Tosh wrote:I thought it had been proven closer to home.
solicitr wrote:Cheap, cheap shot.
I'd have to say that shot was a bullseye.
Being really perplexed by the inconclusiveness of the whole Martin incident, I did something that I almost never do in cases like this where the media has spewed all over everything and made the truth impenetrable. I devoted 2-3 days during summer listening to everything about the incident that was available on the internet - trial testimony (particularly the testimony of the CSI who examined the gun and holster), maps of the area showing the path that both men walked, Zimmerman's first interview with the police, the tapes of his phone call to 911, and the testimony of Martin's woman friend (particularly her testimony regarding Martin's words while standing out of the rain by the mailboxes and watching Zimmerman watching him).
By the time I had listened to everything I felt like I did understand what happened that night. The prosecution probably had no chance of getting a conviction in Florida, given Florida's gun laws and given the incredibly stupid decisions that both these men made. But I think that if it had happened in Pennsylvania, the State would have gotten their conviction, certainly for second degree murder if not for first degree.
But more importantly, what prompted me to seriously read up on this case were the things I read on this forum about Trayvon Martin. And the one inescapable conclusion I drew is that all of the posting by solicitr and Heretic was vile fabrication. Vile and aimed at defaming a kid. Why? What could possibly motivate the hatred, lies, and defamation of Trayvon Martin that peppered this thread?
Me, I think this thread was the poster child for the form racism takes in America today. We don't have hundreds of lynchings begging for space in our newspapers. Instead we are deafened by blame-the-victim diatribes, whether it is blaming Black victims of crime for their own deaths and dressing up foul slanders about their personal lives, or blaming Blacks who get ahead of us for reverse discrimination, or hysterical lies about our Black president and mockery of his Black wife.
It was vomitous to go back and read the posts of solicitr and Heretic after listening to the evidence available online, such as it was. Unfortunately every thread in the forum sounds like that these days: full of made-up stuff, foul language, sneers,
ad hominem attacks. Three people are responsible for all of it. Everyone else is hogtied and frustrated responding to them. Enough to keep me away most of the time.
I'm glad Tosh said a subtle something about it.