Would you buy a Trayvon Martin gun range target? It appears that many people are buying them online, in particular off of a particular ammo and gun auction website. People in Florida are outraged for the most part, but the lawyer representing George Zimmerman appears to be as appalled as if it were his own son being memed as a target device for bigoted rednecks to shoot.
Mark O'Mara was shown one of the gun range targets that depicted a dark hoodie without a face. Even though it doesn't specifically show the face of slain child Trayvon Martin, the hoodie on the target is holding a package of Skittles and a can of tea. These were the items Trayvon had just purchased before George Zimmerman shot him dead. It's 100% obvious who these targets are depicting and they are even marketed and sold with his name in the product description. The person who sells them claims that George Zimmerman is innocent because he "killed a thug."
Mark O'Mara is disgusted by this. Not only will this make it harder for him to defend his client, with all the public outrage his case has already attracted, but he also worries for the parents and other loved ones of the slain child.
"This is the highest level of disgust and the lowest level of civility," said O'Mara. "It's this type of hatred -- that's what this is, it's hate-mongering -- that's going to make it more difficult to try this case."
O'Mara is absolutely right, and if you watch the linked video you can see the true hurt the man appeared to feel for the family of Trayvon Martin when he first laid eyes on the target, and when he spoke to reporters. It's apparent that O'Mara is a good man who is only doing his job as a defense attorney. Hopefully his defense of George Zimmerman, self-appointed neighborhood watch/gunman, doesn't mar his reputation. Certainly Jose Baez was a halfway decent attorney until Casey Anthony blew into his life. Now he's rich, infamous even, but he's certainly not respected by most in this country for his unabashed lack of ethics when defending his client. He didn't apparently care whether tot mom was innocent or not. He just wanted to win.
Mark O'Mara, doesn't seem to be this type of guy, hopefully. He sees what kind of disgusting people have crawled out of the woodwork with this case. He sees what kind of people are supporting his client. Hopefully he sees more than that.
Crime analyst and profiler Chelsea Hoffman can be found on The Huffington Post, Chelsea Hoffman: Case to Case and many other outlets. Follow @TheRealChelseaH on Twitter or click here to contact Chelsea directly.
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Comments: 52
but I think this is a first amendment thing... I think... or something LIKE it.
I would disagree that the production of the target can be viewed as a crime.
The target dispicts no human face and therefore it can be legally argued that the portrait was meant to describe the plight of all innocent hooded youths within our society. (poster child for those opposed to gun violence etc.) Or, for that matter any number of reasons, including it being what it was sold as, a target for recreation shooting.
I believe that any portrait which has ever been drawn, painted, digitalized, sketched, etc. can be viewed from at least two opposing points of view. Ergo, I also believe that the 1st amendment rights to freedom of expression will take precedence and thereby any lawsuit resulting from such portrait would fail.
In an email exchange with reporter Mike DeForest, the seller wrote, "My main motivation was to make money off the controversy."
Oh, and by the way, I'm all grown up now, so there is no need for you to write certain words in bold print or underline certain words in your comments. I am perfectly capable of reading your comments without that being done. Thanks.
Probably sadder that this is regarding a 17-year old who was shot dead, and not the guy who shot him.
Still, not good either way.
Now? No... not so much.
Making people responsible for the guns they own is not the same thing as banding them or taking them away from citizens.
African-American children and teens are almost five times as likely as their white peers to be killed by firearms (11.30 per 100,000 African-American youth vs. 2.31 per 100,000 white youth) (NCIPC)).
African-American males ages 15 to 19 are almost 5 times as likely as their white peers and more than twice as likely as their Hispanic or American-Indian/Alaska Native peers to be killed by firearms (Children's Defense Fund, p. 16, 2009).
In 2008, in addition to fatalities, 30,984 African-Americans were treated for firearm injuries in emergency rooms, followed with 19,338 Whites, and 16,903 Hispanics (other categories not detailed; rates not available) (NCIPC).
Who exactly are your referencing here???
That's for your first question.
"it was just beyond your ken to add it here?" Don't know what your referencing. I believe your talking about the zimmerman bulls eye picture. Ore the bounty by the racist Black panthers. However here is another link to a bulls eye of zimmerman.http://frontpagemag.com/2012/03/30/kill-george-zimmerman/
Also a clearly racist portrayal on a T-shirt. Direct question here Cookie. Do you think it's racist? Or just funny.http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/trayvon-martin/cracker-tshirt-759832
As for fitting the description. --- taken from this link. http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474981326255#cid-1688849890705032 "In several of the incidents, witnesses identified the suspects to police as young black men. Twin Lakes is about 50 percent white, with an African-American and Hispanic population of about 20 percent each, roughly similar to the surrounding city of Sanford, according to U.S. Census data.
On August 3, Bertalan was at home with her infant son while her husband, Michael, was at work. She watched from a downstairs window, she said, as two black men repeatedly rang her doorbell and then entered through a sliding door at the back of the house. She ran upstairs, locked herself inside the boy's bedroom, and called a police dispatcher, whispering frantically.
"I said, 'What am I supposed to do? I hear them coming up the stairs!'" she told Reuters. Bertalan tried to coo her crying child into silence and armed herself with a pair of rusty scissors.
Police arrived just as the burglars - who had been trying to disconnect the couple's television - fled out a back door. Shellie Zimmerman saw a black male teen running through her backyard and reported it to police.
One morning in July 2011, a black teenager walked up to Zimmerman's front porch and stole a bicycle, neighbors told Reuters. A police report was taken, though the bicycle was not recovered."
IF the suspects in these crimes were white teens I would expect any white kid walking around at night to be suspicious too.
1. This article is about a target of Trayvon. You are correct that I said what about the target t-shirt of GZ. Let me insert a " / " into that statement. What about the target / t-shirts of George Zimmerman. Far from a lie Cookie.
2. I am referencing the gang violence / firearm death among young african males. Again, far from a lie. Figures are right there for you.
3. You keep dancing around the facts. The way I read that statement is... of the incidents where a suspect was actually seen... they were reported to be black.
"No other race needed to be looked at"
You never answered my question. I am trying to be respectful and answer yours. Do you think the Cracker t-shirt is racist? Still waiting on your response.
Cookie... Cookie... That's not what I am saying at all. Time - place - and circumstance. Trayvon's actions that night made him appear like he had or was about to commit a crime. DOES NOT MEAN HE DID. DOES NOT MEAN HE WAS GUILTY OF. It means it be nice for someone to check him out and see if his activities were lawful. A friend of mine saw a WHITE guy hanging around on the street the other night. Just standing there for almost an hour. A quiet rural area. Homes around but quiet. Anyhow she called the police and asked he be checked out. This was actually the second time she saw him. There is no bus, ect. He just seemed out of place. His actions were out of place.
As far as the Stormfront reference. I'll put that in the she's angry category and give you a mulligan.
His history is well researchable.
Seems to me that one of the costs of a free society is tolerating harmless but disgusting behavior. When the target isn't paper it's a different thing.
.
I tell you what, I'd support a complete gun ban if I can be guaranteed that every gun on this planet is destroyed....and when you come to get mine, I want to see them destroyed right in front of my eyes. Until then, I'm keeping mine thank you very much. And the thought that right wingers think that the right to keep and bear arms means the right to murder people is complete and utter nonsense.
True that there are problems with capitalism. The thing is that the radical ultra-left wingers would rather see a system where all the money is taken from the wealthy corporations and split up. They are so naive as to think that some of that money will find its way into their pockets, which of course is quite unlikely. Instead of the Wall Street fat cats having the wealth, it would be the Washington fat cats......not you nor I. Considering the alternative, I'll stick with what we have.