Anger + Sadness = RAGE

[MissBrattified]

Originally Posted by Pressing-On

I'm going to want a little more information on Trayvon and what he was doing.

There has been a lot of analysis about the character of George Zimmerman in the media, and surprisingly little about Trayvon Martin.

http://www.wagist.com/2012/dan-lineh...-a-drug-dealer

It really doesn't matter what Trayvon was "doing." Unless he had actually DONE something or was trespassing or actually DOING something illegal, Zimmerman should have stopped following him when the 911 operator asked him to. I can understand following someone who is suspicious from a safe distance, but unless that person DOES something suspicious (as opposed to only "looking" suspicious) there is nothing to report. There is certainly nothing requiring action.

However, Zimmerman was probably justified in responding to an attack--once it occurred. IMO, though, *stalking* someone around the neighborhood is at least akin to provocation. The sad part of this story is that it might have ended in an assault charge at worst if the gun wasn't in Zimmerman's pocket.

Originally Posted by tstew

I'll try to state my position one more time before I just accept defeat in this matter .

Forget the race of the people involved for one second. If any one American decides to follow any other American in our free country who is guilty of nothing discernible, I guess that is his prerogative (I don't like it, but oh well). If said person calls 9-1-1, says "These (expletives), they always get away" and "(Expletive) he's running away from me", he has crossed well over the line.
If the person is told by the law enforcement agency he contacted to not give chase (at this point chase for what?) and he disregards that instruction and kills the person who ran away, he should not be walking away from jail that night a free man. Period.

This would be true to me if the man was green and the boy was purple. Where race has been interjected is in the discussion of A. would the boy had been chased in the first place if he wasn't black and B. if the police would have been more hesitant to outright release the shooter if all facts remained the same, but the boy was white.

I appreciate your insight and POV, tstew. The part of this story that really gets on my nerves is the insistence by the media that Zimmerman is white. Their bullheaded attitude about this fact blatantly illustrates their agenda of making white people look bad. If it makes sense, that feels like racism to me, and I feel we are collectively victims when the media indulges this kind of bias.