Zimmerman Trial Predictions (Page 4)

Word placement is an interesting thing... I said black communities ALL over the US (describing geography), not ALL black communities in the US (describing the communities).  I meant what I said. You are the one reading into it.

I think the lesson to take away here is to not try to be a tough guy, both parties may/may not have been guilty of trying to be a tough guy in this case and one ended up dead because of it. 

I rode the STP this past weekend. There are 12k people in this ride so tons of cyclists on the road, for the most part drivers and bikes got along around me. But in once case they did not. 

There was a group of 20 of us or so at a stop light, 2 abreast on the shoulder not blocking the lane. Some a-hole in a truck revved his engine repeatedly as he went by us and approached the light. He then leaned out the window and started yelling at a lady behind me. Used many expletives and said some things that no one should say to anyone let alone a woman. He then says "don't make me get out of this truck". My first instinct was to say go right ahead and get out and see how that goes for you. Sure we were tired but there were 20 of us and 2 of them. 

But before I spoke, I thought. Hmmmm, redneck in a truck, appears he could be drunk, is obviously a d-bag, we are in rural Oregon, good chances he has a gun. So what if he yelled, I yelled back, he got out of the truck and threw a punch? He would obviously get beat badly at which point he pulls a gun and kills someone. 

Now imagine he is yelling, I yell back, he gets out and I throw down my bike, run toward him and start beating the heck out of him, he realizes he is outmatched and starts shooting. Yes he started the ball rolling by yelling. But I started the criminal activity by throwing punches. 

So anyway, I chose to not say anything as did everyone else, he went on with his pathetic life and we enjoyed our ride. 

Point is he was in the wrong but that does not give me the right to start beating on him. Same thing in this case. Following someone, yelling at them, talking to them, heck even racial or gender slurs are not legal cause for turning and laying down a beating on someone. 

We don't have all the facts the jury had but my guess is TM decided he was going to be a tough guy and instead of ignoring GZ and going home he decided to escalate things to a criminal situation and he got the short end of the stick. There was no criminal situation until someone threw a punch or brandished a weapon. Apparently from what the jury heard they think it was TM who threw the punch and started the criminal activity. 

I have a CWP and I assume everyone else does too. If you assume everyone is armed, the desire to prove how tough you are in a fist fight goes out the window pretty quick. 

Originally posted by DanielG They finally released jury pictures:

OK, that made me laugh.

 http://reason.com/blog/2013/07/19/under-floridas-stand-your-ground-law-bla

During just the 16 hours the Zimmerman jury was deliberating, four black kids in Chicago, ages 17 down to 9, were killed by other black men, in four separate shootings.  Not a word about it in the national media....in fact, it seems like no one cares at all about young black men/boys being killed unless they are killed by someone from another ethnic background.

I'll say this.....if people like Sharpton and Jackson weren't so busy keeping racism alive in this country for their own benefit we might actually be able to gain some ground on the problem of nearly an entire generation of young black men being killed.

I'm sick of those two azzholes, and anyone else like them who thinks race baiting is a solution to racism.

SNAP!

Yea, but in all honesty it wasn't all that difficult to predict the verdict before it was in either. 

I want to go back and change my vote. I thought it would be a hung jury.

I like Jessie Jackson, didn't have enough faith in the jury to do the right thing. 

I think you might be missing a comma there.  Makes a big difference in what you're saying about the Reverend.