The AP reports that President Barack Obama has answered Ralph’s call and spoken-out about the controversial shooting of Trayvon Martin by Florida concealed carry permit holder George Zimmerman. “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” the Prez pronounced, turning his back on the possibility of transcending race in an already incendiary cause celebre. Or is that me being racist, ’cause Obama was actually playing the “it could of been my child” card? After all, the CIC also said “I think [Trayvon’s family] are right to expect that all of us as Americans take this with the seriousness that it deserves, and we’re going to get to the bottom of what happened . . . Every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and everybody pulls together, federal state and local, to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened.” Talk about federal over-reach. Anyway, check out the sign on the left.
How much you want to bet he will play the race card before the investigation is over?
He already did, just a little more subtle than usual. “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”
Sounds like he said “All black people look alike.” What a racist.
I’m a straight white guy, with no race card.
That’s until I started calling myself “European American.” Now I’m a sensitive member of a protected group!
ugh… election please!
Obama’s on the job! I feel so much better! I’m sure justice will prevail now! For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country! Woohoo!
Wasn’t there a policy of never letting a crisis go to waste back when Rahm was at the WH? Guess its not changed much.
The NRA certainly follows the same playbook..
Its really pathetic. He is diverting attention from his failings over the economy to get the sympathetic president vote. We are going to get to the bottom of this, yeah right. Just like you are getting to the bottom of the gun walking scandal in which the FBI and Holder’s office are in it neck deep.
OJ looked for his wife’s killers in between rounds of golf and hanging with strippers.
The President has excellent political instincts. Holder will take a run at it behind the scenes, since Fast and Furious turned into such a disaster. “If at first you don’t succeed…” Still, Florida is a critical state and I don’t see him winning it this go-around. He probably assesses that this is a time to be seen supporting calm. He can’t afford an AA/Hisp split at the moment. He can let the NGO’s and Rev’s do the heavy lifting. I thought the “if I had a son” comment was actually quite clever politics. Emotional, but saying nothing.
“Emotional, but saying nothing.”
That’s liberal politics 101.
If the president had a son, he’d look like Martin. I guess that means kids like that are more important and deserve justice more than kids of other ethnicities, right?
Obama continues to prove himself a racist, and casual reverse-racism continues to become the norm.
You’re absolutely right to take heed of that sign on the left; minorities already have no problem with institutionalized oppression, like hate crime double standards and Affirmative Action, and this case proves that a good number of them care very little about justice, only “their own.” Any idiot can see that no one wants equality, they just want power. And do you really think any of them care about what happens to “whitey” in their continued government-sponsored power grabs?
Racial conflict is never going away. Ever. There will NEVER be peace between races in the US. Any rational study in human history, human relations, and human psychology proves that. The only thing that ever changes is who is oppressing who. Keep on arming yourselves, people. They are.
Silver, you are reading waaaay too much into what he said. He was just saying that we shouldn’t forget the human tragedy here. He’s right… people on both sides are being too quick to gear up and turn this into a PR battle… and forget all about the dead kid. And you know what, to my Caucasian eyes, the kid DOES look like he could be his son… hope that doesn’t make me racist for saying, but its damn well true…. That doesn’t mean he values other races less… its the truth. He was just humanizing (pulling something from Clinton and Bush 2’s playbooks).
+1 To Josh, I like the levelheadedness
Him saying “look” turned it into a race thing. The thing any normal person says is, “If I had a son, he’d be that age,” or something all-encompassing like that. It’s the job of the president to be all-encompassing in a diverse country. He wasn’t, and it showed his true colors.
Am I reading too much into what he specifically said? Perhaps. But I know I’m not reading too much into the overall state of race relations in the US and the inevitable outcome. We may have differing opinions on that, and that’s fine, and frankly I envy your optimism. I tend to be something of a pessimist and expect the worst out of people. Maybe if I was pleasantly wrong more often, I wouldn’t be that way.
Here’s my reason for optimism.. I grew up in a predominantly black area, went to a predominantly black school system, and took a bunch of lumps coming up. I saw racism first hand at school directed at me… but then I’d spend my summers in west virginia, where I saw it going the other way.. just as ugly.. When you have experienced it personally, and then see people who look like you doing it to others… you actually start to see what its really about… I can spot it now anywhere. Most racist place I’ve ever been? Japan… with China, Korea, and Russia tied for 2nd.
All that being said, I can without any doubt say that its way, way better than it used to be, and I’m not that old. Trust me, its getting better. The younger generation has alot of faults, but goddamn is it refreshing to see their views on race… Its America’s big advantage over every other industrialized country… we are ahead on race relations.. its messy here because we are facing the problem and sorting it out… the others sweep it under the rug.
I pretty much agree with everything you have said here, Josh. Race tensions in Canada (where I grew up) are growing. In my home province (where we literally can count the number of black families on a hand that live there) racism is growing. People talking about taking our jerbs and whatnot. Funny thing is the hate is directed toward Black people when in fact the foreign element of our province is largely Indian and Chinese. Go figure.
That said Korea is by far the most racist place I had the opportunity to turn down. I actually had a lady ask me a whole bunch of questions that made sense and then at the very end say that she hoped I was not… well, suffice it to say that I really don’t feel comfortable repeating what she asked but it was the most ignorant, stupid and down right uneducated thing I have ever heard from an educated woman.
I have to agree with the younger persons take on race as well. Me (Irish-White)and my wife (East Indian) are younger and we sometimes hear things from (largely her family that she is estranged from) people that completely sicken us and push us further apart. Things like Hippos and Elephant can only make abomination (literally the way it is said before we were married) and other stupid crap like that. Funny enough, Irish-White and East Indian have created the most beautiful child in the family by their estimation and praise. But Lemur and dog, right?
People focus a lot on the White and Black race issue but there are other more racist people working right along side you with degrees and doctorates that keep their mouths shut in public but have secret names for us (Whites) in family settings. I am Doro to my Indian half of the family. It means uneducated, dirty, slave. I am White and educated and half her family has not even spoken to me but that is what I am.
What I am trying to say here is that, yes. You are right. We are much further ahead with the race thing than any other country. You merely have to look at some interracial marriages to see how far along we are and how far back others are. It is really eye opening and surprising the things you will learn to say the least.
Go figure.
silver, the assertion that there is an impending race war is a bit much?
So if Bush would or Romney would have said, a murdered caucasian kid looked like they did, nobody would have said anything?
If they’d said he could’ve been their son… no, no one would have said anything.
Zimmerman was on the ground being punched when he shot Trayvon Martin
Once again, these details have been ignored or changed by the media. The witness reports that George Zimmerman was on the ground and Trayvon is on top of him punching him. The witness says that George Zimmerman was screaming and yelling for help. Police arrive and find Zimmerman bleeding on his face and the back of his head. He also has had grass stains on his back. All this confirms the story told by Zimmerman and the witness. Police play the 911 tape for Trayvon Martin’s father, who tells police that the voice screaming is not the voice of his son.
http://www.examiner.com/charleston-conservative-in-charleston-sc/zimmerman-was-on-the-ground-being-punched-when-he-shot-trayvon-martin
Before you rely too much on that examiner post, I suggest you read the comments below it as well as the link to another examiner story (by a different author) that tells a decidedly different tale. But even assuming that Martin was on top, still an open question as to whether deadly force was authorized–the standard is fear of death or serious bodily injury. A lot of juries would look askance at the use of deadly force to end a fistfight.
Nor can one use deadly force to end a confrontation one created.
“Lemming says:
March 23, 2012 at 21:47
Nor can one use deadly force to end a confrontation one created.”
Actually according to Ohio and Utah law you can. When the aggressor becomes the victim they have the right to fight back to whatever extent they can. I know it doesn’t make sense but it is what we learned during our concealed and carry course which vastly covered self defense laws in both those states.
They don’t seem to make any sense to me but it looks as if they are trying to prevent crime or infringement by providing a way to defend oneself while also providing a way to not be completely liable.
I could never grasp it.
“But even assuming that Martin was on top, still an open question as to whether deadly force was authorized–the standard is fear of death or serious bodily injury.”
If that isn’t a time to use deadly force, I don’t know what is.
I actually watched Obama say what he said on the news and I think he handled the question posed to him pretty well. I caught an excerpt of it, so I didn’t watch it from beginning to end, but I got the impression he was asked about it by a reporter. He didn’t make the same mistake he did when he commented about the college professor that got into it with the cops a few years ago. I thought his response showed diplomacy and humanity. And no, I’m not going to vote for him.
Amen Scott. I think Romney will do a better job.. But I honestly respect this guy. He’s got more respect from me than the younger Bush. I think Obama is a born centrist, who was raised super left… and so he’s caught in some weird mix. You can tell his natural instinct is more center-right… look at his Commander in Chief decisions (kept Gitmo open, Ok’ed a risky helicopter raid, keeping us in Afghanistan, etc)… but he feels like hes betraying his roots, so then does the healthcare stuff, the Professor Gates stuff, etc…. He always seems more comfortable in the center-right… and forced when doing the leftish stuff.
He does appear to have learned something from the Skip Gates thing. While he did subtly play the race card, at least he didn’t come out the next morning and stick his foot immediately into his own mouth.
Was it the race card, or the “it coulda been my child” card?
Good point. Maybe I’m the racist. Text amended. Ish.
Honestly, id love to believe that. However, I feel history tells us otherwise.
I’m no frothing-at-the-mouth Obama hater. Or a racist. I just think he’s a craven son-of-a-bitch like the guy before him, and the guy before that, etc.
Oh, and I think, based on what I’ve seen so far, that George Zimmerman should go to jail for a very long time.
I think the president is a great guy and there’s no possible way that this wasn’t a cold-blooded murder of an innocent kid.
Ok, all joking aside, the president isn’t that bad of a president. I’m really tired of towing the party line ‘oh, because he’s a democrat, I should hate him with blind fury’. WTF-ever. He’s as opportunistic as any politician. He’s been the best democrat I’ve ever seen – he’s effectively done nothing. That’s a good politician in any political party.
But imagine the situation were reversed. A black hood thug shoots a young white kid and the police do nothing. I doubt you’d all be so calm and collected. Racist invective comments would be flying, even more so than they are now, and the situation favors the groups you’re a member of.
Everyone wants justice, especially when they think the normal amount of justice isn’t there. I can’t say these protesters are all that wrong. A police officer shooting an unarmed person would have faced more scrutiny than this guy did. Give it all the scrutiny in the world. What are you afraid of after all, the truth?
So I guess all the profitable Chrysler dealers that were forced to lose their dealerships don’t matter; nor do the dead Mexicans and federal agents; nor the GM shareholders that were forced to take a loss while the unions got paid out; random unrecoverable loans to random offshore and bankrupt entities. I could go on, but there have been a string of completely illegal actions at taxpayer expensive.
BTW, as someone who is in constant contact with the medical profession, I can’t count the number of older doctors who now plan on retiring rather than staying another 10 years in the field due to the 2014 mandates. With a shortage of doctors in all specialties that doesn’t really help does it? I could only wish he was more docile and useless.
He’s at the point of throwing as many shiny things at the US public as he can right now (such as the loan forgiveness act) to buy votes. This is just another rabbit out of a hat.
In response to your comments on the old doctors who will retire soon… good riddance. America’s doctors aren’t what make our medical care great.. its our pharma and biomedical engineering. I’m sick and tired of being fiscally raped at every turn by doctors in this country. I had to pay 1200 bucks to get three stitches on my foot a few months back.. it was all of ten minutes work for a baby-faced doctor… I hear about how doctors here are struggling.. yet they all drive Audi’s, BMW’s, etc.. There is no other country in the world that pays them as much to do so damn little. We all worship them, but being an expert on the human body does NOT make you an expert on how a whole healthcare system should be run.. thats the equivalent of asking auto mechanics to make car factories more efficient… you’re asking the wrong people.
Let them retire, there are plenty of younger ones waiting to take their place. Thats one thing we have too many of, along with lawyers.
I don’t worship them. I’ve been treated in two other systems, Spain and Sweden. They didn’t do a bad job. The Wall Street Journal did an extensive investigation of why our system costs more. Was it Pharma? The nurses? The device makers? No. It came down to the physicians. Americans are almost psychotically afraid of reining in the AMA. They seem to think their physicians will poison them or such. We need twice as many physicians working for half the fee rate. We need fifty percent more residencies in a few specialties. In other words, we need to take control of the statutory and regulatory status quo of medicine. The cost of it is excessive and hurts our manufacturing competitiveness. Not that government employees would notice.
It’s funny you complain about how awful the healthcare is here. I don’t see you going overseas to get healthcare treatment, yet plenty of people fly and drive into the US seeking treatment they would otherwise not receive before death in their own countries. My former landlord had to deal with this as they were in Canada. They brought their children down for treatment because it would take months and sometimes over a year to be seen in their socialist healthcare system.
The reason you pay so much is because there are an insane number of malpractice suits. Malpractice insurance is one of the highest operating expenses to doctors and practices today. And OMG, a doctor in a nice car. I hate to break it to you, but did you sacrifice the best years of your life in school NOT partying and studying your ass off? Additionally did you come out of medical school with $250,000 in debt while earning a resident’s salary of sometimes less than $36,000 for four to six years? Most “doctors” you see probably owe more money than you do.
Now consider the average doctor will probably still be in debt until their 40s and 50s thanks to their student loan. So once they make it, I suppose they really don’t deserve that BMW or Audi after all that work right? If you don’t like it, go to medical school. Otherwise stop bitching because someone worked harder than you.
Caff: I don’t think the medical system should be changed because somebody drives a fancy car. I drive them, too. The AMA always likes to turn it into an envy accusation or turn immediately to claims about foreigners coming here, changing the subject. First, taxpayers already pay (and have since the 1950’s) more than half of the cost of a young MD’s education, including their residency. Second, the question isn’t what a Saudi or Chinese guy (or I) can afford. It is about what the median American can afford. The AMA’s answer is “it doesn’t matter what they can afford. We’re going to charge YOU for their care.” It is that simple. The system is neither fish nor fowl: It is neither free-market with openly bid prices and elimination of needless entry barriers, nor is it heavily regulated enough to make sure that costs are controlled. I either want it made as cheap as the typical European system, or I want not to be forced to pay for other people’s care, lots of other people. The barriers to entry are the largest problem, and they go hand-in-hand with failure to require set posted pricing. I’m sick of having to pay what they want to charge without having any choice, because most (52%) of their fees come from tax transfer payments. We are almost unique in the world in requiring an expensive four-year degree before beginning medical school. That is a waste. For dental education it is even more of a waste. If you want me to pay, let me have a say. If you want customers to pay without socialized transfer of wealth, be my guest. That is what I want.
To some degree of that I see as true, but residency is definitely worked off by the resident. As they are already an MD, they act as such and the hospital or learning facility they are at bills their time as such. They are also often asked to work 80 hour weeks with no weekends (even though they are only getting paid for 40).
Either way, the young doctor coming out of residency is in more debt than most of the nation and has the sacrifice of their best years to show for it. I agree our system is not perfect, but it is good enough to keep Europeans and non-US North Americans flooding our shores for medical care.
First off, I worked my ass off as well studying engineering, technology, etc and have debt as well.
Med school is hard because they deliberately try to weed out as many doctors as possible, not because it has to be.
Also, I don’t mind if they drive BMW’s, Audi’s, etc… but they shouldn’t plead poverty while doing so.. it makes no sense.
I’ve received medical care in other countries, namely Germany, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong (not China, Hong Kong has its own single payer system). The medical care I got in all of those countries was superior. A German doctor saved my life. Does it make me an unloyal American to say that another country is doing something right and we should try to learn from it? Also, malpractice suits? Are you seriously saying thats the only reason healthcare is so expensive? Its about 2% if that of total medical expenditures each year in this country. And where does malpractice figure in for blatant overcharging for medication, bandages, etc… Honestly, my guess is you are ignorant to the true cost because you’ve had it hidden from you by our insurance system and are too healthy to have experienced what happens when the insurance company chooses to stop paying the bills.
I’m fortunate to be married to a healthcare professional who can give me the inside scoop on all of this. She does business analysis and purchasing for hospitals and can tell you all about the racket of overcharging in this country.
Funny you should say that. I also worked my ass off studying engineering as well. Anyways, 2% of what part of the expenditure? If it’s suits I can see that. The problem is that malpractice insurance is certainly more than 2% of the typical physician’s total cost. In fact, it’s gotten so high that there is a serious shortage of OB/GYNs in Nevada, New York, and even DC.
As someone who has worked firsthand in a lot of the same crap your wife has to deal with; the overcharging has a lot to do with covering what insurance does not. As your wife will tell you, insurance will only cover a certain percentage of the total fee. Overcharging makes up for that difference.
I’m with you Mark.
Seriously, suppose a black man had shot a white kid a block from his dads house. Do you REALLY think that said hypothetical black gunman would NOT have been arrested. If you answered “yes” you might want to crawl out from under the rock you have been living under.
The police make shit up all the time to justify arresting folks. If this was my son I would damn sure what the cops to arrest this dude.
Plus the facts in this case are pretty damn fishy.
This kid was walking down the street Literally minding his own damn business and some weirdo stranger starts trailing him. So naturally he ignores him for a while then pulls his hood up and beats feet. Then Zimmerman follows him …after the 911 operator tells him Not to. A few minutes later Travon ends up dead.
I’m not saying that Zimmerman is guilty of murder, but I sure as hell think that a proper investigation is in order. Which is basically what the president said.
I find no fault with what the president said.
I wish I’d have seen the same outrage and desire to “get to the bottom” of the Brian Terry murder.
+100
Must. Divert. Attention. Away. from the economy, jobs, gas prices, inflation, Iran, Afganistan, Greece, the Euro, the falling dollar, the Eurozone, Italian bond yields, Spanish bond yields, Portuguese soaring suicide rate, the NOKs planning to launch a missile over Japan, the Japanese planning on shooting it down, the Chinese economy coming in for a hard landing, $15.5 trillion in debt, $108 WTI, and so on.
10 thugs were shot to death last weekend here in Chicago, with close to 50 being shot. I guess those shootings don’t make for good headlines like this one does since we’re not even supposed to have guns unless you jump thru 25 hoops while smokin’ Rahm pipe.
Are you implying that Obama has any control over Greece, Italian bond yields, the Eurozone, North Korea, the Japanese response to North Korea, and so on. I did not know that inflation was a problem. I know the economy is far from healthy, but there have been six straight months of job growth. Markets set prices for commodities, say, like gasoline, as I recall president Bush saying back in 2008 when the gas prices are almost exactly what they are now. Afghanistan? Yup, an ugly situation, and anyone who has invaded this tribal land, from Alexander to the USSR and the US has found out it is a crap place to try to govern. I guess I am not sure what your point was supposed to be.
Great, while he’s at it, maybe he can get to the bottom of the matter of John Corzine stealing $1.2 billion of segregated accounts.
If Obama had a son he’s be like MikeB the local gun-phobic nut.
I wasn’t offended by what POTUS said and while it was absolutely racial, it wasn’t racist. I think it was well rehearsed — if the question wasn’t planted it was certainly expected and he was prepared for it — and his answer may help him quell the disaffection felt by many of his black supporters.
He took a page from the Bill Clinton playbook. “I feel your pain.” He just expressed it in his own way. Sure, he’s going to get 95% of the black vote anyway, but he needs his core supporters to come out in droves. His response and his claim that he’d get to the bottom of a case without a bottom will help him.
I’m still waiting for him to tackle the issue of guns and self-defense. That’s where the mask will come off. I think he’s too savvy to say anything before the election, but I can hope.
Ralph, yours is the most intelligent post on this thread.
Ralph, I am far more interested in his arguments that support the premises that the indefinate detention and the execution without trials of US citizens is legal. Look at what the slippery slope of the Patriot Act has brought us to. Maybe it is because I live in the Midwest so I am not surrounded by coastal liberals, but I think the Democratic party has learned to stay away from gun rights issue.
This is actually a very interesting subject, legally speaking, but too far off topic to warrant commenting on here. Maybe one of the editors will pick this up as a subject for a story.
Seriously, the Constitution is being shredded, the Bush era policies expanded upon.
Seriously afraid you are correct, but there might be an amazingly cool reason for this. Obama and the Supreme Court are working together to create a better way to deal with institutions that destroy the economy. The Supreme Court declares corporations are people, so if they are based in the US, they are citizens. Obama signs a law that allows the targeting of US citizens for death or imprisonment without trial. So, the next time there is an institution or even an entire industry that acts in a way that creates a recession or depression, the president can either send in Hellfire missiles or disappear a whole bunch of executives.
Please note, this is my first attempt at a conspiracy theory, so I don’t have details worked out yet. Also, I fear I am not quite crazy enough to make this thing work out, even in my own mind. I think I need coffee now.
I didn’t see him say anything that bad. Its true, the kid could’ve been his son. I don’t get how thats incendiary. He basically said that we should all think about the family and not lose sight of the human tragedy here… and that he’ll leave the investigation up to the folks who are working it.
Anyone who sees racism there is probably doing some projection…
Right, seeing racism from a president with a history of unapologetic race-baiting is projection. Or perhaps some of us are on the defensive and rather on edge given the reverse-racists that have come out of the woodwork for this whole circus. Perhaps there’s only so many times we can bear the society-sanctioned hate coming in our direction before we start jumping at shadows.
But nah…easier to paint any whitey that doesn’t take society’s lash as “projecting.”
http://www.weerdworld.com/2012/zimmerman-911-tapes-revisited/
There are some things that happen in this country that are not about the President. The Gates arrest had nothing to do with him and neither does this shooting. He could have very easily commented that justice will be served when local law enforcement review the evidence and learn the facts.
” Or is that me being racist, ’cause Obama was actually playing the “it could of been my child” card?”
Apparently everything is now a “card”. No sentence structure or logical construct in opposition to conservative group think need be considered, it’s merely a “card”. Remember that the next time you want to play the “let the system work” card.
A liberal who is upset and claiming that we won’t consider logical arguments? People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, my friend.
And, by the way, the only “logic” I saw in the President’s statements was the cold logic of manipulatiom and social engineering. Stoking the fire is part of the broader agenda. Had this been an Asian, Latino or Caucasian child, this incident wouldn’t have been a blip on his radar.
Reprinted from SBPDL.com
Also, for those interested, here’s a more recent picture of Trayvon looking a little less baby-faced than the five or six year old pictures the media is using.
So how many times has a Black person walked into an all-white or predominately white neighborhood and not been shot?
Now, how many times has a Black person walked into an all-Black or predominately Black neighborhood and been shot?
Which is more dangerous for the Black person: walking into a white neighborhood or walking into a Black neighborhood?
If you’ve read Whitopia by Rich Benjamin you’ll know that when this Black writer ventured into almost exclusively white cities throughout the nation, he was treated with complete and overwhelming kindness.
If you’ve read your local newspaper from Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans, etc., you’ll know that the news (and local nightly news reports on ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX affiliates) primarily show a seemingly endless parade of human misery, courtesy of Black people.
Abductions. Burglaries. Flash Mob attacks. Shootings. Stabbings. Slayings. Rape. It gets depressing watching Black faces fill your screen, confirming immediately why you choose to safeguard your families health by living in a Whitopia.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution had the temerity to publish this story, the same day that Obama uttered the now infamous line, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” which discusses Black parents fears for their Black children without mentioning once that it is precisely because Black males commit such a disproportionate share of the crime in America that people harbor suspicions about them:
Her sons were 12 and 8 when Marlyn Tillman realized it was time for her to have the talk.
Buying a water gun was perfectly acceptable for their white friends, but not them. As young African-American men, she told them, even owning a water gun could make them an easy target for police.
“I could no longer keep them in the dark,” Tillman said. “I had to break it to them that the world sees them differently.”
According to a 2010 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, homicide was the leading cause of death for black males age 12-19.
In the weeks since young Trayvon Martin was gunned down in a gated community in Sanford, Fla., those truths have weighed heavily on black parents.
Tillman, a community activist and empty nester, lives in a middle-class, predominately white Snellville neighborhood.
Ruben Brown, 48, lives with his wife and 14-year-old son in Atlanta and, while not the suburbs, it is hardly the ‘hood. But like Tillman, he knows their middle-class status in no way equals safety when it comes to his son.
Although worries about the safety of adolescents are not the province of just black families or parents of boys, Tillman, Brown and other parents say raising black boys is perhaps the most stressful aspects of parenting because they know they’re dealing with a society that is fearful and hostile toward them, simply because of the color of their skin.
“Don’t believe it? Walk a day in my shoes,” Brown said.At 14, Brown said his son is at that critical age when he’s always worried about his safety because of profiling.
“I don’t want to scare him or have him paint people with a broad brush, but, historically, we black males have been stigmatized as the purveyors of crime and wherever we are, we’re suspect,” Brown said.
Black parents who don’t make that fact clear, he and others said, do it at their and their male children’s own peril.
“Any African-American parent not having that conversation is being irresponsible,” Brown said. “I see this whole thing as an opportunity for us to speak frankly, openly and honestly about race relations.”
Sigh. Homicide was the leading cause of death for Black males between the ages of 12-19, because Black males are pulling the trigger of guns aimed at these individuals. It’s called Black-on-Black murder. It’s not white people targeting Black people; it’s Black people targeting other Black people for execution, and in the process, making predominately Black neighborhoods unsafe.
Hence the rational decision by white people (and members of non-Black races) to move away from areas that have a high percentage of Black people.
But that’s not all; Black men are also the leading cause of death for Black females:
The number one killer of African-American women ages 15 to 34 is homicide at the hands of a current or former intimate partner.
Africana Voices Against Violence, Tufts University, Statistics, 2002,
So, as Black people don hoodie sweatshirts to plan “Million Hoodie Marches” (helping to further identify those who are potentially up to no good) around the nation, we’ll excuse the Black violence in Philadelphia that left an aspiring rapper dead:
A man has been shot in the head and killed during the filming of an amateur rap video in Philadelphia.
The shooting happened Thursday night in front of a crowd of about 100 people. Police say the man was in his late 20s or early 30s.
SBPDL would like to release a warning to all American’s over the upcoming weekend: Stay away from largely Black cities and venues frequented primarily Black people. The media and Organized Blackness has created a frenzy, a mob-mentality (greater than usual) within the Black community that can only be satiated by blood.
Welcome to Post-Racial America, where we are about to enter a scenario ripped straight out of the headlines of the Black riots in the 1960s. Black unemployment in many major American cities is at rates that surpass levels even then; Black dropout rates from school (and those who graduate aren’t exactly producing sterling resumes) are getting worse; and the slightest spark could ignite the powder-keg lodged in the racial truce – doused in gasoline by Mein Obama’s comments and the rhetoric of Organized Blackness leaders – which will immediately consume those areas “blighted” by the Visible Black Hand of Economics.
White people have tried to live by Martin Luther King’s vision of America, where content of character outweighs the color of one skin; Black people believe that all white people harbor racist thoughts towards them, and that their success is due to “white privilege.”
But it is stories like this out of Seattle, where a 15-year-old Black kid forced – at gunpoint – an employee of a coffee house (that he and two Black friends were robbing) to perform oral sex upon him that reinforce why white people take precautions around “the Blacks”:
A 15-year-old boy will serve 15 years to life in prison after pleading guilty as an adult to raping and robbing a barista in Lakewood.
Kyntrel Jackson was convicted of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of first-degree theft in a string of crimes prosecutors said he and two other men committed around the Lakewood area in September.
From our partners at The News Tribune:
…
Co-defendants Armuelle Danisel, 18, and Christopher Henson, 19, previously pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and other charges and were each sentenced to three years, five months in prison.
Police said that during a September 29 robbery at Bikini Bottom Espresso, Jackson forced a barista to strip and perform a sex act while holding a pistol to her head. The attack was caught on surveillance video and cell phone pictures Jackson took himself.
The barista’s stepfather said the attack has destroyed the woman’s life.
“Our family is in disarray,” the stepfather said. “(Her) life is upside down. It will be that way the rest of her life due to his actions.”
Jackson said virtually nothing duirng his court appearance Thursday.
His godmother said the family had tried for years to get help for the boy, but nothing worked.
“I know Kyntrel has to pay for his crimes he’s committed, but this is a case of where the state has failed a child,” Dorothea Holmes said.
Three of the robberies targeted bikini barista establishments. The fourth was of a citizen.
That story never made national headlines, did it?
There is no “beer summit” that can medicate and mend the ever-opening would that is race relations in America.
City that sees the first Black-on-white retaliatory strike for the actions of George Zimmerman (even though he’s not white)?
Milwaukee. This is the city that most resembles Detroit circa 1967, with cops there trying to police a sizable Black population that is largely responsible for ALL the violent crime in the city. Thus, the reason for more routine stops. Worse, the unemployment rate for Black males in Milwaukee (a city where Black-on-white violence is nothing new) is one of the highest in the nation.
Odds are high on Milwaukee.
Philadelphia doesn’t look to peaceful either, but that’s because the Black population can’t stop shooting one another (or attacking white people in Mahogany Mobs). Same goes for Chicago, where 40 people (almost exclusively Black) were shot last weekend.
Funny, almost two years prior in the Southside of Chicago, 40 people (almost exclusively Black) were shot by Black people.
None of this matters at all to Organized Blackness, because there is no mileage to gain from turning the slaying of a Black person (no matter how young) by a fellow Black person into a cause celebre. It happens to often for anyone to notice or care; when they do notice, it’s because a Black person is wearing a “hoodie” and potentially could be a dangerous person.
No, there’s only milage on stories like the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, with the Black community morally outraged and continually enraged by sensational media coverage and inflammatory rhetoric from the Organized Blackness leaders.
This is all going to end very ugly.
Ladies and gentlemen, the year of SBPDL has officially begun.
Have your Skittles ready for this one. It’s going to be a crazy weekend.
Taking a couple of breaths and resisting the flame. There is massive institutional racism in our society. Really. Truly. Black people get the short end of the stick. Are there exceptions? Of course. Do black people sometimes do bad things? Yes, they do. At roughly the same rate as white people in similar economic circumstances.
FLAME DELETED
There. That felt good.
Race relations are complicated business, but if we’re going to judge people (all created equal, right?) as individuals, then let’s judge them as individuals. And let’s be willing to look at our society in the mirror.
I don’t disagree with your comments but I would like to point out that some black leaders like Sharpton do not help race relations and seem to foster race tensions to help his own cause and power in the black community- I feel he wants riots to support his position – people like him and the fact that so many people support him makes race relations more difficult.
Al Sharpton is what he is, no doubt, but have you listened to Newt campaigning in the South?
I wonder which of our large political organization’s political philosophy tends to accentuate the individual and which accentuates the group. You be the judge.
For once, I appreciate the “FLAME DELETED.” I do abhor the racism that so often rears its head on TTAG, including that espoused by James, but I over did it, I guess.
Why is it always the white people who scream, “RRRAAAAAACISM” the loudest?
Almost like they have something to prove.
someone needs to go make his own website
Oh? Who would that be? It would appear, just glancing around, that lots of people went and made their own websites.
You, James… You need your own website. Ease up on the race baiting dude.
How can I ease up on the race baiting, when this entire story is race bait?
Or are you forgetting that the MSM went with the traditional “white guy with gun shoots innocent black child” story for the first few days or week of the story?
Are you ignoring the fact that the mediais using outdated and misleading pictures of TM in order to foment racial tensions?
Why use this outdated picture
http://i39.tinypic.com/j9tu2f.jpg
When this is closer to reality
http://i39.tinypic.com/2udx4di.jpg
The whole issue is being overplayed to demonize guns, white people, and white people who carry guns.
You can sit back in your easy chair with your snifter of brandy, and in your best Thurston Howell III accent say, “This isn’t about race, dahling, let’s just see what the authorities have to say about all this,” from your lily-white suburb, but talk like that isn’t going to help me when a horde like this
http://i42.tinypic.com/2mf12ds.jpg
comes spilling over Eight Mile, looking for white people to victimize in the name of “justice” for a perceived wrong.
Okay. First off, you are right about the media hamming up the kid’s sympathetic image with clearly outdated and less threatening images. There is clearly bias there.
Bias is a trait all humans possess. What about your biases? I grew up in a majority black area, went to majority black k-12 schools and have some vivid memories of getting jumped a couple of times for my race. But it was always the same few guys doing it… not everyone. My ass got saved from getting jumped more times than that by friends of mine who were black…
Detroit is different from where I’m from by one big factor… we all went to the same school together. Most of the folks I know from Detroit are really from the outside suburbs where most of the students were white or middle eastern… and whose only interaction with blacks was through the window of their SUVs or getting hassled at a mall or movie theater by black teens.
No one can blame white guys from Detroit for thinking about everything in white/black terms.. but that doesn’t make it right. You’re just thinking along the same lines as the angry, poor, and ignorant black kids you are so scared of. Don’t get caught in the trap.
PS- I hate Brandy. I like Bourbon. And I live in a city. I had a few ribs broken by kids with names like Cornell and JeMarquis… but my best man at my wedding was also black..
See past the colors dude.
“Anyway, check out the sign on the left”.
— I did. ‘the sign on the “left”‘. That sorta has a funny political symbolic meaning to it.
I’m curious, during the past 20-30-40 years, have blacks been more victimized by white violence based on racial hate and fear or have more whites been victimized by black violence based on racial hate and fear?
Don’t just consider the of individual racism and violence. Consider the societal picture – policing practices, the whole “justice” system.
I’ve considered it. What do you think we should do about it?
That’s a tough one. I guess it will take a whole change in mindset, for a lot of people. “Gangs” (loose, disorganized groups, at best) exist to fill a vacuum in society. No family, no community, what do you do? If you’re 17, you’ll come up with some bad ideas.
So, I would say empathy, which seems to be at odds with the “rugged individualism” embraced by many here. A little empathy, put yourself in the other guy’s shoes. And a little love. Jesus style. I am not religious myself, but I’m a fan of the Johnny Cash school of Christianity.
Courage. Don’t be afraid. Many people who arm themselves do so out of fear. That’s the wrong reason.
Talk to people outside of your comfort zone.
Some good advice. I do so most everyday. Being interracially married makes it impossible to not 😉
Maybe you can help to be that bridge between individual freedom and societal justice. I guess that’s basically my mission with TTAG.
you all are just pissed he didn’t say something more easily criticizeable like with the professor gates arrest.
Who is all of us? Why are the majority of your posts sweeping generalizations about people you have never met?
It’s MikeB’s fault. It just rubs off on people.
Ah, the good old racist NAACP. It’s good to always be reminded that white males are second class citizens in the US.
So who is the new first class? Only Asian men out earn white guys on average in this country, and that is just salary. In terms of wealth, Caucasians still dominate. One thing we all know about the USA, money is power.
I don’t think he was referring to wealth. I think he was referring to that it is hardest for males ages 18-35 that are white to gain employment, benefits and social security benefits that would otherwise by signed and stamped in a jiff for anyone else that was not white with the same skillset. Back home in Canada I once applied for a local police force. The written test for me required a 90% to pass. The physical required me to be able to lift a 200 pound man down 5 flights of stairs, to run 1.6 miles in (I forget but it was a lot less for females and minorities). Last and not least I had to first be familiar with shotguns, rifles and be able to learn handgun skills within the preferred timeframe with a certain amount of target to paper AND it was preferable to have self defense skills (Karate was one – which I did have).
For women (white women) there was a written test of 85% to pass. The physical did not require the heavy lifting if the female was of a certain stature. The guns part was taught without consideration or concern. The self defense was also taught.
For Native-American Canadians the score for the written test was determined on an individual basis. The physical was the same for guys. The weapons courses were taught. And you were pretty much guaranteed a spot because you were a Native.
Good times. Not discriminatory at all. No…
This past summer I have been applying to jobs in New Mexico. I have gotten an interview on almost every post I put out there. So far I have not been selected because I didn’t meet the diversity quotient. Because I was not an Indian in one case (native American – they said Indian not me). Not female. Not disabled. Not ex-military. An immigrant but not from a country on the list to fill diversity and lastly but not least because I didn’t already live there and they stated that they didn’t want anymore outsiders.
Understood. Any job thats Gov’t AND Unionized is also very political…
Any state that has a large minority population has noticed that it has a problem where the demographics of their police force don’t even closely resemble the demographics of the population at large. Its thought that this creates issues…. I don’t agree with it, but its said policing is much more effective when people from a community police it.
Besides, the whole “outsider” thing is more about the white good ‘ol boys not needing some dang Mounty coming down and taking their Jerbs.
Make that government, unionized or not.
My big angry comment has, again, vanished. Maybe it’s for the best. Or maybe it will show up later.
The sign on the left is the gem. Come on, TTAGers, voice your support for armed, angry black folks.
I’m all for African Americans exercising their 2nd amendment rights just like I do. What’s your point?
My point is that non-white folks are far more likely to lose their 2A rights because of non-violent drug offenses (which whites commit at the same rate), or other minor felonies (also committed by whites at roughtly the same rate). By and large, blacks are subjected to far more police scrutiny and far more prosecutorial zeal than whites, from petty theft up to capital murder. Stats back me up. I grind this axe a lot here on TTAG, and some agree with me. Our law-enforcement industrial complex is racist. I don’t blame individual LE officers (well, maybe some of them), any more than I blame a PFC for the war in Afghanistan. The system is rotten. A black kid gets busted, he’s a criminal. A white college kid gets busted, he made a mistake.
I don’t disagree with anything you wrote there. I guess what I’m trying to say is that you might find more agreement among us than you think.
Race is an issue the establishment loves to use (as illustrated by the media’s reaction to this case) to keep us angry with each other.
That way, THEY’RE never threatened.
Yeah, I agree, Mike. Look at Puff Daddy in the 90’s. Have you seen his bio? He started the whole East coast, West coast rapper war thing with a friend (an old Jewish music producer/label owner I believe) on the admitted basis that they would make themselves rich on the hate and stupidity of those that thought this wasn’t a joke. Look it up. It is hilarious in a sad, sad way. A whole demographic and hundreds of lives (at least) lost to this silly rapper music turf war that was fabricated.
Very few things, and I mean VERY few things, bother me more than the idea of ANY person living in a crime infested neighborhood with no economic means for escape AND no basic human right to self defense because a smug, know-nothing city bureaucrat robbed them of it. My heart BLEEDS for honest folk living with that kind of fear. When they rightfully seek to acquire arms to protect themselves then they are labeled as part of the criminal element they are differentiating themselves from. Big brother gun laws only seek to control and criminalize good people while making it harder for honest folks in those conditions.
Well said.
The truth about politics! Lol… We can argue all day but it comes down to it… innocent until proven guilty. Or it should. Lets let the justice system do its thing. I mean come on, it worked well for Casey Anthony so I don’t know why “you people” are so upset.
I was talking to my Daughter about the Mrtin-Zimmerman incident and all of the Internet, Media and Black Outrage and how the mob wants to lynch Zimmerman. She is on the Academic Team and the subject for this year was the Revolutionary War Period.
This Martin-Zimmerman incident reminds her a lot of the Boston Massacre as depicted in the Mini-Series John Adams.
I do not believe we have all the facts of this case and from some of the sketchy ones presented thus far, it is possible that Martin might have initiated the final physical attack on Zimmerman and beat him so severely that it ended in a gunshot.
I have been a Turnkey for a Church and a Company Officer responsible for the security of a Foundry on weekends. I have diplomatically confronted people about their whereabouts on the above premises, and had people flee from me. While I was not an LEO, by the same token, I was not entitled to be beaten by them. At the Foundry I am not saying I was armed, but then again I am not saying that I was not.
As far as the Sanford Dispatcher instructions being ignored, that was stupid of Zimmerman, but the Police Chief stated that it was not legally binding.
I think my Daughter is correct in that this does resemble the mobocracy of the Boston Massacre and that people are behaving about as badly.
I disagree with John Adams on many things, but I did agree with his actions of defending the British Troops through a fair trial.
Its not even close to the Boston incident.
That was a mob that approached the British soldiers positions and started attacking them with ice, rocks, etc… and escalated it. They were angry, they were loud, they were definitely a legitimate threat.
You compare that to a kid, walking down a sidewalk, minding his own damn business, on the phone with his girlfriend… getting scared and threatened by a strange, non-uniformed, and aggressive individual following him.
I’ll be frank. If I was in Mr. Martin’s shoes.. I would have had my hand on my gun when Mr. Zimmerman approached me. Especially after it was obvious he was following me.
BTW, Zimmerman DID use a racial slur on the phone… audio guys from three different organizations have scrubbed and magnified it. He said “fucking coons”.
Ambiguous? Yes. Like the Boston Massacre. Hell no. And I hope your daughter’s teacher will actually teach them instead of having them watch an HBO show… thats just lazy teaching all the way.
Unfortunately, you are right Ralph
Just like huck said above I wonder why he is not publicly outraged over the HUNDREDS of murders of Mexican citizens that his administration and the gun walking ATF are directly responsible for. That doesn’t qualify as a “tragedy”? We don’t need to “investigate every aspect of ” that one huh? I guess those people don’t look enough like him? He’s a damn lying hypocrite responsible for the murders of hundreds of mexican citizens. Now he wants to get to the bottom of this tragedy. I’m going to puke.
Why doesn’t he vow to get to the bottom of Gun Walker and the deaths of the border patrol agents it caused?
Why don’t he get to the bottom of Fast and Furious which is a federal problem and leave this to the state of Fl.
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