Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Racial Justice / Post-racial America / And, If There Was Any Way for the Day to Get Worse

Reader Interactions

435Comments

  3. 3.

    Plantsmantx

    It just means that if you’re black, you aren’t and never have been an American. That’s alright. We needed to know that

  6. 6.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    But this wasn’t about race, not at all. If the roles were reversed we all know that Trayvon also would have been found not guilty.

    /vomit

    Zimmerman just got away with stalking and murdering an innocent person, all because he didn’t like the way he looked.

    Justice is supposed to be blind, not the jury.

  7. 7.

    KXB

    After OJ, I did not follow these trial of the centuries too closely. I’d read the writeups in the papers, because I did not want to hear constant yapping by experts talking matters to death. I thought they would not get the 2nd degree murder charge, but that Zimmerman walked on manslaughter is equal parts surprising/not suprising, and damn depressing.

  9. 9.

    Unabogie

    Honestly I don’t understand how anyone could think this was a justified murder. That they didn’t even vote for manslaughter when the ENTIRE FUCKING THING WAS HIS DOING, is just sickening.

    Fuck George Zimmerman. And especially fuck the Sanford police who sucked each other’s dicks instead of investigating the killing of a minor. And fuck the whole lot of those “neighbors” who testified how nice and meek Zimmerman is.

    Fucking incest committing, child murdering, cop assaulting, piece of shit.

  11. 11.

    Jeff Spender

    I’ve been avoiding this trial because, I think, deep down I knew this would be the outcome. Logically, I don’t understand the verdict. Older man stalks kid, kid dies—seems pretty straightforward.

    Emotionally I am a mess. This activates so many schemata and I’m really trying to my best to dissociate the emotional reasoning from being level-headed.

    And it isn’t working.

  13. 13.

    Teddy's Person

    My heart goes out to Trayvon Martin’s family. As for me, stop the world I want to get off now.

  14. 14.

    PsiFighter37

    Just another excuse to get trashed. I think we can blame Obama for everything and just be done with it. One good cathartic suitshow.

    PF37 +who’s counting yet

  19. 19.

    lahke

    @Plantsmantx:
    Or Asian (vide all those Japanese exchange students shot in the south). Or any other way different enough for a scared guy to bring out his equalizer to protect his Amurrican way of life.
    Because this really is a license to kill.

  20. 20.

    donnah

    Jesus. This day is a total disaster. I almost threw up when they read the verdict.

    Jesus.

  21. 21.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    As Alice Cooper said: “All I need is a holocaust to make my day complete.”

    Going to bed before it becomes self-fulfilling.

    Again, sorry John.

  22. 22.

    Tone in DC

    Reverend Al just mentioned that DoJ already suspended their investigation into this murder (I’ll call it what it is). That just leaves a civil suit for wrongful death.

    Not even manslaughter. I cannot take this shit.

  23. 23.

    Amir Khalid

    And we have the gloating of that charming fellow with the ampersand in his nym to look forward to.

  24. 24.

    Jay C

    One major question that came up chez nous wrt this verdict:

    What The F*ck is wrong with this country?

    And no easy (or, for that matter ANY) answers……

    Shit.

  25. 25.

    The Dangerman

    I’m appalled but, sadly, not surprised; has nothing to do with White/Black or Florida, but rather reasonable doubt. It appears the jury bought into that last Forensic MD’s (De Mayo?) account of the affairs sufficiently to get reasonable doubt on self-defense. It sounded like a crock to me, but I’m biased.

    Like OJ, Zimmerman will get reamed in the Civil Suit sure to follow. He may get on the NRA gravy train, but every dime will be going to the Martin family.

  27. 27.

    dance around in your bones

    Truly a crummy-ass day. I always figured he’d get acquitted because, well, Florida and the race factor and the bugshit crazies down there.

    Two shocking RIPs in one day on Balloon Juice plus – RIP Trayvon. Hope Zimmerman gets shunned but figure he’ll be glorified by the gun nuts. What a world.

  28. 28.

    ruemara

    Jesus Christ. I posted about this and someone had the gall to compare it to Caylee Anthony. Fucking whitesplaining bullshit and she’s smarter than this.

  30. 30.

    JWL

    Lincoln was wrong. Those in blue who fought were wrong.

    Fuck Florida, Floridians, and fuck the South. Let the assholes secede. If Southern states refuse, cut them out, as with a cancer.

  31. 31.

    YellowJournalism

    I don’t blame the jury much on this one. The burden of proof was on the prosecution and, unfortunately, they didn’t meet it. The questions regarding the credibility of Zimmerman’s story were not enough to legally convict him of 2nd degree murder, and I bet we’ll hear that it was stretching to get to manslaughter. If they had convicted, the appeals process would have been hellish, too.

    Zimmerman will not have much of a life after this, but it is still more than an innocent kid gets in the end. Fuck Florida.

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    I wasn’t going to drink today, but fuck it. The confirmation about General Stuck, the horrible news about Tunch, and now this miscarriage of justice. Fuck this day.

  35. 35.

    Redshirt

    Betty Cracker is a white women in Florida, and she’s great.

    Is there any explanation for this verdict? What the rationale was?

  37. 37.

    Spaghetti Lee

    Wonderful. So you can apparently stalk and kill someone you think looks suspicious and suffer no legal punishment. I was optimistic at the start, but as soon as the chatter turned to how Rachel Jeantel sure done talked funny hurr-hurr I sort of felt it deep down, despite hoping that justice could still win out.

    I guess I can see, logically, why the jury would shy away from second degree murder. But not even a fucking manslaughter charge?

  43. 43.

    rikyrah

    Elon James White ‏@elonjames 5m
    Next time you hear someone ask “Why do you have to be “black?” why can’t you just be American?” remember this moment.

  45. 45.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Trayvon Martin found guilty.

    That’s exactly it, as if we’re all surprised six white women in Florida would come up with any other verdict. It’s a shandah.

  46. 46.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Redshirt:

    Is there any explanation for this verdict? What the rationale was?

    It’s my understanding the prosecution was criminally incompetent.

  47. 47.

    Steeplejack

    Fox News broke into the baseball game to cover this. Their commenters are unbelievable. Sean Hannity: “a classic case of self-defense.” Greta Van Susteren equally odious. I had to turn it off.

  48. 48.

    NickT

    Some days I am ashamed to be white. I am going to say this – the more I see this kind of blatant injustice, the more determined I am to do my bit in making America a better place where all are treated equally. I want to see the corrupt politicians and lawyers who rig the system against justice exposed and removed from any and all power or privilege. I want to see a country where it isn’t a crime to be young and black and armed with candy. Time to put our shoulders to the wheel and move things forward so that the bitter, twisted, old, white racists lose their last scraps of power and a better day dawns for all of us.

  50. 50.

    rikyrah

    Gary Owen ‏@garyowencomedy 21s
    Plaxico Burress shot himself, Mike Vick killed some dogs, both went to jail. Zimmerman no jail time.

  51. 51.

    Jeff Spender

    “but as soon as the chatter turned to how Rachel Jeantel sure done talked funny hurr-hurr I sort of felt it deep down”

    This is what really did it for me. I had to hold my tongue when talking about this to my family because they were, essentially, repeating the inane babble of the assholes on TV.

    Cue misanthropic comments.

  52. 52.

    Jeanne

    Fuck this day indeed. Between the news about Gen Stuck (I always enjoyed his comments), the horrible and horribly sad news about Tunch and now this, what a shitshow of a day.

    /back to lurking. And crying.

  54. 54.

    raven

    @Redshirt: From many quarters it seemed like the prosecution did a lousy job. They were part and parcel of the selection of the jury so I need someone to explain to me how THEY could construct this group?

  55. 55.

    JoyceH

    Well, this old white lady thought Zimmerman was guilty as all crap. I’m stunned he got away with it. And yeah, he’s gonna jump on the wingnut gravy train and make money off it, I’d bet on that.

  56. 56.

    trollhattan

    @Betty Cracker:

    Can you please work up either a picture or capsule sculpture of Tunchie heading to kitty heaven passing Zimmerman heading to hell?

    Gawd, what a day.

  57. 57.

    FlyingToaster

    I want fucking passport controls between Florida and the rest of humanity. Jeebus!

    It really sucks since I have no choice about my annual trip southwards (my mom lives outside Ft. Myers, and otherwise she and WarriorGirl will never see each other). They’re getting some of my money (mostly fees for the rental car and hotel, plus the bridge toll to Sanibel), because the logistics of shipping a dozen juice and milk boxes to FL are just not worth thinking about.

    Please, please let them file for secession. I’m sick of being dragged down by their fucking third-world antics.

  58. 58.

    The Dangerman

    @Cacti:

    Right.

    So sorry, but the verdict doesn’t appear to be a White/Black thing.

    The crime? Absolutely!

    The verdict? No. Again, he wasn’t found innocent, he was found not guilty. That’s the way reasonable doubt works and appears to have worked in this trial. It sucks, but don’t inflame it more than it is.

  59. 59.

    NickT

    @JoyceH:

    It’ll be interesting in a vomiting with disgust kind of way to watch the GOP decide whether he’s now officially white, or whether he’s more useful as a conservative Hispanic.

  60. 60.

    Tone in DC

    I don ‘t damn well care at this point how juvenile this comment sounds.

    Fuck “reasonable doubt” in this case. Sideways with a chainsaw.
    Fuck all these people changing their damn stories.
    Fuck ignorant people in and outside the courtroom, who should know better but do not.

    And yes, fuck Florida. Thought I had it bad walking and driving through Virginia.

  61. 61.

    Linda

    Because we’re all surprised six white women in Florida would come up with any other verdict.

    My cousin is a white (Republican) woman in Florida, and she is shocked, too.

  62. 62.

    Howard Beale IV

    Here’s hoping that Florida gets hammered by hurricanes and gets flooded out by global warming.

  63. 63.

    Cacti

    I hate injustice, but I expected nothing less.

    I truly hoped I’d be wrong.

    Trayvon Martin was found guilty of walking while black through George Zimmerman’s neighborhood. The penalty for this crime in the State of Florida is death.

  64. 64.

    Baud

    I’m glad so many people thought he would walk. It would be so much worse if people thought it would be a slam dunk guilty verdict.

  65. 65.

    Gex

    The fact that he consistently used the plural when talking about a single person apparently means nothing. The fact that he consistently judged Martin not based on him as a person or what he was actually doing, but based on what Zimmerman perceives to be how “they” always get away with whatever he imagines them getting away with in no way means that Martin was killed primarily for being black. Oh no. That’s just a weird quirk about how Zimmerman speaks about some people, always in the plural. But only for some people. And those people all just happen to be black.

    Fuck everything.

  66. 66.

    TS

    So walking while black is a crime in Florida – guess the idea is to move along all those blacks who want the right to be an American living in Florida.

  67. 67.

    bg

    Open season on black kids here in fla
    These fucking assholes they always get away with it like the slave patrols before the civil war

  68. 68.

    Cacti

    @The Dangerman:

    but the verdict doesn’t appear to be a White/Black thing.

    Uh huh.

    Completely unpredictable that an all white jury would acquit the shooter of a scary black teen.

  69. 69.

    DH

    First of all, Mr. Cole you have my deepest sympathy for the loss of Tunch. I was stunned when I saw the headline a few minutes ago.

    As for the verdict, 2 thoughts:

    Fuck Chief Justice Roberts on his vote on the Voting Rights Act.

    Can’t the Old Southern White Bigots Die already? I know that is not nice, but it’s how I feel right now.

  71. 71.

    cckids

    Because he was “armed” with the sidewalk. According to that logic, all of us are walking around armed every day. Jesus wept.

  72. 72.

    The Dangerman

    @Cacti:

    Completely unpredictable that an all white jury would acquit the shooter of a scary black teen.

    You do realize it wasn’t an all-white jury, right? Just checking.

  73. 73.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    The family should first get their pound of flesh first from the Sanford PD, they fucked the investigation, in the beginning.

  74. 74.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Linda: I know that was painting with a broad brush, But the in the Sanford area I think it’s true. Hell the town itself used to be a white enclave, and integration has not gone smoothly, to say the least.

  75. 75.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Cacti:

    Completely unpredictable that an all white jury would acquit the shooter of a scary black teen.

    We should be grateful they didn’t request Trayvon be dug up and executed properly for his crime.

  77. 77.

    NickT

    @Cacti:

    And let’s remember why the NRA and their little GOP buddies in Washington are so keen to have the appalling gun laws we do – that very much is about white property owners and the dangerous black hordes – and has been since this country was founded.

  78. 78.

    PsiFighter37

    Jesus Christ what a shitty verdict. Bet that asshole Rick Scott is masturbating furiously as a result.

  79. 79.

    Linda Featheringill

    This is ridiculous.

    I would have accepted a manslaughter charge, even though I would have voted for murder. Acquittal?

  80. 80.

    Mothra1

    OK, everyone told me this is what would happen, but I really thought that the jury would give Zimmerman what he deserved, instead of letting him walk around free.

  81. 81.

    TS

    @raven:

    From many quarters it seemed like the prosecution did a lousy job. They were part and parcel of the selection of the jury so I need someone to explain to me how THEY could construct this group?

    Every black person in the jury pool truthfully stated that they knew about the case. Those remaining were presumably removed by the defense (despite they are NOT allowed to do that, based on race). Most men in the pool had the hardship excuse, so what was left – white housewives & retirees.

    Made no difference – Most of Florida believes Zimmerman had every right to kill a black thug.

  82. 82.

    rikyrah

    Nerdy Wonka @NerdyWonka

    The jury in Florida just announced to the world that in America, it is perfectly okay by them to kill innocent young black men.
    9:04 PM – 13 Jul 2013

  84. 84.

    Elizabelle

    Who was following who?

    That’s the rub.

    How could that jury be so goddamned stupid?

  85. 85.

    Spaghetti Lee

    I hope Zimmerman never goes a day, not a day, for the rest of his stinking life, without people staring him down and reminding him of what he did. He is a murderer. An unconvicted murderer, but a murderer nonetheless. He killed a teenager. He stalked and killed an unarmed teenager. He should have to remember that every day of his life.

  86. 86.

    Southern Beale

    I am shocked and saddened but not in the least bit surprised. It’s why I’ve stayed out of Florida for over 10 years. Very fucked up people, fucked up laws, fucked up place. Stay away.

  87. 87.

    A Ghost To Most

    Man, what a day. I actually accepted a job offer this morning, and now I’m thinking, given the rest of the day’s events, that it will turn out to be a disaster.

    I hope George Z. spends the rest of his miserable life looking over his shoulder.

  89. 89.

    Soonergrunt

    I’m sure glad that Chief Justice Roberts explained to us all how there’s no more racism in America when he overturned the VRA, because otherwise this verdict would be really disturbing.

  91. 91.

    Mnemosyne

    I knew there was a reason G and I didn’t leave the house today. Fuck.

    And it looks like this really was the white people’s version of the OJ trial: they found a guilty man not guilty out of racial solidarity.

  92. 92.

    Comrade Dread

    God damn it.

    If I were a black man in Florida, I’d be looking to move ASAP before some jackhole felt ‘threatened’ because I was packing Skittles.

    Because we all know if a black man was carrying and felt ‘threatened’ by said jackhole, Stand Your Ground would not apply.

  96. 96.

    Cacti

    The jury has essentially admitted that they would have pulled the trigger on young Trayvon too.

  99. 99.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @Southern Beale:

    Check the Blaze or Fox. You’ll find hundreds. Me, I don’t understand why anyone would go within a mile of right-wing shitholes in the wake of news like this.

  101. 101.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    Someone on Facebook’s comment went “At least they got the verdict right.” I could tell what channel she watched, not that I expected the outcome to be any different.

  102. 102.

    PhoenixRising

    BRB.

    Running to Joann Fabrics before they close for the big-ass pinking shears.

    Because my child cannot leave this house in a hoodie again.

  103. 103.

    Kay

    @Steeplejack:

    Interesting how the media personalities usually ooze phony sentimentality and concern towards “the kids” with the glaring and jarring exception of this particular teenager, isn’t it?

  104. 104.

    Dennis G.

    What an intensely fucked-up day. If the fucking meteor is next, I won’t be surprised.

  105. 105.

    Jim C

    I find it fascinating that Angela Corey couldn’t stop smiling during the press conference. The defense attorneys certainly aren’t.

  106. 106.

    jenn

    I don’t understand. I will never understand. What a bloody miscarriage of justice. I just do not see why Trayvon could be stalked and attacked, and not be allowed to stand HIS ground. But it’s the crowning touch on why I will never go to Florida – I know there are fantastic folks down there (Betty Cracker as an awesome example), but the idea that I can be stalked and killed with impunity ….

  107. 107.

    ChrisNYC

    I’m appalled. I thought it would be manslaughter … because I think it was manslaughter.

    One thing, tho, is that I think this did change or open up or focus a lot of minds. It did for me; made me see in whole different way young black (mostly) men and what they’ve been saddled with by our history, by our culture. And the obscene amount of constraint that goes with that, which is just ignored by our country’s supposed defenders of liberty. I knew that, intellectually, sure, but it’s much much much more present to me now. Since most things I think are utterly common, I imagine this is true for others as well.

  108. 108.

    Gex

    And my brother in law wonders why I won’t visit him in Florida. Maybe the brown, female, gay, atheist aspects of me don’t relish going to a state where you can legally murder people you don’t like because the white people there think people that are different in any way count as threatening, and feeling threatened is the main justification in our increasingly rising count of “justifiable” homicides in this country thanks to SYG laws like the one in play here.

    How about this, BIL. YOU do the work to have your buddies and the people they elect make it so murdering people you don’t like the look of isn’t legal. Then we can MAYBE reconsider.

  110. 110.

    PsiFighter37

    I still fail to see, given all the circumstantial evidence (let alone what happened at the scene), how the fuck this asshole gets off scott-free. He fucking called in to the police wetting himself over the fact there was a non-white kid in a hoodie walking around the neighborhood!!! It’s clear Zimmerman instigated whatever exchange followed.

    Fucking a.

  111. 111.

    scav

    Florida: jumping in to the frenzy to carve even deeper in stone the well-earned reputation of the ‘Mercan South.

    But, in a larger sense, we can not damn, we can not de-consecrate, we can not further profane that blood-soaked ground. The local jurors, official and abetters, who approved this act, have reaffirmed it and the principles behind it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here, what priciples they chose to embrace and worship.

  112. 112.

    WaynersT

    My only hope is his parents seem pretty together – and may be able to turn this into a real movement getting the ALEC/NRA lawmakers voted out and some gun laws voted in.

  115. 115.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I think the last time there was a day this sucky for me was November 2, 2004. This is worse, actually. Stuck, Tunch, Zimmerman. Suck suck suck.

  116. 116.

    eemom

    @michelle:

    NO APOLOGIES
    Finally got your thread after waiting how many minutes?

    How very comforting that, in the midst of triple layered tragedy, we’ve got obscure assholes like you to show up and lecture us about OT.

    Go jerk off with that sick fuck in the last thread talking about “humanely euthanized.”

  117. 117.

    AxelFoley

    @YellowJournalism:

    I don’t blame the jury much on this one.

    BULLSHIT. I blame the jury. Them six bitches had all the evidence and still voted to acquit a child murderer. Fuck them, fuck Zimmerman, fuck Zimmerman’s family and lawyers, and fuck my home state of Florida.

  118. 118.

    Elizabelle

    I wonder if enough of us could stay the fuck out of Florida to make them take notice?

    Hit them in their pocketbooks.

  120. 120.

    mai naem

    Unfortunately I’ve listened to Smerconish talk about this trial quite a bit so I kind of expecting this, although, this AM when they asked about manslaughter I thought they might get him on manslaughter. Smerc. did say they’d get him in a civil suit. This POS with a 1.6 GPA or whatever is now going to on the wingnut gravy train and he’ll probably set up the proceeds in a way that the Martin family won’t get it even in a civil suit. You damn well know if the roles were reversed with just the colors being changed, Trayvon would be in prison already and facing the death penalty. This country will never get beyond the color issue.

  121. 121.

    raven

    @michelle:Who the fuck do you think you are? I don’t give one fuck what you think about what I post and when. You have a problem take it up with the blog owner.

  122. 122.

    Sandy M

    @NickT: This – exactly. I agree totally. I am a middle aged white lady and I am just appalled at this verdict. Sadly, I am not shocked, but I am really disgusted that they couldn’t even return a manslaughter verdict. A young black man gets stalked and killed and the killer gets away with it. I cannot imagine how it feels to be Trayvon’s family tonight. RIP Trayvon. RIP Tunch.

  123. 123.

    Southern Beale

    One of the most intelligent things on Twitter related to the case was this:

    Think about this case the next time you get called for jury duty and try to get out of it. It’s our duty to serve.

    Jury duty and voting are two of the most important things citizens can do. Don’t forget it.

  125. 125.

    Cacti

    Well, at least we only have one toolbox on the thread so far who insists race had nothing to do with the verdict.

  126. 126.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Gex: I had a big Florida vacation-cum-volunteer/work trip scheduled for next November. Probably would have dropped a cool $1,500-2,000 in the state, easy. So sorry, America’s limp dick, you won’t be getting a penny from me. Canceling all my reservations.

  128. 128.

    Liquid

    To steal from the other thread —

    “WORST. TIMING. EVER.

    Seriously, I wrote a eulogy for Tunch and now it’s right back to you-know-what. Fuck that, I’m on Steam and sucking down the vodka. There’s been enough pain today.”

  129. 129.

    KmCO

    American justice is a joke. This country is rotten to the core in some ways. I’m sorry we’ve failed you, Trayvon.

  130. 130.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:
    I feel the same way, but don’t really want to.

    I’m speechless though, about this verdict. I expected it but all the reasons that I did make me want to vomit. I served my country in the military during a war. I didn’t have to shoot at anyone, nor did I get shot at. But I was hoping that my service meant something, that in some very, very small way I could help make this a better place. How fucking wrong can one person be?

  131. 131.

    PeakVT

    Hard to believe Zimmerdouche didn’t get manslaughter. I mean, what the fuck?

    What.The.Fuck?

  132. 132.

    dm

    Over at the Great Orange Satan it’s been pointed out that we have ALEC to thank for this verdict.

    Like Mother Jones said, “Don’t mourn. Organize.” There are lots of perfectly decent people in Florida, and these Stand Your Ground laws are present in a lot of states.

    Time to win our civilization back.

  135. 135.

    Hal

    I still can’t get over the fact that if this asshole had just stayed the fuck home none of this would have happened. Idiot wannabe cop.

    Zimmermann you look terrible for a 29 yo.

  136. 136.

    YellowJournalism

    @AxelFoley: At this time, we have no idea why they went with “not guilty.” (Not the same as innocent.)

    But totally agree on the fuck Zimmerman and his asshole lawyers. The press conference is making steam come out of my ears and tears well in mu eyes to know the Martin family has to hear it. Don West is an insensitive pig.

  137. 137.

    Keith

    Now all the people who were pissed off when OJ got acquitted will surely be glad when Zimmerman gets hit with a civil suit.

  139. 139.

    James E. Powell

    I can’t get too wound up hearing the verdict. Like Cole, it’s the verdict I expected. I have no idea what it looked like from the perspective of the women sitting on the jury. From my spot on the left coast, it looked like a typical case of massive mass media coverage makes anything like a trial impossible.

    My only theory – whatever they thought of him or what he did, they didn’t want to send him to prison.

  140. 140.

    Elizabelle

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Do it, do it, do it. And then write to the Sanford paper, and to any other Florida paper you like, telling them of the money you will not be spending to help Florida’s economy.

    I think you have to hit these assholes in their pockets, right next to their guns.

    Their god is Mammon, it’s not mercy or justice.

  141. 141.

    mai naem

    @WaynersT: I doubt it. The Newtown people with their mostly rich lily white little kids murdered haven’t gotten anywhere. You seriously think that a black couple with an older black teenage son shot by a guy who got off scott free is going to change anything? You’re dreaming.

  142. 142.

    Cacti

    @KmCO:

    American justice is a joke. This country is rotten to the core in some ways. I’m sorry we’ve failed you, Trayvon.

    Institutionalized white supremacy is the original sin of our republic, and one that we never made amends for…regardless of the opinion of certain Supreme Court Justices.

  143. 143.

    TS

    @raven:

    I guess that was too late for a change of venue at that point?

    The judge was satisfied that they had enough people through the basic issues (they selected 40) to get a jury. This was the one selected. The prosecution – as you say – was terrible. I watched the jury selection & the first day or so – then I just couldn’t handle the “poor George did no wrong” and only went back to see the foregone conclusion that “walking while black is a crime in Florida”

  147. 147.

    trollhattan

    I certainly hope special timmeh is on time out right now, his Nelson Muntz moment.

  149. 149.

    cckids

    @Southern Beale: all of them. none of them will feel any compunction to be “appropriate” or even human.

    A tweet I read last night says it all: ” only in America can a black kid get killed, then tried for his own murder.”

  151. 151.

    michelle

    @raven: The blog owner is currently grieving, but put up a post about this so you and Elizabelle and whoever else can vent. You, however, could have been more SENSITIVE to that, but fuck that unless it involves you and your mate and your problems. Which are more important than anything, including JOHN FUCKING COLE LOSING TUNCH.

    But yeah, your being able to comment on this verdict tops Tunch.

    Asshole.

  152. 152.

    eemom

    @AxelFoley:

    Fuck them, fuck Zimmerman, fuck Zimmerman’s family and lawyers, and fuck my home state of Florida.

    Don’t forget, fuck the gun-worshipping piece of shit nation wherein “laws” like this one are allowed to exist.

  153. 153.

    TS

    @dm:

    Like Mother Jones said, “Don’t mourn. Organize.” There are lots of perfectly decent people in Florida, and these Stand Your Ground laws are present in a lot of states.

    This was NOT a stand your ground case – the defense was “self defense”. The black kid attacked George Zimmerman and the latter was simply defending himself when he shot Trayvon dead.

  154. 154.

    Donut

    The one and only thing I can take comfort in is that George Zimmerman will be repaid for killing Trayvon Martin. Not in the way many of us wanted, but karma will take care of that bastard.

    I feel so awful for Trayvon’s parents and family. They deserve so much better than this.

    As others have also said, I may not be a fancy law talking guy, but Trayvon’s death was no accident, so it seems to me it was manslaughter at the very least. He had every right to confront Zimmerman and tell him to back off. Zimmerman didn’t have the right to end that confrontation with a bullet. So fucked up.

  156. 156.

    raven

    A reporter is asking how it O’Mara felt when the jury thanked him for explaining the law.

  160. 160.

    Cacti

    @YellowJournalism:

    Fuck you, O’Mara. He wouldn’t have been arrested if he was black?!

    O’Mara is right, but not for the reason he thinks.

    If Zimmerman was black, Sanford PD would have shot him on sight if they saw him standing over a dead body.

  161. 161.

    Ben

    Verdicts like this is why I’m planning on moving back to Florida and working on turning it blue. Fuck boycotts; let’s make it a better place to live for all Floridians, not just old white people.

  162. 162.

    Just Another Face In The Crowd

    I’m sure the governor is way out in front of it… “Welcome to the Sunshine State. We now have Non-resident 7 day conceal/carry permits available at any of our Welcome Stations. Have more fun, carry a gun. Enjoy your stay!”

  163. 163.

    A Ghost To Most

    @scav:

    But, in a larger sense, we can not damn, we can not de-consecrate, we can not further profane that blood-soaked ground. The local jurors, official and abetters, who approved this act, have reaffirmed it and the principles behind it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here, what priciples they chose to embrace and worship

    Lincoln would approve, I’m thinking.

  164. 164.

    michelle

    @eemom: When a culture values property over life, this is what you get.

    That the GOP is a party of life is a joke. It’s only some lives and property and profit are valued more.

  165. 165.

    mai naem

    I hope Floriduh gets a massive hurricane and takes out the defense scumballs, Zimmerman, his asshole racist POS brother, the white male witness on the stand who essentially insisted that Trayvon was the aggressor and the idiot security trainer mind reader expert witness. And,oh, yeah Limbaugh,Rubio, Scott and Jebbie Bush. And hopefully the whole lot are at some NRA conference in the panhandle.

  166. 166.

    lamh35

    @keithboykin 2m
    Mark O’Mara: Things would have been different if George Zimmerman was black because he never would have been charged with a crime.

  169. 169.

    cckids

    @TS: Ok, FOAD. The evidence presented at trial showed the only “self defense” was in Zimmerman’s mind. Mostly after he’d shot Martin. He lied, lied, lied, lied; got caught at it & the jury just let it go. How do they look their kids in the eye?

  170. 170.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    Greta Van Susteren and the (black!) anchor were moaning about what a tough job the jurors had, what a tremendous sacrifice they had made, what disruption they had suffered in their lives, and then they went on to “Where does George Zimmerman go from here? How does he put his life back together?” All in knitted-brow concern. No mention of Trayvon Martin at all. It was nauseating.

  171. 171.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @michelle: Jesus. Give it a fucking rest, will you? Why are you insiting on picking a fight with raven over something obnoxious you said in the thread below? He can hold his own with tougher than you, but some of the rest of us are getting sick of it.

  173. 173.

    Donut

    Do any of you fancy law talking types think Martin’s parents have a reasonable chance of pursuing a wrongful death claim against Zimmerman?

  175. 175.

    dance around in your bones

    It’s quite literally sickening to watch the two defense lawyers crowing about their “win” on MSNBC so I turned it off. They’re yucking it up like it’s all so funny and aren’t we great for helping Zimmerman get away with killing an innocent kid.

    The prosecutor (who talked first to the press) was PISSED.

  178. 178.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Poopyman: Given that FEMA spiked the Texas town’s request that got blown to kingdom come with that fertilizer explosion, there’s a sliver of hope that private industry will make it cost-prohibitive to underwrite insurance down there. And if parts of Florida go underwater in the next 20-40 years, let the citizens of Florida deal with it. They made their bed, they get to sleep in it.

  180. 180.

    rikyrah

    @Cacti:

    If Zimmerman was black, Sanford PD would have shot him on sight if they saw him standing over a dead body.

    using that he was ‘ resisting arrest’.

  181. 181.

    Cacti

    @Donut:

    Do any of you fancy law talking types think Martin’s parents have a reasonable chance of pursuing a wrongful death claim against Zimmerman?

    Probably.

    But a wrongful death civil judgment is cold fucking comfort when your child’s murderer will never spend a day behind bars.

  183. 183.

    jenn

    @michelle: Good lord, who are you, and who elected you blog police? You’ve spent a whole lot more comments hectoring than did the posts by elizabelle & raven that got you started. Its a triply shitty day for some of us, maybe you can back off a little bit.

  185. 185.

    cokane

    shocking that the manslaughter charge was not met in the jury’s mind. :[

    People here shouldnt get so worked up about this. It sucks, but injustices far exceeding this have passed during the course of the trial. Voting rights act weakened, House basically trying to cut all food stamp funding.

    Also Florida is a really big, really diverse state. Kind of half-witted to make judgments about it or Floridians based on the events of one trial.

  186. 186.

    michelle

    @raven: But you had to change the subject even though you had another thread to comment on.

    Keep crying about how badly I have treated you and that other person whothinks you add something here.

    Go take care of you business.

  187. 187.

    TS

    @rikyrah:

    MirandaObot: The hate for black people is boiling over. We are being punished for daring to want to breathe

    You are being punished because the country had the temerity to elect a black President.

  188. 188.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Donut: Fuck if I know. I figured on manslaughter in this trial. I obviously have no sense whatsoever of how a Florida jury functions.

    @michelle: Yeah, just drop it. It is huge fucking news, and it is worth a brief interruption of the Tunch threads to mention it.

  189. 189.

    Cacti

    @cokane:

    but injustices far exceeding this have passed during the course of the trial

    And toolbox #3 weighs in.

    Mighty white of ya.

  190. 190.

    Howard Beale IV

    @raven: Ya better pray that yer not on a fixed IP-it would be trivial to block yer posts if you were.

  191. 191.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @SiubhanDuinne: I would love to see Black Athletes do a one day strike in Florida, refusing to play. Or a movement of HS athletes refusing to play for Florida colleges. Or something like what John Carlos and Tommie Smith did at the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City. Hell if Florida considers Travon Martin was expendable is not LeBron James?

  192. 192.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    I just peeked in at Twitter. I have never felt as misanthropic as I do right now.

  194. 194.

    p.a.

    @dm: Wasn’t it Joe Hill who said that? Anyone remember the talk of an Arizona boycott for voting down the MLK holiday? Was there one? If so, was it effective?

  197. 197.

    Ruckus

    @Angela:
    I think you left off an adjective that starts with as….

    She wasn’t by the way, she just doesn’t know when it is appropriate to shut the fuck up.

  198. 198.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Donut: The Feds might make a civil rights case against Zimmerman, but whether or not the DOJ decides to do it is an open question.

    Given the fact that the USDOJ is more concerned with the status quo and persecuting whistelsblowers that prosecuting those who caused the great recession, I have my doubts.

  199. 199.

    Cacti

    Now Don West can go have a victory ice cream (vanilla of course), with his bleach blonde daughter, to celebrate helping a killer walk.

    God Bless America

  202. 202.

    The Dangerman

    @Cacti:

    …when your child’s murderer will never spend a day behind bars.

    Instead, he gets to go through life looking over his shoulder; I would prefer behind bars. Smug fucker will get on the RW gravy train, but his life is well ruined. Not exactly a good consolation prize, but I’ll take what I can get.

  203. 203.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @cokane:

    Also Florida is a really big, really diverse state. Kind of half-witted to make judgments about it or Floridians based on the events of one trial.

    I kind of agree, and I also don’t like all the white people this, white people that as if we all supported Zimmerman. But also, I think, come on. Let people rage. This is worth raging about. We can let it out tonight and find a better way to respond tomorrow.

  204. 204.

    Suzanne

    John, I am worried about you getting monstrously fucked up tonight. Please be careful. Don’t be alone.

  206. 206.

    Cacti

    @p.a.:

    Wasn’t it Joe Hill who said that? Anyone remember the talk of an Arizona boycott for voting down the MLK holiday? Was there one? If so, was it effective?

    The NFL removed Phoenix as Super Bowl host city. That’s what got AZ to change its tune.

  207. 207.

    Donut

    @Cacti:

    True, but that seems to be just about the only way they will get any measure of justice, at this point. Zimmerman can be made to pay for his actions financially, for the rest of his godforsaken life, if the potential judgement is substantial enough.

  211. 211.

    Cacti

    @The Dangerman:

    Instead, he gets to go through life looking over his shoulder; I would prefer behind bars

    Congrats, you’ve pulled into the lead in the thread toolbox race.

  212. 212.

    Suzanne

    @The Dangerman: Maybe he can go live under the same rock as Casey Anthony.

    Note to FSM: If you were looking for a place to send the next asteroid, might I suggest that as a possible location?

  215. 215.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @michelle: you complained in the other thread about people making off-topic comments, and now you’re doing your level best to derail this thread. Right.

  216. 216.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @michelle: Thanks, but I already know how to deal with self-appointed self-righteous moral cops. Bless your heart.

  217. 217.

    A Ghost To Most

    @The Dangerman:

    Instead, he gets to go through life looking over his shoulder; I would prefer behind bars. Smug fucker will get on the RW gravy train, but his life is well ruined. Not exactly a good consolation prize, but I’ll take what I can get.

    Perhaps, one day, George Z. will look over his shoulder, and Retribution will be looking back at him, wearing a hoodie.

  218. 218.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Southern Beale: And that’s why I’m a big fan of jury nullification. Perhaps that’s one reason why I’ve never been called to server on a jury….

  219. 219.

    TS

    @cckids:

    Ok, FOAD. The evidence presented at trial showed the only “self defense” was in Zimmerman’s mind. Mostly after he’d shot Martin. He lied, lied, lied, lied; got caught at it & the jury just let it go. How do they look their kids in the eye?

    I’m sorry my reply didn’t read as I meant – I agree entirely with what you said here – I was trying to explain that in Florida you don’t even need the SYG legislation to kill folks for the crime of being black. Zimmerman’s lawyers had an inkling that SYG wouldn’t work – hence they went for the alternative.

  220. 220.

    Kay

    @Steeplejack:

    It is. They’re ghouls.

    I’ll remember this the next time they go into high-fake-concern for “kids”

    Except this kid, right ghouls? This one spent 2 fucking weeks getting trashed in that room while they babbled on about George Zimmerman’s weight gain.

    It is just unbearable to me that Martin was silent, while we heard thousands of words from George Zimmerman. That seems brutally unfair to me.

  221. 221.

    The Dangerman

    @Cacti:

    Congrats, you’ve pulled into the lead in the thread toolbox race.

    Hey, I’m not the one spamming the thread with claims of an all-white jury, which is demonstrably false (read: better a tool than a fucking idiot).

    ETA: To think I almost agreed with you about the Sanford PD; they are the ones most culpable in this fuckup. The jury, which was my initial point, not so much.

  222. 222.

    dewzke

    This is horseshit. You follow/chase a a kid and then kill him. Fact. I’d fight for my life against mr underoos. This sucks.

  223. 223.

    MomSense

    I should have known better than to turn on the teevee–first thing I see is that fucking defense lawyer lecturing the press about how they judged Zimmerman and unfairly portrayed him as a monster.

    He is a fucking monster. He judged, stalked, and murdered a child walking home from the store with candy and iced tea. He was in his own neighborhood.

    Trayvon deserved better in life and in death. I pray that his family will get some support and comfort because I can’t imagine the hell that they are enduring.

  224. 224.

    michelle

    Come on everyone please: Elizabelle and raven wanted to be the first to post about the verdict so they tried to high jack the post about Tunch and John even though he put up this post minutes later.

    You guys jumping on me for them jumping on a heartfelt post like that is just shameful.

    Yeah you all know how to pie me and Anne Laurie can ban me but what the fuck? We go through the day with John and it is terrible and then you all can’t wait a few minutes for him to post? After what he has gone through? And you attack me as a scold and say don’t apologize?

    WTF?

  225. 225.

    Donut

    @michelle:

    Whatever moral superiority you thought you had is long gone by now, stupid. You’re just being an asshole troll now.

    Cole did not have a problem with the comment that so deeply hurt your delicate fee-fees in the Tunch thread.

    Maybe you ought to take a cue from the guy whose fucking cat died and just let it go.

  226. 226.

    Cacti

    @The Dangerman:

    Hey, I’m not the one spamming the thread with claims of an all-white jury, which is demonstrably false (read: better a tool than a fucking idiot).

    Verdict had nothing to do with race.

    Having to look over your shoulder is worse than prison.

    Have you ever spent a moment of your natural life outside of Stepford suburbia?

  228. 228.

    handsmile

    Motherfucking Christ! Right now, I’ve got nothing but anger and disgust.

    Tomorrow I’ll think about how to respond more constructively.

    Melissa Harris-Perry should be unmissable tomorrow morning (MSNBC 10:00am EST). I couldn’t watch television news now for anything.

    @rikyrah: Your comments throughout this thread have been ferociously righteous and simply brilliant! “Emmett Till 2013” Fucking exactly. Thanks!

  231. 231.

    HRA

    You said it, John “What a day”
    I could not go through all of the comments on Tunch, Stuck and here.
    I just wish I could find the post about the dishwasher overflowing and Tunch coming to you with suds all over his face. It is a classic.
    Stuck was one of a kind when I found this blog a few years back. I had to look for his comments even if I did not care for the subject. He often came across a bit grouchy but I suspected it was a ruse all along.
    G followed this trial closely. Although I knew it would end this way, I am disappointed.

  232. 232.

    max

    I did not watch the trial because that’s cable TV news and I like my brain, so I hadn’t realized the police chief got up there and said, ‘I believe him’ about Zimmerman. I’m sure that’s what did the trick with the jury, because it’s all about reasonable doubt, and the cops always say the defendant did it.

    I also expect Zimmerman to get up on TV or something somewhere eventually and basically admit that he did it (as in stalked and shot him).

    @Nicole: Dear July 13, 2013: you suck. Please have improved by next year.

    A guy goes to buy some auto parts and take a nap and all hell breaks loose. I’m sorry, John. Dunno what to say. I lost my oldish (13) dachshund Zoe yesterday. She started panting occasionally over the last month or so, but was otherwise fine. And then Thursday she started panting in the morning and could not stop. Took her to the vet yesterday morning, and they got her in an oxygen tent and did the X-rays – lymphatic cancer up around her neck and around her heart (which was blocking her airway), so much so they could see if she had heart damage. Her lungs were full of fluid. They wanted to put her down, they took her out of the tent about three hours after she got there when her mommy arrived and she just collapsed and was gone. (Dachshunds will whine food, but they won’t whine about pain, at all.)

    Zoe’s sister (who belongs to my ex-) died about two months ago. Also cancer.

    max
    [‘Crappy week.’]

  233. 233.

    NickT

    @michelle:

    Where did they teach you to talk like that, in some Panama City “Sailor wanna hump-hump” bar, or is it getaway day and your last shot at his whiskey? Sell crazy someplace else, we’re all stocked up here.

  236. 236.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    From what I remember of history, African Americans had enjoyed some progress in the late 19th and early 20th centuries until whites had decided they had moved far enough away from the Civil War to start repressing them. They removed a lot of the advances, such as playing in the majors and being elected to offices.

    A number of whites, from John Roberts through Fox News and some southerners (I live in Texas, so I know it’s not all of them), have decided we are now far enough away from the excesses seen in the 50s to start restricting minority rights.

    SYG, like so many laws, is an indirect way of continuing to give whites power over blacks (see the way the decisions in SYG have played out by race). This decision is really about whites continuing their power, because SYG sets the reasonable doubt bar so high that it is almost unclearable, if the defendant is white that is.

    But so many white women – once again not all – have bought into this, which has allowed white men to start taking power away from white women as well.

    Unlike the early 1900s, it will be our job, those of us whites who see all of this, to join with everyone to and prevent this lurch backwards from being permanent.

  238. 238.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Omnes Omnibus: That’s best left to Cole. It’s his place, after all. I’m just pointing out a reality of most internet subscribers (save those who use TOR.)

  239. 239.

    The Dangerman

    @Cacti:

    Have you ever spent a moment of your natural life outside of Stepford suburbia?

    I don’t exactly know what “Stepford suburbia” is supposed to mean, but given that I’ve spent many years as a homeless man sleeping in my car (at 6′ 7″, it sucks), I’ll guess the answer to your question is “yes”.

  240. 240.

    michelle

    @raven: You couldn’t wait for the topic to change from Tunch to the verdict.

    You showed that in the last thread and this.

    Wanker don’t apologize.

  244. 244.

    Kathleen

    @rikyrah: Rikyrah: It does indeed appear that is the truth. But if MLK could believe in the long arc of justice, I think the least I can do for my part is trust as much as he did. I am white. Many other white people feel like I do. I don’t know if that is any comfort. I can understand if it does not offer you comfort. Prayers to you.

  245. 245.

    Keith

    I guess this means that CNN will now spend the next 2 weeks alternating between analyzing the verdict and running specials about the case. What a shit channel.

  247. 247.

    scav

    michelle seems to be doing her level best to turn poor Tunch’s death into a white person’s problem that trumps all other considerations and topics — while simultaneously carrying on here troing to drown out this massive topic in her assertations of aggreeive superiority in tenderness. masterpiece in passive agressive bs. That’s a two-fer in crass manipulation of two sad events (one nationally, one locally important) for personal self-aggrandizement

  250. 250.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @eemom: I now feel bad about my rant at that asshole because (the second) comment I answered got deleted. It (his) was reply to yours was worse than the first, actually. I almost told him to DIAF, but not quite.

  251. 251.

    Kay

    @MomSense:

    I think you’d have to ask yourself, seeing this, if it were your kid, if it’s worth it.

    You know the kid isn’t there to defend himself and the structure of self defense is such that they’re going to be trying the victim on whatever the shooter alleges.

    I don’t know if I could stand it. It played out as just an additional.punch in the
    gut for those people. They lost their son twice.

  252. 252.

    Spaghetti Lee

    Just heard some fireworks. For once I actually hope it’s people drunkenly turning ‘4th of July’ into ‘Month of July’ and not a celebration…

  253. 253.

    NickT

    @raven:

    T & H obviously got banned again. I’ve managed to scare him so he doesn’t respond to me, which is another tell for michelle not so belle.

  254. 254.

    TCG

    Every now and then you get a reminder of just how much this country hates black people. No wonder we (black people) all have high blood pressure.

  257. 257.

    The Dangerman

    @lojasmo:

    1 of 8 is nonwhite. Congratulations on your pedantry.

    I’ll take congratulations on being correct. Incorrectly claiming an all-white jury only inflames an inflammable situation.

    As for the jury makeup, it sounds like shit to me to have it be overwhelmingly white, but that’s on the prosecution.

    ETA: …and the judge, I suppose. I thought she presided fairly, but the jury makeup IS a problem that shouldn’t have occurred.

  258. 258.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Howard Beale IV: raven wasn’t trolling. He suggested that someone did not need to apologize for bringing up the Zimmerman verdict in one of the Tunch threads. I was wondering why you thought that might be ban worthy.

  260. 260.

    Howard Beale IV

    @raven: No-not at all-but your posts will cement in many BJ’ers mind whether you’re a crank or not. Right now, in my view, it’s the former.

  263. 263.

    Cacti

    @Kathleen:

    But if MLK could believe in the long arc of justice, I think the least I can do for my part is trust as much as he did.

    MLK wasn’t the only voice for civil rights in that era, and some of the others didn’t exactly favor a non-violent approach to social justice. Events like this verdict tend to reinforce the belief that working within the system is a fool’s errand, as the system is rigged in favor of injustice.

  265. 265.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @The Dangerman:

    TS pointed out about 100 comments back that during jury selection, it was harder for the prosecution to find black people who hadn’t been closely following the case than white people. That’s one of the problems with media-blitz trials, the prosecution has to actively select people who stay disconnected from society.

  266. 266.

    NickT

    @raven:

    Yeah, TeddyTroll just doesn’t have much game, does he? He’s back to playing his tired little games and whining to himself in the shadows.

  267. 267.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Elizabelle: Thanks, good idea to let them know. I’ll write to conference organizers, friends and family I had planned to visit, local papers and Chambers of Commerce.

  269. 269.

    Donut

    @michelle:

    Oh, shut the fuck up, your comments are worthless to this thread. This one is about TRAYVON MARTIN, not your carry-over stalkeresque grudge.. You’re as much fun as the dingle berry I pulled off of my puppy’s ass a couple hours ago. You’re fucking Jesus Christ? You get to say whatever you want, but no one should dare question you? Pfffft. Go play in traffic. Loser.

  272. 272.

    A Ghost To Most

    @michelle:

    Please, give it a rest. You are in a pissing contest with some of the best people on this blog, on a day most of us want to (but will never) forget.

    Even Ted & Helen has had the decency to not stir shit up today. I can’t believe I just wrote that.

    Eta: just saw raven’s comment about T&H being banned.

  274. 274.

    The Dangerman

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    That’s one of the problems with media-blitz trials, the prosecution has to actively select people who stay disconnected from society.

    You know, morons.

    /blazing saddles

  277. 277.

    Omnes Omnibus

    My local PBS station is showing the original The Thomas Crown Affair in a few minutes. I think I will pour a drink or two and go watch it.

  279. 279.

    Cacti

    @The Dangerman:

    I’ll take congratulations on being correct.

    Congratulations on what?

    Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race. Or was Spain recently removed from Europe?

  280. 280.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @Steeplejack:

    Ooooooffff course. Feckin’ facebook. Here I’ll copy and paste.

    George Zimmerman isn’t just the man that murdered Trayvonn Martin, he’s the school officials that start planning for prison space for black children in the third grade, he’s politician creates and votes for voting laws that limit democracy, he’s the media that disportionately spotlights black male criminals. Today, we are still in the practice of deciding who receives the benefits of freedom. Knowing that black people’s freedom still lies in the hands of others who haven’t come to terms with their internal hierarchy of who’s human, is painful. It hurts.

    -S. W.

  282. 282.

    TheOtherWA

    WTF? I go out for a few hours and when I get back, all hell has broken loose. We now know for sure Gen Stuck is gone, Tunch is gone (!@*!@@!!) and now this shitty, shitty verdict.

    As the oceans rise, let’s just abandon Florida. No one will miss it.

    I’ll be here in the corner drinking wine. Just don’t trip over me.

  283. 283.

    Soonergrunt

    Michelle–give it a rest.
    Everybody here has had a very long day. I just got back from something else, and while your compassion is compelling, you’re annoying the shit out of people for no apparent reason.
    Give it a rest.

  284. 284.

    The Dangerman

    @Cacti:

    Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race. Or was Spain recently removed from Europe?

    Fuck, read a newspaper or something; the odd juror out was listed as either Hispanic or Black.

    Whatever she was/is, she isn’t white. That is absolutely correct.

  285. 285.

    burnspbesq

    The prosecution has to prove every element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Including the mental state. The evidence presented in court as to Zimmerman’s mental state appeared to me to be far more equivocal than outsiders’ pre-conceived notions of “the facts.”

    This is what happens when you deliberately design your criminal justice system to be far more likely to deliver false negatives than false positives. And yes, this was a deliberate design decision by the Framers. Would you really rather have it the other way?

  287. 287.

    Ruckus

    @Howard Beale IV:
    What in the hell are you on about?
    You must not come here often or know the regulars like raven very well at all. That or I have to assume that you don’t understand english very well.

  289. 289.

    The Dangerman

    This is what happens when you deliberately design your criminal justice system to be far more likely to deliver false negatives than false positives.

    Hey, welcome to the tool shed (and educated tool shed, but a tool shed nonetheless).

  290. 290.

    Cacti

    @burnspbesq:

    This is what happens when you deliberately design your criminal justice system to be far more likely to deliver false negatives than false positives. And yes, this was a deliberate design decision by the Framers. Would you really rather have it the other way?

    Go jump up your own ass, Dimestore J. Taxlawyer, Esq. When those of us who actually know our ass from our elbows predicted this result, you were busy tsk-tsking us about how embarrassed we’d all be when the guilty verdict came in.

  294. 294.

    DH

    I happen to live in Dade County(it includes Miami) Florida. I understand the frustration(see my earlier comment).

    It cant be said enough: Organize.

    Remember Obama won our state twice. Once you get past Lake Okeechobee going N, Florida is part of the South.

    As Faulkner said: The Past isn’t over. It’s not even the Past(fuck you Chief Justice, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito)

  296. 296.

    Howard Beale IV

    @SiubhanDuinne: And to think my brother and sister-in-law plan to retire in Florida all due to the (lack of) tax burden.

    Worse still, is that his career has been 100% government funded. Holy hypocrisy, Batman!

  299. 299.

    Diana

    my favorite comment so far, tweeted from Kieran Healy:

    The arc of history is long, but it bends towards oh who the fuck am I kidding….

  300. 300.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @burnspbesq: And when you design a system where, unlike any other place in the Anglo-American common law sphere, the self-defense is not an affirmative defense that must be established by the defendant, you get an aberration.

  301. 301.

    TS

    @The Dangerman:

    I’ll take congratulations on being correct. Incorrectly claiming an all-white jury only inflames an inflammable situation.

    As for the jury makeup, it sounds like shit to me to have it be overwhelmingly white, but that’s on the prosecution.

    Only 6 people deliberated on the jury – they were all women. I gather 5 were white – no-one seems to mention the other , but when I watched jury selection – no black women were selected. The other 2 jurors were alternates and they were dismissed when deliberations started

  302. 302.

    michelle

    I’ve already felt the burn from this at work. If none of you have lived with this — looking at you raven and to some extent Elizabelle — you don’t know.

  303. 303.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    They have handled themselves with unbelievable grace and dignity throughout this ordeal and it doesn’t ever end for them. Every day of their lives.

    I saw an amazing tweet earlier that the real danger of acquittal is not more riots–but more Zimmermans.

    Wow this really has been a spectacularly terrible horrible no good very bad day.

  305. 305.

    ? Martin

    Florida got the outcome they legislated for. This wasn’t a miscarriage of justice, it was the outcome of what Florida Republicans intended all along.

  306. 306.

    burnspbesq

    @amk:

    weren’t you predicting just y’day that acquittal is a remote possibility?

    No, you either misunderstood or you’re misremembering. What I actually said was a conviction for manslaughter seemed to me to be more likely than a conviction for second-degree murder. “More likely” isn’t the same as “likely.”

    My personal view, based on what was publicly available, is that Zimmerman was guilty of voluntary manslaughter. I wasn’t on the jury. The people who were had a different view.

    And there is no inconsistency between thinking the system is well-designed and thinking that the results in particular cases suck. At the risk of sounding callous, it’s inevitable, given the way the system is designed, that there will be “wtf” outcomes. This was one such outcome.

    It’s not just about outcomes, and it can’t be just about outcomes. Process matters.

  308. 308.

    The Dangerman

    @TS:

    Only 6 people deliberated on the jury – they were all white women.

    I wasn’t there, so I can only report what the TV channel was reporting (I think it was MSNBC, but could have been CNN)…

    …but one of the deliberating jurors was Hispanic or Black.

  309. 309.

    Big Daddy

    I am so Goddamned disgusted!! Evidently, here in the US of A, person A can challenge person B (since person A is emboldened by their hidden fireaarm), and then, when Person B starts beating Person A’s ass, Person A can pull out their hidden firearm and MURDER Person B. What the FUCK have I spent my life defending? Two tours in Iraq, two tours in Afghanistan . . . for this SHIT? What the FUCK!!??!!

  311. 311.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Mr Stagger Lee: Remember Sanford was the town whose residents ran Jackie Robinson out of town with death threats. Clearly the town’s made progress from just threats. Rumor has it a few Klan groups still active in Seminole county as well.

  312. 312.

    ? Martin

    Elsewhere in Florida:

    A Florida woman who fired warning shots against her allegedly abusive husband has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

    Marissa Alexander of Jacksonville had said the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law should apply to her because she was defending herself against her allegedly abusive husband when she fired warning shots inside her home in August 2010. She told police it was to escape a brutal beating by her husband, against whom she had already taken out a protective order.

    Under Florida’s mandatory minimum sentencing requirements Alexander could receive a lesser sentence, even though she has never been in trouble with the law before. Judge Daniel said the law did not allow for extenuating or mitigating circumstances to reduce the sentence below the 20-year minimum.

    Anyone want to guess her race before clicking through?

  316. 316.

    cckids

    @TS: ok, sorry for my knee-jerk reaction. That the “self defense” crap worked makes me physically ill.

  317. 317.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Ruckus: You’re a moron.

    How do I know with 100% certainty that ‘raven’ (or anybody else who posts here) is who they say they are when they post?

  318. 318.

    T. Scheisskopf

    I am a recent transplant to FL, from NJ. As bad as you think it is down here, trust me, it is even worse. A large part of the population is sociopathic. Lots and lots of sociopaths, many armed. We keep to ourselves, to the point of fearful isolation.

    And John: as an abulatory cat toy, my heart just aches for you, as does that of my SO. I mean, it hurts us, too. Deeply.

    Luckily, you have a family here and you are loved and not alone. In that, you are rich.

  320. 320.

    Kay

    @MomSense:

    Yeah, it’s really hard for me. At one point I was thinking “shouldn’t they appoint a lawyer for Martin? Now that they’re trying him for attempted murder?”
    Watching this, you could conclude it’s better to just accept whatever the self defense claim is rather than putting your kid out there alone. I really couldn’t bear it.

  322. 322.

    burnspbesq

    @MomSense:

    I saw an amazing tweet earlier that the real danger of acquittal is not more riots–but more Zimmermans.

    Stand-your-ground laws have to go. This needs to be an issue in the next legislative elections in Florida and every other state that has one of these stupid provisions.

  323. 323.

    InternetDragons

    Jesus Christ, what a horrible day, and I effing wish people in this thread would stop picking on each other.

    Post in John’s thread if you haven’t already, and go donate to MARC.

    But this thread is needed too, because as cynical as I am, I didn’t want to believe this verdict would turn out the way it did. I think I knew, though, when the media and a sickeningly huge proportion of the online population decided to turn Rachel Jenteal into a joke.

    I started to feel like I was surrounded by members of the Klan, all giggling and telling hateful jokes to each other with that sickening confidence that comes from being sure that “everyone” agrees with you and nobody is going to object to the poison you are spewing.

    If I, an older white woman, can see so clearly that the only explanation for that verdict is racism, then surely it’s got to be screamingly obvious. Right? Right??

    I am just at a freaking loss. I know how to take loss. I’ve been a left-wing activist my entire life. I know we pick up, light the candle, rekindle the hope, and keep pushing for change, because the arc of the moral universe does indeed bend toward justice.

    But days like this just weigh on the soul. My heart breaks for that beautiful young man and his parents. Sometimes it really is hard to see the light.

  325. 325.

    Gustopher

    Crap. How the hell did he not get manslaughter? The Florida self-defense law is a travesty and a disgrace, but manslaughter seems pretty straightforward.

    I hope Zimmerman lives a very long life always in fear that someone is going to come after him for this. And when he’s 90 and in his hospital bed dying of cancer, begging for some pain killers, I hope the nurse looks him in the eye and says “fuck you, murderer, suffer.”

  327. 327.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @raven: And don’t forget I love you because you’re weak. There, I admitted it. Perhaps Michelle and Hellen will shut the fuck up now.

  328. 328.

    A Ghost To Most

    @ruemara:

    Thanks. I hope we all see better days than this, and no worse ones. John has brought us all together; hopefully together we can help him. Tunch knows, this place has helped me over the years.

  329. 329.

    Betty Cracker

    Jesus, Zimmerman’s brother is a ginormous douche-tanker. He’s on CNN right now. I want to put my fist through the TV.

  330. 330.

    ? Martin

    Wisdom from Twitter:

    The legal lesson for Floridians: in any altercation, however minor, the easiest way to avoid criminal liability is to kill the counterparty.

    Hard to argue with that.

  331. 331.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @Betty Cracker:

    Why are you watching CNN? Why is ANYONE watching CNN? That way lies madness, people. Pure madness.

    Jesus, folks, pour yourself a drink, put on a nice old movie, sit on the porch. Don’t give the professional dipsticks at CNN more ratings just because you’re curious about how bad the trainwreck is.

  334. 334.

    Sasha

    I just need to say that Hispanic does not equal Black. Especially when the defendant is Hispanic and the victim is Black.

  336. 336.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @Betty Cracker:

    Somehow even more douchey than O’Mara? What did he say? I don’t have the heart or stomach to read more on this after O’Mara claimed Zimmerman wouldn’t have even been arrested if he were black.

  337. 337.

    cokane

    @Cacti: sorry that my level of outrage does not meet yours. It can’t be that we merely disagree, it has to be because of a fundamental shortcoming from me. Try to lay off the commenter acid for a bit, and accept the fact that BJ, unlike you seemingly, respects and welcomes people from diverse points of view.

  339. 339.

    ChrisNYC

    @Gustopher: He was a terrible fear-riven coward before this, so that’s pretty much assured. Sat in his SUV, in his gated subdivision, with a gun, on the phone with 911, cops on the way and decided that he was under threat. Then he got a bloody nose six feet from scads of his neighbors and decided he was going to be killed.

  340. 340.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @burnspbesq:

    Burns, I get what you’re saying, and I think it’s worth saying.

    But, maybe, shush, just for tonight? This won’t be the last thread on this.

  342. 342.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @Kay:

    This is the thing that makes me feel ill for Trayvon’s parents. Their son was put on trial instead, and then found guilty of being a hair-trigger violent thug in the court and, apparently, in a depressingly significant percentage of the public. He’s apparently become living proof to far too many that ‘them blacks are all feral monsters!’

    They’ve lost their son and seen his memory turned into an indictment.

  344. 344.

    Elizabelle

    @Gustopher:

    I don’t wish Zimmerman a long life. I wish him a hunted and haunted one.

    If he’d gotten manslaughter (teenslaughter), he could have eventually paid his debt to society, for killing one of its young.

    As it is, he is a not innocent man walking.

  345. 345.

    Kay

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    My husband thought the state shoukd have focused on attitudes towards guns when they interviewed jurors.
    He thought that would sway a juror toward Zimmerman. That there was a gun subtext going on in this, and if a juror was sympathetic on “carrying” they would “hear” that and respond.
    It worried me thru the whole thing, with the focus on “moms”

  346. 346.

    cckids

    @Spaghetti Lee: This. We’re catching up on Game of Thrones. Even as grisly and full of senseless violence as it is, its looking better than Florida.

    At least in Westeros, you don’t expect justice.

  348. 348.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Omnes Omnibus: If it’s an imperative, it’s incomplete, you animal food-trough wiper you.

    I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries.

    Now go away before I taunt your a third time!

  351. 351.

    Betty Cracker

    @The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: Infinitely douchier than O’Mara. He said something like, “I’m sorry Trayvon caused his own death by lying in wait for my brother and viciously attacking him.” Jesus. I get that GZ is his brother, and maybe he really believes that. But why the fuck go on TV and say that shit?

  353. 353.

    nineone

    @Redshirt:

    Is there any explanation for this verdict? What the rationale was?

    Something about a chifferobe or something like that. ‘Course I may have heard that wrong.

  355. 355.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Kay: I’m inclined to agree with your husband. But I’m not certain that a good-for-the-state jury was possible in this instance. I was worried about so many women, who might sympathize with being scared

    The victim was on trial for walking while black wearing a hoodie, and he was convicted. As noted earlier, he jury essentially admitted that they would have pulled the trigger on young Trayvon too.

  356. 356.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @Betty Cracker:

    *sigh* Like I said, I can’t understand the grief the parents are going through, losing their son, then having his memory turn into an indictment against himself and the entirety of blacks. I mean…fuck. Having some douchenozzle go on TV and basically say “I’m sorry your son was such a feral vicious animal that had to be righteously be put down’

  359. 359.

    lojasmo

    @MikeJ:

    Lojasmo waves from MN.

    Regarding T/H, I was wondering if he would get banned when the Zimmerman decision came down.

    Don’t need to have this decision whitesplained on B-J

  361. 361.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    Every time the defense attorney called him Mr. Martin I wanted to punch him in the face. It was just a not so subtle way of trying to diminish the reality that he was a child. But it was probably the least atrocious of the ways in which the defense tried to justify why capital punishment by Zimmerman was justified.

    @burnspbesq:

    Yeah those ALEC written and funded Stand Your Ground laws are absolute BS. We have to organize on this.

  362. 362.

    nineone

    @Mr Stagger Lee:

    the Sanford PD, they fucked the investigation, in the beginning.

    This times infinity plus another motherfuckin’ infinity. They were ever more interested in protecting their stupid “shoot first, shoot last, shoot forever” laws than doing an actual investigation.

  363. 363.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @Kay:

    I’m too sick to even snark about something like that in all honesty. From what I’m hearing, Fox is already reaching an extra level of bile tonight in the aftermath.

  364. 364.

    Howard Beale IV

    Everyone here whose bellayaching about the Zimmerman verdict and its supposive injustice best wake the fuck up and realize that the majority of the citizens in Florida voted for the results that happened.

    Deal with it.

  368. 368.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    We literally had worse injuries here after a brawl at a teenage wedding. Stitches, people going to emergency room, ect.

    No one was charged with anything worse than a misdemeanor. It was a blip. People laughed about it after.

    It woukd have been an absolute life-changing tragedy if one of them had a gun.

  370. 370.

    rikyrah

    eclecticbrotha ‏@eclecticbrotha 1h
    The week in review: a woman with tampons and a black kid with Skittles are both more dangerous than a white man with a gun

  371. 371.

    Howard Beale IV

    @TCG: Your brutal use of the truth shows a clear lack of imagination.

    IOW, Great rejoinder.

  372. 372.

    rikyrah

    Will Smith – We live in a country where the woman who threw flower on Kim K. went to jail but the killer of Trayvon Martin walked.

  373. 373.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @rikyrah:

    They forgot to add in that ‘Black people are the real racists’. God knows I’m seeing enough of that crowing as well.

  374. 374.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @TCG:

    So (some) of the people who voted for (some) of a legislature that passed a law that one defense team used to let one crook walk, therefore everyone there needs to suffer. And yes, that’s what Howard Beale is hoping for. He said that he hopes a hurricane hits and that people are displaced through global warming. People who had nothing to do with the trial, and many of whom were rooting against this outcome as hard as any of us were.

    I’m sorry, but I’ve never got on the whole “(state) is dead to me” bandwagon when something like this happens. I get maybe that’s how some people get their rage out, but I just can’t do it. There are good people everywhere. Today the bad guys won. But I don’t see how you can answer hate with more hate, directed at even greater numbers of people. I don’t see how that works. I’m sorry, but I just can’t do these mass condemnations that so many people seem to love. There’s nothing righteous about them. It’s just more hate. I’m sick of hate.

  376. 376.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Howard Beale IV: Yes, the voters of Florida elected legislators who made this result possible. A child is, nevertheless, dead and the person who did it is unlikely to be held accountable. Late on a Saturday evening, we aren’t going be able to do much other than being upset and bitching.

  378. 378.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @Howard Beale IV:

    Yeah, there’s always one arguer in every thread like this, going on about how the outcome of a trial means whole states, whole regions of the country are degenerate and backwards and everyone else better accept that fact. I don’t need to accept any of your delusions, and I certainly don’t need to accept your hope that more people die because of this.

  380. 380.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @Kay:

    It was believable enough for an acquittal, which is just as absurd as the lame spaghetti western villain dialogue stuffed into Trayvon’s mouth by Zimmerman.

  382. 382.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    Or what about those interviews with the police where Zimmerman kept calling him “the suspect”.

  383. 383.

    TCG

    @Spaghetti Lee: What? I was simply referring to the fact that a majority of Floridians seem to be ok with these kinds of laws. I missed the hurricane comment. Having said that people can vote with their feet and if Florida is a place where it’s legal to shoot unarmed black teenagers with candy in their pockets, black people who live in Florida, especially the one’s with children might want to consider relocating. If their is a silent majority of decent people that don’t like how shit it going, now would be the time for them to stop being silent. In Florida and everywhere else.

  384. 384.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    You’re dead wrong that the Zimmerman trial outcome is what I hoped for-far from it. Zimmerman was told told by the dispatcher to stand down and he didn’t. Between this and the state prosecutors not seating a representative peer jury doomed the prosecution’s case.

    But hey-feel free to to label me a bad dog and hang me on the nearest pole.

  385. 385.

    Betty Cracker

    Joy Reid is on MSNBC now and had a really great and poignant point: She has a teenage son, and she said she doesn’t know what to tell her child. She said she and her son talked about how he should act if he was ever questioned by a cop — watch what you say, don’t make any sudden moves, etc. Now he’s in a life-threatening situation if any random yahoo with a gun (and ONE MILLION Floridians have concealed carry permits) decides he looks suspicious. Jesus.

  388. 388.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @TCG:

    Well, maybe I overreacted, but I just don’t like this eliminationism shit, this idea that people deserve terrible shit because some of them voted for a shitty government. Isn’t this whole lefty thing supposed to be about empathizing with people and helping them?

    I mean, I have elderly relatives in Florida who are liberals, but who can barely walk, much less uproot and buy a new house in another state. So staying in Florida means they implicitly support Martin’s death? They live in a blue county, though-are they exempt? That’s what I don’t like about this shit, it’s nothing but mass generalization and stereotyping. Huge numbers of people who don’t fit whatever the dumb with-us-or-against-us standard is get scooped up in the rhetoric.

    If there’s any silver lining to this, maybe some of those batshit crazy SYG laws and guns-everywhere-all-the-time laws will be re-examined. But if the people willing to fight that fight have already written off the whole state as racist savages and the only thing for decent people to do is leave, how the hell will that fight ever be won?

  389. 389.

    askew

    If I was a minority living in Florida, I would do everything in my power to leave the state. Too many racist assholes carrying guns there and the government is turning a blind eye to their vigilantism.

    And there should have been at least on AA person on the jury. The prosecution should have demanded it.

  390. 390.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @Kay:

    It really is just so goddamned absurd. Like he was casting himself as the hero of some pulp novel.

  392. 392.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I thought about this. I think I would tell them to start filming. It will act as both a deterrent and a record, should that become necessary.

    They all have phones. Don’t call your friends. Film the pursuit.

  394. 394.

    RaflW

    @Tone in DC:

    Not even manslaughter. I cannot take this shit.

    Good g*d. People get manslaughter for recklessly driving a car and killing someone. I too cannot take this shit.

  395. 395.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Spaghetti Lee: The bottom line:

    If you aren’t part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem.

    Now ask your relatives which side of the equation they want to be a part of.

  397. 397.

    TCG

    @Spaghetti Lee: I would love for the laws to be reexamined, but I doubt. Nothing happened after 20 white 6 year old were gunned down and nothing will change after Travon. Like I said if their is a silent majority of decent people in Florida, they will have to deal with this and vote for different and better elected officials. Same with everywhere else. I live in Texas and nothing will change here either. Not unless their is a secret majority of decent people who just haven’t bothered to vote in Texas for 15 years.

    Look people are venting tonight. Just let it be that. The misogyny, racism and bigotry of this country is overwhelming sometimes.

  399. 399.

    Roy G.

    @Spaghetti Lee: Amen. I’ve spent the past ten days visiting my wife in CPMC (California Pacific Medical Center), where all the teevees are tuned to CNN – they even have it on monitors in the elevators. I’ve been throwing up a little in my mouth each time I walk past one. The worst crawl headline that I can’t get out of my head was, ‘They both stalked each other.’ I kept thinking about the many good people working and visiting the hospital that saw these titillating images and headlines with no context, and how their view of the case could be so easily twisted as a result.

    I have to believe a large part of CNN’s ratings come from public venues like this, where CNN is innocently put on the monitors because ‘It’s the news.’ I’d like to see some organizing to get CNN removed from as many public viewing places as possible, per Jay Rosen’s recent posting that CNN is not really news at all, but 24/7 Nancy Grace with a slightly better reputation.

    http://pressthink.org/2013/07/criticizing-cnn-goodbye-to-that/

  400. 400.

    Kay

    Just for the record, I don’t agree that it’s Florida. It coukd absolutely happen here. It would be a little different. He would be patrolling an entire roadway, because he “lives on 15”, which means it’s his “castle” but same idea.

  405. 405.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Howard Beale IV: He didn’t say you were calling for or celebrating the not guilty verdict. He was critical of your call for Florida to be more or less visited by biblical plagues. Fight with him all you want, but do try to get the reason for the fight right.

  406. 406.

    Roy G.

    @Roy G.: As it appears I cross-posted into a dispute on another post SL made, I’ll just say that a better common ground would be to hate all of CNN than all of Florida.

  408. 408.

    RaflW

    @JWL:

    fuck the South. Let the assholes secede. If Southern states refuse, cut them out, as with a cancer.

    +1
    I think we need an emergency relocation fund so we can get a couple million decent people out of the forsaken South and then put up that supermax border fence the GOP has been wanking over. Only east and north of where they think it goes.

  409. 409.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Spaghetti Lee: Actually, I’m as serious as a heart attack when ti comes to those who live in Florida and along the coasts. Think about it-who in their right mind would insure property in Florida when its ground zero for all sorts of adverse weather?

  412. 412.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Omnes Omnibus: As far as I’m concerned, people who decide to live in particular regions for whatever reasons get whatever happens to them. If they avoid tornadoes and blizzards, all the more power to them.

  414. 414.

    Kay

    Well, thank you BJ’ers for talking about this. It’s comforting to know there are sympathetic people. In the world. A few.
    And lock up your teenagers. Just ground them all. There’s going to be a lot of armed people out strutting around “protecting” us, whether we like it or NOT.

  415. 415.

    sharl

    I’m glad rikyrah has been bringing some of the better tweets over here, because I gotta tell ya, there is some poisonous shit in Twitterland too.

    One of my favorite tweets brought up a problem noted by Betty Cracker at #388 and elsewhere upthread:

    Amy Davidson ‏@tnyCloseRead

    I still don’t understand what Trayvon was supposed to do.

    And of course, that “Daily Trawler” creep from the equally creepy Daily Caller – no, ain’t linking him – had a reply that maximized dishonesty and offensiveness.

    Of course, that creep’s job is apparently to be that way; who knows what he actually believes or cares about beyond his paycheck. More disturbing (if not surprising) are the other reports, e.g., spontaneous applause in an upscale restaurant (via John Rogers, aka kung-fu monkey, “discoverer” of the 27% crazification factor), random reports of celebrations, and a higher-than-usual regurgitation of racist and homicidal hurrahs.

    Between this and Tunch and the General, what a collection of suck.

  418. 418.

    sharl

    @sharl: Just to clarify, Rogers said it was a couple white “ladies” in the restaurant who applauded (not the whole room, as my post might have implied, now that I look at it).

    Rogers said his wife had to hustle him out to the car pronto, where he managed to destroy a pair of sunglasses, which was a preferable form of violence to what was running through his head in the restaurant.

  419. 419.

    lojasmo

    @Soonergrunt:

    Shares the same vapid argumentative style, and T/H who was a blazing “you don’t know he is guilty” fuckhead hasn’t been around to whitesplain the verdict.

  421. 421.

    mouse tolliver

    I know it’s probably irresponsible to say this, but I don’t care right now.

    I hope the jurors names are made public. And I hope they are made to feel this verdict for the rest of their lives.

  422. 422.

    Mister Papercut

    @Steeplejack:

    Fox News broke into the baseball game to cover this. Their commenters are unbelievable. Sean Hannity: “a classic case of self-defense.”

    They let Hannity do live coverage? I’d have thought they’d give him the rest of the weekend off for all the furious masturbating you know he’s gonna have to do.

  423. 423.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    “He (Zimmerman) has to be very cautious and protective of his safety because there is still a fringe element who have said, at least in tweets and everything else, that they want revenge — that they will not listen to a verdict of not guilty,” defense attorney Mark O’Mara said.

    Your clients inability to control his fear has been the driving force in all of this Mr O’Mara.

    And BTW, correct me if I am wrong but didn’t most gangs start as a from of neighborhood watch?

  424. 424.

    Applejinx

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I know, right? Clearly he now needs an assault weapon, and to blow away every black person he ever sees for the rest of his life.

    If he didn’t have ‘reasonable’ expectation that he was in jeopardy, he soon would have every reason to fear any black face anywhere ever.

    Of course, there is a reason for that and it is a reason he’d be wholly responsible for. He is already responsible for whatever life he’s gonna get.

    And I am SO pissed off at the whole thing. I want to fuckin’ carry Skittles around 24/7 now. And the thing is, I am Caucasian. So what the heck would that even prove? It might even be taken as mockery! I wouldn’t be surprised if some wingnuts are doing just that, they seem to like mockery and whipping out symbols like coathangers, like some end zone taunt.

  425. 425.

    Lurking Canadian

    @burnspbesq: I submit that this:

    I’m going to really enjoy throwing this mess in your face when Zimmerman is convicted. You’re not only completely pig-fuck ignorant about law, you’re bound and determined to stay that way.

    goes somewhat beyond this:

    My personal view, based on what was publicly available, is that Zimmerman was guilty of voluntary manslaughter. I wasn’t on the jury. The people who were had a different view.

    In your place, I might consider retracting the “pig-fuck ignorant” bit, anyway.

  426. 426.

    John S.

    What a disgusting outcome. Not surprised, though, having been through Sanford many times in my life.

    But Jesus Christ, people. The entire state of Florida and its inhabitants are not to blame. And all the pontificating about how fucked up Florida is based on what you saw the last time you rolled through here as a tourist is bullshit. South Florida is very different than the rest of the state, and is home to an extremely ethnically and culturally diverse population.
    With rare exception, there are many other parts of the United States that are more fucked up than here. Iowa just made it legal to fire someone if they are pretty. Texas just made abortion extremely difficult. Even California voted to ban gay marriage. So a little fucking perspective, please.

    I’m ashamed by this verdict, and sickened by the laws that made it possible. But now Floridians need to organize and do something about it before it happens again. But don’t blame the entire state and its many decent citizens for this injustice. That’s bullshit.

  427. 427.

    MomSense

    @Applejinx:

    When my teenager came home from work last night and I told him about the verdict–he let fly a righteous and totally appropriate string of expletives. Then he said that Zimmerman should receive thousands of skittles every day. He wants to mail him a single skittle in an envelope every single day.

    I want to dump a truck full of them on his lawn but my son is probably right that he should just get them every single day for the rest of his life so he knows that we know the score.

  428. 428.

    Applejinx

    Cops must feel CHEAP. Think about it:

    Cop- “Sir, please desist hunting the black kid with the Skittles.”

    Zimmerman- “No!”

    Cop- *SIGH* “Sir, calm down. Please return to your vehicle, if you feel there is a threat…”

    Zimmerman- “And call the cops!”

    Cop- “We ARE the cops, sir.”

    Zimmerman- “No, I mean the real cops!”

    Cop- “What?”

    Zimmerman- “Oh shit! Backup! I need backup!” *BANG* “I got him!”

    Cop- “Sir…”

    Zimmerman- “Finally! Where do you put dead punks? He almost killed my nose with skittles! And concrete!”

    Cop, hanging up phone, consulting superior- “Now what? The usual?”

    Superior- “You mean… do the coverup, smooth it over, AS IF he was one of us, take the PR hit and legal hassle, except that he’s not even a cop? Is he white?”

    Cop- “Kinda.”

    Superior- “OH COME ON!”

    Cop- “Whatever.” *back on phone* “Here’s what you say…”

    Jury- “Not guilty!”

    Cop- “FFS, at least that’s over…”

    Zimmerman- “Yay! I’mma hunt some more punks now. That’s my job, as an AMERICAN!”

    Cop- “What?!?”

    Zimmerman- “The jury said so! I did everything right! It’s my duty as an American to punish the malefactor, kick ass, and carry a gun that I am not afraid to use for justice!”

    Cop- “Wait a minute, that’s MY fucking job, buddy!”

    Zimmerman and chorus- “Not anymore!”

    Cop- “THEN WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU NEED US FOR?”

    Zimmerman- “Filling out the paperwork?”

    Cop- “…”

    Zimmerman- “And protecting my freedom! Excuse me! Duty calls! I see danger!” *exits, firing*

    Cop- “…it’s gonna be a loooooong ‘arc of the moral universe bending toward justice’.”

    Trayvon Martin- “…tell me about it.”

  430. 430.

    Ksmiami

    @NickT: as a shareholder in the disney corporation, I’m writing them that the syg laws put their business in jeopardy and they need to lobby the state… I’m never setting foot in fl again

  431. 431.

    bob h

    @Elizabelle: I wonder whether there should be a boycott of Florida, the way there was for Arizona.

    You know this is all going to get much worse: Zimmerman will be on Fox, and making good money out of his notoriety,

  432. 432.

    Patricia Kayden

    Well no shocker, huh? I think most people knew Zimmerman would walk.

    And guess what, White people, Black people aren’t rioting in the streets? Shocking, huh?

  433. 433.

    johnny aquitard

    Christ. Woke up this morning and decided to see what’s up after a few days away. And all this shit. Stuck confirmed gone, Tunch gone just-like-that, Zimmerman free.

    Goddammit.

    And fuck fox news. fucking sick of these crowing crackers.

  435. 435.

    Pogonip

    There are 6 people on this earth who are even dumber than the O.J. jury. Who’d have thought?

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