<p>The police had a dead boy, and they didn’t try to identify him or notify his parents. If they had asked around the neighborhood, they would have discovered his identity-- his little brother must have still been in the nearby house that Trayvon was trying to return to. But the police let his body sit in the morgue.</p>
<p>That’s all the indictment of the police I need. They had a dead boy, and they didn’t try to find his parents. If he had been a dead white boy, do you think he would have been a John Doe in a morgue for two days?</p>
<p>I agree, NYMomof2. I don’t like O’Donnell, but I sit through the pomposity and watch him sometimes because he knows a lot.</p>
<p>I’m a big fan of Rachel Maddow, who is smart as a whip and hardworking as well. Did you know she was offered both a Rhodes scholarship and a Marshall scholarship?</p>
<p>I think it was 3 days, and he had a cell phone. </p>
<p>One thing I don’t understand - I’ve read that Trayvon was killed less than 100 yards from the house where he was staying with his father and brother. Apparently his family did not hear about the shooting or, presumably, they would have made the connection.</p>
<p>I like Rachel Maddow, too, Cardinal Fang. She is always courteous in interviews, asks pointed questions but allows people to answer them fully. She seems to be trying to learn, and to give people the opportunity to express their views. She covers issues in depth, and covers issues that no one else is covering. She always, always, always is extremely well-prepared.</p>
<p>I did not know about those scholarships. I did know that she has a Ph.D. in political science, and clearly she is brilliant. Before she had her own show, she was a frequent guest on MSNBC. She often used to be paired with Pat Buchanan. It was fun to watch her run mental rings around him as he sat there, baffled. </p>
<p>She has just published a book on the military. I’m looking forward to reading it.</p>
<p>That’s a totally inaccurate representation of the views of the majority of posters I’ve read on this board. What I would like, and I believe what most posters seem to be asking for, is that the authorities pursue enough of an investigation to determine what, if anything, should be done. The State of Florida did nothing. People are not calling out “lynch him” - they’re calling for a grand jury. Is this so shocking?</p>
<p>There are plenty of shootings every day in our country, black on white, white on white, white on black - and few of them, if any, give rise to comment. This one happened to have the shooter’s own testimony from the beginning, in real time, that the dead boy was just hanging around, doing nothing but looking “suspicious”. And then the boy ended up dead, and the police didn’t even try to identify him. It’s the live 911 recordings, followed by the total inaction of the authorities, that makes this a case for so many people across the spectrum of philosophies.</p>
<p>I’m not sure why you find the reaction so surprising.</p>
<p>If the Joe Oliver is to be believed, Zimmerman behaved in a responsible … no that’s not right … behaved in an ADMIRABLE fashion. He was looking out for his neighbors, and acted within the law when assaulted. Can’t say that about everyone now can we? Clearly what we need in this world is more Zimmerman-types … and less harassment of them for their heroic deeds.</p>
<p>Geeps, you will of course be able to point us to cases where a black man was discovered with a gun, having just shot a minor in a situation which he claimed was self defense, and was not arrested. Go ahead. We’ll wait.</p>
<p>I am disturbed about the lynch mob mentality that has come up with a number of cases where the press has led this sort of battle cry. There should be a way to bring up issues, firmly but fairly.</p>
<p>New hope, why would we believe Joe Oliver’s story? By his own admission, he doesn’t have any more information about the shooting than we do. His gut says his friend is innocent. So?</p>
<p>CF, I am pretty sure that NewHope’s tongue is firmly in his or her cheek. </p>
<p>I haven’t seen anything resembling a “lynch mob,” on this thread or in the protest coverage. All I see is outrage at the police/state management of this case.</p>
<p>Unreal, indeed. I can’t even imagine the mentality that would produce such a cartoon.</p>
<p>There is something that I am wondering about. There have been a number of statements, by Joe Oliver and Zimmerman’s attorney, and by Zimmerman on the 911 tapes, that there had been a number of robberies in the gated community. I have also read that these burglaries were committed by young black men. This has been offered as the reason for Zimmerman’s heightened level of suspicion. Now that I’ve seen photos and video of the community, I am wondering whether it is true that there have been crimes. First, it is a gated community, meaning that there are limited entrances and exits, perhaps guarded. This is the reason people have gated communities, to make it harder for criminals to get to their houses. Second, this community consists of rows of attached townhouses, with very little vegetation, no shrubbery around the foundations, very few trees. It is very open and stark, with mostly grass. So it is high density with nowhere for a criminal to hide or skulk around. There are almost no cars parked on the street. Wouldn’t this be an awfully hard place for criminals to operate?</p>
<p>I’m still thinkin’ Zimmerman was an overzealous, would-be good guy, who learned racism from those around him, was a friend of the local police, felt like a big man with his little gun, and is now pretty horrified by what he has done. (and given the choices…) You don’t want to know what I think of the local police and local/state officials…</p>
<p>I don’t know, CF. It has been reported many times that there had been burglaries in the neighborhood committed by black men. This is the reason Zimmerman gave for his frequent calls to 911, at least some of them specifying suspicious black men (and at least once, a suspicious black boy of age 7-9). I am wondering whether it is true that there had been robberies. If I were a criminal, this particular neighborhood is the last place I’d choose to operate.</p>
<p>Don’t know that I’d put a racist tag on Zimmerman. I suspect that if he got into a fight with an 18 year old “cracker” and was getting his *** kicked, he might well have shot that guy too. Anyone who hasn’t been in a real fight has no clue what you feel like and how you react. If there was an altercation, it might have been the first real one that Zimmerman had ever been in. </p>
<p>Having said that, there is just too little information available to the public, and what we have is being filtered through news people who misstate things. Oliver had to correct the network interviewer when he asserted that Zimmerman had been instructed not to follow Martin.</p>
<p>I haven’t read an authoritative description of the altercation or the shouting for help. For all we know, Zimmerman could have shot Martin in the back after he got off him, and then been yelling for help when he grasped what he had done. (Presumably an autopsy reveals that, but I haven’t seen a report that makes it official.) Depending on the exact physical situation, if you’re on your back you might have some serious difficulty getting to your gun, and if the guy is on top of you it’d be more likely to shoot him in the side than in the chest. But the simple point is that we don’t know…and possibly no one else does either. Martin could have given Zimmerman a pretty good whipping and then stood up to get a few last words in and been shot at that time. There is a lot to know here that is probably not going to be known.</p>