This. This. This.
There is so much arm flailing and misinformation out there right now. I believe it was NBC that ran this as the phone call between Zimmerman and the 911 Operator:
Zimmerman: This guy looks like hes up to no good. He looks black.
When what really happened was this...
Zimmerman: This guy looks like hes up to no good. Or hes on drugs or something. Its raining and hes just walking around, looking about.
Dispatcher: OK, and this guy is he black, white or Hispanic?
Zimmerman: He looks black.
The two things people seem to be focusing on are racial profiling and the Stand Your Ground Law. The latter hardly applies to this situation (if at all) and the former is based on idiots like Spike Lee and that pathetic New Black Panther Movement that have been waiting for an opportunity to start a race war.
What's funny to me is this: While most gun-violence related stories tend to be contrived fear-mongering campaigns preying on the general public's ignorance to the simple facts of firearms in the US, this is a situation where I think a discussion on the limits of firearm ownership should happen.
To me this story in particular boils down to a few things:
-A kid was shot and killed. That's a tragedy no matter how you spin it.
-Zimmerman seems to be an idiot. He disobeyed a 911 dispatcher to aggressively follow someone.
-You cannot trust reporters, they're whores.
Yes, very true. There is a lot of misinformation in this story.
The reason why Zimmerman has not been apprehended is because of the Stand Your Ground law. Prior to this case, there was another case in which a burglar entered the house of a widowed woman, with a knife and everything, and the woman ended up using her pistol (or shotgun) to kill the burglar. She had children in the house, and there may have been another burglar, who left after hearing the gunshot. The law protected her, and there was probably a good deal of consensus, publicly, that the law did a good job.
There is not much agreement as to the Stand Your Ground law applies here (I don't think it does). The space where this happened was completely different from the first case... and in this case, it was Zimmerman that was giving chase to Martin (although Zimmerman assumed that Martin was up to no good). In any case, this law is the reason why Zimmerman remains free, and has even prompted some to reconsider reforming it, to prevent people like Zimmerman from being protected from these type of actions.
As to the notion of race... I would like to ask the question, had Martin been white, had he been wearing something else, would Zimmerman have had any reason to think this person was up to no good? My opinion is that the most Zimmerman would have done was ask "who are you, where are you going?" But that's not what he did. He called the police first, saying that there was some suspicious person walking down the neighborhood. He then proceeded to ignore the dispatcher's orders to not pursue Martin, and pursued Martin. Why did he do that? Would he have followed the dispatcher's orders had Martin been white. I think so.
The underlying question has to be, why was Zimmerman so concerned about chasing Martin? Granted, he's security, he's charged to keep the neighborhood secure. But from whom? Folks like Martin?
I'm no Spike Lee, nor part of the Black Panthers movement, but Martin's race played a role in all of this. And I don't think it's in any way divisive nor race-war-inciting to reach this conclusion either.
No there isn't. He killed someone after following them. Two undeniable facts. Even if he didnt follow the kid, which he clearly was told not to follow him and he still did, once you kill someone you should be under arrest until the story gets straight.
