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sent from my cell phone, far far away
You were the first the person I thought of when I saw that vid, seriously.If you can be friend; you can be his. My thoughts mirror his.
You were the first the person I thought of when I saw that vid, seriously.
Folks, if you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Clark in person, this video is the next best thing - ceegar and all.
I always try and see both sides of every argument (unless its my wife, where I am always right). My thoughts, tell me if it sounds off. I think this Travon Martin guy felt like that Zimmerman guy was profiling him as some youthful thug and was potentially looking to commit a crime when all he was doing was coming back from the store. Now I can only imagine the years of discrimination and racism he may or may not have been subjected to and maybe he was frustrated and had enough. He gets in Zimmermans face and things escalated to the point where Zimmerman's life was in danger and he was forced to kill that Travon guy. How do we fix it where Travon could have walked up to Zimmerman and had a discussion about what was happening?
Rightfully Travon had every right to come and go as a free man and need no reason to explain his actions. I think the verdict was right in that if someone was banging my head on the concrete they going to get shot. Black or white, violence will lead to more violence. How much different would it have been if those two men would have just talked to each other instead of "Your going to die tonight". It makes me sick to think what this lesson is telling our children. And so the cycle continues.
Well, he could have done just that. It would have been perfectly legal. Instead he decided to assault the man.
As to being treated differently for years, no evidence to support that. Sounds like a clip from Obama's speech.
Just what lesson HAS this taught our children. I'm ask with genuine curiosity. I think it teaches them not to jump a man on the street. If there is not an immediate threat you do what Zimmerman did and dial 911 instead of telling some girl on the phone about the creepy ass cracker that's following you.
This has been a somewhat heated topic in my house since the verdict. Generally, my girls are as right-wing as their daddy, but with this incident there has been some discussion.
It can be argued that Zimmerman took some actions that were not tactically wise decisions. He followed Martin against the directions of the 911 operator (even though the authority of the 911 operator can be argued). He got out of his vehicle. He lost sight of Martin and allowed himself to get into a position in which Martin could jump him easily. Each of these actions is tactically poor. But none of them were illegal.
My girls are arguing that had Zimmerman not followed Martin, had Zimmerman not gotten out of his vehicle, he would not have been in a position in which shooting Martin became necessary. I follow their logic. But the logic, if used to prosecute (persecute?) Zimmerman, could also be used against any other citizen who used deadly force in defense of himself; after all, if you had only stayed in bed this morning, you would not have gone to work, you would not have earned money, you would not have been paid, you would not have had to go to the bank to deposit your hard-earned money, and you would not have rudely and inconveniently interrupted the attempted bank robbery of the upstanding but misunderstood former miscreant who you tragically shot dead when he pointed his gun at you. His blood is on your hands. Their logic is flawed, but they're kids. I'm trying to fix it.
I am using the incident as a case study in how to think about the consequences of your actions long before you take action that would result in the consequences. I think it can be argued that nobody besides Martin's family regrets the outcome more than Zimmerman; I seriously doubt that he feels "vindicated" or "good" about it. I think the best he will ever get is that as bad as he feels, he understands it could have been much worse. And I'll almost guarantee that he knows what he did wrong and he will never do that again.
This is the basis of my discussion with my girls.
Folks keep injecting the idea that a 911 operator has some sort of "authority". The 911 operator has no authority whatsoever.
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I think something you might discuss in depth with your daughters would be martins actions....Instead, he chose to initiate a violent confrontation which lead Zimmerman to take action in order to defend his own life.
Oh, you're absolutely right, and I have pointed out that throughout the entire incident, Zimmerman never committed a crime. He did some arguably stupid things, but never did anything criminal. Martin committed the first criminal act, which forced Zimmerman into the position of having to defend himself.