July 8, 2013

NYT prepares surprised readers for Zimmerman acquittal

Having served on a jury, I now realize I have no idea what any jury is going to do. Still, it seems hard to believe objectively that the now-rested prosecution has managed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that George Zimmerman was guilty of second degree murder in the sad, unfortunate death of Trayvon Martin.

This, however, is coming as a surprise to numerous New York Times readers, who are used to a steady diet of stories about KKK rallies at Oberlin and fiftieth anniversary articles about obscure events in the civil rights struggle. So, here's an NYT article (not "opinion" or even "analysis," just plain news) explaining that, even if the "protocols of a criminal trial" (including technicalities such as the presumption of innocence) aren't on the side of the angels, the angels are still on the side of the angels, and that's what really counts. 

And anyway, the Trayvon thing got the black vote out to re-elect Obama, so don't expect any apologies. We did what worked and we'll do it again the next time it feels necessary.
Zimmerman Case Has Race as a Backdrop, but You Won’t Hear It in Court 
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ 
SANFORD, Fla. — From the very beginning, there was no more powerful theme in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin than the issue of race.

It's not coincidental that the opening sentence reads like it was adapted from a book report on The Great Gatsby. We're talking Narrative, not trivialities like a man's guilt or innocence. The phrase "there was no more powerful theme in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin" makes sense only in the context of the media's spinning of the story, but that pregnant topic is off limits.
But in the courtroom where George Zimmerman is on trial for second-degree murder, race lingers awkwardly on the sidelines, scarcely mentioned but impossible to ignore. 
For African-Americans here and across the country, the killing of Mr. Martin, 17, black and unarmed, was resonant with a back story steeped in layers of American history and the abiding conviction that justice serves only some of the people. 

Of course, the last 50 years of high black youth crime rates are not "resonant." Who told you that you get a say in what is American history and what is not? What are you, some kind of profiler?
Had Mr. Martin shot and killed Mr. Zimmerman under similar circumstances, black leaders say, the case would have barreled down a different path: Mr. Martin would have been quickly arrested by the Sanford Police Department and charged in the killing, without the benefit of the doubt.  
Instead, there was no arrest for six weeks. And only after sharp criticism from civil rights leaders and demonstrations here and elsewhere did the Florida governor transfer the case to a special prosecutor from another county.

Let's not mention the hoopla in the national media. We just report the news, we don't have any responsibilities for making it.
“For members of the African-American community, it’s a here-we-go-again moment,” said JeffriAnne Wilder, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Florida. “We want to get away from these things, but this did not happen in a vacuum. It happened against the backdrop of all the other things that have happened before.” 
Yet inside a Seminole County courtroom, with the prosecution’s case against Mr. Zimmerman now over, race only occasionally punctuated the proceedings. The judge made it clear that statements about race would be sharply limited and the term “racial profiling” not allowed. What is more, overtly bringing up race might not have helped the prosecution. 
“There is no question that race is the 800-pound gorilla in this trial,” said Ed Shohat, a Miami lawyer who is also a member of the Miami-Dade County Community Relations Board. “But if you overplay that card either way, you lose with the jury. You have to let the jury come to its own conclusion.” 
For supporters of the Martin family, Mr. Martin’s death was part of a more complex tale of profiling and injustice. But this perception has run up against the protocols of a criminal trial and Florida’s expansive self-defense laws. These laws, critics say, give too much leeway to people who say they acted violently because they felt threatened.

In other words, under the rule of law in Florida, the state of Florida has the burden of proof to demonstrate that Zimmerman wasn't acting in self-defense, and lots of luck with that.
Defense lawyers argue that Mr. Zimmerman, 29, a neighborhood watch volunteer in his gated community in Sanford, was attacked by a visiting Mr. Martin and, fearing for his life, shot him. Prosecutors counter that Mr. Zimmerman, whose mother is Peruvian

and who looks a little black himself
, set out to confront Mr. Martin and initiated the fight that ended in Mr. Martin’s death. The charge is second-degree murder, inflicting death with spite, hatred or ill will. But no one in the courtroom is saying outright that race or racial hatred entered into the shooting.

Unlike in the media, where we said it over and over despite a lack of evidence until we forced this absurdly over-charged trial to happen.
“It’s like we are watching two different trials,” said the Rev. Al Jackson, a pastor in Richmond Heights, a predominantly black community in Miami-Dade County, expressing frustration over the case and how it is unfolding at trial. “The law doesn’t care how this started, but we do. You are punishing this boy for defending himself, even though it wasn’t his fault.” 
Even so, race made an entrance on the first day of the trial. John Guy, a prosecutor, said in opening statements that Mr. Zimmerman had “profiled” Mr. Martin and pursued him because he was suspicious of the black teenager who looked as though “he was up to no good,” as Mr. Zimmerman told the police dispatcher in a call that night. He cited Mr. Zimmerman’s apparent frustration in that call, quoting him making derogatory references to potential burglars who always seemed to “get away.” 
Race came up again when the jury heard four other phone calls to the police by Mr. Zimmerman reporting suspicious people in the neighborhood, all of them black. The fact that Mr. Zimmerman was studying criminal justice in college and seemed eager for a career in law or law enforcement rounded out the prosecution’s portrait of a would-be vigilante. 
Race arose again, in topsy-turvy manner

I mean, what could be crazier than the concept of a black racially demeaning a non-black? Has the world gone insane?
when Rachel Jeantel, 19, a young black woman who was speaking to Mr. Martin on the phone shortly before he was shot, took the stand. Mr. Martin told her during that call, Ms. Jeantel said, that Mr. Zimmerman was following him; he called him a “creepy-ass cracker." The defense team quickly jumped on the words, suggesting to the jury that Mr. Martin had profiled Mr. Zimmerman.

Seriously, note the bizarre inversion of sense, where evidence of "profiling" is the worst sin imaginable, whereas evidence of racial animus is ignored. The term "cracker" is evidence of racial animus on the part of Martin, not of profiling. But in our anti-empirical age, the worst sin is Noticing Things.

On the other hand, the term "creepy-ass" suggests anti-gay profiling on the part of Martin, but the substantial possibility that this incident had a gay-bashing aspect to it would just make poor NYT readers' head explode, so let's never mention the obvious.
In the cocoon of the courthouse, even Mr. Martin’s bullet-scarred hooded sweatshirt, positioned for jurors in a clear plastic frame, appeared less a poignant symbol for the thousands who marched in his name than a lamentable but necessary piece of evidence.

Think of the Skittles!
Still, black pastors, sociologists and community leaders said in interviews that they feared that Mr. Martin’s death would be a story of justice denied, an all-too common insult that to them places Trayvon Martin’s name next to those of Rodney King, Amadou Diallo and other black men who were abused, beaten or killed by police officers. 
“Profiling, stereotyping, the disparity in treatment of African-Americans when it comes to criminal matters, how imbalanced it all is in the eyes of African-Americans,” said the Rev. Lowman Oliver, the pastor at St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Sanford. “That’s why so many eyes are on this case. It’s nationwide and international.” 
The makeup of the jury, six women, none black, is occasionally noted. Race also framed Ms. Jeantel’s turn on the witness stand, which drew heckling online from white and black observers who mocked her demeanor. In testimony over two days, Ms. Jeantel, a high school senior and Mr. Martin’s friend, was clearly uneasy in the spotlight, at times impatient and often hard to hear or understand.
“She was mammyfied,” said Ms. Wilder, the sociology professor, expressing disappointment over the reaction. “She has this riveting testimony, then she became, overnight, the teenage mammy: for not being smart and using these racial slurs and not being the best witness. A lot of people in the African-American community came out against her.” 
In the past two weeks, defense lawyers have chipped away at the prosecution’s case, legal analysts said, raising the possibility of an acquittal. The law in Florida allows for the use of force if someone fears great bodily harm, and prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Zimmerman did not act in self-defense.

All this legal mumbo-jumbo like "beyond a reasonable doubt" that the racist crackers are using to get their good old boy off. Florida must be a racist hellhole if the government can't just go around convicting individuals of murder without meeting the burden of proof.
The twists and turns of the case — its weaknesses and legal complications — were not a factor for many supporters of the Martin family, until recently. “We thought this was an open-and-shut case,” said Mr. Jackson, the pastor in Richmond Heights. 

Probably a New York Times subscriber.
Mr. Oliver, the Sanford pastor, said he remained optimistic. “You can feel a little sense that anger is re-emerging,” he said.

Rev. Oliver is optimistic about having a good race riot if Zimmerman is acquitted?
The possibility of an acquittal has prompted community leaders, ministers and law enforcement officials in Miami and Sanford to prepare. This week in Miami, they will hold a meeting in Miami Gardens, where Mr. Martin lived, to talk about the complexity of the legal case and what has happened in the courtroom so far. They are also reaching out to young people in schools and parks and through Web sites, urging them to remain calm. 
“It is important that we still maintain peace, even though decisions are not made to our liking,” Mr. Jackson said. “That is our message, and that is what we are preaching.” 
Even the suggestion that trouble may follow an acquittal is fraught with racial overtones, particularly since much of the preparation is focused on the black community. 
But in cities like Miami, which have experienced racial unrest, the ministers and activists said it was a reasonable concern. It is better to be prepared, they say, than caught off guard. 
“Everybody wants to know the pulse of the community,” Mr. Jackson said. “It’s not an insult to ask whether we feel there will be unrest.” 
As the trial begins its third and perhaps final week, there is widespread agreement that one fact rises above all others: post-racial America, as some hoped it would be after a black man was elected president, is still a work in progress. 
“We are going to have to have a dialogue in this nation about racial matters,” Mr. Oliver said.

A "dialogue" about race is code for "Shut up and listen to your betters." But, having gotten Obama re-elected, white liberals are once again tiring of black people being less than satisfactory in their appointed roles as saints and martyrs, so the New York Times now returns to its regularly scheduled around-the-clock coverage of gay marriage.

In summary, I'm always being accused of being obsessed with questions of race. But, in reality, I just read the New York Times.

98 comments:

PropagandistHacker said...

steve wrote:
"And anyway, the Trayvon thing got the black vote out to re-elect Obama, so don't expect any apologies."
=============

Oh, puhleeze. This canard about the Trayvon media feeding frenzy being all about 'getting obama reelected' has now apparently become the consensus wisdom among the rightwing bloggers and media, I see.

It's nonsense, of course.

I don't know why you GOPers picked this particular line to promulgate. I guess it helps keep things understandable for your readers and it helps you avoid more complicated issues, issues that deal with areas you would rather deal with because those issues raise questions about the Rightwing Narrative. Yeah, there is a conservative narrative just like there is a Liberal Narrative.

Why the media feeding frenzy last year? First of all, it was reflexive and instinctive about the media. They were proving they were not racist.

But the real genesis of the media blowup was money. Surprise surprise surprise. Money paid from the HOA for the townhomes to the Martin family. I would guess that Crump (the martin family lawyer) engineered a big payday for himself by paying Jeantel a fee for her testimony, suitably molded and shaped for maximum effect. Just speculation on my part. Crump sold it to the media, it blew up, and then the HOA paid.

Extortion? I am just speculating of course.

David said...

Quite brilliant, Steve.

Average Joe said...

Has it ever been made clear why Trayvon was in Zimmerman's neighborhood when he didn't live there?

Anonymous said...

"But in our anti-empirical age..."

Every age is anti-empirical. When we're young we assume that the people in charge, from our parents on up, know what they're doing. As we grow up we slowly realize that this is rarely the case. This produces an optical illusion: to the average person the past seems less crazy than it actually was.

Before cultural Marxism there was original Marxism. And before that there was widespread religiosity. And before that even the smartest of the smart believed in ghosts and witches. And before that people cheerfully sacrificed each other to pagan Gods. All ages are overwhelmingly anti-empirical.

I'm guessing that when Steve was young, he believed in more of the surrounding craziness than he does now. Which is normal. So in retrospect that old, 1960s - 1970s craziness seems less bizarre to him now than the modern sort.

TontoBubbaGoldstein said...

You are punishing this boy for defending himself, even though it wasn’t his fault.”

"...We thought this was an open-and-shut case,”


The Reverend Al Jackson is absolutely correct. These facts have been obvious from the beginning.

Wait.....

WHAT?

Anonymous said...

Yes, last 50 yrs of black rioting, killing, looting, and etc.
I mean just look what happened over the July 4th weekend in cities like Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Miami.

It seems like the liberal MSM has something like the memory problem of the fella in MEMENTO. He can remember old stuff but cannot store and remember new stuff. So, he keeps on remembering that his wife was killed yrs ago(like it was yesterday) and goes after the killer--even after the killer has been hunted down and killed--over and over and over. But he doesn't remember all that happened between his wife's murder and himself in the present. His sense of reality comes only from mementos of notes and tattoos.

Today, the power of memento as collective memory is controlled by the global elites. So, never mind all the beatings, rapes, robberies, and killings committed by blacks 50 yrs ago, 40 yrs ago, 30 yrs ago, 20 yrs ago, 10 yrs ago, a year ago, a month ago, a week ago, a day ago, or hour ago. That memory has been blocked from our power of recollection.

Just remember that we must find the people who killed Emmett Till!!!
The mementos on our psyche blank out all the reality of black crime and just make us think of 'white supremacists' killed Emmett Till long long ago.

Just like the guy in MEMENTO is toyed with by an unscrupulous cop, we are toyed with by the MSM that plays games with the media as our collective mementos.
But the corrupt cop gets it in the end, and why? Someone else came along and toyed with the mementos.

Thus, we too must play the game of mementos and use the logic of the MSM against the MSM.

Anonymous said...

Did Trayvon Martin call Zimmerman a “creepy-ass cracker" or a "creepy ass-cracker?" The world may never know.

Anonymous said...

A+ write-up Steve. Comments so far are D-; sometimes when I think the gap between your writing and goofy commentators can't get any wider - it does.

At least some of them stayed on topic.

Art Deco said...

I do not understand the notion bruited about by Glenn Reynolds that this had some connection to B.O.'s re-election campaign either. IIRC, the incident got a throwaway remark from the President and some snooping about by the federal Department of Justice which has thus far proved inconsequential.

The article from the Times is indicative of the general mentality of vociferous liberals which manifests itself in the complete absence of ability to view the case with any degree of clarity. There are two or three questions to ask (whether GZ, given the circumstances he was in, could have a valid self-defense claim; whether any antecedent incident vis a vis Martin vitiates that claim; and which burdens of proof adhere to the state and which adhere to the defense).

Try to get a Zimmerman-hater to ask or answer any of these questions. They give you a load of piffle about what they fancy is GZ's self-concept, invent delicts out of whole cloth (racial profiling and felonious truck egress), traffick in long debunked internet memes, and fuss over inconsistencies in his verbal accounts (e.g. where his truck was parked during different segments of his call to the police dispatcher).

As for the people interviewed, they look at the world in funhouse mirrors and with broken lenses. They appear not to have a clue how to make sense of social relations and human behavior outside their immediate tangible circle. These are not random knuckleheads found in bars; one of those interviewed was a clergyman. I would wager this reporter is at least as addle-pated as anyone she interviewed and her editors not much better.

While we are at it, I will wager the real story here is a deeply corrupted prosecutor's office superintended by a sociopath around whom are attorneys manifesting the adage that water seeks its own level (see the coroner as well). Someone in Gov. Scott's office came up with the bwilliant idea that Angela Corey would be just the ticket for this task. One law professor Jeralyn Merritt quoted said Corey would be just about the least appropriate choice given the nature of the case. If she thought she could compel a guilty plea by over-charging him with a false affidavit, she was disabused and it's been in-for-a-dime-in-for-a-dollar ever since. A craven insurance company settled with Benjamin Crump, so he and his have had their pay day.

Anonymous said...

"Oh, puhleeze. This canard about the Trayvon media feeding frenzy being all about 'getting obama reelected' has now apparently become the consensus wisdom among the rightwing bloggers and media, I see."

I guess those elderly black women who tipped the election were motivated more by their feelings about US policy in Afghanistan, than by the narrative of a poor, skittles toting, "child" being killed in cold blood by an evil whitish guy, and the "there is still work to be done about race" message that followed.
I knew it didn't bode well for Romney, but I've got much better skills of perception than those dopey liberal media folks - they were just following the story the way liberals usually do, blind to its effect on the election.

Anonymous said...

Had Mr. Martin shot and killed Mr. Zimmerman under similar circumstances, black leaders say, the case would have barreled down a different path: Mr. Martin would have been quickly arrested by the Sanford Police Department and charged in the killing, without the benefit of the doubt.

Some time after the Zimmerman-Martin encounter there was a somewhat similar fatal shooting in Phoenix where this theory was put to test. A black guy shot dead an unarmed mentally disabled white guy who he mistakenly believed was wielding a lead pipe. It was seen as self-defense and he was not charged with anything. Of course, the national media paid no attention to this shooting, we don't even know the name of the shooter. See here for details.

Again from the NYT article:

Prosecutors counter that Mr. Zimmerman, whose mother is Peruvian

In postracial America, a man's non-white ancestry serves as an exculpatory factor. America is sliding into crass tribalism, but everyone must pretend that it's actually progress.

Unknown said...

"Race arose again, in topsy-turvy manner"

Jesus Christ. Who writes like this? Junior-High Great Gatsby book report, indeed.

Ichabod Crane said...

"Jesus Christ. Who writes like this? Junior-High Great Gatsby book report, indeed."

Am I right that the career of a journalist has significantly lower status than it did as recently as ten years ago? Maybe it's because journalists aren't allowed to follow wherever the story may lead as often, maybe it's because the pay and job security aren't what they used to be, but I feel we are seeing a new crop of lower-quality journalists writing major pieces for major outlets.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Zimmerman won't have to worry. Maybe tons of aerial drones will be flying over and tracking every black guy in the Hood in the near future.

blogger said...

Don't Martin's parents feel any guilt in having raised a fool?

But blacks aren't exactly the most self-reflective or self-critical people in the world.

When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

Anonymous said...

My daughter and I went to the Norman Rockwell museum in Stockbridge, MA last week. How much did his picture of the little black girl going to school with armed guards influence or reflect (probably the latter) media portrayal of white-black? I don't recall ever seeing a piece of art about white kids travails being bussed for forced integration but everyone I've ever talked to who had the experience said it was very bad.

As Matt Drudge says, the media "blockades" the news.

Anonymous said...

" the incident got a throwaway remark from the President"

"If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon," - offhand or emotionally loaded?

Anonymous said...

You're a bitter, bitter man, Steve Sailer.

Anonymous said...

Here's a "news article" from Yahoo/Business Insider by someone called Erin Fuchs that is so amazingly biased against Zimmerman that it's almost funny. She appears to find it totally unjust that you actually need evidence to convict someone as heinous as Zimmerman.

Anonymous said...

Is the Paula Deen thing about Obama's re-election?

The media are anti-white and always react the same way.


"Every age is anti-empirical."

I think there was an empirical phase during Victorian times, another in Ancient Greece, probably a few more here and there.

Harry Baldwin said...

Ann Althouse has a good critique of this column, which she describes as "execrable."


Anonymous said...

"Before cultural Marxism there was original Marxism. And before that there was widespread religiosity. And before that even the smartest of the smart believed in ghosts and witches. And before that people cheerfully sacrificed each other to pagan Gods. All ages are overwhelmingly anti-empirical."

I hate that I agree with you, you evil high IQ demon. Now I have to make up my own mumbo-jumbo to latch onto. Damn You!

Anonymous said...

“We want to get away from these things, but this did not happen in a vacuum. It happened against the backdrop of all the other things that have happened before.”

As a contrarian in these matters, I don't believe Zimmerman is off the hook yet. The white jury will be under pressure to take into account history from 1654 to the present in making their decision.

"...black pastors, sociologists and community leaders said in interviews that they feared that Mr. Martin’s death would be a story of justice denied, an all-too common insult that to them places Trayvon Martin’s name next to those of Rodney King..."

The white jury knows the potential for violent conflict after the verdict and this is telegraphed to the NYT readers by deploying the Rodney King weapon. Zimmerman is not out of the woods yet.

Anonymous said...

"I think there was an empirical phase during Victorian times, another in Ancient Greece, probably a few more here and there.".

Only among small groups of nerds, and sporadically even among them. And these nerds' impact on politics and the wider culture was actually negative. Some of their inventions (the printing press, TV) helped new kinds of non-empirical nonsense spread faster. But the empirical ethos that produced these inventions never spread outside small groups of nerds.

Anonymous said...

No matter the evidence (or lack of against GZ), it will take a brave jury to vote Not Guilty.

Nanonymous said...

My prediction: hung jury. Steve, would you like a bet?

Jefferson said...

I am sure the liberal media was not too happy when the American people finally got to see images of George Zimmerman's Brown skin Peruvian mother and uncle.

Zimmerman's uncle and mother look predominantly Amerindian in phenotype, they do not look predominantly Caucasian.

It makes it harder for the liberal media to portray George Zimmerman as an evil White guy when his uncle and mother from a phenotype standpoint look like they belong to Peru's Inca tribe.

Anonymous said...

"You're a bitter, bitter man, Steve Sailer."

Why? Is has a nice family, made decent money and lives in a really nice area of LA.

Steve Sailer said...

No, I don't bet.

How does this trial work? Can the jury bring back a lesser charge of recklessness?

ben tillman said...

My prediction: hung jury. Steve, would you like a bet?

20:1 says it's a full acquittal.

No matter the evidence (or lack of against GZ), it will take a brave jury to vote Not Guilty.

Their names are supposedly being kept secret.

Dr Van Nostrand said...

More than 25% of young black males voted for Romney.Not a large amount to be sure but much higher percentage the 2008 GOP hopeful recieved.
One would think this demographic would be the most agitated about the Trayvon fiasco and thereby be compelled to vote for Obama to droves.

Obama's reelection has less to do with any external factors such as hurricane Sandy,killing Bin Laden,Trayvon et al than GOPs succumbing to ODS the same way the Democrats fell in 2004 due to BDS.

The rage and anger over Bush post 2003 Iraq made the Democrats lose their sense of probity and good judgement and this compelled to make schoolboy errors in the campaign despite Karl Rove's very risky and vulnerable base mobilization approach to winning 2004.

I had a sickening feeling that GOP was going to lose this when I came to learn that this pompous gasbag Donald Trump gained a great deal of traction as a contender only because he talked smack about Obama like no one else had. Birth certificiate,college records ..all that crazy shit!
The utter absurdity of chasing distant phantoms when there is a warm body of his inept record in firing range!

Apologies for going a bit OT

But I have to agree with Steves opening dissection.It reads like a high school book report
Amateur hour

It reminds of the opening line frm the Washington Post(?) story on the Duke Lacrosse team case

"Race and sex were in the air"

A young John Grisham from the late 60s called and said "dude seriously thats pretty hacky!"

Anonymous said...

Just to put it out there, I can't help noticing the dog that isn't barking.

I'm not aware of any Latino group that has spoken up for Zimmerman or is speaking up for Zimmerman, despite the fact he identifies himself as Hispanic (and not white, whatever the MSM may say).

Is it because Latino lobby groups just don't defend any of their number accused of committing a crime? I ask because if Zimmerman had been black and Trayvon white, the usual suspects would be ranting about a black man being framed for murder (which, to be blunt, Zimmerman is).

Is the Latino lobby really only concerned with Hispanic celebrities and amnesty?

Bob Loblaw said...

Had Mr. Martin shot and killed Mr. Zimmerman under similar circumstances, black leaders say, the case would have barreled down a different path: Mr. Martin would have been quickly arrested by the Sanford Police Department and charged in the killing, without the benefit of the doubt.

If Martin had shot Zimmerman, it wouldn't be news because it's a dog-bites-man story.

Jefferson said...

[QUOTE]Just to put it out there, I can't help noticing the dog that isn't barking.

I'm not aware of any Latino group that has spoken up for Zimmerman or is speaking up for Zimmerman, despite the fact he identifies himself as Hispanic (and not white, whatever the MSM may say).

Is it because Latino lobby groups just don't defend any of their number accused of committing a crime? I ask because if Zimmerman had been black and Trayvon white, the usual suspects would be ranting about a black man being framed for murder (which, to be blunt, Zimmerman is).

Is the Latino lobby really only concerned with Hispanic celebrities and amnesty?[/QUOTE]

I think it has to do with the fact that George Zimmerman has a German/Jewish sounding last name.

The vast majority of Hispanics in the U.S can not relate to a Hispanic who does not have a Spanish sounding last name.

That is why you do not see Hispanics claiming Charlie Sheen for example as part Of La Raza. To most Hispanics he is just another White boy Gringo.

The only Hispanic country where a high percentage of people do not have Spanish sounding last names, is Argentina. And that is because they received way more European immigrants than our south of the border neighbor Mexico.

But Argentines make up a miniscule percentage of the overall Hispanic population in the U.S.



Dr. Φ said...

In other words, under the rule of law in Florida, the state of Florida has the burden of proof to demonstrate that Zimmerman wasn't acting in self-defense, and lots of luck with that.

This is technically incorrect. Florida's self defense laws are indeed expansive compared to other states, but even under Florida law, the state only has the burden of proof when the self-defense occurs in a defendant's home or vehicle. Otherwise, the claim is an "affirmative defense", meaning the defendant must "present evidence" that he acted in self-defense. The state's burden of proof is limited only to "overcoming" such submitted evidence, not in proving the negative. See this excellent reference..

Londoner said...

Al Jackson? Was Jesse Sharpton unavailable for comment?

Aaron Gross said...

I don't think the article is preparing surprised readers for an acquittal, so much as for the black violence following the acquittal. The violence will be because of all those themes and resonances.

Anonymous said...

I was shocked when I saw the mother and uncle. I thought they would be more European in appearance they looked like they are related to the President of Bolivia.

Truth said...

"Has it ever been made clear why Trayvon was in Zimmerman's neighborhood when he didn't live there?"

Only 4,009,874,093,465,876 times.

Something to do with HIS FATHER living there.

Truth said...

"I guess those elderly black women who tipped the election were motivated more by their feelings about US policy in Afghanistan, than by the narrative of a poor, skittles toting,..."

And exactly how many elderly women do vote for US president based upon Middle East foreign policy?

Truth said...

"Some time after the Zimmerman-Martin encounter there was a somewhat similar fatal shooting in Phoenix where this theory was put to test. A black guy shot dead an unarmed mentally disabled white guy who he mistakenly believed was wielding a lead pipe. It was seen as self-defense and he was not charged with anything."

Wrong again, oh great God of imbecility! Cordell Jude was indicted on 2nd degree murder charges and has been in jail for a year awaiting trial.

http://www.maricopacountyattorney.org/newsroom/news-releases/2012/2012-07-27-Cordell-Jude-Indicted-for-Murder.html

He shot a mentally retarded man who started pounding on his passenger's side window, the same passenger's side in which his 9-month pregnant girlfriend was sitting, and had seen the man's dog leash thinking it was a stick.

And just for argument's sake, both John H. White and Trevor Dooley were convicted; White for shooting a boy in front of his house, who had come with a gang of friends to beat his son, and Dooley, for killing a man 30 years his junior in an argument who had reached for his (Dooley's) gun. They were 57 and 72 years old, and neither had ever served a day in jail.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/nyregion/24commute.html?_r=0

http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/civil/trevor-dooley-sentenced-to-8-years-for-manslaughter/1270967

Truth said...

"The whole meme that I pick up is that a living, walking god, an avatar on the face of this earth, who blessed us by his mere presence and thus whose life is valued by his cultists at the price of approximately 1 million prole lives, was slain and martyred by an evil minded troll monster who lived in a cave. The troll killed him because he himself was not an avatar and could never be one...."

Oh yeah, that's the meme I get too...oh wait, no it isn't you're just a dumbass:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57571444-504083/joliet-murders-update-suspects-had-sex-on-top-of-corpses-report-says/

Anonymous said...

Like Steve, I am curious as to whether a lesser charge, like manslaughter, is available to the jury. If so, that might be a win-win situation. Zimmerman gets off on the more serious charge, but gets convicted of a charge nonetheless, thus curbing the potential for rioting. My gut feeling is that the prosecution went all-or-nothing for Murder 2, which would not be surprising given the incompetence at every step.

AMac said...

Anonymous (7/8/13, 5:50 PM), thanks for your insights beginning "Every age is anti-empirical."

More cynicism on Mr Sailer's part may be justified, but I doubt it would improve his writing.

Art Deco (7/8/13, 6:27 PM), your remarks made for a good read, as well.

On this morning's CBS This Morning infotainment, the Kent Brockman facsimile anchorman noted that recent developments in the Zimmerman trial have left him "more confused." CBS's legal eagle concurred on the mystifying nature of this highly complex case, then insightfully implied that the defense is striving to bewilder the jury, since "confusion is its friend."

Amazingly, blogger Lion was able to construct a brief Narrative that is consistent with the facts as known, in and out of court. Kudos to him -- that's not far short of rocket surgery!

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't be surprised if there are riots even if Zimmerman is found guilty.

I believe he will be found guilty, even though I don't believe Z is guilty of murder and that this is by far one of the weakest, sloppiest murder cases I have ever seen.

Anonymous said...

Just read a blip online that the county prosecutor was indicted for
falsifying records to get Zimmer- man charged, Have not verified this yet.

Camlost said...

Cordell Jude was the name of the shooter in the Phoenix case:

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2012/07/cordell_jude_charged_for_april_murder.php

Camlost said...

More than 25% of young black males voted for Romney.Not a large amount to be sure but much higher percentage the 2008 GOP hopeful recieved.

Huh?

Maybe that was counterbalanced by 132% of black females voting for Obama. (thus placing Obama's overall share of the black vote at 96%)

DCS said...

Of course if George Zimmerman were black and shot Trayvon under the exact same circumstances, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Just another of hundreds of black on black murders that go unreported by the NYT every year. Because it's dog-bites-man.

Anonymous said...

The funny thing about this case is that if riots break out the Zimmerman case will have reaffirmed your right to defend yourself against black thuggery. Should be interesting.

Anonymous said...

"You Americans with your due process and fair trials...This is always so much easier in Mexico."

-The New York Times

or the devil on the Simpsons, either way.

Mr. Anon said...

"Aaron Gross said...

I don't think the article is preparing surprised readers for an acquittal, so much as for the black violence following the acquittal. The violence will be because of all those themes and resonances."

Quite possibly true. I wonder how it will play though nowadays. I sense that whites are far less disposed to excuse displays of black outrage than there were in 1992. We have plenty enough outrage of our own.

Anonymous said...

Everyone is better prepared for violent reprisal from the black community this time. They might have limited success out in Michigan using twitter to "organize" violent flash mobs, but here in NY the mob will get put down hard. They have no community backing from other races, and actually attack them in turn. Korean shop owners and Pakistani food cart guys honestly don't give two shits about the case and will side against them. Of course the NYT will frame it as well deserved black rage but we all jnie the truth.

Kurt said...

The black community overwhelmingly thinks that Trayvon Martin was justified in attacking George Zimmerman for following him around. I have also read many comments from blacks who think that Zimmerman was in the wrong for shooting Martin because he was losing their "fight," as if a vicious one-sided attack is considered a fight.

Blacks are upset because "keeping it real" is their way of life and think they should be allowed to violently beat "creepy ass crackers." However, this is a case of "when keeping it real goes wrong" and Zimmerman was able to defend himself. It seems obvious to anyone who isn't black or a far-left liberal that this entire incident could have been avoided if Martin had simply behaved like a civilized human being instead of as a violent thug.

smead jolley said...

On the other hand, the term "creepy-ass" suggests anti-gay profiling

No, it doesn't. Upper middle-class whites are (justifiably) ignorant of most black street culture. Blacks will append "ass" to nearly any utterance. For example, a few months ago in S.F. I heard a black woman telling someone about a friend who'd been fired: "and that was a good-ass job!" This article is correct in its take overall, but still.

Steve Sailer said...

Sure, but consider the different implications of "creepy ass" versus the common "crazy ass." The latter would suggest a propensity toward violence in Zimmerman, while the former strikes me as implying homosexuality.

Evil Sandmich said...

For members of the African-American community, it’s a here-we-go-again moment

I wouldn't exclude blacks from that feeling.

As far as blacks rioting in such instances, I may have mentioned in the past the curious case in Cleveland of Damon Wells:
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2012/04/man_who_shot_teen_five_years_a.html

I'll summerize: six years ago a guy with a concealed carry permit, Damon Wells, shot and killed a black youth who was trying to rob him. After the prosecutor found for self-defense and refused to press charges, the youth's family and a supportive mob menaced outside of Damon's house, broke the windows, etc. Poor Damon, to this day, still lives in semi-hiding somewhere in the Cleveland area. Oh yeah, and Damon is black.

The fact that Zimmerman is white-ish just made the supportive mob that much bigger.

Svigor said...

Don't Martin's parents feel any guilt in having raised a fool?

Gotta give his old man credit. He testified that the voice screaming for help wasn't his son, when the partisan thing to do would have been to try and lynch Zim, regardless of the truth.

" the incident got a throwaway remark from the President"

"If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon," - offhand or emotionally loaded?


Yeah, not seeing how that's "offhand," coming from the Obamessiah.

"Has it ever been made clear why Trayvon was in Zimmerman's neighborhood when he didn't live there?"

Only 4,009,874,093,465,876 times.


Yeah, only 10^10th times behind how many times we've had to explain how many ways the "po-po told him no-no" thing is wrong.

My gut feeling is that the prosecution went all-or-nothing for Murder 2, which would not be surprising given the incompetence at every step.

In this case, I don't think it's easier to attribute the proceedings to incompetence than to malfeasance.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are riots even if Zimmerman is found guilty.

I wouldn't be surprised if any riots that ensue are less than whelming. All the anticipation has really drained the spontaneity from the prospect. Riots on a schedule - they're so...Korean.

The funny thing about this case is that if riots break out the Zimmerman case will have reaffirmed your right to defend yourself against black thuggery. Should be interesting.

I don't understand what riots breaking out have to do with it. Care to explain?

I have also read many comments from blacks who think that Zimmerman was in the wrong for shooting Martin because he was losing their "fight," as if a vicious one-sided attack is considered a fight.

There's a pretty strong "nigga shouldn'ta brought a knife to a gunfight"/law of the jungle mentality among blacks, so I find these comments amusing.

while the former strikes me as implying homosexuality

Right. As I think was established with Jenteal's testimony, it basically means "pervert," so, in this context, it means "homo stalker."

TontoBubbaGoldstein said...

Being from tha dirty Souf (SC....yeah, I know), I think you are giving Travon's vocabulary way too much cedit.

Crazy ass....
Creepy ass......
Dumbass.....
Fatass.....
Etc.

Crackah ass crackah is perfectly acceptable 'roun heyah.

Anonymous said...

"In summary, I'm always being accused of being obsessed with questions of race. But, in reality, I just read the New York Times."

Touché.

TontoBubbaGoldstein said...

Sammich,
Damon was actin' white by having a CCP.

Pat Boyle said...

Sad and unfortunate?

Trayvon Martin was a high school drop out. He had gang connections, drug use, and a history of assault. He was headed for the Big House not Harvard.

The population cohort with the highest incidence of murder is black male 17-18.

Martin was the poster child for black thug. He had a gun apparently. There was an excellent chance that he would kill someone himself in the next few years.

Zimmerman inadvertently prevented all that.

When I was in the Army they rewarded stockade guards who shot escaping prisoners with more favorable assignments. That led to a lot of trigger happy guards at the brig. So I don't favor rewarding those who shoot the bad guys. But on the other hand Zimmerman did do fine thing and the world is better off now.

We seem to be approaching the point where we will have to place black teen males without a job in preventative prevention. Unemployed black males are too predictably dangerous to wait for them to be convicted of their first felony.

Albertosaurus

Anonymous said...

"Post-racial America, as some hoped it would be after a black man was elected president, is still a work in progress."

Has there ever existed a proposition more criminally stupid and reckless than the assertion that a democracy increasingly consisting of discrete racial, ethnic, and religious communities will be "post-racial"?

And has there ever existed a more unlikely possibility than the chance that the NYT types will ever apologize for pushing such an absurd doctrine on the country?

incredulous said...

"I'll summerize: six years ago a guy with a concealed carry permit, Damon Wells, shot and killed a black youth who was trying to rob him. After the prosecutor found for self-defense and refused to press charges, the youth's family and a supportive mob menaced outside of Damon's house, broke the windows, etc. Poor Damon, to this day, still lives in semi-hiding somewhere in the Cleveland area. Oh yeah, and Damon is black.

The fact that Zimmerman is white-ish just made the supportive mob that much bigger."

A friend of mine is a lawyer/psychologist,wife is a social worker (they are PR and Jewish.) The PR husband is fairly white-ish. They were doing their Saturday thing by trying to sell trinkets in a large flea market in Baltimore when a black guy maybe early 30s greeted the man warmly. Turns out the black guy had just done several years for shooting a home invader, also black. The lawyer tried to defend the black homeowner but the guy was put in jail. I can't figure it out--nobody should do jail time for defending themselves from invaders who are likely to kill and who started the whole problem situation. The injustice is mind-boggling and does also get blacks who defend themselves from other blacks.
I suspect that jurors and judge for the above-mentioned home-defender were also black.

Jefferson said...

[QUOTE]I was shocked when I saw the mother and uncle. I thought they would be more European in appearance they looked like they are related to the President of Bolivia.[/QUOTE]

Were you expecting George Zimmerman's Peruvian mother to look like the White blonde haired and blue eyed Brazilian Gisele Bundchen ?

I am not surprised at all that George Zimmerman's Peruvian family looks like the typical Brown skin Hispanics that you see in Los Angeles selling oranges on the sidewalk.

If George Zimmerman's Peruvian family looked White, George himself would look White as well. But he does not.

George Zimmerman certainly did not get his Nonwhite look from the German American side of his family.

d said...

"Why the media feeding frenzy last year? First of all, it was reflexive and instinctive about the media."

With a little help from Al Sharpton. These things don't just happen.

I don't know why the Reverend Al no longer hangs out in Brooklyn.

I suspect Bloomie has paid him to stay away.

Let him be another city's pain in the ass.

js said...

Very much a Steve Story.

I was wondering what became of Tyrone Woodfork, the African-American who committed a sordid and banal home invasion, during which he raped and murdered an elderly woman.

The DA has declined to pursue the death penalty because of Woodfork's "mental limitations."

I don't blame the DA; given all the intrusive Federal laws and the system, putting this scum away for the rest of his life is probably the better use of his limited resources than trying for a capitol case in the age of Holder.

Legacy of slavery, ya know?

http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/local_news/tyrone-woodfork-district-attorney-not-pursuing-death-penalty-in-bob-and-nancy-strait-attack-case

Anonymous said...

Svigor,

My comment is a quip about how blacks rioting over a case reaffirming the right to defend against 'keeping it real' is likely to end up with a lot dead blacks because they felt they had to 'keep it real' and got shot for it trying to emulate Saint Trayvon of the Skittles.

Truth said...

"Don't Martin's parents feel any guilt in having raised a fool?"

Do yours?

Anonymous said...

"Has there ever existed a proposition more criminally stupid and reckless than the assertion that a democracy increasingly consisting of discrete racial, ethnic, and religious communities will be "post-racial"?"


The aim is to implicitly reinforce the idea that only white people are capable of racism so it's consciously evil rather than stupid.

.

"But for some obsucre reason the Trayvon/Zimmerman case has been elevated..."

Not obscure. The media decide what people see as important and the media is relentlessly anti-White.

.

"I'm not aware of any Latino group that has spoken up for Zimmerman or is speaking up for Zimmerman, despite the fact he identifies himself as Hispanic (and not white, whatever the MSM may say)."

Media say he's White.

.

"Here's a "news article" ... by someone called Erin Fuchs that is so amazingly biased against Zimmerman that it's almost funny. She appears to find it totally unjust that you actually need evidence to convict someone as heinous as Zimmerman."

Someone as almost-white as Zimmerman.

.

empiricism

"But the empirical ethos that produced these inventions never spread outside small groups of nerds."

Total nonsense.

The interesting thing is how even very brief periods of empiricism can produce such huge levered effects centuries or even millenia afterwards.

Steve Sailer said...

I don't think Trayvon was 100% doomed to grow up to be a jailbird thug. I'd guess he had a least a 50% chance of pulling out and flying right. If he'd been 14 and had the same record, yeah, he's doomed. At 17, though, he was still playing around at the edges of thug life, didn't yet have a criminal record, didn't seem to belong to any kind of serious gang, his father was still in his life, and so forth. I could imagine a future for him not that different than Zimmerman's, who had some police trouble in early adulthood. Of course, Trayvon could have gone very bad, too.

Anonymous said...

"I don't think Trayvon was 100% doomed to grow up to be a jailbird thug"

ditto

No way an actual gangsta is going to ring a *girl* because he's scared a gay man is following him.

He'd be too worried she'd tell someone.

Cello Allan said...

This is such a ridiculous case. But these days, the Constitution and Bill or rights are toilet paper if they go against the Narrative, so I actually would be surprised if Mr. Zimmerman gets a fair verdict.

Freedon Nadd said...

" Steve Sailer said...

Sure, but consider the different implications of "creepy ass" versus the common "crazy ass." The latter would suggest a propensity toward violence in Zimmerman, while the former strikes me as implying homosexuality."


Exactly. Along the same lines as 'strange' or 'queer'. Like why is this guy checking me out right now, late at night. He's got something bad on his mind, maybe even to rob me?

Anonymous said...

Regarding the recent home invasion where the mother was beaten & thrown down a flight of stairs, although she wasn't murdered she was beaten to a pulp in front of her 3 year old daughter; in the forthcoming trial will we see the same "concern" by the NYT? Shouldn't that be of real interest to the Nice White Ladies that Whiskey refers to? If not, why not?

Average Joe said...

Something to do with HIS FATHER living there

If he was in the area to visit his father then why didn't he just go to his father's house instead of lurking around suspiciously the way he did?

Anonymous said...

"And exactly how many elderly women do vote for US president based upon Middle East foreign policy?"

None, but plenty of black old ladies will turn out to vote if it confirms their delusion that their kids' criminality is a response to white racism, instead of acknowledging that the source is their DNA. It must be tough to admit that you're a breeder of crime.

Truth said...

"I don't think Trayvon was 100% doomed to grow up to be a jailbird thug."

No Steve you're wrong, any 16 year old who smokes weed and gets into a couple of fistfights, and is spooked by a grown man following him around at night is automatically going to be a lifer.

Truth said...

"If he was in the area to visit his father then why didn't he just go to his father's house instead of lurking around suspiciously the way he did?"

He was "lurking around" on the path from a 7-11 to his father's house.

Anonymous said...

Sure, all races have their necrophiliacs.

But some defend theirs:
She said: 'I don’t think my son’s guilty. He’s my womb child and I’m going to stand and pray for my seed.
The paper said she admitted her son took pictures of himself having sex with women, adding she had told him he shouldn’t do because 'it’s nasty.'
When speaking about the video authorities say they have of Pierce having sex with a possibly lifeless body, she questioned whether the woman was alive or just sleeping.
Mrs Pierce said: 'Hear the truth, world, we’re dealing with an injustice. Hear the truth.'


Yes, Hear the TRUTH!

Anonymous said...

Shouldn't that be of real interest to the Nice White Ladies that Whiskey refers to? If not, why not?
Nice White Ladies are racist! Had the victim been the correct demographic they would care.

Svigor said...

He was "lurking around" on the path from a 7-11 to his father's house.

I don't think he was on his way to his father's house. At least, not once he found something more interesting to do. If he was, he failed miserably.

Svigor said...

Jack, thanks for the explanation.

dahinda said...

"white liberals are once again tiring of black people being less than satisfactory in their appointed roles as saints and martyrs"
A black college professor told me once: "All questions of race that are discussed in the public realm in this country involve two groups of white people yelling at each other. The minority in question is just held up as a prop."

Silver said...

It's just as well racial diversity is such an enormous strength. If it weren't, America might have a real problem on its hands.

Evil Sandmich said...

Turns out the black guy had just done several years for shooting a home invader, also black.

Before passing the 'castle law' in Ohio, it was only (strictly) legal to shoot a home invader if you had retreated to the furthest room in your house and had locked the door and the invaders were breaking into the room. Otherwise there was a presumption of guilt. It would not amaze me if Maryland has similar insanity ont their books.

Svigor said...

Sorry, his father's girlfriend's house. Everything I've heard suggests she was the one paying the rent, with her name on the lease.

Truth said...

"But some defend theirs:"
I Have bad news for you, Sport; if your mother wouldn't irrationally take your side should you get in trouble, you're adopted.


Truth said...

" he failed miserably."

I see a lot of "calculated" and "possible" on those maps you linked; you're familiar with those terms, right?

Truth said...

"Sorry, his father's girlfriend's house. Everything I've heard suggests she was the one paying the rent, with her name on the lease."

And taken as truth, this has what to do with anything whatsoever? Oh, nothing, that's right.

Average Joe said...

He was "lurking around" on the path from a 7-11 to his father's house

If he was just traveling between his father's house and the 7-11 then I don't think that Zimmerman would have taken an interest in him. He must have been behaving in a manner that made Zimmerman suspect that he was up to no good.

Truth said...

"He must have been behaving in a manner that made Zimmerman suspect that he was up to no good."

Zimmerman is an ex-con, Martin wasn't, maybe the other guy was up to no good?

Average Joe said...

And taken as truth, this has what to do with anything whatsoever? Oh, nothing, that's right.

Well there is an old saying that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. In other words, if Trayvon's father was a bit suspect then his son probably was as well.

Anonymous said...

"I Have bad news for you, Sport; if your mother wouldn't irrationally take your side should you get in trouble, you're adopted."

If I were her child, discovering that I wasn't her womb-baby would bring me great solace.

I'm sure this lady wishes her son was never born. Her crazy comments are not love, they are self image defense.

Svigor said...

And taken as truth, this has what to do with anything whatsoever? Oh, nothing, that's right.

Facts have their own relevance.

I see a lot of "calculated" and "possible" on those maps you linked; you're familiar with those terms, right?

You're familiar with the concept of "time," right? As in, it doesn't take that long to walk home when it's a hundred feet away? The map's just a helpful guide, the conclusion is foregone.

I Have bad news for you, Sport; if your mother wouldn't irrationally take your side should you get in trouble, you're adopted.

Just saw an episode of The First 48 where a black mother coerced her son to confess his murder to police, right there in cop central. She didn't seem so much interested in his physical well-being, as moral and spiritual.

Zimmerman is an ex-con, Martin wasn't, maybe the other guy was up to no good?

Even the Devil can quote scripture to serve his purposes.

Svigor said...

My mistake, it was the scene of the shooting that was close by, not Martin's GF's house. But we still know from the length and nature of Zimmerman's call that Martin had time to make it home, if that's what he'd wanted to do. We can be confident escaping Zimmerman wasn't what Martin had in mind, anyway. Even if he was lost, he had plenty of avenues of escape.

Anonymous said...

https://www.facebook.com/kingogondo?fref=ts

Weirdo but interesting libertarian freak. Don't have to be friends with him to see his timeline but must sign into facebook.

Average Joe said...

Zimmerman is an ex-con, Martin wasn't, maybe the other guy was up to no good?

Zimmerman was older than Trayvon. If Trayvon had lived a few years longer I am sure that he would have had a criminal record as well.