Posted on 07/22/2013 6:52:27 AM PDT by Steve Peacock
4-year courtroom gauntlet of false racist accusations described
He stalked him. He’s a racist. That white man attacked him because he was black. Justice was not adequately served at the criminal-court level. Federal intervention is necessary.
Yes, politicians, so-called “activists” and their mainstream media mouthpieces are throwing these claims around, jockeying for position as they exploit “white-Hispanic” George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the Trayvon Martin case.
Those same claims, unfortunately, were once spewed in my direction.
Once, that is, meaning a four-year period of post-traumatic stress and turmoil stemming from multiple, nightmarish dramas – courtroom circuses that I entered as an attempted-murder victim but exited as a federal civil-rights defendant.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
That is a terrifying story.
I suppose that, being from mostly white communties and having dealt with white thugs, I didn’t care about the race of the two parties in the Zimmerman/Martin case.
And that being said, I only related to one of the guys: Zimmerman. Never in my lifetime would I have hit another person before they attacked me. In fact, I’ve never hit anyone in my life. But if I had been Zimmerman, once getting that beatdown I would have emptied my gun into the guy.
And here is the important part: It would not be to kill him, thought that may be the effect. Rather, it would be to make him stop hitting me.
Make Martin white and I still have nothing in common with that boy and never did.
This whole case is not about race. It is a clash of cultures. There are many liberals I’ve argued this with and they believe that the only ethical way Z should have defended himself was in like manner: Try to get some swings in.
But I live in the culture of Indiana Jones. You come at me with a sword? I shoot you. It’s something I never understood about martial arts movies either. Just shoot the guy already.
>>But thank God I was spared from the sort of “activist” hostility he [Zimmerman] now faces: hostility that marches toward his door – all our doors – to the tune of emotion-laden, fact-less anti-white drumbeats of hatred.<<
Last paragraph from the article...sent shivers down my spine.
As both a concerned citizen and as a writer, I appreciate your response.
I am sincerely sorry that you experienced such a travesty. What a horror in so many ways. I am in no way comparing our situations or sufferings, but I feel very blessed to be a alive, despite it all. The vest did not prevent the bullet from tearing through my body, however; it “only” stopped it from traveling out my back and hitting someone down the street — such as one of the kids I had just helped cross the street minutes earlier. The .38 slug bruised my lung, and if I had turned a fraction of a inch in a different direction it could have penetrated the lung or hit my heart and/or spine. Again, I don’t know how you feel, but I would imagine that — despite the passage of the years — it is hard to let go of the anger and resentment. I wish you well, and thank you for sharing your comment.
I’m truly sorry this happened to you. It’s a nightmare scenario that lots of people have, and one that probably prevents many from actually doing something about the insanity that surrounds us.
I hope you never find yourself in such a situation, but be careful. Saying your intention would “not be to kill him.. [but] Rather, it would be to make him stop hitting me” could get you in a lot of trouble in such a situation. Most states would claim you were not justified in firing a shot if you only shot to incapacitate rather than kill. I’m not criticizing you, I’m simply saying that’s the way it is in some places. I remember a case where a victim took the gun away from the robber and shot the robber dead; the DA’s office felt the victim unnecessarily killed the robber because the robber no longer pursued the victim. The victim suddenly became a defendant. It’s crazy.
On Profiling and Stand Your Ground
Posted on July 22, 2013 by correia45
This post isn’t really about the Zimmerman case, though I’ll touch on how use of force laws actually work relating to that case, but it is a result of the ignoramuses who know jack about how self-defense laws work who are currently talking about it and pissing me off. Included in that list is the President of the United States.
On Friday, Barack Obama said the following during a press conference. Our illustrious leader is in italics. My response is in bold.
You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son.
Yes. We appreciate the leader of the free world chiming in on local crime issues, especially before any facts are known.
Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.
Where you in the habit of committing battery against people 35 years ago?
And when you think about why, in the African American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it’s important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away.
And your preconceived notions, feelings, and emotions should be totally irrelevant in the eyes of the law. Justice should be blind, and a case should be decided based upon the evidence and whether the prosecution can convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed or not.
There are very few African American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me.
Me too. And despite my dad being of darker skin tone than Al Sharpton, according to these Home Depot paint chips I’m only Warm Beige. Also totally irrelevant. I’ve got a family member who takes after my mom’s super lily white side of the family, way the hell whiter than my swarthy self, who always got tailed through stores because he managed to look suspicious, and oddly enough got arrested for shop lifting on his 18th birthday.
There are very few African American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me — at least before I was a senator.
Don’t flatter yourself. Nobody has ever been physically intimidated by somebody wearing mom jeans. Now Vlad Putin on the other hand, he shows up, hide your wife, hide your kids.
Read all at:
http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/on-profiling-and-stand-your-ground/
I hope you never find yourself in such a situation, but be careful. Saying your intention would “not be to kill him.. [but] Rather, it would be to make him stop hitting me” could get you in a lot of trouble in such a situation. Most states would claim you were not justified in firing a shot if you only shot to incapacitate rather than kill. I’m not criticizing you, I’m simply saying that’s the way it is in some places. I remember a case where a victim took the gun away from the robber and shot the robber dead; the DA’s office felt the victim unnecessarily killed the robber because the robber no longer pursued the victim. The victim suddenly became a defendant. It’s crazy.
It is all about the “fight or flight” hard wiring. If you give them no escape route, attacking a bear, a dog, a cat or a human can get you killed. The latter is especially true if you are in a CCW state.
I agree with every single remark in that post and have articulated such on the internets. Especially the first three. A lot.
Actually, I don’t carry any anger or resentment. I realized many, many years ago that that wouldn’t be healthy. That night caused me to change from being an unarmed libertarian, and become a Conservative, CCW daily and situationally aware, ever since.
If I also hadn’t spun sideways as the shooter fired, the .32cal would have hit me in the stomach and tumbled around, tearing my guts to pieces. The ER trauma ctr doc at South Miami Hospital said he’d never see a “lucky wound’ like mine in the 20yrs, and that God was truly sitting on my shoulder, that night. Usually a small caliber round tumbles/bounces around inside and the surgeons wind-up having to resect bowels, remove damaged organs, graft bones, cause nerve damage etc etc etc. I was very, very lucky, as you were.
I’m also so glad that you survived and are okay. Many people in our situations don’t.
BTW, my “out-of-body” experience was truly amazing; that changed me in many ways, too.
I hope you never find yourself in such a situation, but be careful.
I’m also getting old and don’t really care what the courts think. I’ll do what I think is right, from a Christian perspective, and let the chips fall where they may. Everything happens for a reason and it is all useful for teaching and learning.
And if I DID find myself in a situation where ridiculous charges were brought against me. I’d be in my “safe-haven” city in a few hours, never to step foot in this country again.
As a criminal defense attorney Fred Reed used as source material for a law article said, and I paraphrase, “You do not ever want to find yourself in criminal court. Whether or not you are found innocent or guilty will have almost nothing to do with whether or not you are innocent or guilty.
I read that article over ten years ago and vowed that if I EVER was charged with a felony, I was history. But that is because I DO have places to go, and I’ve experienced enough change in my life that I would just consider it another adventure.
Life is a mist.
Once the victim had disarmed his attacker and had the upper hand, he was no longer being attacked. Such a shooting is not self defense unless the attacker is still posing a threat. Disarming someone doesn’t automatically give one the right to shoot him.
In the last several months there was a spate of burglaries in my part of the country, western Wisconsin, committed by white punks. They were all eventually caught. But for several months small communities in the area had been victimized by them. I don’t know if there were any neighborhood watch committees in these small towns because the crime rate is awfully low. Nevertheless, if I had been on some NWC and armed, if some punk, white or black, had knocked me down and started beating my head into the pavement, I would have taken out my gun and gladly emptied it into the punk. Race would have nothing to do with it.
Yes. Some days I think we aren't far from Rhodesia.
It really is a hard wired thing. When being physically threatened by bodily harm, a human being (or any other animal) goes into fight or flight mode. Anyone on a jury should understand this.
Imagine a man being put on trial for not having consciousness because it can’t be found or measured. The Jury will find in his favor that he DOES have consciousness for the simple reason that they have experienced their own consciousness.
Same should be true for a case like this.
I can see how, with “his word vs mine” the attacker in the OP got off. But in a sane world it would have been even easier for the gunshot victim to get out of any accountability.
When a case is strictly based on one person’s word against the others, there is no case whatsoever. It is a waste of the court’s time. It is really annoying that the records of the calls for backup, etc. were erased though.
One take-away from this story and George Zimmerman story:
Witnesses and recording devices. If your intent and actions are good, these will work for you.
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