Usa Thread

[Flashermac]

The problem is the only person who really knows what happens is Zimmerman. Other people heard yelling or some someone fighting, een disagreeing on who was on top. Hard to make much of a case either way. My take is the jury basically voted "we don't know if he is guilty or not". "Not guilty" is not the same as being innocent. It means the prosecution didn't prove it.

 

I agree with you on following someone. Watch from a distance maybe, but if you think the person might be a criminal (and thus possibly armed), leave it to the law to handle it.

 

People got emotionally involved in this trial. Both my mother and my sister (also a mother) were furious about the shooting, blaming it all on Zimmerman. (They spend their time watching Al Sharpton's show. ) My sister told me my mother was in tears after the decision was announced.

[Flashermac]

Five Questions About George Zimmerman Case Now That We Have a Verdict

 

 

The not guilty verdict in the murder trial of George Zimmerman may have presented more questions than it answered. Diane Sawyer asked on Twitter earlier today what is your number one question?

 

We took the most recurring questions you’ve been asking and gave them to ABC News anchor Dan Abrams. Here they are with his answers:

 

 

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/07/five-questions-about-george-zimmerman-case-now-that-we-have-a-verdict/

[Flashermac]

Juror: 'No doubt' that George Zimmerman feared for his life

 

 

(CNN) -- One of the jurors who acquitted George Zimmerman said she had "no doubt" he feared for his life in the final moments of his struggle with Trayvon Martin, and that was the definitive factor in the verdict.

 

The woman, who was identified just as Juror B37, spoke exclusively to CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" on Monday night. She is the first juror to speak publicly about the case.

 

She said she believes Zimmerman's "heart was in the right place" the night he shot Martin, but that he didn't use "good judgment" in confronting the Florida teen.

 

"I think George Zimmerman is a man whose heart was in the right place, but just got displaced by the vandalism in the neighborhoods, and wanting to catch these people so badly that he went above and beyond what he really should have done," she said.

 

"But I think his heart was in the right place. It just went terribly wrong."

 

If anything, Zimmerman was guilty of not using "good judgment," the juror said.

 

"When he was in the car, and he had called 911, he shouldn't have gotten out of that car," she said.

 

She also said she believes Martin threw the first punch in the confrontation that followed.

 

"I think George got in a little bit too deep, which he shouldn't have been there. But Trayvon decided that he wasn't going to let him scare him ... and I think Trayvon got mad and attacked him," she said.

 

Zimmerman felt his life was in danger before shooting Martin, and it was his voice that was heard screaming for help in 911 calls, the juror said she believes.

 

"He had a right to defend himself," she said. "If he felt threatened that his life was going to be taken away from him, or he was going to have bodily harm, he had a right."

 

Split vote

 

An initial vote was divided. Three of the jurors first voted Zimmerman was guilty, while three voted he was not guilty, she said. Juror B37 was among those who believed he was not guilty from the start.

 

"There was a couple of them in there that wanted to find him guilty of something and after hours and hours and hours of deliberating over the law, and reading it over and over and over again, we decided there's just no way, other place to go," she said.

 

Jurors were not identified by name during the trial, which sparked a broad debate about gun laws and race in America.

 

The juror said she did not believe Zimmerman profiled Martin, who was African-American, because of the color of his skin.

 

She believes he thought Martin was suspicious because of the way he acted.

 

"Anybody would think anybody walking down the road, stopping and turning and looking -- if that's exactly what happened -- is suspicious," she said.

 

"I think all of us thought race did not play a role," the juror said . "We never had that discussion."

 

At one point during the interview, she grew emotional and her voice cracked. She said jurors cried after putting in their vote.

 

"It's a tragedy this happened. But it happened," the juror said.

 

"And I think both were responsible for the situation they had gotten themselves into. I think both of them could have walked away. It just didn't happen."

 

The juror was planning to write a book about her experience with the case, literary agent Sharlene Martin said before her interview aired.

 

But hours later, the agent released a statement from Juror B37 saying she would no longer write one.

 

"Now that I am returned to my family and to society in general, I have realized that the best direction for me to go is away from writing any sort of book and return instead to my life as it was before I was called to sit on this jury," the juror said.

 

"I realize it was necessary for our jury to be sequestered in order to protest our verdict from unfair outside influence, but that isolation shielded me from the depth of pain that exists among the general public over every aspect of this case."

 

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/15/justice/zimmerman-juror-book/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

[Bangkoktraveler]

The Zimmerman case should not have come to the forefront of news media

but what changed that perspective was when the Republican talk shows 'grabbed' Zimmerman as their new 'hero'.

 

Another trial that gained huge media coverage was the Jodi Arias trial.

What fueled that trial was her barage of lies and her desire to 'tell the truth' by taking the stand and lying to the jury for 18 days

[Bangkoktraveler]

Asiana Airlines Flight 214

.

sounds very much like the doomed

.

Oceanic Airlines Flight 815

.

but with a different ending.

[cavanami]

The Zimmerman case should not have come to the forefront of news media

but what changed that perspective was when the Republican talk shows 'grabbed' Zimmerman as their new 'hero'.

 

Another trial that gained huge media coverage was the Jodi Arias trial.

What fueled that trial was her barage of lies and her desire to 'tell the truth' by taking the stand and lying to the jury for 18 days

 

Now the protesters are in the streets...seems like when OJ Simpson was cleared of the murder charges there were no protests???

[Flashermac]

I remember scenes of black students cheering and hollering in delight when OJ got away with murder.

 

 

 

 

Polling Shows That Sources Of Racism Are Now Reversed

 

 

by Thomas Sowell

 

 

I am so old that I can remember when most of the people promoting race hate were white.

 

Apparently other Americans also recognize that the sources of racism are different today from what they were in the past. According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 31% of blacks think that most blacks are racists, while 24% of blacks think that most whites are racist.

 

The difference between these percentages is not great, but it is remarkable nevertheless. After all, generations of blacks fought the white racism from which they suffered for so long. If many blacks themselves now think that most other blacks are racist, that is startling.

 

The moral claims advanced by generations of black leaders — claims that eventually touched the conscience of the nation and turned the tide toward civil rights for all — have now been cheapened by today's generation of black "leaders," who act as if it is all just a matter of whose ox is gored.

 

Even in legal cases involving terrible crimes — the O.J. Simpson murder trial or the charges of gang rape against Duke University students — many black "leaders" and their followers have not waited for facts about who was guilty and who was not, but have immediately taken sides, based on who was black and who was white.

 

Among whites, according to the same Rasmussen poll, 38% consider most blacks racist and 10% consider most whites racist. Broken down by politics, the same poll showed that 49% of Republicans consider most blacks racist, as do 36% of independents and 29% of Democrats.

 

Perhaps most disturbing of all, just 29% of Americans as a whole think race relations are getting better, while 32% think race relations are getting worse. The difference is too close to call, but the fact that it is so close is itself painful — and perhaps a warning sign for where we are heading.

 

Is this what so many Americans, both black and white, struggled for, over the decades and generations, to try to put the curse of racism behind us — only to reach a point where retrogression in race relations now seems at least equally likely as progress?

 

What went wrong?

 

Perhaps no single factor can be blamed for all the things that went wrong. Insurgent movements of all sorts, in countries around the world, have for centuries soured in the aftermath of their own success. "The revolution betrayed" is a theme that goes back at least as far as 18th-century France.

 

The civil rights movement in 20th-century America attracted many people who put everything on the line for the sake of fighting against racial oppression. But the eventual success of that movement attracted opportunists, and even turned some idealists into opportunists.

 

Over the generations, black leaders have ranged from noble souls to shameless charlatans. After the success of the civil rights insurgency, the latter have come into their own, gaining money, power and fame by promoting racial attitudes and actions that are counterproductive to the interests of those they lead.

 

None of this is unique to blacks or to the U.S. In various countries and times, leaders of groups that lagged behind, economically and educationally, have taught their followers to blame all their problems on other people — and to hate those other people.

 

This was the history of anti-Semitic movements in Eastern Europe between the two World Wars, anti-Ibo movements in Nigeria in the 1960s, and anti-Tamil movements that turned Sri Lanka from a peaceful nation into a scene of lethal mob violence and then decades-long civil war, both marked by unspeakable atrocities.

 

Groups that rose from poverty to prosperity seldom did so by having racial or ethnic leaders. While most Americans can easily name a number of black leaders, current or past, how many can name Asian American ethnic leaders or Jewish ethnic leaders?

 

The time is long overdue to stop looking for progress through racial or ethnic leaders. Such leaders have too many incentives to promote polarizing attitudes and actions that are counterproductive for minorities and disastrous for the country.

 

 

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-on-the-right/070813-662856-racism-has-taken-on-a-startling-new-hue.htm

[Bangkoktraveler]

Zimmerman invoked the 'stand your ground' policy when he killed Martin.

.

Martin probably invoked the 'stand your ground' policy when he alleged jumped Zimmerman.

.

If Martin had 'won',

would he be found innocent?

[Bangkoktraveler]

Racism in 'America' has probably always existed.

.

Even before the Constitution was ratified, slavery was a major issue.

Too bad slavery wasn't eliminated then

along with the right to vote for non-land owners and women.

.

With equality should have come fairness...... but it did'nt happen for a long time.

[unit731]

Health care costs predicted to go down.

For all of the right wing wonks this is not good news.

Repeal, repeal, repeal. Lower costs, lower costs, lower costs.

 

 

"The Empire State is the latest to reveal premiums that are lower than current rates. Residents in California and Oregon, among others, will also have offerings that are cheaper than many plans on the market today. The administration and Democrats trumpeted the news, which runs counter to argument advanced by Obamacare opponents who said that health reform would cause rates to skyrocket."

 

LINK