This graphic from Politicususa. com truly brings home what happened in Sanford, FL, and could happen in any State with 'Stand Your Ground' legislation. I have been asking for a couple of days how George Zimmerman could have used 'Stand Your Ground' originally to get off with no charges when he was told to stay in his car and not follow the teenager. He disobeyed a police order which right there should have thrown out the cops even considering 'Stand Your Ground' as a defense for shooting an unarmed teenager.
From Criminal Find Law comes the data there are more states then just Florida who have passed the actual 'Stand Your Ground' law:
Many states have enacted “stand your ground” laws that remove the duty to retreat before using force in self-defense. The following is a list of states with stand your ground laws on the books. This list is limited to those states whose legislatures have gone through the process of enacting laws that specifically affirm an individual’s right to stand their ground when defending themselves against a threat. Other states may have adopted a stand your ground doctrine through judicial interpretation of their self-defense laws, but those states are not included in this list.
Almost all the states that have passed 'Stand Your Ground' laws voted for Romney in 2012 with the exception of Florida, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania who elected GOP Governors with GOP Legislatures. Hopefully the 2012 election where they voted for Obama starts the turnaround in those states. We are witnessing what happens when a State goes to the hard right and ALEC takes over writing the laws. Are are hard right conservatives incapable of writing their own laws that they have to have Koch Bros sponsored ALEC do the writing for them? Without 'Stand Your Ground' in Florida, Zimmerman probably wouldn't be walking free today waiting for his gun to be returned.
What got me was that Zimmerman or his family showed no remorse. Then you read over 40 calls to the dispatcher from Zimmerman and instead of a neighborhood watch person he sounds like a vigilante. What was he doing with a gun since his record was not clean. Excuse me, I forgot, we don't have background checks if you buy from a private seller thanks to the GOP and the NRA who has bought and paid for them.
Still cannot believe this all happened and have to agree with some of the athletes if this kid had bashed Zimmerman's head on the sidewalk there would have been a lot more injuries. In fact there is no way this kid got the jump on him when he was following Trayvon. There was no Zimmerman DNA on Trayvon so how does Zimmerman explain the blood from his faced when initial pictures showed no blood. Surely from the doctored (IMHO) pictures we saw, there would have been Zimmerman DNA on Trayvon but none was found.
One of my shocks following the verdict was some obvious red neck telling an athlete to 'shut up and play football' like an athlete doesn't have a right to their own opinion. What did he mean that blacks are okay for his entertainment as long as they don't have an opinion? Talk about narrow minded thinking - there it is right there and most likely the guy is from my adopted state of Oklahoma. Another person stopped following a guy from a website I belong because he had an opinion. Is the first amendment only for whites and black athletes are to not say a word. I went through the roof at what I saw was a total racist attitude.
See quite a few athletes here in Norman and remember thinking the first I went to the grocery after we moved here from the anti-women State of Texas how nice it was to have someone open the door for me. It has happened over and over again here from athletes of all races who are some of the most polite young people I have seen. Remember after first moving to my neighborhood, my arch conservative neighbor asked me what I would do if a black bought the house for sale on our street and I told him 'celebrate' as we was getting rid of a redneck neighbor. He didn't like that answer and sure enough you can guess what moved in on our street to his delight - another arch conservative who has since moved.
When the jerk Geraldo weighed in that Trayvon was "dressed in thug wear," all I could do was shake my head in disbelief. Does that mean we have to throw away our hooded OU sweatshirts because it would be too dangerous to walk with our hood up at night when you have trouble telling who it is? Geraldo has made dumb comments in the past - remember the Al Capone safe or when he drew a map in the sand to show where are our troops were at in Iraq? This time he has hit the jackpot for stupidity and a new low for comments.
The Department of Justice is going to be reviewing the case to see if it is a civil right's violation. No doubt in a lot of minds that Trayvon was shot because he was a black teenager when you hear the filth coming out of the Zimmerman's mouth as he followed him. As I just read the 911 call from Zimmerman about Trayvon and the other 46 911 calls Zimmerman made about the neighborhood including someone with an open garage door, he sounds more like a vigilante then a neighborhood watch person.
Along with the audio recordings of six calls to Sanford police that George Zimmerman made in the weeks before the Feb. 26 shooting of Trayvon Martin, the Sanford Police Department has posted reports of 46 911 and nonemergency calls it says Zimmerman made between August 2004 and Martin’s shooting.The bottom line is that a 17-year old young man was shot and killed under 'Stand Your Ground' because he was black. There is no doubt at all that Zimmerman didn't want blacks in his neighborhood from all his 911 calls. This is the perfect example of why neighborhood watches can attract some men who think they are superior toting a gun to protect their land. Sick if you ask me.
Hope the Trayvon Martin Family sues Zimmerman for every last thing he has as he had no right to take their son's life and personally don't care what the jury of six women said because the prosecution did a horrible job but worst then that the Sanford Police Department did the worst job of collecting evidence because they believed Zimmerman that he had a right to 'Stand His Ground' and didn't file charges in the beginning.
The miscarriage of justice started with the Koch supported ALEC 'Stand Your Ground' laws passed by the GOP and aided by the Sanford Police Department ineptness along with the inept State Attorney Angela Corey and her assistant state attorney Bernie de la Rionda (R). Corey was the prosecutor behind an abused black woman getting 20 years for standing her Ground against an abuser by firing a warning shot into the air but in the Martin case a young man died, she lost the case and Zimmerman goes free. Corey seemed almost happy she lost at the press conference which I thought was odd. Today it came out that Corey fired someone in her office who leaked information that she withheld evidence from the defense. All in all, she sounds like someone who should be investigated for prosecutorial misconduct. The question now arises if she intentionally threw this trial so if Zimmerman was found guilty, he would get a new trail? Is that the reason for withholding evidence?
Do not know how the Trayvon Martin Family could sit through that trial and hear the verdict and act with so much class:
When asked about whether Martin’s family would bring a civil suit against Zimmerman, Crump said, “Right now they're just trying to make sense of this all...They're not thinking about that. They are trying to deal with the grief of losing their son and then not having his killer held accountable, and so they're working on their foundation, things they can control, to try to preserve the legacy of Trayvon Benjamin Martin."Last night President Barack Obama released a statement on the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin, urging Americans to honor the slain teenager by acting to curb gun violence:
"The death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy. Not just for his family, or for any one community, but for America. I know this case has elicited strong passions. And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher. But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken. I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son. And as we do, we should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our own communities. We should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis. We should ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this. As citizens, that’s a job for all of us. That’s the way to honor Trayvon Martin."As peaceful rallies were held last night around the Country much to the chagrin of the hard right, we have to take action as a Nation to get a handle on the extreme amount of gun violence whether the NRA and their bought and paid for GOP like it or not. Every last person who was upset by this verdict needs to be registered to vote, get the necessary ID, and vote out these Republicans who put the NRA over our families. We need to send 'Stand Your Ground' in the States down to defeat that allow murderers to walk free and gives them a right to use a gun when they feel threatened no matter if there is a real threat.
Let's start to take the Country back in Nov 2013 when New Jersey and Virginia vote for Governor and other statewide offices and finish the job in November 2014 with ousting Republican State Legislatures. We can do it with everyone rolling up their sleeves to oust the hard right in 2013/2014 and stay activated for 2016 to make sure today's hard right GOP never is back in control.
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