What happened was. . .

By Capt. Fogg

It's been said so often we might as well attribute it to everyone: "we don't see things the way they are, we see them the way we are." So much in life hinges on tiny details. Things nearly identical can be seen in such enormously different fashion and we rarely seem to ask ourselves what the difference is. Sometimes the only difference is the way we are.

In a small Texas town yesterday, the Sheriff pulled 24-year-old Joshua Manuel Lopez's car over in a suburban neighborhood. Lopez had an outstanding warrant for graffiti. There was a scuffle, Sheriff Michael Pimentel was fatally shot.

What we think happened has so much to do with who we are. Much has to do with how the story is presented to us and this time, for some reason, CNN only gave us the bare bones facts, no a priori conclusions were jumped to. But there were so many ways of presenting this and as the metaphorical butterfly can set off a hurricane, it's the minute subtleties of our perception and the writer's perception that determine whether we sigh and go on to the next story, whether we feel bad for the officer, whether we see it as police brutality -- whether we talk about the way police treat minorities, write headlines about an innocent murdered for a misdemeanor or about those probably illegal Hispanics ruining America. There is far more than beauty in the eye of the beholder.

I doubt that the president will show up at the funeral or that the streets of Elmendorf, Texas will see loud and violent protest and I have to ask just how different is this case from other cases. Might it have been different if the ethnicity had been different, if the presumption of malice had been inserted in the coverage, if the trajectory of the bullet had varied by an inch or two? But my perception is meaningless, it's what the public thinks that matters. This is not an art museum and whether the painting is a Picasso or a Pissarro is not determined by the frame. It's determined by you and with whom you choose to side; by what causes you identify with, what party you belong to and what news you listen to. Perhaps the Buddhists are right and it's all an illusion, a great emptiness we fill with ourselves.

Will someone accuse me of racism here? of being unsympathetic? It doesn't matter and the "I" who wrote this is the you who are reading it. Nothing is true, all things are permitted.

TFN

By Capt. Fogg

Seems as though I'm alone in worrying more about Russian aggression in Europe than about rooting out and punishing obnoxious racial opinions expressed in private.  But in fact I'm starting to worry about freedom of speech and it's de facto abuse even though that abuse isn't coming from the government.

Wolfeboro, New Hampshire Police Commissioner Robert Copeland was overheard  sounding off in a restaurant last March, complaining that he hated watching television, because every time he turns it on, he sees “that f-cking n-gger.”  TFN, of course, being the president of the United States Barack Obama.   There has been, as you might expect, a call to have him resign or be fired, but the town just isn't having any part of that and a fellow commissioner claims he's a "very nice person." No doubt he is on matters other than insulting our country and its president, our citizens of African ancestry and basically everyone else who finds such public speech to be unacceptable and particularly by an elected official entrusted with public safety.

Am I the only one who finds that far more egregious than a private phone conversation, taken out of context and without permission and involving a businessman acting jealous with his would-be girlfriend?  It won't get the publicity of course, because it doesn't involve one of the sacred games our nation cares about more than anything else, but whether or not Copeland decides to step down with or without the support of his peers, perhaps the people's right to censure, if not censor such speech will be exercised at the polls and TFR that f-cking racist will have to find an honest job somewhere else.  I strongly defend the right to hold an opinion as well as I defend my right to use any legal means to make sure the holder thereof  isn't on the public payroll.

Brave-ery in Cobb County

I'm late to this flap over moving the Atlanta Braves out of a perfectly good park, but it's worth mentioning if only for how brazen Republicans have become in their bigotry.

Joe Dendy, chairman of the Cobb County Republican Party, says that he has two conditions for supporting the Braves' proposed move (h/t Jim Galloway):

1.) That Cobb County citizens won't have to pay higher taxes as a result, and
2.) “It is absolutely necessary the (transportation) solution is all about moving cars in and around Cobb and surrounding counties from our north and east where most Braves fans travel from, and not moving people into Cobb by rail from Atlanta."

And by people, he means "those" people who can't afford to live in Cobb and wouldn't be welcome even if they could because... wrong hue. But whatever you do, don't call it racist. I'm sure Mr. Dendy has a very good friend of a different color.

Racism is alive and well in America

It was a very long week. Been mostly offline, but I see this Daily Show segment went viral and got this howdy cracker GOPer in North Carolina fired as county chair. I see he's claiming the video has been edited to make him look racist, to which I say, bullshit. I've lived in this state for going on nine years and believe me when I tell you, it's not just him. Most of the white people I know here say the same things. Often in public. They just don't get on the teevee.



Maybe someone could send a copy of this to Supreme (In)Justice Scalia.

Too much monkey business

By Capt. Fogg

No need for me complainin' - my objection's overruled, ahh!
Too much monkey business. Too much monkey business.
Too much monkey business for me to be involved in!

 -Chuck Berry-

As though to deliberately illustrate what I've been saying, a horde of "impassioned" zealots in liberal clothing rallied in Miami Saturday to hear Bishop Victor Curry, a Baptist church official and South Florida president of the National Action Network tell them that the Zimmerman verdict was a "wake up call" which of course it was not, at least not any more than any case in which the accused was given the benefit of the doubt.  The argument that Zimmerman was a murderous racist looking to hunt black people is as disgusting as any of Al Sharpton's accusations, including his portrayal of Bernhard Goetz as a racist for shooting armed robbers.  The argument that the verdict was pursuant to the 'stand your ground' law is so earth shakingly false it would show up on a seismometer, so what is this all about?  The NAN is the creation of  Al Sharpton who makes  and has made his living by imaginatively accusing people of racism so egregiously, I'm sure Dr. king would be making speeches against him and his business were he alive today.

Bishop Curry has also staged protests in New York, Washington, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, and more than 90 other cities around the United States. This Zimmerman business is a business and a business that needs to foment race tension as much as the Mason Family did. 

Dragging Trayvon Martins head on a pike around the country is about politics, not justice and I sure as hell don't remember Nicole Simpson or Ron Goldman being used similarly.  It was far more a travesty of justice that OJ was described as the victim of racism and that science and fact and evidence were laughed at.  It's a business and as much as I loathe racism, I loathe the business of using it to sell product, to make money, to build careers on it, to accuse people of it to further a political purpose because it cheapens the real cause, detracts from the real cause and furnishes the real racists a defense they don't deserve.

The death of Trayvon Martin was not about racism, not about a new birth of Jim Crow. Zimmerman wouldn't be allowed into the Klan, nor does he represent some resurgence, some recrudescence of  an early 20th century southern white mentality.  The verdict was not the result of racism and most of all, neither the verdict, the defense, nor for that matter the facts had anything to do with the law that some people oppose so hysterically that they dishonor the memory of an unlucky kid and a grieving family as well as they dishonor truth, decency and the liberal causes of justice and freedom for all.

Zimmerman got off because the prosecution could not prove that Martin was not holding him down so that he couldn't run away. That is an argument based on the older law requiring the duty to retreat, not the Stand your Ground law which did not permit Zimmerman to pursue or confront Martin nor to threaten him.  Such actions would, as I read the law, nullify his claim to self defense and his right to draw a weapon.

 Are we willing to dispense with the presumption of innocence because of the presumption of racism?

That Zimmerman was wont to call 911 when seeing suspicious characters in his neighborhood shows only that he was doing what a neighborhood watch participant is supposed to do, and when a preponderance of  unidentified people and a preponderance of those engaging in vandalism are black those calls are evidence of racism only to racists.

I'm all for practical gun control.  I  passionately hate racism and racists and bigots of all kinds, and I hate it when bigotry, stereotyping, racism and outright lies are used by people getting rich pretending to fight it.

Those little town blues

By Capt. Fogg

Small town newspapers.  When I first moved here over 11 years ago, Little Boots was in the white house and although the fear machine was running on afterburner and everyone was in the process of never forgetting and sending money to Taiwan manufacturers of plastic automobile flag holders, you still had headlines declaring that some local fisherman had caught a record Snook or irate letters about litter in the park.  Now it's outrage.  Every day. Even the fish are angry.

Printed opprobrium grew over the Bush years, at least those quasi-literate, misspelled, cliche-ridden  letters to the editor written in impotent rage at Mexican farm workers, people on food stamps, Liberals, immigrants, ethnic minorities, liberals, Muslims, atheists, Jews, Democrats -- did I mention Liberals?  Yes, sure, I and a few others sometimes wrote ( brilliantly, I must admit) alternate opinons, much to the further wrath of the toothless unwashed, but it's a small town as I said, and word gets around and  I really don't want to carry a gun in my bathing suit or they may think I'm happy to see them.   Discretion, valor and all that.

Of course it's hardly new.  I remember, back in the mid 60's, living in long hair and sandals in the tiny, rural, University town of Hamilton New York.  I remember when the school had an open symposium on Communism, and the good, go-to-church and keep-Christ-in-Christmas locals flooded the opinion page with demands to bomb the bastards back to the stone age - now.  Small town newspapers.  I wish I could believe that they didn't represent America, that they weren't just some boil on the ass of an otherwise great nation.

Take the Lincoln Journal, of Lincoln County, West Virginia.  Seems public sentiment supported the termination of a teacher for fear she would "turn her students gay."  Faced with a reader's  voice mail (I used reader loosely here)  asserting that

 “We were really glad to hear that School Board is getting rid of them queers, The next thing is we need to get rid of all the niggers, the spics, the kikes and the wops.”

they decided to print it.  I don't fault them. Such people should be heard so we know what we're dealing with -- and where they are.  Now my local paper would probably not have, and it doesn't have a voice-mail line for illiterates.  Most of us here after all, come from elsewhere where literacy of a certain minimal level is fairly common, but those sentiments aren't exactly rare with the locals either.

“You know even them Catholics, they are wrong as baby eaters. We need to clear them people out and have good, white, God fearing Christians and everybody else needs to be put to death for their abominations. We’ll keep Lincoln County white and right. Thank you. "

You're welcome. White and Right indeed. I hope you do just that and perhaps building a wall will help the local economy for a while.  In fact I hope everyone like you moves to Lincoln County. It would be nice to have all y'all in one place and  I hope there's room. I'd hate to have to use up more than one of our precious nukes, but as for the stone age -- are you sure you're ready for that big an upgrade?

Cons on the eve of self-destruction

I've come to the conclusion peak wingnut really doesn't exist. There's no depth to which they will not sink. But there's hope for the future. They've reached the point where they're willing to destroy themselves on the off chance it might piss off us dirty libruls:

The voodoo storefront has evoked outrage in the beachfront community of Spring Lake, N.J. But Bill Skuby, 66, owner of the local men's store, Skuby & Co. Lifestyle Clothing, insists that the display is not political. ... "It's personal."

The store's window display depicts an image of Obama's head superimposed in the body of a witch doctor that rests atop the word "Obamacare." The witch doctor image is placed under a tombstone epithet that reads, "I Told You I Was Sick," accompanied by a photo of the president in a doctor's coat and stethoscope.

On the tombstone stands an Obama bobble-head doll sporting a long-sleeved tee that reads, "Hoax," and underneath that is a zombie mannequin rising from the dead wearing a hat that says "F.Y.B.O.," an acronym apparently for an expletive phrase denouncing the president.

"If you want to call me a racist then go ahead. I can assure you I am not a racist; I just really want to see Obama go." Skuby said. "This is a good example of where race relations are under this guy's administration. ... This has absolutely nothing to do with race."

Of course equating our POTUS with a African witch doctor straight out his viral emails has nothing to do with race. He's just taking a stand. Exercising his First Amendment rights. And he doesn't give a damn if his petty assholery ruins his livelihood.

Seeing a lot of this sort of thing lately. It's getting harder for them to sustain the hard right mythology. In the darkest reaches of their tiny closed minds, they know they're losing. Rabid cons are self-destructing all over the place. Thinking eventually they'll just die out completely, like the Shakers.

On a related note, here's another litte "not racist" GOP joke. Republican candidate Tommy Thompson’s son tells the true Murkins at a campaign rally, “We have the opportunity to send Obama back to Chicago -- or Kenya." Of course he's so very sorry if any humor impaired liberals are offended. (Video at the link.)

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

For whom the dog whistle blows

Granted this is one guy with a hideously racist tshirt at one Romney rally and the campaign quietly denounced the shirt, but it's not as if Team Romney hasn't been encouraging this sort of thing right along. Blow that dog whistle at the decibel level of an air raid siren and all the vicious dogs come out.

This is not at all an isolated incident. There's been hundreds of instances of this sort all over the country. And then there's the countless local Republican politicians and operatives "accidentally" sending racist emails and making racist "jokes" (and they're very sorry if anyone was offended) because it was totally not meant to be racist. I'm sure they would tell you this decoration in South Florida GOP field office was only meant in fun.

Obama on toilet paper by the shitter? Just a little bathroom humor folks. Can't be racist because there's that one black volunteer sitting over there who doesn't support Obama either.

Of course it's not just about a black president. if you live in the south, they all claim to be "not racists" and good Christians but the subtext is always lurking just under the surface of their faked civility. This isn't the first time Charles Blow posted one of his emails. It's so ugly, you'll have to see it at the link. I refuse to post such overtly racist rants in a public space. It only encourages these knuckle dragging cretins.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Deep in the overheated heart of GOP diversity

Leaving the Paul Ryan is lying fact checkers to their work and moving on to a secondary theme I've been seeing this week from the GOP, that being their new found dedication to diversity. First noticed it when the leading Republicans at Detroit News starting pushing this fantasy and now seeing it's more widespread.

WaPo takes a perfunctory look at the latent racism in Tampa today. They rightly note it's hard to hide the glaring whiteness in the sea of faces on the convention floor. Non-whites comprise only 2% of the attendees and none of them have a leading policy role in the party. And of course, GOP mustered all dozen or so persons of color that hold some power in the party and gave them speaking roles. But seriously, who do they think they're fooling?

The latent racism in the party base was bubbling just under the surface all week. There was the black CNN camerawoman pelted with peanuts by a couple of attendees. They shouted, "This is how we feed the animals here."

Camerawoman was not surprised. She's from the Deep South where darkies, especially women, are supposed to keep to their place. And holding a camera for a major teevee station ain't one of them.

But that's just a couple of guys who probably spent too much time at the open bars. This earlier incident was much more illustrative of what ugliness bubbles just under the carefully constructed veneer of diversity at the RNC.

This happened at the end of the floor fight over seating Ron Paul delegates:

There were energetic shouts of “Aye!” and “Nay!” as a Puerto Rican party functionary—Zoraida Fonalledas, the chairwoman of the Committee on Permanent Organization—took her turn at the main-stage lectern. As she began speaking in her accented English, some in the crowd started shouting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”

The Puerto Rican correspondent turned to me and asked, “Is this happening?” I said I honestly didn’t know what was happening—it was astonishing to see all the brittle work of narrative construction that is a modern political convention suddenly crack before our eyes. None of us could quite believe what we were seeing: A sea of twentysomething bowties and cowboy hats morphing into frat bros apparently shrieking over (or at) a Latina. RNC chairman Reince Priebus quickly stepped up and asked for order and respect for the speaker, suggesting that, yeah, what we had just seen might well have been an ugly outburst of nativism.

Nativism being the polite word for flat out, hate-based bigotry so firmly embedded in the heart of the angry base who still call the Civil War, the War of Northern Aggression and mutter about illegals stealing their country.

On the bright side, there are signs they're a diminishing group. Apparently Lindsey is worried:

“The demographics race we’re losing badly,” said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.). “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.”

Of course, in the short term, even though they're shrinking, they're no less dangerous. They're angry. They get drunk. They have guns. Lots of guns. Doesn't take much to piss them off. That so rarely ends well.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Derbyshire fired

Not even close to a full throated condemnation of his vile blathering, but good to know there is a place where even they will draw the line. National Review actually dumped Derbyshire. Reproducing the post in full:

Anyone who has read Derb in our pages knows he’s a deeply literate, funny, and incisive writer. I direct anyone who doubts his talents to his delightful first novel, “Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream,” or any one of his “Straggler” columns in the books section of NR. Derb is also maddening, outrageous, cranky, and provocative. His latest provocation, in a webzine, lurches from the politically incorrect to the nasty and indefensible. We never would have published it, but the main reason that people noticed it is that it is by a National Review writer. Derb is effectively using our name to get more oxygen for views with which we’d never associate ourselves otherwise. So there has to be a parting of the ways. Derb has long danced around the line on these issues, but this column is so outlandish it constitutes a kind of letter of resignation. It’s a free country, and Derb can write whatever he wants, wherever he wants. Just not in the pages of NR or NRO, or as someone associated with NR any longer.

Didn't expect them to do it. As late as this morning NR was still making weak excuses to disassociate themselves from his outside work and dismissing the outrage. It's not like Derb wasn't saying what they think and say to each other in private. Derb's only transgression in that crowd is he was too unsubtle in public.

Not really worried about Derb's future though. Figure within the month he'll land at either Daily Caller or, at worst, somewhere among the tattered remnants of what's left of Breitbart's Big.Con empire.

Addendum: If you somehow missed Derb's vile screed that precipitated the whole mess, I'm not linking to it, but you can get the backstory here.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

George Zimmerman's Dad speaks

George Zimmerman's father gave his first interview since this story exploded into the media. Booman has already eviscerated his defense of his son, but I'm not inclined to be too harsh on the guy myself. It's only human nature to defend your own and in situations like this, everybody hurts:

Robert Zimmerman, a former magistrate judge and Vietnam War veteran, said he has never had to deal with anything of this magnitude.

"Unimaginable," he said. "Tough was being in Vietnam and other things. This is way beyond anything I can imagine."

The same could be said, I'm sure, for Trayvon's family. They released a few photos taken 9 days before Trayvon was killed. That's all they have left of their son.

Sadly, no matters what happens in the end, there will be no winners. Only tragic loss on all sides.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Zimmerman standing on shaky ground - Updated

If this is the police video of George Zimmerman on the night of Trayvon Martin's death, his story and the police statements, just fell apart. I don't see any blood on the guy at all and it's possible you couldn't see grass stains on the dark jacket, but it doesn't even look rumbled. I'd also think if he had to shoot Trayvon while he was lying on the ground, he would have been sprayed with blood himself. That surely would have shown up on the lighter part of the jacket and his shirt. But watch for yourself.



No apparent injury to the back of his head either. If you can't see the embed, here's the direct link to the police tape video.

I would assume, if ABC could get this footage, then the new special prosecutor investigating Trayvon's case must have it too. Wonder if that's why she floated the idea she might be able to bypass a Grand Jury to bring charges?

Update: More evidence that refutes Zimmerman's statement.

The funeral director who prepared Trayvon Martin’s body for burial told HLN’s Nancy Grace Wednesday that he did not see any cuts or bruises on the teen’s hands that would have been indicative of a struggle with George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed the Florida teen.

Yes. I know. Nancy Grace? But just because she's crazy doesn't mean it's not true. I suppose the autopsy photos would prove that one way or the other if it comes to trial.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Why they let Zimmerman walk

Well, the story of Trayvon's murder has become a war of the leaks. This latest twist in the law enforcement angle is troubling.

The lead homicide investigator in the shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin recommended that neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman be charged with manslaughter the night of the shooting, multiple sources told ABC News.

But Sanford, Fla., Investigator Chris Serino was instructed to not press charges against Zimmerman because the state attorney's office headed by Norman Wolfinger determined there wasn't enough evidence to lead to a conviction, the sources told ABC News.

An unarmed dead kid, shot by a known neighborhood vigilante with a history of multiple overwrought reports of "suspicious" activity isn't enough evidence? You might think they would have at least held him long enough to go look for more evidence. Hard not to think they wrote it off because it was a young black kid in a white neighborhood.

As an aside, this story shows the power of twitter. The current version is significantly different from the original I read first, which was listed as being 44 minutes old. It cited an alleged photo of Trayvon, which depicted a black kid with a gold dental grill, flipping the bird at the camera. This photo made the rounds of the wingnut sites yesterday but by the time I went to bed last night, it had been widely debunked and even the nuttiest sites had retracted. Which I immediately tweeted to ABC. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

To their credit, ABC responded and corrected the post nearly immediately. So there's that...

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Trayvon's killer is a Democrat

Admit I laughed sardonically when I saw George Zimmerman is a registered Democrat. My first thought was, thanks all you wingnuts for defending a member of the party of your imagined evils. Wondered how they were going to reconcile that with their vigorous defense of Zimmerman's murder of Trayvon.

The early reaction suggests they've agreed to use it to excuse their own vile racism. In the world according to wingnuttia, their relentless years long villification of the poor and people of color couldn't possibly have had any effect on Zimmerman's paranoid vigilantism because he's not one of them.

Of course, this changes nothing. Zimmerman's political registration means as little as Trayvon's youthful indiscretions. The case can still be distilled to a single sentence. If Zimmerman had stayed in his car and waited for the police to arrive, as the dispatcher had advised to do, Trayvon would not be dead.

And while I'm on the subject, contrary to his wingnuttian defenders, Zimmerman's account of the murder, conveniently leaked by the police department doesn't absolve him either. You can't really judge between both sides of a story when one of the parties is dead. Furthermore, to repeat what I said on the twitter last night, it's hard to believe that no one took photos of Zimmerman's alleged injuries on the night of the murder. Funny that those haven't been leaked. And come to think of it, if Zimmerman was indeed so badly beaten up that his only recourse was to kill Trayvon, why didn't he go to the hospital to get those injuries treated?

No amount of spin can change the evidence that points to Zimmerman being an overzealous vigilante, a bigot and a stalker. The case was mishandled by the local police from the beginning and a full investigation is still needed. Whether or not he can avoid a murder charge under Stand Your Ground, there should at least be a hearing to determine whether Zimmerman is mentally fit to continue to carry a concealed weapon.

[Big thanks to Michael J.W. Stickings of The Reaction for the link at Crooks & Liars.]



[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Racism for Dummies

Saturdays are deadly for blogging. Nothing much happens in the news cycle so I end up spending too much time on twitter. Thus did I witness the most blazing display of Wingnut Brigade idiocy since -- well -- since yesterday.

It started because Charles Johnson uncovered the Nutopian freakout du jour, this being an alleged media conspiracy to alter the photos of Trayvon Martin. Some of the photos make Trayvon look lighter skinned than others, which the irredeemable idiot blogger Dan Riehl tells us makes Trayvon look "more innocent" and "less thuggish."

There's actually a perfectly logical reason for the discrepancies in coloration, but that's not the point. The wilfully ignorant Riehl pretends he doesn't realize his racism is obvious in the implication that a darker skinned black teenager should be assumed to be guilty, because he's so black. Riehl took to twitter to harangue Charles for pointing out Riehl's "analysis" was not only stupid, but racist. Riehl volleys with the classic denial, "am not racist" and he can prove it. He trots out his black friend, who confirms Danny boy is not a racist, and then immediately threatens to "beatdown" Charles for daring to "play the race card."

I don't usually bother with these pathetic jesters. Riehl and his posse of useful fools are just a bunch of four year olds with no impluse control who are trapped in adult bodies. But Riehl has a pretty big microphone and an army of delusional fans. His form of thinly diguised bigotry is what feeds the irrational rage of the violence prone fringe of society. His relentless hatemongering is arguably as responsible for the tragic death of Trayvon Martin, as the man who pulled the trigger. Not because Zimmerman necessarily even knew Riehl exists, but because Riehl's vile rants create an environment that excuses and encourages such acts of paranoid vigilantism. Far more dangerous than any random black kid in a hoodie.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Trayvon Martin: Mourning in America

I haven't posted about the killing of Trayvon because so much has already been said and I can't seem to write anything coherent myself. Every time I think about it, I'm overcome with rage and grief. But, Charlie Pierce captures my emotions in a fine rant. Don't want to excerpt a lot of it, because it needs to be read in full, but these few sentences resonate with me.

Well I certainly don't feel calm and measured, and it's not because my kids "could have been Trayvon." No, they could not have. My kids are white. ....nobody would have looked askance at them, let alone blown them away with a handgun.

I am sick to death of people who celebrate "the family" making excuses about why other people's children are expendable. I am sick to death of politicians who are more concerned about protecting zygotes than about the teenagers on whom they seek to balance their budgets and advance their careers. ...I am sick to death about how we can argue about anything simply to argue about it, and then move along to the next argument, as though anything at all has been settled.

Never mind the obvious inherent racism, I despair for the human race when I read the vicious reaction coming from Zimmerman's apologists. I feel like we're witnessing the final breakdown of civil society. And so much of the reaction feels like a simple transference of anger by people who just can't stand that a black man is our president. You know the ones I mean. They can prove they're not racists. Shee-it, they have black friends. It's just those other shiftless niggers they can't stand.

I've seen dozens of images in the last few days as people try to express their response to this travesty. This is one that moved me the most because it rings so very true.

This is the reality for this child simply because his skin is dark. No child should have to grow up with the certain knowledge this, in fact, could easily happen to him. [Original photo]

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Justified?

By Capt. Fogg

A lot of people are very angry about the shooting of Treyvon Martin last month in the old North Florida town of Sanford. I'm one of them.

Florida, as you may know has been a model of old South attitudes toward black people, but was the incident racially motivated as is being loudly asserted or is there racism involved in interpreting what happened?

As you might suspect from his name, Martin was black. He was only 17 years old and when he was accosted one night, dressed as many 17 year old males are, in a hoodie and sneakers and baggy pants; the kind of costume that produces unease and possibly is designed to produce unease, after dark, when worn by someone strolling through your neighborhood.

Young Martin was shot by a "neighborhood watch" volunteer - one of those people who lurk about neighborhoods at night looking for people who don't 'belong' there, but although such groups are often encouraged by local police and like any citizen who qualifies, is allowed to bear arms for the sole purpose of protecting themselves, these volunteers are not and are not allowed to be policemen. Indeed the concealed weapons license course stresses that fact repeatedly.

If you've ever lived in a community that has rules, you've probably chuckled about "Condo Commandos" who delight in the feeling of power they get from reporting you for having your garage door open for more than 5 minutes or failing to take in your garbage can by the required time. I would imagine that such folks would delight even more in taking on the role of protector while walking a beat at night. Does that describe George Zimmerman? Not having all the facts and being unlikely ever to have all of them, I can only speculate.

Mr. Zimmerman, 28 years of age, is being accused by the family of Treyvon Martin of a hate crime and a racially motivated killing. Of course I can't know what was on Zimmerman's mind, but I do read that he is of Hispanic origin and comes from a racially diverse family. There may be many reasons having nothing to do with race for Zimmerman to have accosted the young man and shot him. And of course it's inevitable that Florida gun laws will be blamed for this sad event by those who haven't read them and I despair when thinking about any lesson we should be learning here.

The laws governing concealed weapons here in Florida are rather clear about the right to defend your life when a person has reasonable fear of a lethal attack and it's rather clear about one's right to defend against someone trying to forceably remove you from a place you have a right to be, such as your house or your car. I'm no lawyer, yet I can speculate that a public sidewalk is one of those places one has a right to be. The law is equally clear about your right to use a weapon being severely undermined in a situation where the attack was provoked or 'escalated' by you. In other words, should I draw a weapon and shoot someone I picked an avoidable fight with, or made it worse by remaining when I should have walked away, I won't get away so easily with a self-defense plea as Zimmerman inexplicably seems to have done. The law is also clear about using a weapon to gain advantage in a dispute or as a threat. Simply showing it or even mentioning that you have one is a serious offense in many cases. "Get off my block kid, I've got a gun" is one of those cases.

The rights of a neighborhood watch volunteer extend as far as observing and using a telephone to call the police. They do not include provoking a fight, attempting to chase someone out of a neighborhood, shoving, pushing or physically engaging anyone. From the testimony of Martin's girlfriend who had been talking with him on the phone when Zimmerman 'went after' him and allegedly pushed him to the ground, that may be just what happened and if so, Zimmerman had long since transgressed and his right to use lethal force against an unarmed person had long since departed, at least in my non-lawyer opinion -- yet Zimmerman has not been charged.

Somehow, in the city of Sanford, this possibly unjustifiable use of force seems to have been ignored. I suspect that if there's racism lurking in this case, we'll find it in uniform or carrying a briefcase. Attempts to get around the apparent lapse by law enforcement people by framing the incident as a civil rights violation or a hate crime are not likely to be successful and any chance for justice drowned in the storm of predictable and formulaic accusations.

Hang 'em high

This Republican represents a district within about 30 miles of me. Here's what Rep. Larry Pittman considers appropriate justice.

“We need to make the death penalty a real deterrent again by actually carrying it out. Every appeal that can be made should have to be made at one time, not in a serial manner,” Pittman wrote in the email. “If murderers (and I would include abortionists, rapists, and kidnappers, as well) are actually executed, it will at least have the deterrent effect upon them. For my money, we should go back to public hangings, which would be more of a deterrent to others, as well.”

Surely nothing shouts civil society louder than a good old fashioned public hanging. Or good Christian for that matter. Pittman bills himself as a pastor, shipping worker and a company chaplain who seeks the Lord’s guidance to help him "be a good and effective servant of the people."

Pittman said the email wasn't meant to be public. But the thing is, it's not at all uncommon in this part of the south to hear "good Christians" promote such barbaric ideals. Which reminds me of a story I read recently in the local paper. A black 14-year-old girl was threatened by a group of white teen boys armed with a hangman’s noose.

“She said that they came up to her and they’d made this noose for her,” Parks said. “When she saw it, it caught her off guard. She tried to take it from them so she could tell her teachers. The boy said, ‘No – I’m taking this home so I can put it on my porch with a sign that says, Whites Only.’”

Authorities are trying to determine if this was "a hate crime of racial intimidation or was it bullying?" The boys said it was a joke and weren't suspended at the time. The school superintendent "thinks the encounter was bullying, but was not a hate crime." He "described the noose this way: 'It was white – a real thin rope about three feet long.'" Oh, well it was a "real thin" rope, so that's okay then.

These are my community leaders and neighbors. Any wonder why I've made so few local friends?

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

What did we learn?

I've been caught in this weird inertia for the last couple of days, watching the unfolding spectacle we'll call the Sherrod story. Or should that be the Sherrod sorry? Or sorry Sherrod? Lord knows she deserved the apologies she got and is owed the ones she didn't.

Whatever. Here's what I learned from this "teachable moment" -- may the phrase die in a fire and never be resurrected. Andrew Breitbart is a soulless thug. Fox News is a menace to civilized society. The majority of our establishment media are the most wilfully unself-aware in the history of civilization. Oh wait. I already knew that.

What I learned was if Obama would only use his awesome power as the first black president and point out that Breitbart and Fox News are lying, race baiting scum, this would end racism and destroy the far right noise machine. Also, for all its usefulness in some ways, Twitter can be a limitless petri dish for breeding instant outrage and misdirected hysteria.

Thinking

Not posting. The internets are melting in the heat. Been consumed with watching the Sherrod debacle unfold. All I have to say so far, I said at DetNews this morning.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]