Quote:
Originally Posted by eroticsexxx
Yours is a fairly decent attempt to remove race from the equation. However this is nullified by the public admittance of two of Zimmerman's friends AND his former lawyer on television that the primary reason Zimmerman followed Martin was because of the numerous break-ins that recently occurred in the area by black men.
Hence Zimmerman's statement to the dispatcher that "they always get away". He racially profiled Martin (albeit innocently) because as much as anyone here would like to deny that he didn't, the fact remains that Zimmerman probably wouldn't have called 911 or got out of his vehicle to pursue Martin if Martin was a white kid walking through that area. He asserted his role as neighbourhood watch captain because he thought that Martin was another burglar
Once again, for clarification, I submit that he likely did not shoot Martin because he was black, but he definitely began following Martin because he was black. If he had never gotten out of his vehicle and waited for the police to do their jobs, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
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I still say it has to be a seperate discussion and not glommed together with a criminal case that literally, in the letter of the law, has no racial component to it. If the FBI determines he used a racial slur then it's up to the feds to make a seperate charge of a hate crime.
I would say true racial profiling is when a race is selected for NO reason other than what appears to be their race. For instance ask a police force to do 100 random seatbelt stops in a town that's 90% white. If a statistically high number of stops are blacks, then you've probably found racial profiling. A WAY more compelling profiling case.
Now, if you were to ask the same police force to stop 100 cars but keep in mind there've been numerous reports of blacks not wearing them, then those results would be invalid.
He may have followed every black person he saw because there were break ins by blacks. But it's actually not illegal, even if it may be distasteful and ignorant. Thats not a easy way to discuss race or racial profiling. It's just too murky.