Yes, Putin. The law is the law. And we don't just arrest someone and charge them with a crime until the police investigate and determine what the crime actually is. How hard is "innocent until proven guilty" to you? You just want to lynch him because something happened and you don't give a fuck about seeing justice actually served in such a way that shows our criminal justice system is fair and equitable.

"What 'harassment' again? You mean me criticizing the propensity of rich white Detroit suburbanites, with a median income of 75,000, complaining about how black people who live in the city center have a racial predilection for crime? Right."

Propensity? You said all white Detroit suburbanites were Klanners. Stop making excuses for your disgusting bigotry and own up to it. SacredDigits is a white Detroit suburbanite, guess he's a Klanner too? Oh wait, his family adopted a black child and has raised him with love and care, so much for that.

The police have the depositions of suspects. They decided not to file. Is the police department corrupt? What proof is there of police corruption? A grand jury is set to convene to hear the evidence? Is there a better step to take. The pertinent evidence is in the hands of the justice department is it not? Should the nation substitute the process with a vigilante trial on talk shows? Is there any problem understanding the viewpoint of the legal procedure just laid out? Chavez is unfamiliar with it. Castro is unfamiliar with it. Assad is unfamiliar with it. Fortunately the majority of the American public has faith that in due course the truth will prevail. Just as the truth prevailed in the Duke Lacrosse case that saw a prosecutor incarcerated for prosecutorial misconduct, and numerous public figures who suffered a loss of credibility. The viewpoint is stated. Let the process run its course. The police investigated. If questions about their investigation remain then let the justice department investigate. You deserve due process in this country. If the neighborhood watch individual committed murder or manslaughter it will come out, and his sentence will refelct due process. America has a system of due process that is observed more often than not in China/Venezuela/Cuba/Yemen/Saudia Arabia/Russia etc etc etc.

@Emac - I couldn't have said it better.

Emac, the fact that the police decided not to file is itself proof that something went wrong. If a pretty white teenage girl had been killed, do you think the police would have declined to file? You've got things backwards -- people want the process to run its course, as it normally would when a man chases down and then kills an unarmed teenager, but the police failed their duty to begin the legal process.

Yeah, nicely put Emac.

I don't blame people for getting upset about this. It is a very sad and very serious situation. But I wish the outrage over this shooting was also applied to things like the six year old girl who was shot in her mother's arms last weekend in Chicago, dying later that day. 48 other people were shot that day, with ten dying. Where's the national outrage over that?

The Trayvon Martin case is worth getting upset about and the process needs to play out so justice is served, but if you want to be consistent then you have to look at the ridiculous rates of heinous shootings that happen all over the place and get upset at them too.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120325/COL33/203250689/Stephen-Henderson-Why-isn-t-there-more-outrage-when-innocent-kids-die-in-Detroit-?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Opinion

The police do not decide to file or not file charges. The police simply investigate. District attorneys decide to file or not file charges. The police and district attorneys constitute entirely separate entities.

Excellent point Invictus. The amount of gunshot violence in this country is appalling and Trayvon Martin's death is a tragedy that demands public discussion that will hopefully produce understanding and a better society. An additional thread that focuses on the outrageous amount of shootings would do a service to the forum. Another thought is whether or not American society has a unique threshold for violence? Mexico is a violent society. I have no idea of the scope of violence in South America, but Brazil and Columbia seem to experience their share of firearms violence. Africa has its own problems with violence. It seems that America does not have a monopoly when it comes to violent confrontation. How to deal with it? If police departments did a better job of preventing property crimes would neighborhood watches be necessary? If the economy provided more opportunity would there be less property crime. If correctional departments actually rehabilitated criminals would the crime rate go down and Americans feel more secure? The death of Trayvon Martin is such a tragedy because it didn't have to happen, the young man had his entire life in front of him, and his family suffered such an overwhelming loss. Firearms violence screams out as a topic of public discourse because of its scale and scope. How do you allow individuals to posses firearms that allow them to protect their persons and property while preventing the tragic deaths of young men like Trayvon Martin?

You're right, I'm using the wrong terminology. I was referring to their investigation, or more specifically their lack of it.

"but if you want to be consistent then you have to look at the ridiculous rates of heinous shootings that happen all over the place and get upset at them too."

Are they hate crimes? It seems like you people want to talk about everything but Trayvon. This happens every time there is a hate crime. There is a segment that does its damnedest to trivialize and ignore it. Oh well there's other murders, never mind that they don't involve a situation where police simply released the murderer without any charges whatsoever. Nevermind that the victim was hunted down by a thug because he was wearing a hoodie and eating skittles.

@Putin - How many times do we have to tell you that police don't file charges. The DA/prosecutor does that. The police have to let someone go if the DA says there isn't enough evidence to charge them at that time. Quit putting the onus on the police who don't have that control.

Right draugnar!

Also stop blaming the DA four countless acts of daily brutality and murder

Are you daft? Prosecutors prosecute crimes. Police charge people with crimes. They don't consult prosecutors before they make arrests. Just stop talking.

Dear Siccy, did the police arrest you because the DA saiid they had enough evidence? Holy fuck Draugnar is stupid.

@Putin - Are you daft? The DA files charges. The police do *not*. If the DA refuses to file, the police must let the suspect go.

Arrest =/= file charges. You said "police simply released the murderer without any charges whatsoever." It's the fucking DA's job you fucktard idiot!

Where is there any evidence that the DA told the police to release the murderer?

And I should point out that I think Zimmerman is guilty of at a minimum manslaughter, but I'm not the DA, the judge, or a juror on the case. The DA needs to file the charges. The cops need to continue to gather evidence and take statements. These things need to be done, but blaiming the cops for letting him go when the DA refused to file is fucking stupid.

@Putin - I'm looking for the story where I read that yesterday. I did read it but don't want to just say that without having a link to the sotry, so give nme some time.

Why did the police chief step down?

We live in a world where the person who threw a flower at Kim Kardashian was arrested *on the spot* but you're telling me the police had no power to arrest a guy who shot a kid for no reason?

Here's something that should probably be a new thread but I don't want to put yet another thread related to it up.

This new media cycle of critiquing Martin's life is absolutely disgusting. I mean, quite litterally is making me cringe.

Here is an example:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/trayvon-martin-shooting-details-emerge-facebook-twitter-accounts-180103647.html

From this article we learn that Trayvon was suspended for drug related issues (he had plastic bag with marijuana residue on it, stop the fucking presses) and two, through the circumstantial evidence, the article posits that he might have swung at a bus driver in the past, but that is in no way proved.

Lets give them both of these things. Trayvon uses marijuana, and trayvon gets into fights. Great.

What the fuck was a grown man doing confronting a 17 year old kid who had every right to be in the neghborhood on a dark rainy night while he was packing?

Does Trayvon's dime bag have anything to o with that? Does trayvon perhaps maybe possibly taking a swing at a bus driver have anything to do with that?

Do either of these things in any possible way make trayvon the pursuer, or conceivably suggest that he was doing anything but getting some skittles and arizona ice tea from the 7-Eleven? Does it make it any less understandable that a 17 yea old kid being pursued by an unknown dude on a dark rainy night might want to defend himself.

How on earth do you use this bull shit evidence to justify these claims
______
"The media is getting the Trayvon Martin story wrong," Michael Brendan Dougherty wrote on BusinessInsider.com, comparing it to the 2006 Duke lacrosse case, in which three members of the lacrosse team were accused of rape, resulting in a media firestorm and public outcry. The accuser's case unraveled, and the charges were eventually dropped.

"Oh how little we have learned," David Shane wrote on PolicyMic.com. The media has rushed to judgment yet again. Now, it's quite possible that Zimmerman is guilty of everything his worst foes accuse him of. There is plenty about this case that troubles me. But that's exactly the point—I don't know. Neither does anyone else, and both the scope and tone of the media coverage ought to reflect that fact."
___________________________________

How dare a seventeen year old kid be a seventeen year old kid, obviously that is a death sentence.

In the duke lacrosse scandal a woman made up a rape for money. I don't think trayvon martin is making up being dead.

people like this make me sick

Police have the power to arrest and to detain. They do not have the power to charge with a crime. That power resides in the prosecutor's office. But I do see they never arrested him or even detained hom and that was a bad choice on their part and probably racially motivated as well.

@Santa - What can I say to your post except... BRAVO! I mean it. While the wheels of justice may be slow and we need to let them do their thing, comparing this to the Duke LaCrosse team case is absofuckinglutely disgusting!

I once got busted for having a bag with marijuana residue in it...long after I stopped using pot. I bought a leather bag at a flea market and discovered later (when a drug sniffing dog got into it) that it had pot residue in it. And marijuana? Justifying...I mean, come on. MARIJUANA. AND NOT EVEN ACTUAL MARIJUANA, RESIDUE.

So marijuana residue and maybe taking a swing at one guy...at 17...which, by 17, I had taken many swings at many guys...means someone's a bad person who deserves to be shot. Yeah. Good job, media.

By 17, I had taken a swing at (and put on his ass), my dad. :-) He had it coming though.

Has anyone here seen the evidence associated with the case? How can you form an opinion or innocence without seeing the evidence? The police took statements and decided not to arrest based on their view of the evidence. The police decision is substantiated by the district attorney's decision not to indict based on that office's reveiw of the evidence. This doesn't mean the police decision or the district attorney's decisions are correct, but what proof is there that the police and the district attorney's office are incompetent? If this was a hate crime why would Zimmerman call the police to even report Trayvon? Bigots just murder the victims and get rid of the bodies or make up stories to cover up? Zimmerman called the cops before anything happened. That is what someone does that is committing a hate crime? The trial of Zimmerman on talk shows and in the media with public figures weighing in on the issue is reminiscent of the Duke Lacrosse case and the Richard Jewell case. Richard Jewell had his life basically ruined by the runaway media character assassination machine in this country. That is what needs to stop. Let the process follow its due course. This is the United States not Venezuela/China/Saudia Arabia/etc.

"If this was a hate crime why would Zimmerman call the police to even report Trayvon? "

Because he saw a BLACK kid in a gated community, and his BLACKNESS automatically made him suspicious, so captain dipshit stalked him on a dark rainy night.

"Bigots just murder the victims and get rid of the bodies or make up stories to cover up?"

Nobody credible is claiming this guy was just out to kill black people, stop bulding strawmen, Now did this guy place him and trayvon in a dangerous situation for racially tinged reasons, I would bet on it, but even if not how can you say that this is not a case of manslaughter?

"The trial of Zimmerman on talk shows and in the media with public figures weighing in on the issue is reminiscent of the Duke Lacrosse case and the Richard Jewell case."

The Duke LAcrosse case was based on false evidence given by the accuser, this case is based on the mans own words and actions and the fact we will NEVER get the other side of the story because this idiot killed the only other participant. the two cases are nothing alike.