TripleThreat wrote:The easiest way to deal with African Americans in the United States is IMHO to simply not participate. Don't talk to them. Don't live near them. Don't, if you can help it, work with them. Don't socialize with them. If the two alternatives I get are both lose/lose ( i.e. I'm a racist if they don't get what they want and I'm insensitive if I don't tolerate whatever horse**** they want to dish out to me), then the answer is simply not to play a rigged game. t need to consider how often they can be the worst racists of all.

Then please do us all a favor TripleThreat. Stop watching any sport, enjoying any cultural endeavor, give back any invention and please stop participating in any forum where people of color are present.

Whatever you do, please do not watch NBA basketball which is overrun with black and brown boogey men from all over the planet.

Put yourself out of your misery.

Please.

misterearl wrote:Apartheid Man

TripleThreat wrote:The easiest way to deal with African Americans in the United States is IMHO to simply not participate. Don't talk to them. Don't live near them. Don't, if you can help it, work with them. Don't socialize with them. If the two alternatives I get are both lose/lose ( i.e. I'm a racist if they don't get what they want and I'm insensitive if I don't tolerate whatever horse**** they want to dish out to me), then the answer is simply not to play a rigged game. t need to consider how often they can be the worst racists of all.

Then please do us all a favor TripleThreat. Stop watching any sport, enjoying any cultural endeavor, give back any invention and please stop participating in any forum where people of color are present.

Put yourself out of your misery.

Please.

Not sure if serious.

BasketballJones wrote:

TheloniusMonk wrote:The girl is now facing charges. As she should. But if she turned around and shot and killed the girl instead of hitting her AND she is now walking free, I am sure there WOULD be a major issue. You think "America" would stand by while an unarmed girl was brutally murdered and the murderer walks free today? Nope. The outrage has more to do with a kid being killed and his (grown man) killer being free and not charged at all. And I agree it has to do with an unjust "law". And in the end, THAT'S where the outrage is. It's with the fact that this CAN happen and probably WILL happen again. For some of you, it would take for this to happen to someone that looks like YOU (or your family members) for you to want the laws to be changed. You feel no outrage because you feel totally disconnected from it. There's an issue there. And as far as you looking at the world without racism....more power to you. Would love for you to walk in the shoes of those who can not do that in their daily lives......not a possibility for them.

+1

Excellent post. This law is complete bull**** and like Briggy said the people who made it possible need to be held accountable. That has as much chance of happening as the Knicks going for athree-peat in 2012-14, probably less.

TripleThreat wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:Not comparing the crime--I'm comparing the outrage following this act. I believe if it was the other way around--an African American female getting beaten up quite badly by a Caucasian--this would've been a huge racial incident. In this case--its just a beat down that will go unnoticed except for youtube.

Personally, I agree, and relating it back to the NBA, I think race is a factor in how current players tend to conduct themselves.
Take for example, this video of former Knicks head coach Jeff Van Gundy discussing the issue of players not joining the team huddle during timeouts, during the Knicks/Magic game.

http://www.businessinsider.com/after-refusing-to-join-team-huddle-dwight-howard-gets-shredded-by-an-espn-analyst-2012-3

This of course ties into the issue that Carmelo Anthony didn't join a huddle by Mike D'Antoni, which the NY press and ran with as clearly showing a rift between the two.

I think how many African American NBA players behave is in part because of the height dependency that creates a very very small talent pool and the nature of large guaranteed contracts, but I also think there is a social component where some African Americans hide behind a pretty brutal double standard. That anything they don't like can be labeled racism and anything they do should be seen as "payback" for things done long ago by people long dead. What a childish ****ty way to act and think. But I feel the same way about the blind homerism people show NBA superstars of many teams, where some fans tolerate and justify player behavior that they would never want to see in their own children.

And I think there is becoming a general groundswell of non African Americans who are not racist but have a lot of resentment that many African American use race as both a shield and battering ram to justify whatever behavior they want. I don't think it goes unnoticed that many of the coach/player conflicts involve a black player and a white coach in the NBA. In which of course, many black lobbyists would try to point out that the NBA needs more black coaches. Why? Why would they be more qualified? It's an exchange of one racist appeal against the perception of another.

What I don't think the NBA realizes, nor it's players union, is that the base answer is simply not to participate. Which many potential fans don't participate at all. They are not buying league pass, they aren't buying merchandise, they aren't buying jerseys, they aren't buying season tickets, they aren't watching games on TV. There is just a large segment of mainstream America that doesn't want to see Dwight Howard talk about being a global icon and wreck his team's season with his indifference and arrogance.

The easiest way to deal with African Americans in the United States is IMHO to simply not participate. Don't talk to them. Don't live near them. Don't, if you can help it, work with them. Don't socialize with them. If the two alternatives I get are both lose/lose ( i.e. I'm a racist if they don't get what they want and I'm insensitive if I don't tolerate whatever horse**** they want to dish out to me), then the answer is simply not to play a rigged game. This Campbell guy would have been better off seeing all blacks, if he didn't like them, as walking lawsuits and should call the cops to deal with problems in his neighborhood, then work harder to move as far away from the kind of elements he doesn't want to live near. Or do any of you think LeBron or Dwight Howard or Melo live anywhere near poor, uneducated , crime ridden areas full of blacks? Or do you think they live in secure and gated affluent communities FAR FAR away from most black people period.

Things you will never hear from most African American players in the NBA or most black people in the US period - " It can't be easy to not be black and to hear you don't know what it's like to be black when you aren't black and know everything you do can be used against you for PR warfare or a lawsuit no matter the actual merits of the situation."

That would require empathy though, which sadly and ironically, most African Americans, including those in the NBA, say they are crusading for, which they are not, most just want the inequalities to be relined up to benefit them most of all. In that way, some African Americans have very little in common with white men, but the entitlement means IMHO they seemingly have a lot more in common with women. Complaining. Won't pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Looking for handouts instead of solutions. Rife with logical fallacies. Held to a social standard of close to zero accountability.

The Jeremy Lin story, it's hype and it's press coverage and the reactions paint a pretty ugly picture and truth. That if African Americans, including those in the NBA, want to end racism, then most need to consider how often they can be the worst racists of all.

WOW you are so full of bitterness that you have completely lost whatever balance and/or perspective you may have had. You may be partially right about a decadent culture of entitled behaviour that exsists among some highly paid atheletes who are coddled endlessly by fans and media and coaching staff. But to extend that to all african americans and generalize randomly shows two things. You probably have some personal reason for this level of bitterness and two you have no idea what various minorities have to put up with day after day. You should never talk about Empathy - don't embarass yourself anymore than you already have.

TripleThreat wrote:

loweyecue wrote:WOW you are so full of bitterness that you have completely lost whatever balance and/or perspective you may have had. You may be partially right about a decadent culture of entitled behaviour that exsists among some highly paid atheletes who are coddled endlessly by fans and media and coaching staff. But to extend that to all african americans and generalize randomly shows two things. You probably have some personal reason for this level of bitterness and two you have no idea what various minorities have to put up with day after day. You should never talk about Empathy - don't embarass yourself anymore than you already have.

How so?

To point,

- I'm the only one relating the race issue back to basketball
- I'm the only relating the issue back to Jeff Van Gundy and his commentary about coaches and players and their conflict, which is usually a white coach and a black player. This during a KNICKS game, about a KNICKS FORMER COACH talking, touching on an issue between the KNICKS CURRENT FRANCHISE PLAYER AND THE RECENTLY DEPOSED KNICKS COACH.
- I'm the only one discussing how race factors into viewing and commercial habits of potential fans and viewers and how that impacts the NBA bottom line.
- I'm the only one relating the race issue back to Linsanity and Jeremy Lin, where he is actually one of the biggest minorities in the NBA.

I'm the only one that gave a real proactive suggestion for Zimmerman to keep himself out of legal trouble and where Martin might still be alive - if you find a group, ANY GROUP, that you don't deal well with and can't get along with and you have a choice, don't interact with them and contact the authorities. How is this "lost perspective"? People teach their kids everyday that if you don't like playing with certain kids or playing certain sports or participating with anything that's a choice, no one says you have to do it. In my SCENARIO, Zimmerman would be home alone with his problems and out of the public eye and MARTIN WOULD PROBABLY STILL BE ALIVE.

Instead you drop off your ad hominem banter about how the problem must lie with me, because I'm the one to say clearly blacks and whites don't get along, have never really gotten along well, there is a long and bloody history of it and maybe the best answer is for both sides to stay on their respective sides? Or is it the commentary that I've never heard a black person EVER in my life say, "You know what, while it's not easy being black, it can't be easy not being black and being told something is complete racism and the risk of being sued or dragged in the press can work like a battering ram"

"You don't get it, you just won't ever get it"

Good job, more ad hominem there. I see plenty of the black culture in the US asking for non African Americans to try to understand it's not easy being black and to put themselves in the shoes of difficulties of black Americans. How often do you HEAR OF BLACK AMERICANS TALK ABOUT THE STRUGGLES OF NON BLACK AMERICANS DEALING WITH BLACK AMERICANS? Do you think it's fun for the rest of America to have to tiptoe and wonder if someone might be offended or if someone might sue for this or that or if someone will pull the race card to avoid any kind of accountability. I RARELY see African Americans discuss how claims of racism can work TWO WAYS. One way to effect real social change in a situation that might need it. But also, the second way, where many use it irresponsibly to further their own profit or agendas. Rarely do I hear African Americans acknowledge the second.

Chris Rock can walk on stage and make fun of anyone he wants. But if a non black said jokes about black people in a comedy routine, how would that play out? Jason Whitlock can make fun of Jeremy Lin and his penis and riff on stereotypes about Asians and not lose his job. But Jeremy Lin was a sports writer and made a joke about Jason Whitlock the athlete and comments about black and their stereotypes of their endowment? Shaq can say mocking things about Yao Ming on TV, all for the grand crime of Ming getting more All Star votes, with no fine and no suspension. And if Ming came on TV and told Shaq to chill before he called O'Neals grandmother and before he fell over from hypertension? Jason Williams can mock and offend Asian fans in Sacramento, taking the league and the Kings WEEKS to fine and punish Williams. And if Williams said something negative about blacks instead? How long would the suspension be or the fine? Maybe some African Americans don't want to hear it, but many non African Americans are tired of it. Tired of the immunity blacks get to say what they want and do what they want but in reverse it would be a legal and media firestorm.

If you don't like the sight of blood, don't train to be a doctor. If you don't like dealing with money, don't work at a bank. If you don't like dealing with kids, don't have them. If you don't like a certain restaurant, don't eat there. In life, we all have choices to avoid things we don't like or things that create negative experiences for us. So I'm out of bounds to say if Zimmerman finds he doesn't like or can't get along with blacks, if that's the case, to simply say, "Hey, nothing good is going to come out of this, I should just call the cops and put myself in a position to be nowhere near blacks at all."

That's the knotty problem of EQUALITY, it requires a TWO WAY STREET. It's not just white America that needs to be sensitive to African Americans, it's also incumbent on African Americans to consider how they act, behave and send messages to society about their role in this society. Grant Hill walks a two way street. He takes care and concern about not just how others treat him, but also his own accountability and behavior to send the message that you can't just ask for tolerance, you must give it as well. Does Stephen Jackson walk a two way street? Gilbert Arenas? Latrell Sprewell? Ron Artest? None of those guys have done much to reduce the "bad boy" criminal violent out of control black stereotype. Its bad for the league, it's bad for their franchises, it's bad for their brands, but it's also bad for blacks everywhere. Arenas can't just bring guns to his locker room and later claim racism as a factor in his punishment and treatment by the media. He has to own up to his choices and his own complicity in the problem.

EQUALITY also means you can't blame other people for things done by people a 100 years ago. Go back in human history and lots of people got screwed. Asians died building the railroads. They were sent into carts full of dynamite to blast new paths for laying track. If the dynamite went off too soon, too bad. Many were interned during WW2 and lost all their property and freedom. American Indians were slaughtered. The Jews faced the Holocaust. Immigrant Irish were held down and discriminated against when they came to America. Women weren't allowed to vote. Gays were beaten and murdered. In some places in the world, who you pray to can get you killed. If you want to blame Zimmerman for being a jerkoff or a criminal go ahead, but this pandering childish view that somehow blacks in America are "owed" payback for things done long ago is comical. No one gives you jack **** in this life, you have to go out and earn it or go out and take it, grab it by the horns and make it yours. Other cultures have done it, pulled themselves up by the bootstraps, but suddenly it's everyone elses fault that blacks can't succeed in America? It's not like America hasn't tried. There are scholarships, programs, resources, youth sports, all kinds of opportunities out there for black America to get ahead. It's the rest of non black America's fault that those opportunities aren't being used well or efficiently?

At some point it's not about black or white, it's about being a man. In life, a man, whatever his color, has to make his own destiny. Does it suck Martin died? Sure. Do I feel bad for his folks? Sure. Does it automatically mean he died from some racist act? I don't know. Looking at his troubles, he didn't do a lot to help himself post death with his image and I'd argue black America hasn't done much to help him with the general perception of the black image to the rest of non black America.

But go on, claim racism behind every corner to avoid things like accountability, logic, reason and empathy. Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world" Something to think about the next time Stephen Jackson shoots up a night club and people wonder why there are empty seats at NBA arenas and so much of non black America sees blacks as conflicts/lawsuits waiting to happen.

You think?? I am not sure I agree ... I especially take offense with your classification on line 238 of your post. I think that needs to be given it's own chapter IMHO.

mrKnickShot wrote:

TripleThreat wrote:

loweyecue wrote:WOW you are so full of bitterness that you have completely lost whatever balance and/or perspective you may have had. You may be partially right about a decadent culture of entitled behaviour that exsists among some highly paid atheletes who are coddled endlessly by fans and media and coaching staff. But to extend that to all african americans and generalize randomly shows two things. You probably have some personal reason for this level of bitterness and two you have no idea what various minorities have to put up with day after day. You should never talk about Empathy - don't embarass yourself anymore than you already have.

How so?

To point,

- I'm the only one relating the race issue back to basketball
- I'm the only relating the issue back to Jeff Van Gundy and his commentary about coaches and players and their conflict, which is usually a white coach and a black player. This during a KNICKS game, about a KNICKS FORMER COACH talking, touching on an issue between the KNICKS CURRENT FRANCHISE PLAYER AND THE RECENTLY DEPOSED KNICKS COACH.
- I'm the only one discussing how race factors into viewing and commercial habits of potential fans and viewers and how that impacts the NBA bottom line.
- I'm the only one relating the race issue back to Linsanity and Jeremy Lin, where he is actually one of the biggest minorities in the NBA.

I'm the only one that gave a real proactive suggestion for Zimmerman to keep himself out of legal trouble and where Martin might still be alive - if you find a group, ANY GROUP, that you don't deal well with and can't get along with and you have a choice, don't interact with them and contact the authorities. How is this "lost perspective"? People teach their kids everyday that if you don't like playing with certain kids or playing certain sports or participating with anything that's a choice, no one says you have to do it. In my SCENARIO, Zimmerman would be home alone with his problems and out of the public eye and MARTIN WOULD PROBABLY STILL BE ALIVE.

Instead you drop off your ad hominem banter about how the problem must lie with me, because I'm the one to say clearly blacks and whites don't get along, have never really gotten along well, there is a long and bloody history of it and maybe the best answer is for both sides to stay on their respective sides? Or is it the commentary that I've never heard a black person EVER in my life say, "You know what, while it's not easy being black, it can't be easy not being black and being told something is complete racism and the risk of being sued or dragged in the press can work like a battering ram"

"You don't get it, you just won't ever get it"

Good job, more ad hominem there. I see plenty of the black culture in the US asking for non African Americans to try to understand it's not easy being black and to put themselves in the shoes of difficulties of black Americans. How often do you HEAR OF BLACK AMERICANS TALK ABOUT THE STRUGGLES OF NON BLACK AMERICANS DEALING WITH BLACK AMERICANS? Do you think it's fun for the rest of America to have to tiptoe and wonder if someone might be offended or if someone might sue for this or that or if someone will pull the race card to avoid any kind of accountability. I RARELY see African Americans discuss how claims of racism can work TWO WAYS. One way to effect real social change in a situation that might need it. But also, the second way, where many use it irresponsibly to further their own profit or agendas. Rarely do I hear African Americans acknowledge the second.

Chris Rock can walk on stage and make fun of anyone he wants. But if a non black said jokes about black people in a comedy routine, how would that play out? Jason Whitlock can make fun of Jeremy Lin and his penis and riff on stereotypes about Asians and not lose his job. But Jeremy Lin was a sports writer and made a joke about Jason Whitlock the athlete and comments about black and their stereotypes of their endowment? Shaq can say mocking things about Yao Ming on TV, all for the grand crime of Ming getting more All Star votes, with no fine and no suspension. And if Ming came on TV and told Shaq to chill before he called O'Neals grandmother and before he fell over from hypertension? Jason Williams can mock and offend Asian fans in Sacramento, taking the league and the Kings WEEKS to fine and punish Williams. And if Williams said something negative about blacks instead? How long would the suspension be or the fine? Maybe some African Americans don't want to hear it, but many non African Americans are tired of it. Tired of the immunity blacks get to say what they want and do what they want but in reverse it would be a legal and media firestorm.

If you don't like the sight of blood, don't train to be a doctor. If you don't like dealing with money, don't work at a bank. If you don't like dealing with kids, don't have them. If you don't like a certain restaurant, don't eat there. In life, we all have choices to avoid things we don't like or things that create negative experiences for us. So I'm out of bounds to say if Zimmerman finds he doesn't like or can't get along with blacks, if that's the case, to simply say, "Hey, nothing good is going to come out of this, I should just call the cops and put myself in a position to be nowhere near blacks at all."

That's the knotty problem of EQUALITY, it requires a TWO WAY STREET. It's not just white America that needs to be sensitive to African Americans, it's also incumbent on African Americans to consider how they act, behave and send messages to society about their role in this society. Grant Hill walks a two way street. He takes care and concern about not just how others treat him, but also his own accountability and behavior to send the message that you can't just ask for tolerance, you must give it as well. Does Stephen Jackson walk a two way street? Gilbert Arenas? Latrell Sprewell? Ron Artest? None of those guys have done much to reduce the "bad boy" criminal violent out of control black stereotype. Its bad for the league, it's bad for their franchises, it's bad for their brands, but it's also bad for blacks everywhere. Arenas can't just bring guns to his locker room and later claim racism as a factor in his punishment and treatment by the media. He has to own up to his choices and his own complicity in the problem.

EQUALITY also means you can't blame other people for things done by people a 100 years ago. Go back in human history and lots of people got screwed. Asians died building the railroads. They were sent into carts full of dynamite to blast new paths for laying track. If the dynamite went off too soon, too bad. Many were interned during WW2 and lost all their property and freedom. American Indians were slaughtered. The Jews faced the Holocaust. Immigrant Irish were held down and discriminated against when they came to America. Women weren't allowed to vote. Gays were beaten and murdered. In some places in the world, who you pray to can get you killed. If you want to blame Zimmerman for being a jerkoff or a criminal go ahead, but this pandering childish view that somehow blacks in America are "owed" payback for things done long ago is comical. No one gives you jack **** in this life, you have to go out and earn it or go out and take it, grab it by the horns and make it yours. Other cultures have done it, pulled themselves up by the bootstraps, but suddenly it's everyone elses fault that blacks can't succeed in America? It's not like America hasn't tried. There are scholarships, programs, resources, youth sports, all kinds of opportunities out there for black America to get ahead. It's the rest of non black America's fault that those opportunities aren't being used well or efficiently?

At some point it's not about black or white, it's about being a man. In life, a man, whatever his color, has to make his own destiny. Does it suck Martin died? Sure. Do I feel bad for his folks? Sure. Does it automatically mean he died from some racist act? I don't know. Looking at his troubles, he didn't do a lot to help himself post death with his image and I'd argue black America hasn't done much to help him with the general perception of the black image to the rest of non black America.

But go on, claim racism behind every corner to avoid things like accountability, logic, reason and empathy. Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world" Something to think about the next time Stephen Jackson shoots up a night club and people wonder why there are empty seats at NBA arenas and so much of non black America sees blacks as conflicts/lawsuits waiting to happen.

You think?? I am not sure I agree ... I especially take offense with your classification on line 238 of your post. I think that needs to be given it's own chapter IMHO.

"EQUALITY also means you can't blame other people for things done by people a 100 years ago. Go back in human history and lots of people got screwed."

Statements like that kill me. You're talking about 100 years ago? Hmmmm ok. So the african slave trade began in the 1500's. It was "abolished" in the 19th century. During that time, millions of Africans lost their lives in the middle passage and just plain old inhumane treatment. People like you think it ended there.

Now first and foremost, that represents generation after generation for 100's of years. During that time American slave owners got richer and richer and richer due to millions of black (forced) workers but no payroll. Everyone who knows business knows that payroll is a huge part of earnings. Not here. Due to slavery many many many industries, companies and corporations were born with tons of $$$$ to go around. And many still stand today! They didn't end with slavery. They were born because of slavery and still are in use with billions of dollars being made. That connects the past to current gain. In soooooo many eras.

Next era was "reconstruction" where there was SUPPOSEDLY going to be equal opportunity. Unfortunately during that time slavery continued in the form of share cropping. It was a system designed to keep black people working on those same plantations and in debt to the land owner. Not to mention they were shunned from many places outside of plantation life from getting an actual job. African Americans STILL had no equality. In fact my grandmother picked cotton on a plantation! She is still alive and well. The beneficiaries of slavery were STILL benefiting even after it was "abolished". And during that time you also had lynchings. This is when thousands upon thousands of people would get together and lynch a black man (or woman) by hanging. Then they'd burn him/her. People would show up with flags and all that. Lynching actually happened in the lifetime of the man who raised me....my father. Not 100 years ago. They had to create anti-lynching laws.

Then the next era was born.......Jim Crow. This was yet a third system designed in order to take rights from African Americans. Now, that was in MY PARNETS generation. They were literally born and raised in the Jim Crow era. This is the "whites only" era. Many many many of the companies that thrive today are companies from one of those eras. The LAWS that were designed to treat African Americans inhumanely were in place even during the lifetime of people on this board. So when you hear the term "old money" or we talk about industry in America and corporations TODAY, you will find that many of the ones who thrive today have had a history (in the recent past) of having ties to those eras. Many of them exist because of the benefits of various eras that locked African Americans out and kept the wealth and power "in-house". Some of us work for and with many of these companies TODAY.

Once the 60's came and those laws were supposedly done away with you had an entirely NEW generation where the next issue was discrimination. That was HUGE in the 70's, 80's and even 90's. This is when you started hearing the term "playing the race card". People would say "slavery was 100's of years ago". Meanwhile, the law changed to "you must higher a certain amount of minorities in order to avoid a suit". This didn't change institutionalized racism at all. It just gave people who were discriminatory a loop hole in order to not lose their businesses due to their "personal policies". And we are talking about an era where most....well ALL of the players currently on the Knicks were born. You see my friend, there was never a time in the history of America where the playing fields were leveled. So yes, many things exist TODAY in 2012. There has never been a time in US history where people said "Ok, being that our economy and society is built upon laws that were designed to keep African Americans on the outside, let's now take all money that was made and put it in one bank and redistribute it evenly thus leveling the playing field". Never going to happen. Money and power has consistantly stayed in the same place since then.

We haven't even begun to talk about racial profiling and that sort of thing.

There is still racism today. There is still discrimination today. There is still bigotry today. And most of all, there is still prejudice. You actually prove that when u lump black people all into one category. You represent that in a lot of ways. You also represent the type of thinking that shows how disconnected some people are from what minorities go through everyday. The type of thinking that ignores that there is still a huge disparity in the field of justice, law and order when it comes to minorities. They literally sit there and tell them "get over it". They want them to "get over" something that is still current. You are just having a hard time dealing with the fact that it is REAL. Saying that it doesn't exist doesn't make it not exist.

And by the way, most of your examples just show that race is still an issue. People don't just imagine these things. They don't just dream them up like you must think. It is real. And it is daily. And no matter how you look at it, it goes back to a bunch of systems (specifically aimed at African Americans and these days, other minorities) that still shows it ugly head today.....in 2012. Not 100 years ago. Think about that the next time you act as though you just can't understand where all of this is coming from. There is a history there. You just refuse to understand how current it is. You know why? Because it doesn't effect YOU in any negative way.

If he was not allowed to carry the gun as he did, then having such a weapon on him demonstrates intent.

The law allowed him to be there with a gun. The comment labeling shows prejudice but not intent to kill. Again, the law allows him to be there with the gun. Take away that law, then Zimmerman is carry a gun with intent.

What happened is what needs to be sorted out.

When black kills white there is not Reverend or outcry to call out racial injustice. When white gets doused in petro its horrific. If the two blacks that did that were allowed to go free because its ok to pour it on people then we got a big issue. It was a racially motivated crime and they were caught and arrested. Justice served.

In this case interpretation of the law is big question. The outpour of support from the black community is premature and angry. The early pictures of a younger Trayvon depicted a nice young man on his way to see his father. We are seeing perhaps a big older 16 year old man sized Trayvon who is not quite so innocent puts the possibility that he might have had the character to confront Zimmerman and if he attacted him then zimmerman was within his rights to defend himself even though he completely instigated the whole thing.

Thats a shame. Its wrong. And the law sucks. Thats what I think briggs is trying to say.

What will happen is if Trayvon has even a brief history of tweeting arrogant statements and acting a big of a thug, had been caught at one time with "burglary tools", was prone to be confrontational, then Zimmerman profiling was a bit accurate. Zimmerman proved to be correct then in being scared. In this scenario Trayvon actually fulfilled his profile.

Was it right for Zimmerman to do this? No.

Was he within the law to be on a watch with a gun? Yes.

The law is culpable.

Is the outrage justified over this crime? I believe it is.

The outrage need be confined to the law.

misterearl wrote:Just Curious

"We live in America where a girl that threw flour on Kim Kardashian was arrested on site. But the man who killed Trayvon Martin is still free,".

Nalod - should Zimmerman have been arrested?

I believe the law needs to be upheld. It would appear that they believe they do not yet have enough evidence to convict him. If they arrest him and he cannot be convicted the outcry of frustration will be worse.

Zimmerman goes free. The blame will fall on lawmakers to change it.

I was outraged and angry at first by the his death.

I remember watching the OJ trail with a client who was a bit of an ******* during a lunch and when he was found innocent he was outraged. He asked me why I was not. I replied that the way the evidence was presented, in accordance to the process the jury had to vote the way it was. OJ was found liable in a civil suit. So in a sense, OJ was not guilty of murder, but he was NOT innocent either.

Zimmerman shot Trayvon. Zimmerman created a scenario that could have been prevented. Zimmerman might be totally liable in a civil case. But if the laws permit Zimmerman to be there, with a gun, and defend himself then he might not be convicted. If you can't reasonably convict someone after you arrest them, you should not arrest them.

Without laws society spins out of control. Police and justice system are there to uphold laws.

so to answer your question: Zimmerman cannot be arrested unless he broke the law. If further evidence proves he did. Then arrest him.

Is Zimmerman guilty of murder? Not for me to say.

Is Zimmerman Innocent? Hell no!

misterearl wrote:Thank You For Telling Black People How To Respond

"Black People Are Making Trayvon Martin Case "More Of A Racial Issue Than It Should Be"

- Tamara Holder, Fox News

They still don't get it...to black people it IS racial when black people are presumed to be up to criminal activity whenever they're seen on the street.

You're too much, man.

misterearl wrote:Too Much?

As a 50 year old white man I can say that the racism in this country is off the charts right now and here is why this is happening. 40 years ago President Nixon started a new phase of the southern strategy. He called it the war on drugs. My father was a police officer at the time and through him and his coworkers I saw first hand that the war on drugs was actually a war on the poor and dark skinned people. With this new Civil War the police were used to get those scary dark skinned men off the streets and unable to vote. They then demonized minority areas because there were no fathers there to teach those dark skinned kids how to behave because we locked up all their male role models. We then sent in the police to keep locking up as many dark skinned men to stop the violence.

Since most police are now cowards who like to brag about how dangerous their job is they were faced with a situation that required real courage. This has brought us to the past few years of transition where a police officer who has shot and killed someone does not even have to leave a "drop" gun at the scene to show that they were justified in shooting someone. I have been saying for years "don't you see what has happened here, now a cop just has to say 'I thought he had a gun' to justify killing an unarmed American."

This is why I get so angry when I hear someone refer to the police as "heroes and such". They are cowards with a gun. A hero would take a bullet to protect and serve, today's police will kill you first then check for a weapon later. This is why Trayvon is dead, he met a dangerous want to be a cop who has learned from watching his police role models that if he thinks he is in danger shoot first and just say I thought he had a gun.

Is this the America you want to live in. One full of hate and fear. Or would you rather learn that those dark skinned men are just like you and only want to be happy and left alone to enjoy their children and lives. The Second Civil War is being fought right in front of all of us and so few even notice. This war is killing our kids, are you O.K. with that? I am not and will continue to scream as loud as I can, THIS MUST STOP. Thank you for your time. - Jeff McCurry

Isn't that 50 y/o white and jewish?

While you make a number of good points, are you not wearing the same blinders as the very same "Racists" that you are talking about? You are basically condemning and pre-judging ALL POLICE OFFICERS!! While there are many bad apples, there are MANY MANY MANY good police officers! They are not all "Cowards With Guns".

Police men were always "police men". There has always been and always will be corruption and there has always been and there always will be good law abiding officers. You give humans power, they all handle it very differently. Read about the Stanford Prison Experiment which I think was a great study of human behavior. People are people and police officers act just like people.

And trust me! The corruption is much harder to cover up these days than it was in the days of the "drop guns".