Zimmerman Trial · 2:05pm Jul 14th, 2013
This annoys me. It's not the results that do it, though. It's how people are treating it. There is just so much crap floating about the internet about how "he killed a kid", "he's a monster", "he deserves to be executed", and all that kinda BS. It's pretty obvious that the most outspoken of these people have little to no idea what the case was even about. Let me break it down for those not in the know:
* Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old, was walking through a neighborhood he didn't live in at night. It was raining.
* George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch member, saw him and decided to follow him. Obviously, he suspected this strange kid of wrongdoing. Which is not unreasonable in itself, considering the neighborhood had been vandalized in the past.
* A fight broke out.
* George Zimmerman used his gun and killed Trayvon Martin during the fight.
That's it. Now, I'd like to remind everyone that legal precedent deems a 17 year old a consenting adult and therefore responsible for their own actions, and that they can be tried and punished to the fullest extent of the law. So the whole "he was just a kid" argument should be tossed out the window. Now, I'm not saying that Zimmerman is innocent. From my view, he might well be guilty of manslaughter. He got in a fight (he might have picked the fight, I don't know) and killed the other man. If that had been the case brought to court, then he would have likely been found guilty. Unfortunately, that was not the case brought to court. The prosecution, for whatever reason, decided that they wanted to bring race and child murder into this. Neither of those two things were or are relevant to the case! Zimmerman didn't kill Martin because he was black, and he certainly wasn't found innocent because he was white.
Now, some people say it's racist because Zimmerman, during his phone call to 911, described Martin as "a black guy". . . how else would a black man be described as anyone but a black man?! I'm serious here. If I'm describing someone to somebody, skin color is going to come up. Should Zimmerman have said he saw a suspicious white person? Or Hispanic? Or Asian? No, because that wasn't who he was describing. Trayvon Martin is a black man, and can only be described as such. So that's not racist, either. (I'd also like to point out that the subject of racism was dropped as soon as it was discovered Zimmerman is Hispanic. Apparently, Hispanic people can't be racist. That honor is reserved exclusively for whites *facepalm*.)
Alright, I've said my piece. I hope people read this or the facts of the case before responding to any propaganda they find on the internet. Remember, people don't always tell the whole truth. Do your own research before forming an opinion.
You said it sister.
I made a mistake earlier and said I thought Zimmerman was guilty of second degree manslaughter. This is a mistake because "second degree manslaughter" does not mean what I thought it meant. I thought it meant "accidental murder" such as a car wreck (not DUI) or a fight between two willing participants. Since it does not, I have appropriately edited the blog.
I agree. Now riots are breaking out. It's a Rodney King situation nearly again.
I believe the racism arguments were also because he made some racist comments on the phone against black people and also about the fact he felt that people kept having breakins and the criminals were getting away with it.
Honestly one of my big issues was how people immediately felt this was worth championing as some sort of race cause.
1210617 Read the police reports. To me, it sounded more like descriptions. "Suspicious black kid". The "kid" is suspicious because he's walking through a neighborhood that he doesn't live in at night, and he's black because he's of African descent. Really not another way to describe that. That was my point earlier, that people are crying "Racism!" for no reason and acting like it's the cause for the whole thing.
1210706 Sorry I had misremembered the transcript of the call and thought there had been a piece with him claiming it was black criminals specifically.
Thanks for pointing out my error and I agree with you, he sounds like he is describing Trayvon. To claim that he mentions his skin colour in the description and cry foul is as ridiculous as pointing out Zimmerman is Hispanic and cry racism there too.
1213520 The neighborhood had recently suffered a series of crimes committed by black youths matching Trayvon's description. That's where you're getting the "black criminals" from. Again, it's not racist because there's no way to describe a black person as anything other than a black person.