Thanks for the compliment. Sorry for the double post earlier- it looked like the post had not been sent yet.
Seriously, I see the zimmerman as victim side. I see no evidence for anything else.
But when I heard that nasty slur, and I was trying to be very objective and I was biased in FAVOR of Zimmerman, I did see a huge complication in this incident.
This is a recording, not just someone saying they heard it, so it’s pretty damning. It also really sounds like “coon” and since I guess that is a racist term for blacks and this guy was black, it fits Better than the word goon.
Does this recording mean Zimmerman called trayvon something nasty to get attacked? No. Does Zimmerman still look like he shot in self defense? Yes. But will this recording hurt his defense? Hell yes.
If my son were called a dirty k-word, I hate that word so much, I would not blame him if he struck the person. However, I would hope he would just give him one slug and not pummel his brain into the street.
But juries will have bias about a guy hitting someone who called him a racial slur. That can be seen in our world as “asking for it.”. Who knows if the prosecutor will use this argument, but probably. “the shooter was already racially inflamed as he took off after this poor boy...” can’t you see it?
He has to get indicted first - and maybe he won’t be. He wasn’t directly arrested or indicted after the event although the pressure on the local officials will be tremendous. My first reaction to a word like “coon” is that it is so old-fashioned a word that no young man would use it. I hope he didn’t use it but time will tell.
I must admit that I lost all sympathy for the family when I saw Sharpton on tv. As a NYer, I’ve had to put up with this putz for years. I hope MSNBC gave him a home in Maryland or Virginia next to Chris Matthews’ house. I also know about teenage hoodlums - too much to have much sympathy for a brat who was recently caught with a bag full of women’s jewelry and a screwdriver! Emmett Till, indeed.