<p>lindz: "NYMomof2–thanks for your post, I attempted to discuss the difference between race and ethnicity early on but it wasn’t accepted.</p>
<p>“First time I saw that interview with Trayvon’s brother. Made me cry, poor kid lost his little brother and struggles with whether to stay in college. He had NO anger, or hostility and this interview was BEFORE GZ was even arrested. I think others should take a look at this young man’s maturity and composure.”</p>
<p>I’ve posted this information before, too. No one seems to get it!</p>
<p>Yes, the interview is heartbreaking. So is Trayvon’s mother’s public service announcement, barely 2.5 months after Trayvon’s death:</p>
I am glad that he used that language - inflammatory or not it gives better insight into his state of mind than “some guy” would have. The behind him was severely creeping him out, and if he was less than polite in his choice of epithets, he was a teenager - he was SUPPOSED to say stupid things.</p>
I’m not watching the live broadcast of the trial, so I don’t really know what GZ is doing, but I certainly would counsel my client on courtroom demeanor and pay some attention to the way he was dressed in court. It would depend on the case and client. </p>
<p>Its kind of hard to ask me because I’m female – I would certainly encourage my male clients to come to court with a suit and tie, if age appropriate – but they never looked like me. Since I’m female I had a lot more leeway about how I would dress as well – I could go for a business like look (tailored suits, etc.) – or I could go for a more feminine, dressy look – depending on the impression I wanted to make on the jury. By age appropriate I mean that sometimes with a younger male client, it might make sense to dress in a way that reminds the jury of their youth – such as a sweater vest, preppy look. GZ’s weight complicates the problem of dressing him somewhat.</p>
<p>Zimmerman is probably wearing a bulletproof vest under his suits too.</p>
<p>We used to have a Florida state circuit judge in my area who liked to wear bright colored robes in court. He had all sorts of colored robes like red, yellow, blue, green…he’d wear different color for whatever mood he was in. Too, his wife was head bailiff and she would tell other bailiffs in advance what color sport coat to wear each day to match the color judge/husband was wearing that day in court. They were a quinella!</p>
<p>Riprorin, you asked if there are white Hispanics, are there also white Asians, etc. </p>
<p>I really am having a hard time thinking this is a serious question. Do you truly not understand the category “Hispanic”? </p>
<p>On the off chance you are in fact, in this day and age, not familiar with the term, let me explain. Think of Zorro - milk white skin, black hair. Born in California of parents from Spain. Spain and Portugal were Hispania in ancient times. Once the Spanish and Portuguese took over central and South America the term Hispanic broadened to apply to people having a relationship to Spain and Portugal, including being from a Spanish-speaking country. </p>
<p>many South American countries had up to 16 separate categories to refer to people depending on percentage of Caucasian, black or Indian (their term). You may have heard of maroons, quadroons, etc. In our country we tend to use the “one drop” approach however. </p>
<p>So yes, there are Hispanics who are almost 100% negroid and there are Hispanics who are almost 100% Caucasian.</p>
<p>Calmom-So is the jury basically told to pick which story out of many seems to be the most reasonably plausible, even if there isn’t enough evidence to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt? I’m trying to better understand exactly how the jury is instructed to make their decision.</p>
<p>Zimmerman isn’t crying during the Hannity interview, but police testimony says he was remorseful on more than one account I believe. I wouldn’t want to get emotional if I had to be on national t.v.</p>
<p>don’t believe one needs to cry in order to express or demonstrate empathy for the family or remorse. he could have said he was so sorry for the loss of life. that he never intended for such a tragedy to happen. </p>
<p>do you believe he didn’t know Trayvon died after he shot him?</p>
<p>Poetgrl, it bugs you because, like the Hannity interview, his demeanor goes to the fact that Zimmerman is clearly THAT guy in every office or group who is just to the right side of intolerably obnoxious. He has something to say about everything and always feels compelled to do what he thinks is right. And often what he thinks is right is different from what other people would think in the same situation.</p>
<p>Raiders83’ Zimmerman straight out said that he doesn’t think he should have done anything different. I can’t get past that. A normal person who took a life wouldn’t feel that way. They would tear the selves apart even if they believed they were acting in self defense. Something is not right there. But that doesn’t mean he should be found guilty under the law and I am glad that he is florida’s problem.</p>
<p>riprorin - Possibility is not the same as reasonable possibility. I recently lost luggage while on vacation. If I never get it back, I’m entitled to collect up to a certain amount of money from the airline for the contents of my suitcase. If I’m dishonest and put in for more clothing items than I actually lost, even if the airline suspects I’m exaggerating, my version of events is plausible enough that they can’t really deny the claim. On the other hand, if I claim that I brought an expensive tennis racket - on a ten day trip that covered four European cities, where I stayed at low-frills hotels that certainly didn’t have tennis courts - that’s no longer a reasonable claim (unless, of course, I were a serious competitive player who needed to train). It isn’t impossible; presumably one could, if one wished, find public tennis courts in Prague and Vienna, but I don’t think it is reasonable.</p>
<p>I’m not sure this case is so clear cut, and I don’t envy the jury. But based on everything I’ve heard and read so far, my leaning would be a conviction on manslaughter, since I don’t find Zimmerman’s self-interested account of what happened at all convincing. </p>
<p>Zoosermom - in all fairness to Zimmerman, he may have been worried that admitting that he would have done anything differently would be tantamount to an admission of legal culpability. Not smart - an articulate person would have at least said “I wish I had never left my home that night,” or something of the sort - but understandable. It is one of the reasons he should never have done the interview.</p>
<p>In all the interviews and video I have seen of Z, he never shows any anger or any other emotional overreaction. He is calm in every aspect, and he comes across as genuine in his emotion. His story has holes, but I’m talking about his demeanor. Like I said, more than one cop said he had remorse after the event.</p>
<p>In the increasingly unlikely event that riprorin isn’t just trolling, let me dumb it down:</p>
<p>“Hispanic” isn’t a race. It’s a term which describes the geographic area a person’s family comes from, like “South African” or “Scandinavian” or “Russian.” As with “South African” it can refer to people of different races; e.g. Ernie Els and Nelson Mandela, both “South African.” All it means is that the person’s family came from Latin America, which, like lots of other places, has members of various races living in it. Alberto Fujimori (former president of Peru) is an asian “hispanic.”</p>
<p>“Our president’s mother was white and his father was black. I’ve never heard him referred to as a “white black”.”</p>
<p>RIPRORIN–you are the only poster to use the term “white black”,so I guess you’re asking that question of yourself</p>
<p>if it’s not clear to you our president is mixed race, biracial. </p>
<p>seems you are trying to get this thread closed down with your debating controversial issues, and continuing to attempt to bring your politics into this. hope we can carry on in spite of you.</p>