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Taking the whole thing into account, taking as given America's history of racial tension, thus taking as given the practical inevitability of "racial profiling" I think the root cause of Trayvon Martin's death was that George Zimmerman was allowed to carry a pistol.
Racial profiling works both ways, I don't believe that Zimmerman would have ever dared get out of his car and accost a young, black male in a hoody even to comment the weather or to ask for a light, if he hadn't been armed.
The more racist he was, the more frightened he would have been and the less willing he would have been to approach Martin. Without a gun he would have waited, safely locked in his car, for the police to arrive.
So for me it is clear: letting people carry pistols in the street caused the death of Trayvon Martin as it is the cause of death of thousands of Americans, of every possible color, every year. DS
PS: If you wanted to make a really cynical reading of Trayvon Martin’s death, think what it would have been like if “Zimmerman”, who is Hispanic, had been named “Sánchez”. None of it would probably have made the national press. Zimmerman sounds white and the whole story is of a white man killing a young black man. Latino kills black is not news.
6 comments:
Your statement is clear.
The statistics in my state in the Midwest, however, show that since they changed the law to "must issue" (that is, they county sheriff must issue a permit to anyone who is legally qualified or not legally disqualified), there is been no increase at all in gun-related crime or violence. In fact, the opposite.
Is it possible that the young teenager is question is dead because he attacked someone who he was beating to a bloody pulp?
You do make an interesting point: if Zimmerman had been afraid enough of Martin, he would have cowered in his car.
That's the future we should "aim" for (no pun intended): one where everyone cowers in fear, waiting for the gestapo to arrive to set thins right.
No, I think the police are the only ones who should be allowed to carry sidearms... amateurs please abstain.
Yes, better to cower in fear of upsetting the sensibilities of very real armed, self-appointed vigilantes rather than an imaginary gestapo every time one ventures out in public. "The young teenager in question" is dead because a man who had decided to make "the young teenager in question"'s business his own for his own reasons used a gun instead of his fists when things went south. The fact that an armed civilian can intervene in another's life for his own invented reasons and leave that person dead by gunshot after being instructed by the police department responder to not pursue and be absolved of any responsibility for the death his choice resulted in is curious. The second amendment appears to be the gravitational center of America. In order for the country to remain sanguine (pun intended) everyone needs to be armed.
On another note, Obama has a bright future as a stand-up comic if he can state with a straight face that we are a nation of laws when the NSA and all the state secrecy protecting it from any accountability or real oversight, terror Tuesdays, the Disposition Matrix, targeted assassinations, the prosecution of whistleblowers while members of his administration lie to Congress with total immunity are all in the news at the same time.
Yes. Exactly, David. There were all sorts of overtones and a gazillion contributing causes, but, in the end, it's about guns. Everything else is a distraction.
Yes. Exactly, David. There were all sorts of overtones and a gazillion contributing causes, but, in the end, it's about guns. Everything else is a distraction.
Publius is basically defending the gun cult in his comment, above. A black kid in a hoody goes by. How is it "cowering" for Zimmerman to wait in his car, or to call the police. The cult confers upon it's true believers the sense of empowerment and invincibility. It's likely that the only reason Martin assaulted Zimmerman was his vain attempt to save his own life from death at the hands of a man with a gun. Publius also entirely buys the O'Mara argument for the Zimmerman defense, which hyperfocuses on the last seconds of what was in fact an event of several minutes, wherein an unarmed black teenager was stalked and then killed by a man with a pistol. Seaton is exactly right--the Martin tragedy is one of thousands crying out for better fire arms regulation. The cultists, together with the weapons industry, will have none of it. This is self-serving delusion, and it rules our country right now.
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