Why some of us are worried about Zimmerman

[DonCoquixote]

Disclaimer: central Florida resident, not far from where this is going down.

I know that the Zimmerman trial annoys some people, and I can understand why, especially as the National Media, too afraid to work on real issues, latched on to this case and went "Oh Goodie, ratings for something other than policy that no one understands, including ourselves."

However, let me explain why the idea of Zimmerman getting off scot-free is a serious matter, and no, it is nothign to do with OJ style race riots.

Here in central Florida, we have a LOT of people who happen to be a combination of hardcore racists, and hardcore gun lovers. These are not just the good old boys, these are people who actively support militias, and who will tell you, with a straight face and clear voice, that they think they are in a civil war, with Blacks and Hispanics taking THEIR state from them. Some of these folks are old Dixie types, and some of them are New Yorkers that felt the blacks drove them out of "their" city. They have been angry ever since 2000, and when Obama won office, they got livid.

What Zimmerman did was nothign less than wish fulfillment for many White Floridians. It's and ugly fact, but true. Go to the Web Pages of papers like the Tampa Bay Times, and read as people alternate between being the cold, matter of fact killers to people the KKK would consider too crazy to recruit.

Now, what is scary is that this it that swing state of swing states, the ones where every governor from Jeb Bush to Rick Scott made a mess of the vote, and no one cared. Despite antics that are at best, incompetence, at worst, outright treason, this state went Blue.

But then again, we did not have a bunch of potential "lone wolves" out there, empowered by the Zimmerman verdict, who saw that Z will get money, be a hero, hell even get on Glenn Neck. All you need is one bullet, but there will be more, especially once the powers that be realize that if some Vote worker gets shot, people will stay indoors.

Laugh if you want to, look and you will know better than to laugh. This was an area that the VRA had to hold in place.

[4 more years]

1. Assholes have at it

Let these nut cases blow up and show who they are. Go NASCAR assholes and beware and stay the fuck away from fl. Disney world is going to a war zone.

[GiaGiovanni]

2. I don't think the jury will let him off. I really think

we're getting a manslaughter charge out of this.

[Mojorabbit]

13. I think so also.. Manslaughter.

It is not only the hard core right here that are armed. Every Dem but two that I know are also armed. It is kind of beside the point. There are a lot of white supremacists here though and the media is breathless with imagining riots after the verdict. It makes me want to hurl. Husband turned off the tv in the middle of speculation on if there would be unrest or no.

[GiaGiovanni]

15. I didn't realize that the makeup of Florida was so scary

I think of it as a lot of retired people in golf carts.

[Mojorabbit]

16. It is a weird mix like a lot of other places.

I love living here. I have lived all over the world but Florida is home for me. It is just high profile cases like this that will bring out the loonies.

[Nay]

28. I'm a native Floridian, and that mix has been there forever. The center of the state has

always been full of the gun-totin', tobacco-spittin' types, and they are also found on the coast. 50 years ago I had a best friend whose parents were KKK, and I lived in Clearwater. However, back then the schools were very good and very modern. I got a great education. Schools in black neighborhoods were another thing, though.

Back then, things were generally going along in a progressive way. You could see things improve. I can't say that about FL now. My brother lives there and hates it now. He says it's nothing like it used to be.

[Mojorabbit]

32. I live in central fl

and my county is Blue. I think once Rick Scott gets kicked out and hopefully we get a Dem governor in, things might improve in so many ways. on edit. I know a lot of young people here out of the mainstream. They are a sort of community under the community. They are into permaculture, local food sourcing, etc. They are my hope for the future. They are amazing.

[justiceischeap]

22. As I understand it, a lot of Florida

is like the deep south. With pockets of liberalism in the major metro areas. Mojorabbit, please correct me if I'm wrong.

I drove down to Disney once and driving through the areas I did, I saw a lot of the stereotypical south along the way.

[DonCoquixote]

40. to be fair

the part where Disney is located was used to be the deep South. Yes, there has been a truly massive amount of influence from other areas, thanks to Disney luring all sorts of creative types and other workers that would not otherwise be there. There were times I considered moving there, especially as it has a lot of Puerto Ricans. However, the power brokers are still the good old boys that listen to the dollar bills and televangelist shows.

[Honeycombe8]

3. I hope the jury doesn't take any of that into account. Every defendant has the right

to a fair trial, to be judged on the evidence presented in the case, and nothing else.

If you were on trial, I'm sure you'd want it that way. Whether or not to find you guilty should not be based on whether I would riot, or whether I would feel bolstered to go out shootin' my gun. Even if either of those results is accurate.

You deserve your trial based on the merits, as to whether you are guilty or not guilty of the charges. Everything else is smoke & has no business in the Courtroom.

[YarnAddict]

8. I believe in our justice system

and realize that while mistake can be made, overall it is the best we can do.

So many seem to be hoping that the jury will disregard actual evidence, and make their desicion based solely on emotion. This is not good.

[DonCoquixote]

11. there are penty of facts in play

not the last of which is where Z was told NOT to Chase TM.

[YarnAddict]

18. Yes

and it is also on the recording that he said "Okay." What there is no record of is whether that meant he stopped following. So much is up to interpretation by the individuals on the jury.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Fully understand that fear

[HockeyMom]

5. You put it very well

and I agree that is scares me as a non-gun owning white woman. Them against us. They want civil unrest, and what a lot of people do not understand, is that if you aren't with them, you are against them, and will be in their target sights (literally), and that includes white people too.

This is why I would fear a George Zimmerman more than a Travyon Martin. These people want to be judge, jury, and executioner. The state of Florida is supplying them with the means to be such.

[4 more years]

6. Stay away from fla.

Be safe and stay away from fla. tourist beware and don't go into NASCAR county until these bigots die off

[Hoyt]

7. That is one aspect of gun nuttery that needs to be addressed - armed bigots and

supremacists are a much bigger group than many think.

I guarantee that a bunch of armed bigots have been cleaning their guns, and boasting to their bigoted friends that they are prepared for riots. Personally, those yahoos are who we need to worry about.

[GeorgeGist]

9. What are ...

OJ style race riots?

[DonCoquixote]

10. ones where the underlcass

riots in cities. This will happen in rural areas,where bodies can be dumped.

[Nye Bevan]

12. Why "OJ Style"?

I don't recall any riots in connection with the Simpson case.

[premium]

33. What O.J. riots?

And what cities? I don't remember any riots when he was acquitted in L.A. or when he was convicted in Las Vegas.
Got a link?

Or perhaps you meant the Rodney King related riots?

[Iggo]

14. No such thing as an OJ-style race riot.

We have had Fuck-The-LAPD-style riots, though.

Maybe that's what he meant.

[DonCoquixote]

20. ok

I can handle that, replace OJ with FTLAPD

[Loudly]

30. Rodney King, not OJ. The OJ verdict was a celebration.

[Spirochete]

17. What are these people going to do

if Zimmerman walks, and for the next week or so, articles in the paper read "Gun sales among African-Americans skyrocket"? Will they be apprehensive, or happy in anticipation of something they want finally happening?

[DonCoquixote]

21. Their trigger fingers

will itch, and then when the "lone gunman" who is so unlike others (sarcasm) does their work, they will say he was not like them, but nonethless totally justified, sound familiar?

[Spirochete]

34. Yep

pretty sure I've heard that one a time or two, now. if all these "lone gunmen" ever teamed up, they could be somewhat dangerous.

[DonCoquixote]

36. teaming up defweats them

because then they could be identified. It is better for the puppet masters to just agitate a mass, and let the fruit fall.

[davidpdx]

19. Interesting to hear your take on it from Florida

I had no idea it was that bad. I grew up in several small towns in a rural part of the state where I lived most of my life (I wasn't born there) and when I went to high school it was all a sea of white faces except for two. There were very few minorities in the area. When I went to school I went to a big city and was thankful to get out of that place.

[DonCoquixote]

23. Florida combiones the very best and worst

Of Dixie and the Beltway. You have great food, lovely beaches, but you also have an alliance of self described "crackers" that remember when their ancestors move here because places like the Carolina became too "big city" and the New Yawkas who blame their lost jobs and housing prices on Black people. Don't get me wrong, when Florida brings it it's best, it is truly unique and beautiful, but the places has attracted the nations restless and outright crazy since the days when Harriet Beecher Stowe tried to get Northerners to move down there to turn the state away from Dixie culturally.

[coeur_de_lion]

31. hey there wait a minute

I live here and I am a "self described cracker" because my family have been here since 1882.

But I hope Zimmerman gets locked up where the sun don't shine for life.

Not all crackers are racist gun nuts.

That being said, there are a lot of racist gun nuts here who would be happy if Zimmerman were acquitted. I think if he is we will see many more Trayvon Martin style killings. I think your fears may be justified.

[DonCoquixote]

37. as someone who used to live right by the "cracker country" exhibit

at the State fair, I know there is a mile of difference between the way some use that term, thus why I emphasized the "self described" part.

[coeur_de_lion]

41. ah I understand now n/t

[Sancho]

24. You are spot on...

there are a scary bunch of extreme gun owners running around - and they are racists and rationalize their actions. I've been worried about it for a while.

I think there are more in central and rural Florida, and they have been supporting and donating to Zimmerman's defense all along. I think some of the Sanford police are sympathetic to the nuts too.

[DonCoquixote]

25. Yes

sadly though, this is right in Central Florida. A lot of people think Orlando just came in when Walt Disney bought the place, but long before Walt Came, Orlando was very much the DEEP South, with televangelists forming little kingdoms down there.

[Bluenorthwest]

26. OJ style 'race riots'? What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Racist OP about 6 ways.

Barf on you, your bigotry and your 'fears' Oh, also who is 'us'? Why do you claim to speak for some group you don't name? What group is that?

[DonCoquixote]

29. Note, i said not Oj style

as the people I said would shott were the right wing types, not the left, as for who I speak for, every Florida resident who is hoping that this will not be a mess, though chances are it will be. Think before you accuse someone of being a racist.

[madokie]

27. There for a second you were describing the people around here

People who I wouldn't have thought were racist but once Obama was elected it became apparent
I think the jury will return a guilty verdict.
I thought that with OJ too so who knows.
I'm hoping the murderer gets life without the chance of parole

[hfojvt]

35. except there is no way he gets off scot free

if he is acquitted, then he will be forced to go into hiding. No way he lives happily ever after, no matter what the verdict is. I don't think any sane person wants to be in his shoes, and insane people, well they don't really need an excuse for their insanity. There were murderous sprees and serial killers before Zimmerman and there will be after Zimmerman - regardless of the verdict.

[DonCoquixote]

38. Nice thought, except

In this culture, he can easily be made a rich Hero if the right donors have him do a book tour, the same ones that, thanks to Citizen United, do not even have to admit they are supporting murder of brown people.

[Ruby the Liberal]

39. RAHOWA

St*rmfr*nt (which is ironically based in Florida) has been all a buzz about the "RAcial HOly WAr" (RAHOWA) regardless of the verdict.

Not what I expected to read, but it makes sense. If Zippy gets off scott free, it reinforces that this is legal murder. If he is thrown in the jail, they get their RAHOWA because of "riots".

Bizarro land...