This never should have been about race or politics.

[Skip Intro]

We are a nation of laws.

The laws should be applied.

That should be the end of it.

The state never had a case, that's why they never arrested him.

Wasn't about white vs. black, even though Zimmerman identifies as Hispanic.

He clearly isn't of European descent.

Wasn't about guns.

Wasn't about left vs. right.

This was about the actions of two people, and the law.

That's all it ever should have been.

The media and a few high-profile personalities used it as a vehicle and a tool to manipulate.

Sadly, they may yet get their payoff.

But this should have never been about race or politics to begin with.

[frazzled]

1. It was 100% about race

from the first phone call made to the stalking to the bullet through the heart.

God, I miss the unrec button.

[Honeycombe8]

19. Many disagree with you. There is not one piece of evidence indicating race was involved on GZ's part

Only on TM's part, when he struck the first blow after referring to GZ as a ___ cracker.

Merely the fact that one of the people was black and the other was mixed hispanic does not mean it was racial. We're a melting pot country with many races. I passed an auto accident yesterday where one driver was white and the other was black. It was not a racial accident.

The media hyped this incident up as racial, as well as certain groups. I can understand black sensitivies about this, but in this case, there really was not one piece of evidence that it was racial.

[frazzled]

24. But most don't

People who understand the role of race in our society don't. People with liberal attitudes don't.

Mostly racists disagree.

[lumpy]

29. BS

n

[bhikkhu]

40. As far as the media goes, racism sells

not so much promoting it directly, but with a wink and a nod.

I would be inclined to say that the killing may have had a racial profiling component, but the acquittal was based on the limitations of the evidence. You still have to be proven guilty, and I'd rather see a few Zimmermans go free than see a single unjust murder conviction. They set the bar high for a reason.

[DevonRex]

41. I cannot believe you said that. Nobody can possibly think that's true.

Nobody.

[Ohio Joe]

54. You are correct on all counts...

Excellent response

[Rex]

2. Foxnews is celebrating tonight.

As is the entire M$M, they played their role to a T.

[hlthe2b]

3. The Free Republic crowd certainly agrees with you.

Most of us understand this was about an innocent life taken without cause.

[lumpy]

30. Damn. Where is that sarcasm thingy ?

scared me

[Niceguy1]

4. for some

that's all they care about and they see everything through prism of race and politics. and everyone who does not agree with their beliefs is suspect

[handmade34]

5. Zimmerman

murdered Trayvon after stalking him with a gun... that is against the law... damn right, it's about the law and Zimmerman broke it... 6 women just didn't see it that way

[polichick]

6. A nation of laws? Our laws are not applied equally...

THAT'S the problem.

High level war criminals are never charged.

Banksters are never charged.

For-profit prisons are bursting at the seams with young black men.



"Liberty and justice for all" is a quaint idea without practice.

[Moses2SandyKoufax]

7. Are you fucking blind?

Of course it's about race. Why the fuck do you think white trash from sea to sea are celebrating tonight? They finally "got even" for OJ and the election of Barack Obama. Post racial my lily white ass.

[Bjorn Against]

8. If the racist gun nuts would stop killing black kids then you might have a point

But as long as the racist assholes rally around Zimmerman then we are going to have to talk about the reality of racism in this country.

[Skip Intro]

12. In reality, young black men are killing young black men.

All across the country. By they hundreds each month. That is reality.

But we are still, and must be, a nation of laws.

Without that, there's just chaos and anarchy.

[Bjorn Against]

17. And that is supposed to make us dismiss the racism of Zimmerman supporters?

Fuck that, Zimmerman supporters are a bunch of racist assholes as any one who has played the slightest bit of attention can clearly see.

[Skip Intro]

23. No. You just said racist gun nuts are killing black kids, when

in reality most young black deaths come at the hands of young black men.

I was correcting, or clarifying, an assertion you made.

I don't want anyone to die.

I abhor violence.

But reality is reality.

[Bjorn Against]

25. We were talking about the murder of Trayvon Martin

But you have to jump in with your "Well blacks kill people too!!!" That tells me all I need to know about you.

[bobduca]

26. Skip the intro

and go straight to PLONK

[Skip Intro]

50. Oh, why not.

You said "racist gun nuts."

Plural, yes?

One shooter in the Z trial, yes?

Not much of a leap to think you're talking about a larger picture, yes?

Could be argued you're saying there is some epidemic of (white) gun nuts going around killing black teens. Yes.

But that just isn't reality, as I pointed out to you.

Why the personal attack?

[Bjorn Against]

51. Because the racist gun nuts are all over the internet celebrating child murder tonight

When gun nuts embrace child murder and tell us it is proper self defense then they are telling us what they really feel about killing people, they are proving that they can not be trusted with the right to use lethal force.

I am sure the KKK loves this ruling, they now know a new way to start killing black kids again and get away with it.

[lumpy]

36. Well maybe racism and the NRA gun cult is the reason Zimmerman had such huge support.

Makes sense; what other reason would they have. Certainly wasn't based on a feeling that justice should be served for Martin.
I must say that racism was not foremost in my mind while following the case. I felt Zimmerman concocted false facts to wiggle out of responsibility for the killing, common sense told me he deserved to pay some price. If Martin had been white Zimmerman would have been just as guilty.
Anyway racism is alive and well in this country and it is sickening that people are so bigotted after a lifetime of struggle to educate people toward decency and true greatness.

[ProSense]

22. WTF does that have to do with anything?

Crimes are committed everyday is not fucking justification for stalking black people and killing them for no fucking reason.

Growing up in the hood and witnessing brutality and crime, doesn't make it better when one moves to a so-called better neighborhood.

You have no friggin idea what it's like to constantly wonder if someone is going to get from point A to point B safely because of assholes who think skin color is a crime.

[Skip Intro]

28. So it isn't about race?

The poster I responded to made a statement that seemed to me to imply that there is some epidemic of white gun nuts killing black kids. At least that's how I took it.

And that just isn't so, so I corrected him/her.

Nobody's justifying anything.

Btw, I grew up in a poor black neighborhood. I've had a gun put to my throat. I've been robbed by kids with broken beer bottles. Not that it matters.

[ProSense]

31. "Nobody's justifying anything." Bullshit. n/t

[Skip Intro]

34. Show me. n/t

[ProSense]

33. Then again,

I'm really not surprised.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002133609#post64
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002133609#post67

[Egalitarian Thug]

9. 14 sentence fragments full of shit. n/t

[AllINeedIsCoffee]

10. There seems to be a correlation to how white someone's skin is...

And how loudly they yell, "This isn't about race!"

[Skip Intro]

14. You know how white my skin is?

Gee, how's that?

And then again, I ask hoping you'll see your own hypocrisy, what does my skin color possibly matter?

[enigmatic]

11. This was certainly about race

Zimmerman murdered Trayvon Martin. And got away with it.

[Spider Jerusalem]

13. It wasn't?

So do you REALLY think that George Zimmerman would have assumed a white kid walking along the street was suspicious enough to call the police, and go after in his vehicle, and confront, and that things would have played out as they did? I really, really don't think so, somehow.

[Skip Intro]

20. Zimmerman isn't white, is he?

I don't know what happened, I wasn't there.

Neither was anyone else here.

The law has run its course in this case.

We have to respect that.

Or are you hoping for blood in the streets now?

[Spider Jerusalem]

21. What does that have to do with the fact that Martin was black?

Oh, that's right, fuck-all. If you're trying to suggest that it's not possible for Zimmerman (the mestizo offspring of an Anglo father and a Peruvian? mother) to engage in stereotyping of blacks as potentially criminal? I have to say you are an idiot.

[Humanist_Activist]

27. Hispanic is an ethnicity that includes both white and black people...

along with native people as well. Many hispanics are a mix of all three, both others are blonde with blue eyes. Why the fuck is this hard to explain to people?

So calling Zimmerman non-white is a misnomer, if you passed him on the street, you would assume he is white, and he has plenty of European ancestry.

[avebury]

15. The State did not have the case they deserved because

the Sanford Police treated GZ like a pal at the start and failed to conduct the proper investigation that Trayvon Martin's family deserved.

I think that if the Sanford Police had taken their job seriously, the Prosecution might have had a good case for an even higher charge then 2nd Degree or Manslaughter. But we forget, justice is not for the little people.

[bobduca]

16. Tone Deaf Authoritarian bullshit

[chieftain]

18. The state had a case, they just presented it badly.

Zimmerman should have been arrested that night. Race had everything to do with that decision.

[Pholus]

35. Laws written by those dumbasses at the NRA perhaps?

It was mostly about a confrontation when some jackass felt overly empowered by the gun he carried.

Stand your ground after you get in someone's face is the law of the land now.

[99Forever]

37. Bullshit.

If their races had been reversed, his ass would be on death row and we'd never have heard a thing about it.

[Skip Intro]

38. Same if their races had been the same.

The only reason we heard so much about this was that Z was white. Well, white enough.

As I said upthread, while this trial has been going on, hundreds of young black men have been shot to death. I don't see an outcry for any for them from anywhere.

My point is, the race should not matter.

The politics should not matter.

It should be about the law.

This never should have been blown up to what it was, dividing along racial lines and turning one side against another.

It isn't about the actions of any race.

It is about the actions of two people.

That's all.

What it was blown up into by certain forces did no one any favors, and may yet have a cost in further bloodshed.

Never should have been twisted into that.

Imho.

[99Forever]

39. Bullshit again.

You didn't address my reply. At all.

Pretending there isn't a different kind of "justice" for people of color, is patently offensive to me and I'm white. Shame on you.

[Skip Intro]

42. It's called a differing opinion. You'll be ok. n/t

[CreekDog]

53. "differing opinion", yes, you have a differing opinion than almost every DU member

your "differing opinion" is that the only time you complain about racism is when it's "reverse racism".

you literally have never posted a word here against racism which has harmed a black person.

you've posted about Zimmerman now I see, did you ever post to defend Oscar Grant or complain about what happened to him?

or any black person who was treated poorly? nope.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

48. Well said.

I agree with you completely.

[HiPointDem]

49. bullshit

[HardTimes99]

45. + Infinity! - nt

[BainsBane]

43. It became about race the minute Z profiled Martin as a criminal

[HiPointDem]

44. bullshit.

[Arcanetrance]

46. This was about race from the beginning.

If it was a white kid walking through the neighborhood at night Zimmerman wouldn't have thought twice. The truth is Zimmerman saw a black kid and assumed he was up to no good.

[craigmatic]

47. This was about all race and class. Zimmerman racially profiled that kid and used his connections to

cover up his murder and had it not been for people signing petitions this never would've been brought to trial at all. I'm so sick of people pretending we've reached this post-racial society while real racial injustices continue to go on with nobody to call it what it is.

[WhollyHeretic]

52. Anyone who thinks race wasn't a factor is extraordinarily ignorant or racist

[JoePhilly]

55. This time the "suspect" was not going to "get away".

And the "suspect" did not "get away".

Of course, there had been no crime for the dead kid to be the "suspect" of.

Yet he was a "suspect" in the eyes of another, armed citizen.

And he did not "get away".