and brought about a confrontation while Zimmerman was armed?!.

That's where bias is very most definitely on full display.

Putting aside the ABC released video footage of Zimmerman in the police station (where he doesn't appear to have any injuries that match the desciption he and his defenders have given) my jaw dropped at Zimmerman's father's statement:

I never foresaw so much hate coming from the president, .

For the record the President said:

"If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon Martin"

...which is the truth! It's called empathy.

Trayvon Martin was just a boy. He was someone's beloved son and brother. His life was violently ended and his parents left grieving. Expressing empathy for a child and his parents in no way whatsoever qualifies as 'hate. That it's interpreted as such says a hell of a lot more about the person reading his statement that way than the President showing empathy for the grieved in a human tragedy.

...and Zimmerman Sr. calls the President's statement hateful? WTF? Seriously, WTF.

Comments

[ms-scarletibis.livejournal.com]

I fear more and more everyday that the Martin family will never see justice, in spite of the fact that any logical thinking person can see pretty much what went down without being there. How can it possibly be self defense when you stalk someone while carrying a concealed weapon? Where does it say that young black teens must carry their "papers" or may they suffer the consequence of being slain? Or that a certain article of clothing (worn while it was raining out) warrants being shot?

I cannot even put into words how maddening my frustration and anger has become. What happened is as plain as day, with witnesses (the girlfriend DeeDee and the neighbor Cutcher) who aide the case for the victim Trayvon. I hate how they're trying to slander him through the mud, and comments like, "Young black and Hispanic males shouldn't wear hoodies" coming from the Conservative media/dumbass Fox News. I am repulsed, and I feel ill.

This boy's justice is long over due.

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/martin-bashir/46884841

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Fox News has been repulsive for a while now.

And there's simply no way that the Zimmerman's elaborate account of the confrontation can align with the logistics of the situation considering there was only a few minute gap between when Zimmerman got off the phone with 9-1-1, and when you can hear one of the witnesses 9-1-1 calls saying that she'd heard the gun shot. And coordinating with Dee Dee's phone records there was only a single minute of time from when she lost contact and when poor Trayvon was killed. One minute. And looking at what they've shown on Google map, given the distance from the road, it's really hard to buy that there was time for any significant confrontation to have happened in the 3-minute gap from when Zimmerman broke off with 911 and when Martin was murdered.