<p>"I have read your posts. I’ve been attempting to give you the benefit of the doubt.</p>
<p>You do realize the racism, even subtle racism or prejudice, is enough to cost you your job these days. You had better figure that out.</p>
<p>The world is no longer kind to racists, nor even slightly forgiving"</p>
<p>I don’t get how that relates to me, but okay.</p>
<p>Ever read anything by Walter Williams or Thomas Sowell?</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>Ever read anything by Martin Luther King Jr., or Colin Powell?</p>
<p>I literally laughed, poetgrl. You are so kind and patient. I can’t type actually. I have teary eyes from laughing so hard.</p>
<p>“I don’t get how that relates to me, but okay.”</p>
<p>it seems riprorin, that you don’t recognize how your posts are perceived. to give you the benefit of the doubt we are asking you to explain WHY you’ve repeatedly focused on these irrelevant issues, but you have not really done so. </p>
<p>it doesn’t appear you are trying to really be understood. so be it.</p>
<p>“Rip is blaming the Martin killing on the breakdown of the African American family, which he puts at/or around the great depression. Well, he blames the Martin killing on the welfare state, though Trayvon does not appear to have been from a fatherless home OR on welfare. But, apparently, it’s still the cause.”</p>
<p>That’s not what I said at all.</p>
<p>I don’t know the details of Trayvon’s family life, but I do know he came from a broken home.</p>
<p>What kind of home did Zimmerman come from?</p>
<p>Zimmerman who shot a young man in the heart?</p>
<p>WHAT are you TALKING about?</p>
<p>oh so before you stated the problem was fathers who weren’t involved, now you’ve expanded it to include what you call “broken homes”. moving target huh? I don’t know but I see two caring parents in the courtroom grieving their son’s death and seeking the truth in their son’s name. </p>
<p>I will bow out, as "broken family"is an unacceptable term in my world. I’ve seen too many sickeningly dysfunctional intact families and too many caring divorced families to go along with that one.</p>
<p>edit to add I agree poetgrl, riprorin’s obsessive focus on the deceased victim’s family in this case is simply unacceptable. and he is clueless about how it appears.</p>
<p>I have been away for a few hours. I am speechless that people are still trying the victim here. TM’s family has behaved with far more class than the Zimmermans (what with the racist tweets and self-published rants and all) or than some of the people on this site. They have done NOTHING to bring on the situation they are in today, and they deserve respect, not judgment. Unbelievable.</p>
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<p>Catahoula, no. Nothing in TM’s past has anything at all to do with whether GZ committed second-degree murder when he took his life. Not his Facebook, not his school history in Miami, nothing. Why do you persist in this line of reasoning?</p>
<p>lindz126, take a deep breath.</p>
<p>I was simply responding to the comment that Trayvon does not appear to have been from a fatherless home OR on welfare.</p>
<p>I don’t know who he lived with or really care, regardless of your comment that I have an “obsessive focus on the deceased victims family”, nor is it relevant in this case.</p>
<p>In spite of your anecdotal evidence, it’s well established that children are far better off when their parents stay together.</p>
<p>sally, good to see you back. I know, can you believe?? </p>
<p>sorry rip, not engaging with you any longer.</p>
<p>Still not getting what TM’s family background has to do with his killer’s murder trial.</p>
<p>I read that Trayvon wanted to go to college to become an aviation mechanic. I’m not sure what his parents are going to do with the settlement money, but it would be great if they could establish a scholarship fund in his name.</p>
<p>[Trayvon</a> Martin wrongful death claim more than $1 million - Orlando Sentinel](<a href=“http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-04-05/news/os-trayvon-martin-settlement-20130405_1_trayvon-martin-benjamin-crump-george-zimmerman]Trayvon”>http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-04-05/news/os-trayvon-martin-settlement-20130405_1_trayvon-martin-benjamin-crump-george-zimmerman)</p>
<p>That’s a nice idea.</p>
<p>My thoughts exactly. My (white) son is one of those kids who likes to feel “cozy” and there’s nothing better than a soft hoodie for that. He would also think a worthy 7-11 snack was an iced tea and Skittles, and he would not mind a long walk through the neighborhood to get it.</p>
<p>My daughter has a friend named Trayvon. He is 16. There is no “other” here as far as I am concerned. This was one of our kids.</p>
<p>I had CNN on off and on yesterday, and there was a moment in the trial proceedings that has gotten little play in the replay and later discussions, but which I thought was important.</p>
<p>The police were questioning why Zimmerman thought Martin looked suspicious, and they pointed out that people who are casing a neighborhood at night, looking for entries to homes, would typically be dressed in very dark colors head to toe, and that Martin’s gray hoodie and clothing were not what any robber would be wearing under those circumstances.</p>
<p>Please stop, Wolverine. There is ample reason to try someone who killed another human being. And in this case there is evidence worthy of being explored. You do not need to politicize an event that by all accounts was a tragedy.</p>
<p>It’s perplexing to me that some posters here think every shooting of a young black person should be investigated EXCEPT Trayvon Martin’s.</p>
<p>
I completely agree and have said so before, however, I respectfully wonder if the charges are the most appropriate.</p>
<p>I’ve been reading documents recently released under the FOIA and they are fascinating in terms of the decisions on investigation and prosecution and it certainly appears that there are some things that are portrayed in the press in a manner that isn’t quite accurate (can you imagine?)</p>
<p>I don’t think they can prove Murder 2, from what I can see.</p>
<p>That’s why I asked, the other day, if the jury would be allowed to consider lesser charges.</p>
<p>I think Calmom has pretty dispassionately and apolitically summed it up well.</p>
<p>All the rest of the chatter on this thread, including my own, is relevant, only in so much as it shows that there are ALWAYS other forces at work in the justice system, whether we like it or not.</p>
<p>It’s interesting that on redirect the prosecution is treating the lead detective this way.</p>
<p>The prosecutor is doing pretty well on the redirect, I think.</p>