I haven't said anything about the Trayvon Martin shooting because there are smarter, wiser, and more knowledgeable Kossacks who've said things I agree with.
Normally, I don't comment on ongoing criminal investigations when they involve private citizens. I believe in innocence until guilt is proven in a court of law. In this case, however, the defense being laid for Zimmerman by the right wing is disturbing.
I'm disgusted that in 2012 we're actually having a debate over whether it's okay to kill black children.
I'm equally disgusted that this sort of killing happens all the damned time. If you live in a city with a black population and you pay attention, you'll hear plenty of stories of this sort of thing happening way too often: the unlawful searches, the arrests, the beatings, the hospitalizations, and far too many deaths.
The fact that incidents like this one are commonplace is disgusting. The fact that most of them go unreported in the national media is disgusting. The right wing response is beyond disgusting, it's deeply unsettling.
Hunting down a child armed only with Skittles and an Arizona Iced Tea and shooting him dead is clearly wrong. The fact that Zimmerman ignored a police order to cease pursuit, means that he is responsible for this death. The preceding is not a political statement. Believing that it is wrong to stalk, chase, and murder a child is not a sign of liberal bias. The wrongness of stalking and murdering a child is not open for debate. That the right wing wants to have a fight over this is disturbing.
I don't understand why conservatives even want to have this discussion! I don't understand why they want to be the party that is okay with stalking and murdering black children!
The final straw for me was sent to me by a friend. It was written in Glenn Beck's The Blaze.
Some outlets apparently reported that Zimmerman may have uttered the phrase "fucking coons" before shooting Trayvon. Some people say that he's saying "fucking punks." I've listened to it, and I'll be honest, I can't hear it clearly enough to make a determination. There's construction going on outside my window, though, so I can't hear much of anything. Maybe you can: Link.
If I wanted to defend Zimmerman for some reason, I could say any number of things, but what I would not say, is this:
And while most outlets are reporting on it as a possible slur, that’s mostly because the phrase is slightly unintelligible.
Because of that not,[sic] everyone is convinced regarding the recording. An audio expert hired by WFTV in Florida, for example, believes Zimmerman said “punks.” No one reporting on the phrase, however, has questioned if it’s possible Zimmerman was, in fact, referring to raccoons that may have been in the area, which would not be unheard of since the shooting occurred at night.*
The Blaze isn't defending someone who made a 911 call. They're not defending a republican congressman who wanted to get some kids off his lawn. They're not playing party politics.
They're defending an alleged child murderer who called 911, was told not to pursue Trayvon Martin by the police, but who chased down his victim, instigated a physical altercation, and shot him. They will apparently ignore every fact, or come up with any possible excuse, no matter how thin, in order to defend this man.
I don't really know what to write about this! Do I argue against the raccoon theory? Do I point out that it is astronomically unlikely that an angry man on the phone with the police is going to be muttering about pest control? Especially when he'd been warning the neighborhood about young black men marauding around in his gated community.
This is the man whose actions they are defending.
I'm completely shellshocked by this wall of Republican defense for an alleged child murderer. Stunned.
It's the definition of racism. You can bet that if this were a black community watch member and a white child, not only would he have been immediately hauled off to jail, but the right wing would be demanding the death penalty.
Here's the thing: This isn't supposed to be a partisan issue in the United States!
Chasing down children and shooting them is wrong, yet the republicans want to debate the issue.
Even more, they want to defend the racist statement that Zimmerman may not have even said. It isn't enough for them to say "He didn't say coon, he said punk." They have to go on to say "even if he said coon, there's nothing wrong with it." And besides, Trayvon was a big scary black thug, not a child. That's why they led with an image of him in a football uniform.
What year is this anyway?
The right wing wants to ban prophylactics and is saying, publicly, that it's a-okay to murder black children.
Is this the 50's again or something?