Imagine Your Daughter...

[KurtNYC]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/23/1225851/-The-One-Simple-Graphic-that-Sums-Up-the-Whole-Problem-with-the-Trayvon-Martin-Case#

[madashelltoo]

1. That's some sad shit, ain't it?

But, it's the world being created by the gun hustlers.

[GeorgeGist]

2. If Zimmerman was a priest ...

[onehandle]

3. ...

[longship]

5. Wherever did you get this?

I don't remember that Bugs Bunny toon.

It certainly is appropriate.

[onehandle]

7. Rebel Rabbit

Bugs notices high bounties on various animals. There is a $50 bounty (about $480 today) on foxes, $75 (about $720 today) on bears, but then is offended by the two-cent bounty (about $0.19 today) on rabbits. Bugs has himself mailed to Washington DC, where a supercilious game commissioner explains that the bounty is so low because, while foxes and bears are "obnoxious" animals who damage property, "rabbits are perfectly harmless". Bugs vows to prove that he can do just as bad and storms out, slamming the game commissioner's door so hard that the glass in it shatters.

Bugs begins his campaign by attacking a guard with his own billy club. From there, he pulls stunts like renaming Barney Baruch's private bench as "Bugs Bunny", painting barbershop-pole stripes on the Washington Monument, rewiring the lights in Times Square to read "Bugs Bunny Wuz Here", shutting down Niagara Falls, selling the entire island of Manhattan back to Native Americans, sawing Florida off from the rest of the country, swiping all the locks off the Panama Canal, filling in the Grand Canyon, and literally tying up railroad tracks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_Rabbit

I have it uncut on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3.

[longship]

8. Wonderfully Wascally Wabbit! Tnx. nt

[KatyMan]

21. :) that was one of my favorites...

especially the sawing off of Florida, that was funny. I remember being quite young back in the 70s and wondering if it could be done!

[R Merm]

14. Can he do that for Texas too

[malaise]

22. Lovely

Wish I could rec

[Catherina]

4. Happy to recommend this n/t

[billh58]

6. K&R

The Florida system of injustice explained in a simple graphic. SYG enables vigilantism for cowards, bigots, and racists.

[AtheistCrusader]

9. I get the sentiment but

the defense's position, which the jury apparently believed, is that Trayvon did a whole lot more than that. (Sat on him, punching him, pounding his head against the ground, and other allegations Trayvon cannot testify about)



(A contention I disagree with, but it makes the analogy in that image invalid)

[noiretextatique]

10. clearly that was just make believe

zimmerman knew exactly what to claim to sell his bullshit story to white people who think exactly like him.

[AtheistCrusader]

11. I tend to agree, but the jury bought it, and Trayvon cannot tell his side of the story.

I felt the forensic evidence showed Zimmerman's claims to not be credible, including his injuries, but the jury disagrees.

I think if he'd taken the stand, it would have gone the other way.

[KurtNYC]

15. In effect playing the tapes of his interviews was like having him on the stand

The trial was lost by 1) jury selection, 2) weak prosecution and 3) jury instructions that forbid consideration of Zimmerman's actions prior to whatever physical altercation took place.

This interview was in evidence at the trial. Serino and Singleton nail him here -- he wasn't looking for a street sign:

Serino: Are you driving slowly or something?
Zimmerman: No, I pulled over and stopped before I called.
Serino: OK. OK.
(plays tape 1:44 to 2:07)
Serino: OK. Full sprint, full-on flight…jogging, trotting…describe the run.
Zimmerman: I don’t remember. I just, cause I was on the phone. It happened so quickly.
Serino: Well, ah, I understand that, George, but I guess that it’s um…if it was a bicycle theft I could say OK, but it’s kinda important. I mean, was he running as to evade you, get away from you, ah, maybe got tired of getting wet in the rain. What kinda run was it? I mean, it sounds like he’s running as to get away from you.
Zimmerman: I don’t know why he was running.
Serino: But what kinda run was it? Can’t say?
Zimmerman: I don’t know.
Serino: OK.
(plays tape 2:08 to 2:10)
Serino: OK, is that you getting out of the car?
Zimmerman: Yes.
Serino: OK.
Singleton: So as soon as he runs, you’re getting out of the car to follow him.
Zimmerman: When he says which way are you running, I turned off the ignition.
Singleton: I don’t know.
(plays tape 2:10 to 2:14)
Serino: At that point you’re out of the car?
Zimmerman: I think so.
Serino: OK, so you basically jumped out of the car to see where he was going?
Zimmerman: Yes, sir.
Serino: OK. That’s not fear. You know what I mean?
Zimmerman: Yes, sir.
Serino: That’s one of the problems I have with the whole thing, or I’m gonna have. I mean, I don’t have any problems at all, it’s just that… it’s gonna be a problem.

Apparently it wasn't a problem for this jury.

[AtheistCrusader]

17. They allowed the animation too.

Too much shit was allowed in that amounts to testimony, but never cross-examined because he didn't take the stand.

A very peculiar case.

[Pelican]

23. Well that was racist...

It's a gross over simplification to just blather that all the black folks agree with one side and only white people think otherwise.

[noiretextatique]

31. pro-zimmerman poster calls me "racist"

he concocted a "i was afraid of the black man" that resonates with white people...that's the POWER of racism. which he was well aware of.

[Pelican]

32. Here's a fun experiment...

Take your post...

zimmerman knew exactly what to claim to sell his bullshit story to white people who think exactly like him.

... and swap out the words Zimmerman for Martin or Crump and white to black.

I'll wait....

Ok, done? Try and tell me that wouldn't have been alerted on as racist in about 4 seconds. If you're honest, you know what the answer is.

[Squinch]

26. Even if its' true, if I am walking down the street, and some doughy guy with a gun starts running

after me, and I run, and he keeps coming after me, and I somehow get him down on the ground, I'm going to do everything I can to make sure he can't come after me again. To me, that's still simply self defense.

[AtheistCrusader]

27. I agree.

In fact, I even agree that Zimmerman likely brandished his firearm at some point before the physical altercation. Otherwise, how does Trayvon Martin allegedly know to grab for it, as Zimmerman alleged?

However, the defense contended otherwise, and the jury believed it.

Unfortunately, by winning the fight, Zimmerman forever silenced the only other witness to the start of the fight.

[Moostache]

12. The thing that will ALWAYS convict Zimmerman in my mind is this:

He CHOSE to pursue Martin.

He CHOSE to ignore police saying to stay in his vehicle.

He CHOSE to engage and fight rather than question and ascertain if Martin was lost or needed assistance (which is what fucking neighborhood watch is SUPPOSED TO DO....they are to observe, watch and assist , NOT judge, sentence and execute.)

He CHOSE to fire a lethal shot instead of warning shot in the air or disabling shot to the leg or arm....he shot to kill, which was his intention from the moment he uttered that crap about "fucking punks" on...

He could have CHOSEN differently in every case and regardless of the fucked laws of some racist backwoods state, he is eternally guilty and the face of a serious issue that will not go away - racism and the idea that black people being hunted is OK.

The second he got out of that vehicle was the exact moment that he became an aggressive criminal and a murderer. Shame on the prosecution for their ham-handed and inept handling of the case. Shame on the bigots who cheered the verdict and miscarriage of justice. Shame on Florida and may that stain remain until the day they (and every other state with these abominations of law) repeal the Stand Your Ground law. We have become so dangerously detached from the rule of law that we are careening down the slippery slope and gaining momentum instead of slowing the descent.

[JoePhilly]

16. Zimmy drives all of the action leading to this event, while Martin retreats ...

... and yet the Jury concludes that Zimmy STOPS initiating the action, and then Martin instigates the fight.

[Pelican]

24. Extra stuff aside...

Warning shots and shots to wound are illegal and for good reason....

1) Gravity. Bullets come back down...

2) If you feel there is enough threat to fire then there is enough threat to kill. Additionally, if you have the time to take a clean shot at an arm or a leg then its unlikely you are in immediate danger.

3) It is amazing how many lawyers on DU would have prosecuted the case differently. It's shocking I tell you...

[napkinz]

13. K & R

nt

[aikoaiko]

18. I don't think a jury would think a kick to the nuts is life threatening.

[KurtNYC]

19. That's the whole point. It isn't.

But juries in high profile cases almost never make the right call. A jury thought it was Zimmerman desperately screaming for help even though the screaming ends with a gunshot. A jury found OJ not guilty in the first trial. A jury found the LAPD not guilty of anything in the Rodney King beating including filing a false police report which didn't agree at all with the video.

Seems like many juries couldn't follow the plot of a Scooby Doo cartoon. Heck, some of them would want to convict the dog.

[reusrename]

28. SYG doesn't require anything to actually be life threatening.

Only that the shooter "claim" he thought it was life threatening.

Zimmerman was never in fear for his life. That's just stupid. He was armed and dangerous and he knew it.

[aikoaiko]

29. It requires that a reasonable person think it could be life threatening or dangerous

But you're correct that in reality it doesn't have to be life threatening

[reusrename]

30. A reasonable person armed with a 9mm would not feel their life was being threatened.

There's nothing reasonable about it.

[Nye Bevan]

20. But would there be an apparently credible witness to testify that my daughter was on top of the guy,

giving him an "MMA-style" pounding?

[Nevernose]

25. Would that witness have changed testimony on the stand

And be contradicted by three other witnesses who saw the guy on top?