Yep, thats right, THAT Gene Lyons:
Posted on 04/01/2012 8:53:27 AM PDT by DCBryan1
Everybody wants to see justice done in the Trayvon Martin case, and almost everybody acts as if they already know what that is. Never mind the Rev. Al Sharpton, activist and crusading journalist all in one. Nor his MSNBC colleague Lawrence O'Donnell, who recently announced he'd decided to forgo wearing a hoodie on TV to look more like a prosecutor.
Here's GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum on "Face the Nation," assessing shooter George Zimmerman's mental health. "Someone has a very sick mind who would pursue someone like this, Santorum said. "This is clearly a heinous act. You know, there are a lot of people who have a lot of distorted views of reality...And my heart goes out to the parents, too. I can't imagine what they're suffering, losing their son in such a horrific way. All I would say is that, whatever the motive is, it was a malicious one."
As an attorney, you'd think Santorum would know better than to bring a legally charged term like malice into it. Not to mention implied psychosis. Santorum subsequently reverted to form, blaming President Obama—one of a few public figures who've spoken with appropriate restraint—for bringing race into the equation. This because Obama, extending condolences to the family, acknowledged that "if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon."
Indeed, he would. Images of Trayvon's handsome, boyish face have played no small part in the public response. Obama also took care, in his capacity as chief executive, not to pre-judge the case. He called it "absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together—federal, state and local—to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened."
In short, the president promised an investigation, not a result. Would that his circumspection were followed by more of those who have justifiably turned Trayvon's death into a national drama, but who could end up provoking even graver and more socially disruptive tragedies if they're not more careful.
I say this as one who agrees that had George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin's roles been reversed, the black kid would almost surely have been arrested. Maybe not convicted, but taken into custody? Definitely. Who thinks that "concealed carry" handgun permits should be damn near impossible to get, and that Florida's NRA-influenced "stand-your-ground" law, and others like it, were certain to have disastrous results. They must be repealed.
I wouldn't trust me with a pistol in my pocket, much less you. Untrained individuals like Zimmerman have no business packing heat, nor confronting strangers they deem suspicious. Trouble didn't come to George Zimmerman; he went looking for it. At minimum, he acted like a damn fool.
However, I've also had the experience of writing a book about a media-amplified murder case that took place in my home state of Arkansas. What I learned was that when reporters and pundits set themselves up as amateur homicide detectives, not to mention as prosecutor, judge and jury, the odds against justice being served grow longer.
I can still remember where I was sitting and what the weather was like when I realized that a ballyhooed front page account of a murder trial in Little Rock's dominant morning newspaper bore almost no relationship to the actual testimony and crime scene photos. It was that shocking to me. All the errors ran in one direction, casting suspicion on an innocent man for murdering his wife. He was eventually exonerated, but only after a harrowing ordeal.
Meanwhile, a veritable orgy of gossip, speculation and self-righteous moralizing swept the state. "You could ask the ladies under every hair dryer in every beauty shop in Arkansas if McArthur was involved, and they'd say yes," one beleaguered police official told me. "They didn't have to know the first thing about the case. They justknew."
It's no exaggeration to say that millions are already there with regard to Trayvon Martin. So affecting were the pictures and descriptions of his death, and so moving the grief and immense dignity of his parents, that it's become easy to cast Zimmerman as a racist villain out of central casting, and to leap to conclusions not in evidence.
Specifically, what exactly took place between Zimmerman and Martin during their fatal encounter? Who attacked whom? We really don't know, and media accounts, as often happens, haven't helped. On MSNBC's "The Last Word" the other night, Lawrence O'Donnell's guests tried to discuss what Martin's girlfriend may have seen.
The girl was halfway across Florida, talking to him by cellphone.
There have been numerous similar episodes. Much of what you think you know may be false. Media personalities don't set out to misinform; mainly, they become True Believers.
It's possible George Zimmerman's culpability will never be proved to everybody's satisfaction. But the kind of painstaking professional investigation President Obama has called for is the only way to try.
Yep, thats right, THAT Gene Lyons:
Gene, I don’t trust you with a newspaper column but that doesn’t stop you.
But screw those people. Eric Holder's people have a civil right to choose violent crime as a career path, and armed victims are an OSHA violation.
Yeah, Gene, only you can have a gun and a voice. What is it you did so wrong you are afraid of guns, Gene? Or maybe you want to give them to the Soviet criminals because you are their bad girl at night?
Some people are like that, they are oh so afraid of being punished when doing wrong, they would rather see “no punishment”, when it is ridiculous, because punishment will come nevertheless. Rewarding bad is being bad, a loser, and punished either way. It’s a double whammy on Dr.Spock liberals who still do not have a clue about the hate of Obama trying to rally idiots like Gene to his cause, because, when we all have AIDS and are bad, I guess that makes for a political $$$$ greedy block of “security”.
Fools abound and Gene will have to face the maker.
You know, we are losing this argument because imbeciles like this crawl out of the woodwork and are allowed to control the direction and content of the debate. Yet an 800 pound gorilla sits in the room.
From the last statistics I can find, for every black killed by a white, eighteen (18) whites are killed by blacks. What we really need to bring into the debate is simple:
Justice for Trayvon AND the other 18 innocent victims.
Justice for ALL murdered victims of race related killings.
Let's have a COMPLETE dialog about race related killings.
If this point could get out into the mainstream, the other side would want to stop talking about this - IMMEDIATELY.
Zimmerman was attacked and would have been killed, head pounded on the pavement until dead. He shot in self-defense. Good thing for him he was armed. He would have been dead.
Just the kind of guy I want in the White House. He can read minds. He can form a judgement before the fact are in. What an asset. He sounds like Obama.
The mainstream media is causing blacks to get angry and so many more whites will be murdered. The media will have blood on its hands. Why pick this one death to make it into a topic everyone is talking about . Mainly the media wants to ban guns, destroy our right to bear arms, ferment racial division, class warfare etc. The media are marxists/liberals/democrats.
The media are pure evil. They ignore all the horrific murders that blacks commit against whites. In fact the media also keeps talking about this Trayvon to distract us from the high gas prices , bad economy etc. Previously the big story was 2 words that Rush said , now this.
Justice for Trayvon AND the other 18 innocent victims.
Just wondering, how do you know Tryvon was a victim, Zimmerman claim he was the victim and Trayvon was the agressor at the time of the shooting, I think it is time for somebody like the FBI to investicate this afair so we will know the truth, upintil now, it is he says them says
First of all, I didn’t know Lyons had gotten his nose out of Clinton’s butt long enough to write about anything else.
Second, Zimmerman was not untrained. If had not been trained he’d probably be the one dead.
Finally, this article is contradictory. He might as well have written “Zimmerman should be hanged after he gets a fair trial”.
They are not satisfied with the 18:1 murder ratio now (it's 40,000:1 in rapes). I think the goal is a nice round 100:1 or something like that.
Gene Lyons? No thanks. No point in reading Mary McGrory reincarnate.
so moving the grief and immense dignity of his parents...
Yes, dignity so immense that the first thing they did was to trademark the kid’s name so they could cash in.
Dear Microcephalic Lyons:
“I wouldn’t trust me with a pistol in my pocket, much less you. Untrained individuals like Zimmerman have no business packing heat, nor confronting strangers they deem suspicious.”
I have watched the county Sheriff’s department training at my range. If I practised their kind of firearm handling, the range would (rightfully) revoke my membership.
As far as “I wouldn’t trust me with a pistol in my pocket” please see http://jpfo.org/filegen-n-z/ragingagainstselfdefense.htm for a good a good analysis of your PSH...
“Just wondering, how do you know Tryvon was a victim”
Because Rick Santorum knows what was in Zimmerman’s heart and mind and told us, it was evil and malacious.
That number sounds about right to me...Do you have a link or source for that?
How about rapes? This has got to be a black on white crime 95% of the time. I have never heard of a white man prowling black areas and raping women but the opposite crops up of a serial black rapist going after white women
During slavery...of course white men raped black women. Blacks prolly figure it is get even time by raping white women and get even via outrageous reparations demands and affirmative action scams
More Killings Called Self-Defense
At a time when the overall U.S. homicide rate is declining, more civilians are killing each other and claiming self-defense—a trend that is most pronounced in states with new "stand your ground" laws.
So-called justifiable homicides nearly doubled from 2000 to 2010, the most recent data available, when 326 were reported, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of crime statistics from all 50 states. Over that same 11-year period, total killings averaged roughly 16,000 a year, according to the state figures, which the Journal obtained from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and from Florida.
Sounds like same faulty reasoning you always see in newspaper headlines that decry "Despite Falling Crime Rate, Prison Rate Soars."
People like Gene Lyons and the authors of the WSJ article refuse to look at Cause and Effect. At first blush, it would appear that the declining murder rate MAY be partially due to the new Stand Your Ground laws. The perps aren't sure if their targets are armed due to concealed carry law changes and now they know their intended targets can use their weapons with impunity. Sound like we are finally getting the perps where we want them - cowering in fear.
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