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Zimmerman had two big advantages over Trayvon
The Nevada Appeal ^ | July 27, 2013 | Professor Marilee Swirczek, Western Nevada College

Posted on 07/28/2013 12:47:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The Zimmerman verdict sits like a stone in the guts of many Americans. We struggle to put our finger on what sickens us, but we know something feels really bad.

It wasn’t until I read Guy Farmer’s commentary (“Zimmerman trial marred by racial politics,” July 21) that I started to get it. Amid hundreds of words reviewing the facts of the case, which we all know by heart, Farmer reveals in 13 words what is wrong with the Zimmerman verdict: “Martin wasn’t an innocent young boy; he was a head taller than Zimmerman.”

In that profoundly disturbing sentence, Farmer demonstrates the deep, probably subconscious, generational and regional biases that fester in our complex American culture. In a sentence, Farmer absolves Zimmerman of the termination of a fellow human being’s existence and judges Martin guilty and culpable for his own death — because Martin was taller than Zimmerman.

That sentence makes me think about both Zimmerman and Martin in a new light.

Zimmerman, a 29-year-old man, possessed something — in addition to a gun — that the just-turned 17-year-old Martin did not possess — a fully developed prefrontal cortex.

In human beings, the maturation of the prefrontal cortex is not achieved until about 25 years of age. That gave Zimmerman an advantage over Martin in the areas of cognitive analysis, abstract thinking, problem solving, determining and evaluating consequences, calculating strategies in shifting or urgent circumstances, recognizing and controlling intense impulses and emotions, modulating behavior and considering complicated incoming information in fight-or-flight situations.

In other words, Zimmerman, almost twice Martin’s age, had a mature prefrontal cortex and a gun, while Martin had an immature prefrontal cortex still overruled by primitive limbic structures, a can of sweet tea, and Skittles.

Farmer sums up his analysis by quoting Reno attorney David Houston: “This was a case where [Zimmerman] forced a confrontation, but did what he had to do when he was attacked.”

Houston’s words reveal what makes our guts clench when we realize the sickening abdication of Zimmerman’s personal and social responsibility as a grown man in a position of power. Using Houston’s logic, maybe Martin did what he had to do when he was confronted — or more accurately, maybe Martin did what his immature prefrontal cortex thought he should do.

So if Farmer is suggesting that 29-year-old Zimmerman was frightened for his life, I am suggesting that 17-year-old Martin was too. But Zimmerman possessed all the ammunition to prevent this tragedy.

We’ll never know exactly what happened that night. According to Farmer, Martin wasn’t followed and killed because he was black, but because he was tall and therefore not innocent. And therein lay the convoluted and absurd rationalizations being offered to justify the uninvited confrontation and subsequent killing of an unarmed, immature, and yes, innocent boy by an armed, mature man.

The gnawing in our gut confirms that something is wrong here: In the case of George Zimmerman, the law may be satisfied, but justice is not.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: academia; blackkk; brains; florida; georgezimmerman; physiology; trayvon; trayvonmartin; zimmerman
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Allergic to facts, it appears.


61 posted on 07/28/2013 1:25:05 PM PDT by gogeo (I didn't leave the Republcan Party, it left me.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The left will always have the Myth of the Noble Savage to fall back on.
62 posted on 07/28/2013 1:25:20 PM PDT by windsorknot (>>>)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Someone in power in this country has to step up and start telling the truth about this case. Apparently a large portion of the country has the cognitive ability of stump.

There was Z*E*R*O evidence presented that Zimmerman initiated any confrontation. By his own conversation with Jeanteel, he ran away. Zimmerman said he ran off. Zimmerman was ON THE PHONE with the police and gave NO indication that he ran at all.

HOW DID THEY HAVE A CONFRONTATION? Martin was an athletic 17 year old football player. Zimmerman was an unathletic, overweight guy.

The only reason there was a confrontation is because Martin didn’t go home, but hid and waited on Zimmerman.

Who confronted who?


63 posted on 07/28/2013 1:27:51 PM PDT by Bryan24 (When in doubt, move to the right..........)
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To: All

Another sure way to arrest development of the prefrontal cortex is to make someone into a tenured liberal arts professors at a liberal college surrounded by liberals — in this case an anti-military English professor.


64 posted on 07/28/2013 1:30:32 PM PDT by zipper ("The Second Amendment IS my carry permit!" -- Ted Nugent)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Nothing is gnawing at my gut... what is he talking about?.. and frankly, i believe we do know what happened that night... people keep saying we will never know...


65 posted on 07/28/2013 1:33:25 PM PDT by latina4dubya (when i have money i buy books... if i have anything left, i buy 6-inch heels and a bottle of wine...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"In human beings, the maturation of the prefrontal cortex is not achieved until about 25 years of age. That gave Zimmerman an advantage over Martin in the areas of cognitive analysis, abstract thinking, problem solving, determining and evaluating consequences, calculating strategies in shifting or urgent circumstances, recognizing and controlling intense impulses and emotions, modulating behavior and considering complicated incoming information in fight-or-flight situations."

Somehow hundreds of thousands of high school and college students and athletes are able to perform these functions very well despite the alleged deficiencies in their prefrontal cortex. And - of course - soldiers.
66 posted on 07/28/2013 1:36:33 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Professor Marilee Swirczek = educated fool.


67 posted on 07/28/2013 1:37:44 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

68 posted on 07/28/2013 1:38:04 PM PDT by JoeProBono (Mille vocibus imago valet;-{)
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To: latina4dubya
Nothing is gnawing at my gut

The only thing "gnawing at my gut" is the incessant hand-wringing and gnashing-of-teeth over the Zimmerman verdict.

69 posted on 07/28/2013 1:40:35 PM PDT by windsorknot (>>>)
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Comment #70 Removed by Moderator

To: 2ndDivisionVet

My 14 year old would not beat an armed man’s head into the pavement, and his prefrontal whatever is less developed than Trayvon’s.

Next?


71 posted on 07/28/2013 1:49:45 PM PDT by gotribe (Vladimir Putin is MY President)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Martin wasn’t an innocent young boy; he was a head taller than Zimmerman.”

This silly tw@t just doesn’t get it.

God made man. Colt made them equal.


72 posted on 07/28/2013 1:50:25 PM PDT by x1stcav ("The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.")
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To: Oldexpat

He was home free until he decided to turn around and go back after GZ. It was GZ who was being tracked.


73 posted on 07/28/2013 1:50:47 PM PDT by bgill (This reply was mined before it was posted.)
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To: Jim Noble
“The Zimmerman verdict arrest sits like a stone in the guts of many Americans.”

Fixed it.

74 posted on 07/28/2013 1:55:24 PM PDT by bgill (This reply was mined before it was posted.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Zimmerman had a mature prefrontal cortex and ESP...I guess.


75 posted on 07/28/2013 2:01:41 PM PDT by BufordP (Chuck Norris doesn't check under the bed anymore. He wears Clint Eastwood pajamas.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“This was a case where [Zimmerman] forced a confrontation”

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Joseph Goebbels


76 posted on 07/28/2013 2:03:05 PM PDT by Rock N Jones
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What a steaming pile of Barbara Streisand.


77 posted on 07/28/2013 2:05:57 PM PDT by RC one
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Professor Marilee Swirczek of Western Nevada College will now be receiving her federal grant to study rain water effects on sandstone formations.


78 posted on 07/28/2013 2:09:29 PM PDT by Eddie01 (Liberals lie about everything all the time.)
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To: Oldexpat

He was home, then circled back and jumped Zimmerman. He was itching for a fight to put another notch in his belt. He was probably going to put the whoop ass on Z, then brag to his fellow thugs how he took out a crazy ass cracka.


79 posted on 07/28/2013 2:27:20 PM PDT by Catsrus
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To: traditional1

Was thinking the same thing!


80 posted on 07/28/2013 2:43:14 PM PDT by ealgeone (obama, border)
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