This Post Matters
1. George Zimmerman seems to have a thing for using a firearm to menace innocent, unarmed people. That’s a fetish that’s going to prove to be expensive. At a bare minimum, he seems to have a bizarre fetish whereby he tries to solve everyday interpersonal conflicts with a gun. A bit excessive, and, you know, someone could get hurt. He’s now charged with a felony and, ironically, this could finally enable the government to take this lunatic’s guns away. Even in Florida. This gun matters.
2. There’s a fine line, I suppose, between a police department enforcing nuisance laws and blatant racism. The owner of Ying’s Wings and Things is accusing the Tonawanda police of targeting his restaurant’s DJ nights because they attract black kids. The police say the crowds are too noisy and rowdy. Like – oh, just about everything – attitudes about race in western New York are rooted firmly in the 50s, to everyone’s detriment. In the meantime, Ying should hire some security to keep his patrons safe, to keep parking lot nonsense and shootings to a minimum, and to document it all. This 18+ DJ night matters.
3. Kaleida has a plan to redevelop the site of the former Millard Fillmore Gates hospital into a ~$60 million complex of housing, offices, and retail space including a large complex for seniors. It would attract hundreds into a city neighborhood now occupied by a nondescript, empty white box. There’s no damn way this goes smoothly. This lot matters.
4. Looking for a Christmas gift for your kid? Depending on age-appropriateness, how about a construction kit of the Anne Frank House, showing how the secret Annex was connected to the house and kept hidden from the Nazis for most of the war. With shipping, it costs a little more than $50, but it’s cheaper than airfare to Amsterdam. This house matters.
5. This idiotic incident will result in a lawsuit being brought against the rail-slider and the Bills and everyone else. Was a Bills Mafia dummy’s reckless tumbling from the 300s into the 200s – and onto another person – foreseeable? When a football spectator buys a ticket and takes his seat, does he assume the risk that someone might fall on top of him – is spectator precipitation a risk inherent in football? This is why we have lawyers and lawsuits. This jurisprudence matters.
6. Rob Ford is now, effectively, the figurehead mayor of Toronto. Yesterday, the city council voted 37-5 to strip him of practically all his powers. As the drama unfolded, Ford was defiant and managed to, among other things, knock over a council colleague while charging towards a heckler. Of course, the conservative Toronto Sun gave Ford and his brother, Doug, their own TV show. This crack matters.
That video of Ford charging the stands seriously made him look like a wild, penned-in beast…totally out of control.
Wow. Georgie stalks and murders a black kid and it took nationwide protests to even have him brought to trial. But wave a gun at a cute little white girl and BAM!
Think of it like this. That incident got national media attention. 60-plus years ago, lynchings were mostly ignored by the national media. We’ve come a long, long way.
But it wasn’t the murder of Trayvon Martin that got national media attention. It was the reaction to the murder that got national attention.
Murder is normally a killing with malice aforethought. This was a self-defense shooting, which all of your whining won’t change the verdict. Get over yourself.
All your bullshit won’t change the fact that George Zimmerman is a disgusting murderer. Wouldn’t it be funny if he ended up killing you? I sure would laugh!
You’re really a broken toy, aren’t you Dan? A lynching was when a group of racist whites decided to select a black man at random, who was guilty of nothing, and the mob hanged him. Defending yourself from some young punk doesn’t even come close—but it probably assuages your white liberal guilt.
Well, self defense is a justification for using a gun. And that’s what happened. If you saw pictures of “Poor Trayvon” that weren’t taken when he was 11 and 13 (I saw the most recent one before his death), he looked like you average thug. Tattooed, Bling-Bling, the whole catalog. I suppose you would have let Trayvon beat your head into the cement until you were dead. That’s why the cops didn’t see the need to have him arrested—Until the professional Race-Baiters and Liberals filled with white guilt swooned over this punk.
Of course staying in his car and waiting for the police like he was asked to do was an option too.
@Hank- There was no conclusive evidence “Trayvon beat” Zimmernman’s “head into the concrete”, in fact the nature of Zimmermans very minor injuries were inconsistent with that explanation. As for Trayvon, there were many false pictures circulated by the gun culture apologists and right wing racists but a simple fact check can clear this up.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/martin.asp
If you choose to believe Snopes–which isn’t very reliable anymore. Zimmerman was found not guilty, by 12 of his fellow citizens. I know you can’t stand that. But that issue is water under the bridge. Zimmerman didn’t get his head beat in because HE HAD A GUN. You wouldn’t because you’re afraid of them.
Hank- I know, facts are the liberal bias, you guys don’t have a chance once those silly facts are brought into the debate. As for being “afraid” of guns, that’s laughable and shows your ignorance. A little background, I am over 55, grew up here in blue collar-beer drinking Black Rock when fights were settled with fists, before cowards starting using guns. I do own a double barrel 12 gauge and a single shot 22 (the shotgun was my grandfathers, the 22 my dads).
There is a problem in this country, a sick, twisted love affair with guns and firepower. There is an unhealthy fascination with weapons fueled by paranoid delusions and macho fantasies. We call them gun nuts for a reason, they lack common sense and lack a grasp of reality. That combination puts the rest of us in danger.
Well Guess what? I don’t hide behind a screen name. I’m over 55 as well, and grew up in Riverside, where we also fought with our fists, and lived to fight another day, sometimes becoming good friends with the adversary. I carry a pistol because the state I live in ALLOWS ME TO without the oodles of restrictions that NY does. That does not make me sick, twisted or in love with guns and firepower. It just makes me someone who is using his 2nd amendment right to do so. You call them “gun nuts”. How many weapons do you have to own to be a gun nut—it could be 2—which makes you a de facto “Gun Nut”. In 7 years in Law Enforcement in VA, and 16 since I moved to NC, I’ve never had to pull my gun. But I have been in several situations where some “Billy Bad Ass” thought twice about attempting to do me harm when he saw a pistol on my belt. There’s nothing bad or nuts about that.
“we also fought with our fists, and lived to fight another day” Of course if you or your adversary had been armed that likely would not be the case and you might be dead or in jail. Guns encourage violence and like beer balls prop up the egos of cowards and macho fools, (see Zimmerman). I have somehow managed to survive here in Black Rock without the need to carry a weapon as did my father and grandfathers. Self defense and safety is more about common sense and awareness, guns are the choice for those that lack both.
He was told to stay in the car and wait for the cops and chose not to. From that moment on he initiated the contact that resulted in a shooting. No different than a person intentionally starting a fight with somebody then shooting them once he takes the first hit in the face because he now feels threatened. Bitch-assery of the highest order.
All the small-genital NRA crowd that got all up on the turps about this guy being set upon by a “thug”. Good to see that you are so willing to swallow the same swill you purport to oppose, so long as it comes from your side of the BS machine.
It takes lots of balls to say that to a keyboard. You’re a real scary guy—NOT. The bitch ass is whom I’m replying to.
Hah, I’m guessing that since the 1st part of my comment wasn’t directed at you it must’ve been the second part that cut a little too close to home!
Not at all—-you’re just a bitch. Thanks for playing.
I hope he dates your daughter next.
My daughter is 30 years old, a disabled Iraq veteran, and knows how to use a gun. I taught her, and the military taught her what I may not have. If someone like Zimmerman pulled a gun on my daughter, She would have shot his nuts off. You don’t have to worry about that ever happening to you, as you don’t have any to begin with.
Nice to know your DNA won’t be polluting the human race in the generations to come. And how ironic that your daughter was permanently damaged in a war started by an anti-American scumbag just like you. If you were a decent human being you wouldn’t be able to sleep at night, but you’re just filth.
Alan, on number 3 – I get nervous when things “go smoothly”. In my experience, it too often means the fix is in. No harm in vigorous discussion.
bbbut but but ol’ Georgie boy was just “standing his ground”
1. Didn’t hear such deep concern expressed about Rodney King’s many ventures into recidivism after his day in the sun. Guess it depends on whether one is termed a “white-Hispanic”.
5, 6. When I first saw the video of the idiot at the stadium, I wondered if anyone knew the whereabouts of Rob Ford at that precise moment.
1. Don’t remember Rodney King murdering any teenagers. Zimmerman is the worst kind of thug, enabled by the gun nuts at NRA and other right wing apologists. Can you imagine the outcry if a heavy set middle aged black man in a SUV hunted down a slightly built 17 year old white kid and shot him dead?
Nah, he just smoked crack and went around terrorizing neighborhoods in a 4000 lb missle. You really need to get off “gun nuts”. Since you own 2 yourself, perhaps the NYS Legislature should define “Gun Nut” as someone who owns 2 or more. Then YOU’LL be a “Gun Nut”.
Hank- You know who the gun nuts are as well as I do. They are typically angry old white guys with a perverted view of the second amendment. They believe in this nonsense of insurrection and overthrowing our democratically elected government, something the rest of us call treason. They seek bigger and badder weapons meant only for murder and harbor paranoid conspiracy theories that have no basis in reality. They are obsessed with guns and have an almost sexual relationship with their firearms. I have observed some of the Safe Act protests, the attendees are full of hate and anger and seem to lack basic decency or respect. I also know many gun nuts personally, a few even in my own family, they are mostly delusional and uniformed and that makes them dangerous.
Imagine the response to some of Jimmy Griffin’s antics if he pulled them off under today’s media environment.
Keep in mind Griffin didn’t do one TENTH of the stuff that Rob Ford has, caught on tape or not.
How is Rob Ford not under arrest? They’ve got videotape of him breaking the law!
They have a video of him APPEARING to break the law. But in court, there would be no definitive way of proving exactly what he was smoking. It’s the reasonable doubt principle: if you have a photo of someone shooting something into their arm, are they a junkie or a diabetic? No way to prove it from just a photo.
Nice return post Alan. I guess George didn’t learn the first lesson in gun safety–Unless shooting at a range target, never point a weapon unless you’re ready to kill. And you better have a good reason for busting that cap. I agree that George should NOT have pointed any kind of weapon at his girlfriend, because he didn’t have either the reason or intent to kill. This is a violation of the law, and he should face justice for it—-But unless the penalty for brandishing a weapon is confiscation of ALL YOUR GUNS—Which in my experience is not part of the punishment—You’re shit out of luck. Your fetish for taking guns away from people isn’t attractive.
But I would also concur that Zimmerman is a moron–after you go through what he did, and not realize his life will be under a microscope until he dies, where he got the motivation to show his behind in this manner I’ve no earthly reason why he did, and there is no justification. Doesn’t mean some yahoo won’t try to kill him at some future time due to his celebrity (such as it is) , and to be murdered because people petrified of guns didn’t allow him to defend himself, the blood would be on their hands.
If convicted on felony charges, he would indeed lose the right to own a firearm.
Brandishing a firearm is a class 1 misdemeanor in most states. Punishment for a class 1 misdemeanor in most states is a fine up to 2500.00 and/or 12 months in jail. You don’t have your firearms taken away on misdemeanor charges—but thanks for playing!!
Try reading: He is facing FELONY charges. Specifically felony aggravated assault. I was attempting to politely clarify your obvious confusion over the law–you might try bothering to know even the first thing you’re talking about.
Aggravated assault was when he choked her, moron. He was not charged with brandishing a firearm. You lose your right to own weapons AFTER YOU’RE CONVICTED—He’s only been charged. Your liberal superiority slip is showing. I was a cop in VA for 7 years. I think I know more about the law than you do.
You don’t seem to, since you’re completely missing the point. For the third time, he is facing a felony charge. If he’s convicted, he loses the right to own a firearm. Period. It doesn’t matter what the felony conviction was. It could be for wire fraud, and he would still lose the right to own a firearm.
And for the record, the degree to which you choose to act like an aggressive asshole really does a beautiful job of setting back any progress I’ve tried to make over the last couple years explaining to my fellow liberals that the vast majority of Americans who are pro-gun–including me–are not all frothing psychotic maniacs. So thanks for that.
According to Mr. Ying, he DID have private security present, but the police had ordered him not to let them operate outside of the restaurant.
After listening to the 911 calls from both Zimmerman and his girlfriend (ex?), I think this is basically a he said, she said dispute. Her demeanor, and lack of background noises, did not support the allegation she made. She also supposedly had a 9mm handgun. The judge that arraigned him couldn’t have been too concerned, he set a $9,000 bond for Zimmerman.
If she had a 9MM, and he pointed a gun at her, she should have busted a cap in his ass. All the liberals whining about guns on here would have applauded her for that.
Yeah right, no problem here, we all have murdered at least one teenager and have had multiple episodes of menacing our wives and girlfriends with a gun, it is part of being American.
I don’t know, man. Zimmerman has been arrested infinity percent more than I, and somehow I’ve managed to live 45 years on this rock without brandishing a gun, or having one pointed at me. Not that hard.
Hank once posted he has his 357 magnum next to his mouse. With all due deference to law abiding gun owners, that’s fucked up.