Trayvon Martin dead? The media profits

It's a tragedy: a young kid is dead. However, this case has become something more.

First of all, I think one of the obvious problems is the low quality of policing in that neighborhood. If the police were doing a good job with the prior incidents, Zimmerman would probably not be out on the streets at night trying to pick up the slack in his private, gated community. He'd be sitting at home watching TV. This is not really being talked about by the media. I think that THIS should be the central issue of this story. The media just focuses on the fact that police refused to investigate.

Second, I am baffled at the fatality of the shooting. Why not shoot your attacker in the leg, or the arm? So long as they are unarmed, that should get the job done at repelling them. At point blank range, this is not hard to do. I would argue that the law should include a provision on this.

Third, there is simply not enough information out on this case to form a conclusive opinion about it. All these hordes demanding justice creep me out, since they pretty much presume that Zimmerman is guilty.

By the way, who benefits most from this whole incident? That's right - the media, as they continue to blow a single death completely out of proportion, and keep piling up emotionally charged reports almost completely devoid of facts. Vultures who prey on emotions and fear, while the ad revenue flows in.

Who else? Well, anyone who wants to extract political benefit out of this issue - rather than actually deal with the problem. Isn't that the proverbial difficulty of elected officials... This is getting politicized - FAST! In an election year, do you want to wager which candidate could receive more support due to the fallout from this?

Additionally, I see no reason at all to bring race into this case. What evidence do the (overwhelmingly black, from what I've seen) crowds have to believe that Zimmerman was racially motivated in any way? This actually makes me wonder if many blacks are supporting Trayvon simply because he's black. I would be very willing to take a stand in support of Treyvon if Zimmerman's guilt was obvious.

Additionally, it appears that Trayvon was under a 5 day suspension from school at the time. What did he do to deserve it? Unknown for now, but maybe he wasn't such an innocent kid after all. I am, in no way, suggesting that this could justify him being killed. However, it might be more likely that he'd be willing to start a physical altercation.

Let's consider the law which supposedly allowed Zimmerman to exercise deadly force:

"a person is justified in the use of deadly force and does not have a duty to retreat if:
(1) He or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony; or"

According to this - www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic…

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The witness, known only as John, told Sanford police that he saw Martin on top of George Zimmerman shortly before the fatal shot that has led to a national outcry, including a huge 'hoodie' march in Philadelphia last night. He recounted the details to Fox 35 News in Florida.

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If a 6'3" teen is beating your fat ass with bare hands in the night - does that constitute a risk of "great bodily harm"? That's usually something like broken bones, or an extended hospital stay. Perhaps - the police clearly thought so. Could it have seemed to Zimmerman that Trayvon was trying to pull a gun on him? Doesn't seem that unlikely. A sketchy individual is beating your ass - that ought to make you suspicious.

What do you think? For now, I'm comfortable in admitting that I simply do not know where I stand on this issue. As more facts get out, I'll be making my decision.

One thing's for sure. When the mainstream media hypes stuff like this up - I'm very skeptical by default. Did any one of these "reporters" point out how many thousands of Treyvon Martins have been sent to die in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last decade? Death by government policy is, apparently, OK. Political benefits, let's see who'll be milking them.