[2ndDivisionVet]

The buddy system? That's been done to death, as it were.

[School of Rational Thought]

And these “clergy” have tax exempt status how?

[metmom]

I guess *Innocent until proved guilty* doesn’t apply when a *white* (Hispanic) man shoots a *black* (7/8 white) thug in self-defense because the 5’ 11” thug is sitting on top of him beating the tar out of him.

[metmom]

“We’re going to have to teach our boys how to be safe. We’re going to have to teach our young boys about what the law says what are their rights and how to protect themselves and using a buddy system. We’re going to have to do something significant to protect our young boys.”

How about teaching them to be MEN?!?!?!

A good start would be to not pick fights.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Whats' with Stand Your Ground? Zimmerman's lawyers did not invoke it; and even if FL had no SYG law, Zimmerman's actions would have been legally justified as self defense, because when he was on his feet he didn't know he was moments away from blunt force head trauma on a concrete sidewalk; and from the first blow, he was on his back and could not retreat.

According to the account recorded in a Florida Department of Law Enforcement interview with one of his neighbors, Martin got into the neighborhood watch captain's face and said, " 'Do you have a problem, Mother Fucker?' Zimmerman said he responded, 'No, I don't have a problem.' Martin then allegedly said, 'You do now,' and struck Zimmerman in the face, knocking him to the ground.

So the question of "retreat" did not come up. One moment, 5 seconds' worth of words; the next moment, you're "seeing stars", and a guy is straddling you and bashing our head on the pavement.

The SYG laws arose in states where the common law right to self defense had been so severely limited that innocent people were being prosecuted. Moms and dads were INDICTED for MURDER if, while cornered in their own homes by criminal thugs, they shot one of them dead. The SYG laws were a direct reaction to this kind of case: this is why SYG and "Castle Doctrine" laws were passed in some form in some 20 - 30 states.

John Lott (author of "More Guns, Less Crime") reports that states adopting SYG laws reduced violent crime by 11 percent, even after accounting for other variables such as national crime trends, law enforcement variables (arrest, execution, and imprisonment rates), income and poverty measures, etc. For the record, black defendants in Florida criminal investigations assert "stand your ground" twice as often as whites.

One-third of all SYG defendants in FL are black; African Americans make up less than 17 percent of Florida's population. When black defendants invoked the law, they were successful as often as whites. Discounting cases that are still pending, their success rate was 69 percent of the times SYG was invoked, compared to 65 percent overall and 62 percent for whites.

Of course there are many factors here; I am concerned, however, about law-abiding black families being left defenseless against gang-bangers.

[MEGoody]

“There is a license through the George Zimmerman verdict that any White male that feels threatened can shoot a Black boy and be justified,” said Rev. Anthony Evans, president of the National Black Church Initiative.

Oh puhleeze. Black boys are in much more danger from other black boys than they are from whites or hispanics. 93% of murder of young, black men are committed by other young, black men.

Ah, but such truths don't help the cause of race-baiters such as Tony.