Frankly, if Trayvon Martin's parents are okay with it, who am I to second-guess?

Their opinions on this particular issue are far more important and relevant to me than Tavis Smiley's.

Honestly, I sometimes just get tired of all the damn criticism and fault-finding and hole-poking that this President has had to deal with. On EVERYTHING! Seems like it just never ends. Forcryingoutloud, it's just nothing but pile-ons du jour. It all starts to run together and get boring and meaningless after awhile.

OUCH!

Welcome to DU, jimboss.

Glad you're here. This whole thing just leaves me completely heartsick.

The problem with the scenario is that I don't think a police officer would have approached Trayvon Martin aggressively. At least one would hope. And Trayvon would probably have been able to recognize the officer as a police officer. What could he have surmised about Zimbo? In the dark, I wonder how I myself would react - if I saw some unidentifiable nutcase stalking me in the darkness, first in his car and then on foot? Zimbo wasn't dressed as a legitimate officer, with the cap, the uniform, the badge that might have reflected light from one of the windows or street lights or landscaping lighting. And the pursuer might have announced him/herself - "Police! Stop right there!" or some such thing. This night stalker-murderer was hellbent on playing Dirty Harry or Rambo, with a built-in premeditated prejudice against his own personal definition of nogoodniks, and he had NO authority. He was a self-appointed, self-anointed vigilante who was determined to take matters into his own hands. Because "they always get away."

I'd be scared to death if I saw him coming. Under ANY circumstances. And I'm a 60-year-old white woman. Zimbo is a MENACE TO US ALL.

Heartsick all over again.

Just ALL OVER AGAIN.

All of these are excruciatingly painful - and sadly necessary.

Just heartsick.

"Swallow your fucking pride and walk away." If only.

There's the problem. THIS ^^^^^^^ !!!

Any wonder why so many of us (probably vast majority female) here on DU and elsewhere immediately go to the gun-as-penis analogy. Can't help it. It just seems incredibly and glaringly obvious to me. Overcompensation. And in Zimbo's case, when you have a soft, flabby, reckless, cowardly weasel who claims it's he himself who's screaming like a little girl when claiming he was in fear of his life, clings to that frickin' gun, has a record (unfortunately not presented in court) of using brute force and/or brute strength to "settle" disputes or assert dominance, and plays pretend-cop when he's found unacceptable as real police material... Can't overpower an opponent with the MMA coaching on which he's spent HOURS, what was it - three days a week? What's he doing in all that time, drawing pictures of it? And he can't overpower an opponent and hold him there while waiting for police - he has to settle it once and for all, with a totally arbitrary excuse, banking on "it's his word against mine, and dead men tell no tales"?

I mean, think about it. Where else could you go to try to explain that, than directly to pathological, anti-social, and in this case CRIMINAL overcompensation?

Mind you, I AM NO SHRINK!

Even so, I think this guy is such a psychological MESS that IMO he can very much indeed be expected to strike again. He won't be able to stop himself, because he can't help it. It's just part of the genuinely damaged being he presently is. I don't know if he got that way specifically by external treatment or factors not in his control when he was younger, or whether that's just what's been in him from the beginning. But I think he's gonna get himself in trouble again. Just like O.J. did. O.J. beat the rap, too, but he's still gonna stay in prison to the end of his days. Because he proved to be the kind of individual who either can't, or won't, stay out of trouble. Either within himself or because he's always drawn to troublesome people or conditions. And, same as with O.J., at least before his last misadventure in Las Vegas not too many years back, I suspect Zimbo has a sense of renewed and enhanced entitlement. A jury just said what he did was okay. Not a problem at all. We'll buy the "self-defense" thing. Free to go, son. Nothing more to see here. Everyone move along now. Seems to me that also enhances his chances of being involved in another calamity. He's now been shown that he can do something like that and get a pass. I can imagine feeling pretty damn cocky after coming out on top of that one. And that can make you get sloppy - and fuck up.

I'm borrowing "Something in the way she moos." ROFL!!!!!!!!!!

All this, and Hedwig, too!

SUPERB, SCE!!!!

See, this is where I get really confused.

Every argument I hear from any corner - whether it's here or from commentators or people talking about it in line at the checkout counter. When they start in with the apologist's assertion that the verdict was correct based on the evidence...

EVIDENCE??? WHAT evidence supported what Zimbo did? WHAT EVIDENCE???????????? From what I saw, from what I've read, from what I've seen of the trial and all the spinners on either side - I. Do. NOT. See. ANY. Evidence. To. Justify. Or. Excuse. What. Zimmerman. Did. I just DO NOT.

On the contrary. The evidence I have seen has pointed me directly to 2nd Degree Murder. If not higher. I find compelling evidence for FIRST Degree Murder, because in even just that short amount of time between when Zimbo spotted Trayvon Martin and the time he shot Trayvon Martin, that looks to me like he reached premeditation to kill. He had enough time to make up his mind IN ADVANCE that Trayvon was a nogoodnik. Before they ever scuffled. Before he ever confronted Trayvon and started picking a fight with him.

I've paid pretty close attention to this. There is NO evidence I have seen that excuses or justifies what Zimbo did. NONE.

SHIT! "Powerful" isn't a sufficiently powerful word to use.

One of the best ads I've EVER seen.

Should play EVERYWHERE. Particularly HERE in the U.S.

LOVE the post in the comment section!

"So why don't these guys have girlfriends?"

Sounds like she knew she needed YOU.

A very kind, gentle, compassionate, and loving soul. YOURS (and sounds like hers is too)! Probably got dumped somewhere when somebody was foreclosed. That's happened a lot.

Thank you for this story! Thank you for rescuing Daisy! People like you go to Heaven when they die.