Replies

I have been a poster here for ten years and consider Free Republic my home away from home. Often I have talked about the site with my grandson, hoping that he'll want to become a FReeper too. Well, this morning he read some of the threads on Zimmerman/Martin. He can to the conclusion that Zimmerman immediately profiled Martin and acted with prejudice. He wrote the following and asked me to post it:

Okay so I have walked into my grandmother’s house this morning and from what I understand the 17 year old who was getting things from the grocery store and talking to his girlfriend, wants to get back to his father’s apartment and when he runs back to his house he is followed by an older guy. Then when the older guy catches up with him a scuffle ensues and the kid has a fatal wound while the other guy has a few scratches.
Firstly, someone was murdered. Respect the dead enough to not blame them for their own death, eh? It was not a suicide if there was a scuffle.
Secondly, I have seen a many defenses of Zimmerman claiming that he was scratched up. This is nothing of an excuse. When I was in AFJROTC we had a few bouts of wrestling during summer leadership school. The first time I had a real wrestling match was against a 6 foot tall African American boy of 16 years. He weighs about 140 lbs. I am 5’”7’ and weigh 160 lbs. we had 2 bouts and I won both times within a time of about a minute. This was my first experience wrestling (I am usually pacifistic and hate hurting people but it was all in good fun) and he had been on the football team for 4 years prior. Anyone who puts the defense in a 240 lb man over a 160-200 lb kid probably doesn’t know much about fighting. Not to mention the fact that since the kid was a football player and Zimmerman caught up to him it shows something possibly good on the physical fitness level of Zimmerman.
Thirdly, in my opinion the first thing Zimmerman did was profile the kid. I went to a school that was about 40% African American and I was able to tell who was clean and who was on things etc. The kids who were making good grades and playing football were not on anything as far as I could tell, and in high school you can tell. In the phone call recording Zimmerman was instantly saying that the kid was suspicious, up to no good and on drugs, that he was afraid “another one” was going to get away… another what though? another kid getting skittles and iced tea? or one that puts a hoodie on when it’s raining because he doesn’t want his headphones to get wet. I know that my headphones cost 170$ after tax and I earned that money myself at 15.
Fourthly, Zimmerman has a record whereas Martin does not. I have read the reports on Zimmerman and saw domestic violence. I am a victim of child abuse so I am biased against him on that, but anyways I have seen people put martin down because he has a 5 day suspension. Being a Florida high school student, I have seen many people get suspensions for insubordination (as in not taking their hat off, not keeping quiet when the teacher asks, and other petty behavioral problems), for loitering in the halls, etc. so as far as I am concerned the 5 day suspension of a high school student is irrelevant considering as a student I see behavior like that every day. My old language teacher called it “monkey juice” when kids walk the halls during class with a bathroom pass. It’s nothing bad (as in drug-wise), the kids just like to socialize too much to focus on schoolwork usually (which will bite them in the butt later in life).
I have seen people ask if martin was trespassing. He was not and if he was it does not matter much as he is dead. People have also asked why no one drove him to the store. Not all parents are the same and considering the father was with his girlfriend I doubt either of them wanted to take him. My parents would not have taken me to the 7/11 down the street in that situation.