from Merriam Webster –
transitive verb
: to put to death (as by hanging) by mob action without legal sanction
paraphrased from the Wiki
Lynching is a nonjudicial execution, often by hanging by mob, but also by burning at the stake or shooting. the goal is not justice nor revenge, It is an execution done in order to punish a supposed transgressor, to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people.
Lynchings have often been the means used by the politically dominant population to oppress social challengers.
People get shot and killed everyday in the USA. Approx 27.
I don’t notice, and while in a generalized sense I care, I’m used to it and so it doesn’t pain me. I”ve bee thinking about why certain murders affect me more deeply, even when I don’t know the victim.
(slight apology for the length – I’m sure there is a way to edit it down, or perhaps just the lynching piece is on Youtube somewhere. But the rest is pretty sweet.)
I’ve been feeling especially bad because Trayvon Martin was lynched. It may not have started out that way – although I haven’t heard the “gated community” where it happened apologizing or distancing themselves from the killer. But in the instant that Zimmerman decided to follow Trayvon Martin, to stalk and intimidate him; to ultimately murder him, this became a lynching.
Martin was just a kid. By all accounts a good kid. And now he’s dead.
Clearly the crime of walking while black knows no age limit.
The 911 recording makes it clear that Zimmerman was at least partially motivated by Martin’s race. “fuciking coons” is what he said, and it sounds partly like he’s trying to stoke his own fear and anger, partly like a practiced expression of racism.
The description of Zimmerman as some kind of neighborhood watch vigilante makes it sound like perhaps the “gated community” wanted him on the lookout for undesirable types.
And while I think it too convenient to draw a conclusion about the original motivation based on the outcome, I feel confident that black kids out walking are going to avoid that neighborhood. And if they live there – they will stay inside.
No way Zimmerman shoot the kid if the kid looks like him.
No way Zimmerman’s community is going to put him ont he other side of their gate.
WIll he be prosecuted? Apparently not be the locals. And making the federal case seems ….difficult.
And here in Colorado we have make my day and private carry and guns on college campuses (students – not staff) and some who want a Florida-like stand your ground law.
Trayvon Martin was lynched – that’s why it feels so bad.
says it all and says it best on change.org:
Good diary, MADCO. Thanks for putting this out there.
And for those of you that want, go to change.org and add your name to the growing list, now at 1,304,684 signatures.
I had been thinking sport killing (the Superman / Barney Fife adrenaline rush). Lynching entails the sick, sad, unfortunate racial component more appropriately, and it doesn’t matter what anyone says, there isn’t an honest person who doesn’t know deep down that this was racial.
from the tape of Zimmermans’ call to the police, him say something like, “these guys always get away”. He obviously made the calculation that this one wasn’t going to “get away”….so he stalked him and murdered him.
Premeditated hate crime. No question.
thanks for the petition info Middle, I will sign that NOW.
It dosen’t take but a minute to sign it. I would encourage everyone here at Pols to please, please sign it.
Thanks.
this AM in his brief answer to a question re this tragedy
And there is actually NEW information, about a day old.
ABC released video footage of the shooter at the Police Station.
No injuries readily apparent, which belies these faux and friends, limbaugh, beck, o’reilly, caplis, “libertad”, norquist, jeb, and every other right wing shirt drooler’s bullshit excuse, covering the NRA’s ass, the Stand your Ground grift, and what we now know beyond a doubt to be institutional racism, legislated by goobers, for goobers.
“the south shall rise again” and all that horseshit.
Broken nose?
No.
Scratches on his face, cut in the back of the mellon, bruised on the cheeks?
No again.
Had this idiot even been mildly beat up, they’d have photographed it for obvious reasons, like proving in court killing this child was self defense.
As usual, the crime’s bad enough, but the cover up dwarfs it.
Come on assholes, do the right thing so we can get past this. Charge him.
First of all, I don’t buy for a second the disgusting con that Trayvon Martin instigated, initiated, or provoked anything.
But………..
If this “hulking brute”, all of 6′, 170, launched an assault on our slightly built, 5’9” 240 lb “victim” (with a 9 no less), where did he put his skittles and iced tea?
Did he lay them down before launching his brutish assault, then pick them up after being shot?
Did he ask permission to pick them up before being shot?
If he put them in his pocket, why wasn’t the can dented up?
You’re advocating for a party that left you hanging, a gun association asking you to suspend reality, and a thug that shot an innocent child because of his race.