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Saint Trayvon: Why Trayvon Martin’s killer may go free, & why that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The Urban Twist ^ | July 4, 2013 | Fernando "The Word Pimp" Quijano III

Posted on 07/04/2013 11:33:25 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

I started this article over a year ago, when the wounds of Trayvon Martin’s death were still fresh. I never finished it, in part, because the emotions were still so raw. There hadn’t been enough time to process what had happened to that young man who only wanted to get back home with his Skittles & tea and watch basketball, only rage and disgust. Then there was the feeling that nagged me, a sense that Trayvon Martin’s killer might get off. The rage and disgust are gone–not gone, never gone–subsided; but I still can’t shake that feeling.

Keeping up with the case, as presented so far, the prosecution has done a fine job of establishing many of the facts, but a number of the prosecution’s witnesses have played into the hands of the defense. Some of the testimony has bolstered their claims that, at the moment of the shooting, it was the killer who felt his life was in danger, that regardless to what happened prior to the shooting, the killer thought he needed to kill in order to survive.

Whether that’s true or not doesn’t matter. What matters is what the twelve jurors believe to be true. And if we’ve learned anything after the Rodney King, OJ Simpson, Casey Anthony, and so many other trials of the recent past, juries are a tricky thing. You can, like me, listen to all of the testimony, but we’re not sitting in that jury box watching through their eyes, thinking with their minds, feeling with their hearts. Their job is not to determine whether the killing of Trayvon Martin was right or wrong, just or unjust. Their job is to determine whether the defendant abided by Florida’s Stand Your Ground law. Did Trayvon Martin’s killer “reasonably believe… …it [was] necessary to [‘stand his... ...ground and meet force with force, including deadly force’] to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony?” Was he within the law?

I don’t think that question is an easy one to answer for any jury, so much so that I would not be surprised by a hung jury, and I certainly wouldn’t be shocked at an acquittal. Trayvon did put up a fight, the same way I taught my children to if they were ever accosted by some creep that could have easily been a pedophile. I’d go so far as to say that Trayvon would have whipped his assailant’s ass, were it not for the gun.

So, what would that mean? Would we see rioting in the streets, again, if Trayvon’s killer is found “not guilty”? I hope not. I hope people could look past the apparent miscarriage of justice and understand that a verdict of “not guilty” is the only way to change how things are done in Florida, not to mention other states with similarly barbaric statutes.

Don’t get me wrong. Trayvon Martin deserves justice. His death is nothing less than murder, plain and simple. But too many states have essentially legalized murder with laws that allow anyone to kill anyone else on the pretext that they fear for their life. MMA training or not, there is nothing fiercer than a teenager who’s afraid for his well-being. I would have been afraid. I wouldn’t have been carrying a gun, though. A verdict of “guilty” will put the killer in jail for a bit, but it will also justify the law. Florida can say, “See, the law works.” Nothing changes, until the next poor, unsuspecting victim falls prey to an overzealous vigilante with deluded aspirations of grandeur.

The question we need to ask ourselves is, “Which outcome would be best for everyone?” Travon Martin is already a martyr. No verdict will bring back all that lost life and potential. Trayvon’s legacy will be measured in how his tragic death affects this country and its laws. While I would love to see Trayvon’s killer locked away for what he did, moving this country in a more humane direction would be the bigger prize. A verdict of “not guilty” may not accomplish that, but I think it’s the only chance. Brace yourselves.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: asscracker; banglist; florida; guncontrol; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; secondamendment; selfdefense; standyourground; traydmark; trayvon; zimmerman
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To: Political Junkie Too

LOL!

At least the LIV’s are learning to write.


81 posted on 07/05/2013 6:03:03 AM PDT by Red in Blue PA (When Injustice becomes Law, Resistance Becomes Duty.-Thomas Jefferson)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; All

Re: to get back home with his Skittles & tea and watch basketball, 

It was WATERMELON JUICE, not tea. Pathetic that the facts cannot even be presented because they are not PC.


82 posted on 07/05/2013 6:09:11 AM PDT by Red in Blue PA (When Injustice becomes Law, Resistance Becomes Duty.-Thomas Jefferson)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

He is being slagged in the comment section.


83 posted on 07/05/2013 6:09:53 AM PDT by ExpatGator (I hate Illinois Nazis!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This article is just so stupid. This case has nothing to do with the stand your ground law. When someone is sitting on you and banging your head into the concrete, standing your ground isn’t a consideration.


84 posted on 07/05/2013 6:23:11 AM PDT by FXRP
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To: mylife

> The problem is that Martin did not want to have an intellectual chin wag.
He just commenced to violence.

What was GZ supposed to do?
Take it?

Of course not. Trust me I’m not on Martin’s side at all. I’m just saying you had two guys that collided based on their personality profiles. GZ, a guy that was concerned with his neighborhood that wanted to stop the burglaries that had been occurring who probably should have just alerted the police and let them question Martin but instead decided to pursue and Martin a young black thug who was into Fight Club, like confrontation to prove his fighting skills / stroke his ego, and GZ just happened to piss him off by questioning why he was there which is a common response you get when you question criminals who are up to no good or have been upnyo no good in the past. What I think happened based on everything I’ve heard is that Martin (knowing he was being pursued by GZ) disappeared from GZ’s view for a second, and then snuck up on him, and laid the smackdown on him. I think Martin was a young and high thug that got angry at GZ for questioning why he was there and prejudice kicked in and he went Fight Club on him, Martin got the better of him, started smashing his skull into the pavement, and GZ pulled the gun and shot him. Of course GZ has the right to protect himself but the MSM doesnt want to focus on that because it would rather stir the racial pot for His Highness.


85 posted on 07/05/2013 6:26:48 AM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This guy is delusional.


86 posted on 07/05/2013 8:07:30 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
But too many states have essentially legalized murder with laws that allow anyone to kill anyone else on the pretext that they fear for their life

Not that there's anything wrong with that!!

87 posted on 07/05/2013 8:13:17 AM PDT by chesley (Vast deserts of political ignorance makes liberalism possible - James Lewis)
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To: Peet

What you do in “da hood” doesn’t fly in the big world, we have a conflict of cultures.


88 posted on 07/05/2013 8:19:50 AM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, a Matter of Fact, Not a Matter of Opinion)
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To: Political Junkie Too

I kept going, and got to the next paragraph where he claims this is a SYG case. Freakin idiot author, too bad he has no concept of facts.


89 posted on 07/05/2013 8:20:48 AM PDT by AllAmericanGirl44 ('Hey citizen, what's in YOUR closet?')
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.
...so far, the prosecution has done a fine job of establishing many of the facts, but a number of the prosecution’s witnesses have played into the hands of the defense. Some of the testimony has bolstered their claims that, at the moment of the shooting, it was the killer who felt his life was in danger, that regardless to what happened prior to the shooting, the killer thought he needed to kill in order to survive.

90 posted on 07/05/2013 9:11:51 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (McCain or Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

George Zimmerman was carrying a 9mm semi-automatic handgun.

If he was the crazed, racist murderer that the MSM and the liberal politicians are painting him as, wouldn’t he have squeezed off two or three more rounds to be sure he had finished the job?

He fired one round to make the brutal “Ground and Pound” battering stop.
When one is in such a helpless position, one must assume that the assault will continue until one loses consciousness or one’s life, depending on the viciousness of the attacker. George Zimmerman had no way of knowing the level of insanity of his attacker, so he must have assumed that if he lost consciousness, he would never wake up.

If George Zimmerman was a crazed, racist murderer he would have stood over Trayvon’s helpless body (he was probably not deceased yet), and pumped a couple of additional rounds to the head, to solidify his victory.

When this tragedy began, nobody had an intention of killing anyone, but the situation got out of control in a matter of seconds, tempers flared and a valuable young life was lost.

George Zimmerman will punish himself for his actions for the rest of his life, arguably much worse a sentence than he deserves.


91 posted on 07/05/2013 10:05:13 AM PDT by MostlyAnti-Lib
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To: MostlyAnti-Lib
You mean like this?
92 posted on 07/05/2013 10:46:54 AM PDT by ASA Vet (Don't assume Shahanshah Obama will allow another election.)
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To: MostlyAnti-Lib

I think you’re missing a point.

The presence of the gun more or less ensured somebody was going to get shot, since whoever had control of the gun during the struggle would know that if he lost that control it would probably mean his death.

IOW, the presence of a gun ensured that it was a life or death struggle, whereas without the gun there was “some” possibility it would not escalate to that extent.

Could one of them have killed the other with his hands? Sure, but a gun is just so much easier and more efficient a killing tool, which is of course why we carry them.


93 posted on 07/05/2013 11:08:27 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
What matters is what the twelve jurors believe to be true... You can, like me, listen to all of the testimony, but we’re not sitting in that jury box ...

Ummm, aren't the SIX jurors? Someone's not 'listening' that closely...

94 posted on 07/05/2013 11:41:12 AM PDT by GOPJ ((MSNBC?)... liberal anger - - the privileged wheeze of entitled brats ... Greenfield)
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To: Sherman Logan

“more efficient a killing tool, which is of course why we carry them.”

You suggest, then, that police officers who carry firearms are looking for an opportunity to kill someone. I don’t think that they would agree with you.

GZ was a volunteer “Neighborhood Watch” patrolman, who is not a very big guy. If he had encountered a really bad guy, maybe eight inches taller and seventy pounds heavier, are you suggesting he should confront him, unarmed, and try to hold him until the police show up? He carried a gun to maybe save his life…
I’m glad he had it.


95 posted on 07/05/2013 11:45:51 AM PDT by MostlyAnti-Lib
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