Trayvon Martin

[tungsten]

Rock salt. 'nuff said.

[HIBuLlitT]

Originally Posted by tungsten

Rock salt. 'nuff said.

Just the sound of chambering a round with a pump will send 99% of any bad people packing.

[chupacabra]

Originally Posted by tungsten

Rock salt. 'nuff said.

I have some good memories of running through the woods with the sound of rock salt hitting the trees. It gets the blood pumping.

[gerewh0re]

there is apparently a friend who was on the phone with the victim, who was freaked out about being hunted by this predator. perhaps this and some pressure from normal people will result in a decent amount of jail time for the murderer.... assuming he is ever charged

[Adam West]

Originally Posted by gerewh0re

there is apparently a friend who was on the phone with the victim, who was freaked out about being hunted by this predator. perhaps this and some pressure from normal people will result in a decent amount of jail time for the murderer.... assuming he is ever charged

i like how he hasnt even been arrested yet.
imagine if he shot a pretty blonde girl?

[tungsten]

Originally Posted by chupacabra

I have some good memories of running through the woods with the sound of rock salt hitting the trees. It gets the blood pumping.

And your sister was.............?

YouTube Video

[cam@nsmb.com]

Originally Posted by Chump

While I agree it is a tragic and ruthless act I don't believe it's right to profile this story as a USA only problem Cam. We as Canadians have no right to point the finger as our crimes are no less and our legislation system any better.

I beg to differ.

To be clear, I have no beef with American citizens, rather I have serious concerns with the laws they enact and the way their governments deal with weapons, law enforcement, racial issues, religion, sexual preference, marriage, equal rights, health care etc.

This joker was authorized to carry that handgun on the street. That would not happen here. On top of that Florida law states that you are not required to retreat from a threat when you are armed. It's the Stand Your Ground law.

This is from the Guardian.

The most significant issue is the Florida "Stand Your Ground" law. The law protects citizens in their use of lethal force in self-defense. The law, found in 20 states, is an expansion of the protection afforded under Castle doctrine or "Make My Day" laws for shootings in the home. I have long been a critic of those laws.

The key component of the law is that it allows lethal force when a person reasonably perceives a serious threat of harm and such force is reasonable under the circumstances. Zimmerman is likely to cite the fact that he was bleeding from the struggle – even though he outweighed the teen significantly and was armed.

Another aspect of this case that distinguishes it as uniquely American is that the perpetrator - the admitted perpetrator - hasn't even been investigated, let alone arrested. He said he acted in self defence and the cops took his word for it - despite evidence to the contrary. Also the deceased was drug tested but the killer was not.

Our court system is also vastly superior. Not flawless of course. Are you familiar with the case of the West Memphis 3? Once evidence was amassed to clear the three young men, the State of Arkansas allowed them to be released only once they gave up any right to legal action. In short, despite being wrongly incarcerated for over 18 years, they were unable to receive any compensation.

This is just scratching the surface. The death penalty is another gem. If you look at the number of prisoners on death row who have been exonerated - many of them posthumously - you may be surprised; 140 between 1973 and 2011.

One of the biggest issues with the US legal system imho is that states can pass their own criminal laws. Having a national criminal justice system makes much more sense and laws are much less likely to be election issues on the national stage. Having different penalties for the same crimes in every state is ridiculous and it leads to one-upmanship among neighbours.

Of course we have problems with crime, with policing and with our courts, but to say "our crimes are no less" is tough to back up. Look at the US vs. Canadian stats on gun crime. Or even homicide in general.



Shall we talk about incarceration? The US puts 0.743 % of the population in jail. That is the highest in the world. Ours is around 0.11%. If you look at males only the rate moves closer to 1%. In 2006 there were 2.2 million Americans in prison.

Not all problems are USA only problems, but this is an example of a situation that would not play out the way here. Zimmerman would have gone straight to jail in Canada to await trial. Hopefully that will still happen but if it does it will be despite the efforts of the local law enforcement.

[Mic]

Originally Posted by cam@nsmb.com

I beg to differ.

To be clear, I have no beef with American citizens, rather I have serious concerns with the laws they enact and the way their governments deal with weapons, law enforcement, racial issues, religion, sexual preference, marriage, equal rights, health care etc.

[...]

The weird thing is, when I have my students read up on the American Dream and its development, and we turn to current issues (current as in "last ten years", the books do not cover that current an issue), most students do actually see a connection between the Pilgrim Fathers and the Puritans, and their belief system and society, a sort of further development during the "American Renaissance" (except maybe Whitman and Thoreau), the Monroe Doctrine, Manifest Destiny, MLK and the Civil Rights Movement, the Second Amendment, right down to the "approach" the US took after 9/11. Quite a few find this disturbing.

[Duncan]

Originally Posted by kthomas

The stats I have seen have also shown that the U.S.'s violent crime rate has been dropping over the last 40 years, while Canada's has been increasing.

Where did you see these statistics? US rate has been dropping, and so has Canada's

Hmmmm .... US homicide rate 3X Canada

http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/legal12a-eng.htm
http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/off...rtable_08.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._homicide_rate

Must ... build ... more ... prisons ...



http://www2.macleans.ca/crime-chart/

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-.../11523-eng.htm

[KenN]

"We live in America where a girl throws flour at Kim Kardashian is arrested, but a man who killed Trayvon Martin is free."


-Will Smith



Kn.

[enduramil]

at a bunch of white people pulling out fancy graph's and yapping about laws.

[cam@nsmb.com]

Originally Posted by enduramil

at a bunch of white people pulling out fancy graph's and yapping about laws.

Do you have a point?

Was it humour or insight you were offering? Neither is evident.

[go-t]

This is one of the first times that Obama's weighed in on race issues...

YouTube Video

[HIBuLlitT]

Originally Posted by cam@nsmb.com

Do you have a point?

Was it humour or insight you were offering? Neither is evident.

I thought it was a reference to while white people argue over graphs and statistics, blacks
down south get screwed on a daily basis when it comes to equal rights...even in our "modern"
age.
And, maybe it's a comment on how disconnected white people are from the black experience.
Black people down south don't need facts and figures to know they're getting screwed by
the US justice system.

[L. Ron Hubbard]

Originally Posted by cam@nsmb.com

Do you have a point?

Was it humour or insight you were offering? Neither is evident.

Didn't you know? Enduramil is part black because of where he sometimes throws his penis.