Stand Your Ground, or Make My Day?

“Hey Dad,”  Trayvon called out,  “I’m going to run down the the store for some skittles.”  

“O.K.,  got enough money?”

“Yeah, I got more than enough, thanks – be right back!”
“Oh –  Trayvon!”

“Yes  dad?”

“Don’t forget your gun.”

“I don’t have any bullets, Dad.”  The door opens.  “I’ll be O.K.”

“Here – take mine.”  The father said, “You don’t know who you might run into.”
“I’ll be all right, I’ll hurry,”

“NO!”  The father’s voice resonated, “Don’t go out there, it’s pitch dark.  There might be somebody out there looking for trouble.”

“Well, sigh, O.K.”

“And remember, if anybody starts stalking you, or coming after you, in Florida now all you need, to shoot somebody, is to feel like you’re in danger.”

“O.K. Dad, I’ll be right back, don’t worry.” 

Obviously, Trayvon didn’t take a gun on his fatal trip.  But if he had, he probably would have had a much more compelling reason to use it than his killer did.  Apparently he discovered he was being followed on his way home.  According to his girl friend, who was talking with him on his mobile phone right before he was shot, Trayvon knew somebody was following him, he knew he was being stalked.  He knew he was in trouble.  He certainly had reason to feel like he was in danger.  

If I had been Trayvon, and if I had had a gun, and I knew a five-foot ten-inch 250 pound man was coming after me in the dark, I might have pulled that gun and informed the stranger that I was armed and asked him to leave me alone.  If he didn’t, and still came toward me, then I might have fired a warning shot into the earth before I decided to Stand My Ground.  But Travon didn't have a gun.  And in Florida now, if you don't have a gun in your pocket, you don't have any ground to stand on. 

ALEC and the Koch Brothers, Fascist Powers

The suddenly spotlighted “Stand Your Ground” laws that are sprouting up all over America, along with efforts to eliminate state unions, movement toward private prisons such as CCA, attacks on Planned Parenthood and even questions about contraception are all indications of fascism at work in the United States.  The question remained, who is behind all this?  Now finally comes a finger pointing.  Whose finger?  Paul Krugman.  He doesn’t mention the Koch brothers, but they are the forces behind their cover, which Krugman is beginning to remove.  Krugman's finger points to the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC, which now numbers at least 2,400 state legislators as members across the United States.  ALEC has been associated with attempts to privatize functions normally performed by government.  ALEC wants to turn those operations into profit-making work.  Theoretically, taxes will go down but  people will pay more for services previously provided by government employees and some company will make a profit from that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/opinion/krugman-lobbyists-guns-and-money.html?_r=2&hp

http://savannahnow.com/bluffton-opinion/2012-01-11/norquist-alec-and-koch-brothers#.T3CguHgh95g

http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/a-primer-on-alec-its-influence-and-its-presence-in-north-carolina/Content?oid=2666829

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/03/11356/arizona’s-alec-leader-wants-your-boss-make-decisions-about-your-contraception-cov

Trayvon, Zimmerman and the Coming Riots

This much is certain:   The investigation into the shooting of Martin by Zimmerman was over and had been closed. 

Chris Serino, the chief homicide investigator in the Sanford police department had recommended that Zimmerman be arrested the night of the shooting, but Incredibly, the senior State Attorney for the district, Norman Wolfinger came there there that night and said to drop the matter. 

Zimmerman’s father, Robert Zimmerman, is a retired judge or magistrate from the state of Virginia. 

No investigation of the killing was ever conducted thus there is no evidence of injuries to either party except, of course, that Martin was killed and a funeral office employee said he saw no sign of injury to Martin’s hands or face indicating a fight.   Also Zimmerman’s gun was never confiscated or officially inspected.

Although Zimmerman “received  a scalp wound requiring stitches”, no one ever made those stitches, and a video of him in the police department right after the shooting showed no blood, and scalp wounds are famously bloody.  

Zimmerman was well known by the Sanford police department after having placed at least 46 calls on the 911 system in 14 months, or about one every 10 days. 

This event was plunged into a “trial by media” because there was never to be an investigation conducted into the event and there would never be any other kind of trial.

George Zimmerman is a dead man walking.  He can never be A) released from “hiding” and walk free ever again, B) put in any jail in Florida or C)  be incarcerated in any prison in America.  

Finally, this is not the end of this issue.  It is only the beginning of the realization of a great national tragedy.  All that is missing between this awareness of the problem long simmering and a race-riot explosion is the occurrence of some kind of a middle event.  Let’s hope there will be some legal resolution beginning to take place SOON.   This country is too well armed to let something like this get totally out of control. Unfortunately, the elected officials involved here seem to be willing to sit back and wait.