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Pitts: Trayvon ‘killed by a stereotype’
The Miami Herald ^ | May 5, 2012 | Leonard Pitts Jr.

Posted on 05/06/2012 12:18:53 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

I don’t care about George Zimmerman’s MySpace page.

Granted, it was gratifying to read recently in The Miami Herald about his crude animus toward Mexicans (“soft ass wanna be thugs”) and his reference to a former girlfriend as an “ex-hoe.” Given the way white supremacists and other Zimmerman supporters have exaggerated and manufactured evidence to paint Zimmerman’s unarmed 17-year-old victim, Trayvon Martin, as a thug who somehow deserved shooting, this unflattering portrait offers the same satisfaction one feels any time the goose is basted with sauce that was prepared for the gander.

But ultimately, Zimmerman’s online profile is as irrelevant as Trayvon’s to any real understanding of the social dynamics that were at play the night the boy was shot to death. Worse, our fixation on this ephemera, the need on the one hand to make Trayvon some dark gangsta straight from Central Casting and on the other to find a Klan hood in the back of Zimmerman’s closet, suggests a shallow, even naïve, understanding of the role race seems to have played in this tragedy.

The pertinent fact is that Zimmerman found Trayvon suspicious because, as he told the 911 dispatcher, the boy was walking slowly and looking around. That might be the behavior of a boy who was turned around in an unfamiliar neighborhood. Or of a boy enjoying a cell phone conversation with a girl and not overly eager to return to where his sweet nothings might be overheard by his dad.

That no such alternate possibilities seem to have occurred to Zimmerman for even an instant suggests the degree to which we as a people have grown comfortable with the belief that black is crime and crime is black. Nor are African Americans immune to the effects of that invidious formulation....

(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: florida; georgezimmerman; trayvon; trayvonmartin; zimmerman
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So they're doubling down on this one? Crazy!
1 posted on 05/06/2012 12:18:56 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

If the hoodie fits.


2 posted on 05/06/2012 12:23:28 AM PDT by dfwgator (Don't wake up in a roadside ditch. Get rid of Romney.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Mr. Pitts fits the leftist disinformation campaign as outlined here: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/05/trayvon_and_zimmerman_the_structure_and_elements_of_a_disinformation_campaign.html

Highly recommended, right down to the use of Trayvon for the kid and Zimmerman for the shooter.


3 posted on 05/06/2012 12:28:14 AM PDT by redpoll
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I have NEVER understood why this event got so much screenplay.

This happens almost EVERY day somewhere in America.
Even if you factor in the white/mixed factor,
What makes this one such a big deal?
Well, OK, I know it is a leftist ploy to exploit it.


4 posted on 05/06/2012 12:31:25 AM PDT by AlexW
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

FOAD, Pitts.


5 posted on 05/06/2012 12:32:24 AM PDT by TigersEye (Life is about choices. Your choices. Make good ones.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
...Trayvon Martin, as a thug who somehow deserved shooting...

He did. There, I said it. I would've done exactly the same thing. Actually no. According to the defensive firearms training I've had, in that situation you're supposed to empty the magazine into someone attacking you at that range. At that range an attacker is too dangerous and must be stopped immediately. The very next blow from the attacker could kill or incapacitate you leading to your death. So there is no shoot, look/evaluate, maybe shoot again. As the instructor put it, at arms reach or less, empty the magazine into an attacker, then re-evaluate as you reload. But what the h*ll, what does he know - just an ex SEAL and current firearms instructor...

Or of a boy enjoying a cell phone conversation with a girl and not overly eager to return to where his sweet nothings might be overheard by his dad.

Aw, isn't that just so sweet - I think I got a cavity just reading it. Totally irrelevant. Martin was on top of Zimmerman, beating his skull into the concrete sidewalk. No matter how those two people came to be in that situation, that's where they were at. At that time Zimmerman's life was most certainly in danger. He had every right, every obligation to protect himself and respond with deadly force. End of story.

6 posted on 05/06/2012 12:33:55 AM PDT by ThunderSleeps (Stop obama now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What a self-righteous, sanctimonious limosine-liberal fool. Someone should challenge him to live in the ghetto unarmed and without bodyguards for a year.


7 posted on 05/06/2012 12:37:19 AM PDT by jonatron (This is the Land of the Free, the Home of the Brave.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
as he told the 911 dispatcher, the boy was walking slowly and looking around

The purpose of Neighborhood Watch, an official government funded organization, is to report just this behavior to the police.

8 posted on 05/06/2012 12:38:04 AM PDT by donna (Mitt? NEVER!)
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To: ThunderSleeps

His gun jammed after the first shot.


9 posted on 05/06/2012 12:39:37 AM PDT by TigersEye (Life is about choices. Your choices. Make good ones.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
That no such alternate possibilities seem to have occurred to Zimmerman for even an instant suggests the degree to which we as a people have grown comfortable with the belief that black is crime and crime is black. Nor are African Americans immune to the effects of that invidious formulation.

Well, as the navigator said to Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove, "I'm sorry, sir, but those are the figures."

10 posted on 05/06/2012 12:41:07 AM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Although Blacks supposedly can not be racist, Leonard Pitts sees everything through the filter of race. Our local paper publishes his editorials from time to time and he often colors his writing with similar rhetoric.
11 posted on 05/06/2012 12:44:45 AM PDT by srmorton (Deut. 30 19: "..I have set before you life and death,....therefore, choose life..")
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To: donna
The purpose of Neighborhood Watch, an official government funded organization, is to report just this behavior to the police.

Exactly. That whole:

That might be the behavior of a boy who was turned around in an unfamiliar neighborhood. Or of a boy enjoying a cell phone conversation with a girl and not overly eager to return to where his sweet nothings might be overheard by his dad.

Or it could be the behavior of a criminal casing houses. Who is up late, who isn't. Where might my next home invasion be... Where is that Audi I saw drive into this neighborhood, my bro has a call out for one... Where the h*ll is xxxx Riverview, that's where Tony said the papers were stacking up on the porch...

Suspicious behavior is suspicious behavior, no excuses. As a youth I've had more than one conversation with law enforcement when I was doing something stupid - and yes I deserved the talking to every time. I'm alive today 'cause I told them exactly what I was doing, I didn't jump on top of anyone and start beating them up.

12 posted on 05/06/2012 12:47:04 AM PDT by ThunderSleeps (Stop obama now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
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To: AlexW

But Mr. Zimmerman is Hispanic, black and white. I’m guessing when the black and other Lefty reporters at WaPo, NBC and the NYT initially heard “Zimmerman” they figured they’d be able to crucify a Jew for killing a martyred black teenager.


13 posted on 05/06/2012 12:47:34 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Ich habe keinen Konig aber Gott)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Here's a man who has an answer for Leonad "POS" Pitts.

Treyvon Martin & black slaves

14 posted on 05/06/2012 12:50:49 AM PDT by TigersEye (Life is about choices. Your choices. Make good ones.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Most of these race-baiter types know exactly what the deal is and only spew their nonsense for public consumption by idiots. But there are a few, like Mr. Pitts, who are stupid enough to really believe it.

The urban black thug is most definitely a “cliche” but many thousands of black Americans are murdered by this “cliche” every year.


15 posted on 05/06/2012 12:52:57 AM PDT by denydenydeny (Admiration of absolute government is proportionate to the contempt one has for others.-Tocqueville)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Or of a boy enjoying a cell phone conversation with a girl and not overly eager to return to where his sweet nothings might be overheard by his dadl

If we are to believe the phone records Skittles was on the phone for 6 hrs that day with DeeDee. His Dad was not home at the time of the incident.

16 posted on 05/06/2012 12:54:20 AM PDT by ironman
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Here is the comment I posted there:

I think Mr. Pitts makes some good points. But he is really missing the BIG picture for the black community.

That is that it is not white people, or “white-hispanic” people, or even the police who are a danger to the black community. It is black people killing other black people that is the main problem.

I don’t know why the black community and people like Mr. Pitts continue to overlook this problem and instead focus on man-bites-dog stories like this unfortunate incident.

If Trayvon Martin had been set upon by another black fellow and killed for the pocket change he had left after the skittles and iced tea purchase it might not even have made the paper at all.

Stuff like that happens every day.

It’s a problem. Especially for the victims.

When is ANYBODY going to deal with it? [End quote]

I did think he made some good points about not judging people by their facebook pages and twitter feeds (is that what you say, twitter feeds?).

But he was just silly about the “sweet nothings”.

And another commenter at the site had a good point about Dad not being home to supervise the suspended Trayvon.

But, my main point is still the same. How long are black people going to keep falling for the “distractions” provided them by the Left?


17 posted on 05/06/2012 12:57:49 AM PDT by jocon307
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"...we as a people have grown comfortable with the belief that black is crime and crime is black."

The "we" of the above quote is the black culture for the past 2 decades.

Everybody I know who is not black, initially presume the opposite, however, a very large percentage of the black culture identifies their "blackness" with criminality and criminality with their "blackness". It is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, especially when they ignore the rights of their victims, such as this article asserts.

It is an unspoken phenomenon amongst honest blacks, giving rise to their perception that all others are racist, exacerbating the problem.

18 posted on 05/06/2012 12:57:54 AM PDT by Cvengr (Adversity in life and death is inevitable. Thru faith in Christ, stress is optional.)
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To: ThunderSleeps

And, if Trayvon was worried, he could have called 911.


19 posted on 05/06/2012 1:01:44 AM PDT by donna (Mitt? NEVER!)
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To: TigersEye

Dayyuuum!


20 posted on 05/06/2012 1:12:37 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Ich habe keinen Konig aber Gott)
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