Aussie College Baseball Playa Killed By Bored Teens In Ok Narrative

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

I don't think MC is saying the fact is untrue.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

It is absolutely not the same thing.

The time of day and location in Dick's example offer a clear reason to assume malfeasance.

What Trayvon had in his pocket is a Grand-Canyon-sized leap made to create the appearance of malfeasance.

And, by the way, just because a kid is shot at a crackhouse at 3 a.m. doesn't mean he's completely incapable of a recovery, both physically and emotionally, that inspires others.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

I didn't read it as "he had it coming" I read it as "here's the other side of the story" ...

Because, I don't think he had it coming. It's sad he's dead.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

If it had been another guy who resembled Travon, say 26 years old, who didn't live in the area, who turned out to have been carrying break-in tools, a bunch of stolen credit cards and an unmarked 9mm automatic, who had been seen in someone's yard, a guy with a rap sheet for violent crime... and Zimmerman had bone fractures and cuts, but then managed to fire first... maybe GZ would be the hero he so pathetically tried to be, and we would all agree: self defense, justifiable homicide, case closed.

Maybe they'd have a point. But Trayvon was, and did, none of those things. He wasn't carrying so much as a pen-knife. He had no criminal record except being caught with weed residue. He didn't drop out of school and he got good grades. There are ten million young men like him who are considered good kids, not thugs. He was walking to his nearby home on a public sidewalk. Trayvon was almost as close to the opposite of the guy I described above. Nothing in common... except for their dark-colored skin.

Trayvon had every right to be where he was. He had a Constitutional right to his liberty and to the expectation that he not be detained without cause. Zimmerman was a make-believe cop; he had no right to assault or detain anyone unless he saw a crime being committed. Even real police have only a limited and delineated right to do that. He used deadly force to get himself out of a situation he created, based on unfounded suspicion, and then invented a vicious unprovoked attack to keep his sorry ass out of the slammer.

If the legal system cannot mete out justice to Zimmerman, that is a failure. I've been told that the law and justice seldom perfectly correlate. But I have no doubt that GZ is guilty morally if not technically of murder. And those who want to create a bizarro-world Trayvon who was just a punk thug, a worthless piece of trash; who want to add to the torture of his parents' mourning the ghastly assertion that he deserved to be killed, should all burn in hell.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

I think he's pointing out that reporters can be afraid to ask questions, and sometimes, that comes from above.

Dick, it actually could have been a better column for you if you had asked the kid why he was out at 3 a.m. without looking like you were blaming him.

If he'd responded by saying he was being stupid, and that getting shot was a consequence of his stupidity and drug-seeking, you could have written a "Johnny Doe was living the street life. And he paid for it, and is now in a wheelchair. Now he's sorry and hopes to be a visual aid for others to avoid the street life." column, that'd be better than "Inner-City Podunk High won last night, inspired by Johnny Doe."

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

No, they -- meaning other media outlets -- might assume the facts are selectively chosen to serve his agenda. But they will assume the facts themselves are correct because it is the New York Times.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

He didn't have it coming but he wasn't gunned down for no reason either. If he doesn't beat the shit out of the guy he's still alive and strung out on lean or something else.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

If the other guy stayed in his car, he wouldn't have had the shit beat out of him.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

It's untrue that "the narrative" ignored it.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

You're confusing "facts" with the "narrative". The facts are the facts, and all that should have mattered was what happened between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin over the course of a few minutes on the evening of Martin's death.

But, the facts didn't get Charles Blow to write his column, or result in Zimmerman's arrest. it was the narrative that did that. And, it there are holes in the narrative that was sold to us, then that's a problem.

Again, look at how Blow introduced race in his column.

Look at how Martin was portrayed in the "narrative" vs. Zimmerman.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

I'm out. It's been fun, folks.

 

Re: Austrialian College Baseball Player Killed By Bored Teens In Oka

I honestly don't know what the answer is here.

Were they upset because the conventional wisdom was challenged? (And, were they eventually embarrassed because the conventional wisdom was wrong, and they had parroted it for years?)