Roger Ebert and I don’t agree on much, from politics to movies. But share a fondness for Samuel L. Jackson and a contempt for George Zimmerman.
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Roger Ebert and I don’t agree on much, from politics to movies. But share a fondness for Samuel L. Jackson and a contempt for George Zimmerman.
Ebert notes, “Although Jackson made this video some time ago and it was not directed specifically to Zimmerman, I believe it now takes on a special resonance.” Indeed.
via Spencer Ackerman
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I’ll give Jackson credit on one item: Jules Winnfield is one of the most iconic characters in history.
Regarding Zimmerman, it’s touching to know the chattering classes have arrested him, indicted him, arraigned him, conducted a preliminary hearing, tried him, found him guilty, sentenced him, denied all of his appeals, denied all post-appeal collateral attacks, and executed him for good measure.
Maybe I’m cut from a different cloth, but especially in the wake of the Duke Lacrosse fiasco I prefer to maintain a healthy degree of skepticism and circumspection when it comes to race-tinged, crime-based events and allegations, over which for obvious reasons the liberal mass media instantly and reflexively will go into high dudgeon mode. Hell, you’d have a better chance betting on 13 in a craps game than to bet on the media playing it straight when a black kid gets shot by a non-black shooter. You catch my drift, right? Also, you do realize, don’t you, that if the races were reversed (white kid getting shot by black man with an apparent vigilante bent) nobody outside of immediate family members and witnesses even would know it happened? Not unless a John Muhammad sniper scenario erupted and the liberal media had no choice but to cover it.
That all said, I’m certainly not here to defend this Zimmerman character. Quite the contrary, I could not care less about him. If a jury eventually finds him guilty even of M1 and imposes the death penalty I wouldn’t lose a nanosecond of sleep over it. Thing is, Chief, in that event there would have been a trial and a verdict. By a jury. In a court of law. Before a judge. Capiche?
@Tsar Nicholas: Note that this video by Jackson long predates Zimmerman story; it’s Ebert who’s making this connection.
The difference between this and Duke basketball is that, there, we had the word of alleged victims and slowly found reasons to disbelieve. Here. we have the entire thing on audio recording. It’s just different.
Regarding Zimmerman, it’s touching to know the chattering classes have arrested him, indicted him, arraigned him, conducted a preliminary hearing, tried him, found him guilty, sentenced him, denied all of his appeals, denied all post-appeal collateral attacks, and executed him for good measure.
Indeed, about as touching to know that the usual suspects want to give Zimmerman such a benefit of the doubt and argue in any way that they can that Trayvon Martin was, or might have been, the real aggressor in this situation…
You catch my drift, right?
Oh, we catch your drift alright, but probably not in the way that you think…
Zimmerman was a classic neighbourhood type, an officious busybody who saw himself as the guardian of public order. Why on earth he wasn’t given a severe talking-to when he abused the 911 system to report potholes in local roads is a mystery. One of my aunts was threatened with a fine if she didn’t stop doing much the same thing in her town (in her case, it was an obsession with dogs running around off-leash). I’ll bet the 911 operators had some charming pet names for him that he wouldn’t have enjoyed hearing.
Greetings:
I’m sure that “Mrs. Ebert” will approve of hubby’s contribution to the reverse-racism fandango of the moment. As to those 10 people who were murdered in Chicago last weekend, whence came our President Obama and where Mr. Ebert established his contribution to our culture, well, sometimes timing is everything and these gentlemen’s race dance cards were already full. As were they, but in a different way.
But, certainly, Mr. Jackson is a powerful actor. And whom better to believe than a man whose profession is to speak the words and portray the emotions of others.
@James Joyner: Ummm, I think the difference here might be the dead child…
It really is touching how the person using the pseudonym “11B40” is so concerned about those 10 people murdered in Chicago, some of whom may have been “Negroes” as “11B40” likes to call them…oh wait, could it be that this concern on his part is more about trying to smear the President and Roger Ebert? Nooooo, it couldn’t be that…by the way, Mr. Jackson the actor certainly seems to have more credibility than this “11B40” character…
Well, there’s also a witness
“The guy on the bottom, who had a red sweater on, was yelling to me, ‘Help! Help!’ and I told him to stop, and I was calling 911,” said the witness, who asked to be identified only by his first name, John.
John said he locked his patio door, ran upstairs and heard at least one gun shot.
“And then, when I got upstairs and looked down, the guy who was on the top beating up the other guy, was the one laying in the grass, and I believe he was dead at that point.”
According to government statistics, in 2009 168 blacks between the age of 12-24 where killed by whites (Hispanics or non-hispanic) while 1700 blacks between the age of 12-224 where killled by other blacks.
Yet, virtually every part of the MSM keeps reporting as if blacks are are more risk due to whites and due to blacks.
I thought progressives were the fact-based, rational types. Yet, they cannot understand the simpliest risk statistic.
Well, Zimmerman might get away with it, which points at an entirely different problem than simply violence.
But yeah, let’s use random deflections and abstractions to avoid talking about the current event and the current situation.
@Console:
The whole case is a PC deflection. Can we anticipate that as the U.S becomes a one party state, that the ruling elite will go on a two-minute hate about once a month to send to a message to the groups that the elite do not like.
I guess the elites just can put any energy to the fact that blacks are murder at a much higher per capita rate than white and that most of the killers are other blacks.
Also, you do realize, don’t you, that if the races were reversed (white kid getting shot by black man with an apparent vigilante bent) nobody outside of immediate family members and witnesses even would know it happened?
Just look at this chart. Tsar. And put the lie to your statement.
Idiot.
@Fog:
It is the left that believes in group guilt. That is what the left uses to justify affirmative action and violating the civil rights of whites. Just look at Jennifer Gratz who the STate of Michigan decide to punish just because she was white.
PBS’ Newshour ran an excellent piece on this case that featured, among others, the Florida Representative who co-authored the “stand-your-ground” statute.
The law as written seems very problematic, and in the past 18 months, there has been a sharp increase in the number of cases that feature a defendant claiming this statute.
Ignore the fabulists – the tragedy here is that a worthy young man is needlessly dead.
@DRS:
Progressive are already migrating to places like Portland which is overwhelmingly white instead of places like Los Angeles.
Of course, I keep proposing that is progressives did not have snark, they would have nothing to say and when I read your post, all I can say is Q.E. D.
Tayvon Martin is the New Matthew Sheppard.
As with Sheppard, much is being made of this case, while the loins share of violent crime.. there in Sanford, as with most of America, mostly Black and Black or Black on White, gets ignored because it doesn’t push the agenda.
Look, Gang… That Zimmerman, the shooter, may be as McPhillips says, Barney Fife on ibogaine, strikes me as a reasonable conclusion to draw, though as yet unproven. ]That said I can’t help but wonder if there would be so much screaming about this case if the kid were white.The scenario being offered up by the leftist media just now is right online with the left wing mantra that anyone who believes in law and order is inherently racist. Given that history, it seems reasonable to ask if we’re getting the whole story here. I suspect we are not. Nor, I suppose, will we.What we have here is a minefield. On the one hand we have the race huxters and on the other hand we have the anti second amendment people. Historically neither one of these is been attached to the truth in any great amounts. . As McPhillips says…
The way this is going, there will be five hundred lies around the world before the truth can get its pants on. Next up we’ll see Occupy Wall Street signs reading “Justice for Trayvon Martin,” and we’ll hear about it all summer, and then the fall, right into November.
Think that’s an exaggeration? I don’t. Repeatedly, Zimmerman has been reported to be white. He is not. He is Hispanic, in fact. That point alone suggests that there is at least a certain level of manipulation going on. Which begs the question, manipulation to favor what and whom, precisely?
This answer is rather breathtaking in it’s simplicity and implication and is of a kind with Matt Sheppard’s case… the left. I note with some degree of interest that both the anti-gunners and the race huxters are within the core constituency of the current occupant of the White House. And didn’t we see the bamster try to leap out in front of this thing yesterday? (If he were my own son….)
Stand your ground is a nice catchphrase but completely erroneous in this situation. When he discharged his firearm, Zimmerman was on the ground being pummeled yelling for help. (His statement, physical evidence as noted in the police field report, 911 tape, eyewitness statement) When you are on the ground being hit, beaten, whatever you want to call it, there is no duty to retreat before using force to stop the attack as there is no way to retreat without using force to stop the attack.
The unfortunate chain of events that led to the use of deadly force are just that unfortunate but it is only the situation immediately prior to and at the time of the use of deadly force that matter in the use of that force.
As you feel the police “swept this under the rug,” what do you feel Zimmerman should be indicted for?
@JKB:
There is considerable evidence that Zimmerman many have provoked the confrontation with Martin by following him, both in his car and on foot, when he had been told not to and even though there was no reasonable threat to Zimmerman’s life or safety at the time. Provocation would void any claim of self-defense.
As for where the police dropped the ball, let me list a few:
1. By not following up on 911 transcripts and witness reports which clearly seem to contradict Zimmerman’s statements
2. By not following up on who Martin was or why he may have been in the neighborhood in a time manner. Had they done so, they would have discovered the last person to talk to Martin, moments before the confrontation, who gives a very different story of what went down than Zimmerman did
3. By failing to test Zimmerman for drugs or alcohol to determine if he may have been under the influence at the time of incident. Bizarrely, they did test Martin’s corpse for drugs and alcohol for no apparent reason. Those tests came back negative
4. By apparently failing to consult at all with the State’s Attorney before deciding not to pursue charges. He is a lawyer, they are not, and he is the one responsible for deciding whether to prosecute a case.
And that’s just off the top of my head.
Without knowing Florida law I cannot comment directly on potential charges. However, this could potentially be either Voluntary Manslaughter or 2nd Degree Murder
but the real quesiton is why is this case drawing so much attention when the murder of a 6 y/o black girl in Chicago killed by two members of the “Latin Kings” gang drawing no attention.
Are middle class neighborhood watch members really a bigger danger to blacks than drug gangs or is using the issue to beat up on “Racist whites” the real issue with this case?
Also, why are blacks insisting that Zimmerman be arrested, convicted, and set to jail when they always talk about presumed innocent when blacks are accused to breaking the law? Has the double standard in the U.S. gone so far that people who are assumed to be “white” even when they are not are presumed guilty and should not be given a trial?”
1. The witness report I linked to above, reported in the media on Feb 27, is fully supportive of Zimmerman’s statement of being in an altercation where he called for help and then used deadly force to end a perceived threat of serious bodily injury or death.
2. The individual on the phone had no information that directly impacted the moment of the physical altercation that led to the use of deadly force.
3. The presence of drugs or alcohol in Zimmerman do not alter the objective facts of whether his use of deadly force was reasonable. While, and I don’t know Florida law, it might have impacted the legality of his firearm possession, it wouldn’t impact the use of that firearm in defense of his life.
4. This blew up in the media just as the investigation was turned over to the State Attorney for disposition. I don’t know where you live but the police do not make prosecution determinations, only investigations with arrests when supported by reasonable suspicion of a crime. Where the crime is not evident, the arrest follows the decision to prosecute, in Florida, by the State Attorney since Florida doesn’t require a grand jury true bill to prosecute. My understanding is the investigation had only been under review by the State’s Attorney’s office for a week before the media/blog circus got going full steam.
P
rovocation would void any claim of self-defense.
Not true, while you cannot claim self defense for threats that are not to your life when an aggressor, I don’t know of any jurisdiction that denies anyone the right to use of force to stop a reasonable threat of death or serious bodily injury. I don’t remember where but a commenter on a site, posted the florida law that specifically provides the exception to the use of deadly force in the face of threat of death or serious bodily injury even as it denies self defense to the aggressor. An aggressor may also use force in self defense if they retreat and make clear they do not wish to continue the aggression.
In any case, we don’t have clear evidence of who started the physical altercation but there is a witness that Martin was on top of Zimmerman pursuing an attack even as witnesses yelled they were calling 911. You may only use the force necessary to stop the threat. Having someone on the ground, yelling for help is a good indicator the threat has been stopped.
but the real quesiton is why is this case drawing so much attention when the murder of a 6 y/o black girl in Chicago killed by two members of the “Latin Kings” gang drawing no attention.
First, it’s not “drawing no attention,” which is why you know about it. Second, police are actively pursuing the perps and have been from the start.
Also, why are blacks insisting that Zimmerman be arrested, convicted, and set to jail when they always talk about presumed innocent when blacks are accused to breaking the law?
Who are these “blacks” who insist that people on tape killing people should go uncharged with crimes? Sure, many–including many of we white folk–insist that the state convince a grand jury before formal charges are filed and then insist that the state convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt of guilt before sentencing. But there’s very little clamoring out there to let shooters go unarrested.
the statement about drawing no attention was comparitive, james, and you know it.
further, unless you’re going to suggest that the crime stats down there are inaccurate, you’re going to have to explain to us how your statement meshes with the higher per capita black crime vs that of the remaining groups.
If Zimmerman was named Gonzales, I dbout if this story would have made the national news. Progressives would not be able to launch a two-minute hate against white if the news where changes.
If you want to know the difference if the races were changed, if a black man had shot an unarmed white kid, Al Shapton, Charles Blow, and the black grieve-industrial complex would be screaming innocent until proven guilt and would taking about self-defense.
AIP; Well, perhaps this case would interest you? David points out at BitsBlog this morning a case which came to mind for me when this Sanford thing broke:
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n a 2009 case in Greece, New York, he was, from American Thinker:
We know this because in fact, such an event occurred in 2009 in Greece, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester. Roderick Scott, a black man, shot and killed an unarmed white teen, Christopher Cervini, whom he believed was burglarizing a neighbor’s car, with a licensed .40 cal. handgun.
There are many similarities between the Scott-Cervini case and the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case in Florida. In both cases, there had been a spate of criminal activity in the neighborhood. In both cases, the shooters called 911 to report suspicious activity, yet chose to confront the unarmed suspects outside their residence and off their own property prior to the arrival of the police. In both cases, the shooters claimed that they felt threatened, and fired in self-defense. In both cases, local law enforcement applied relevant state law
It was local to me, confusing and much discussed. From the news accounts, it was hard to get a read of the case. and I never did. In the end, I did what the community did, trust the jury to figure it out. They did, and acquitted the shooter, with no Reverend Al, national media attention local riots are thinly veiled threats of violence.
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So, explain the difference, hmmm?
Well, one notable difference is that Scott was arrested immediately and charged with murder…
BINGO
He should have stayed in the car because he was in no physical danger from this person he saw and had no evidence that this person posed a danger to him or anyone else.
as I’ve been saying all along, how about we wait until such time as the evidence is in before we start making these judgments?
