@BillRM,
The reason race came into this case was because Trayvon Martin's parents felt the failure to make an arrest, and to conduct a full investigation of their son's death, was another instance of the criminal justice system displaying bias in how negligently it regarded the death of an unarmed young black male.
The police wanted to arrest Zimmerman right after the shooting and have him charged with manslaughter--they classified Martin's death as an "unnecessary killing"--and as a violation of the manslaughter statute--and that is how the police report from that night reads. It was the D.A. who declined to bring charges, and that was what outraged Martin's parents. Their child had been shot and killed, inside a private gated community, by someone who had mistaken him for a criminal, as he simply walked home from the store, and they quite rightly suspected racial profiling, and they wanted their son's killer held legally accountable.
My understanding is that Sharpton became involved at the request of Martin's parents because they wanted publicity focused on the case and they wanted Zimmerman arrested. And Sharpton was very successful in organizing the demonstrations that helped to bring that about.
It was an excellent example of the use of social activism to force the government to take an action that they should have taken in the first place.
You want to deny that the teen's race was a factor in why Zimmerman profiled Martin? Go right ahead. You haven't shown much indication of dealing with reality in most of your remarks about this case.
You're pathetically ill-equipped to understand situations of any complexity.
And your own bigotry blinds you even more. You've demonized Trayvon Martin--a middle class high school kid from a good family--by conjuring up virtually every negative racial stereotype that could be applied to an inner city ghetto black male--with absolutely no regard for the truth. So, after you rather heavy handedly smear this teen with your own racist bullshit, you then have the utter gall to claim race isn't involved in this case.
Quote:it was a clear case of self defense under any of the self defense laws in any state of the union...
No, in a great many states it would be considered manslaughter because Zimmerman recklessly provoked an encounter by following Martin, and by never identifying himself to Martin, which would more than justify a defensive reaction by a fearful Martin, and that would invalidate a claim of self-defense by Zimmerman. On top of which, Zimmerman used lethal force against his unarmed victim, in response to a single punch, and, in a great many states, that would be regarded as excessive force.
It's bad enough you may stupidly believe your own drivel, stop expecting that anyone else will.
