COONS is NOT a racial slur!!! I think he was using it in reference to all the break ins they had! It's a common slang uses for someone who steals!
Your just making it about race!
Come on now.
Besides they concluded he was saying "****ing cold" because it was raining & unseasonably cool in Florida that night (I think someone else posted that above).
I'm done with this thread. Physically ill over justification of one person's right to DEADLY self-defense while completely denying the other person's right to self-defense. If you kill somebody even in self-defense you have killed somebody and that is NOT okay and it's certainly not "good." Disgusting.
Well, I'm certainly glad that some armed, untrained man with a vigilante complex can pursue me while walking home and end up killing me if we get into a fight. Do I agree that the prosecution went with 2nd degree murder charges? No. But Zimmerman walking away is disgusting.
Meanwhile, an African American mother gets 20 years in prison for firing warning shots near her abusive husband.
I'm disgusted that he was found not guilty.
And disgusted by this thread.
If you don't think it's about race you're not paying attention and you CLEARLY didn't listen to what Zimmerman had to say on his 911 calls. Martin "fit the description" of the people who had been breaking and entering in the neighbourhood - in what way?
Because he was black.
My black friend was walking home one night and suddenly found himself surrounded by six cops with their guns drawn yelling PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR, PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR.
Because he "fit the description" of some guys who had held up a bank earlier in the day.
By which they mean he was black. And that was the end of how he fit the description.
Same ****ing thing.
Sick to my stomach and even more sick that I knew this was how it was going to turn out.
COONS is NOT a racial slur!!! I think he was using it in reference to all the break ins they had! It's a common slang uses for someone who steals!
Your just making it about race!
coon (kn)
n.
1. Informal A raccoon.
2. Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a Black person.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/coon
If I seek out a fight with someone.... And he starts winning... Then I don't think it's fair that I can then shoot him in self defence.
And coon not being a racial slur? Seriously. I'm in the uk and even I know that's pretty taboo.
Sometimes you just have to shake your head in wonder...
Why is it bad to be a part of a neighborhood watch?
Why does that make him a weirdo?
What the verdict says, to the astonishment of tens of millions of us, is that you can go looking for trouble in Florida, with a gun and a great deal of racial bias, and you can find that trouble, and you can act upon that trouble in a way that leaves a young man dead, and none of it guarantees that you will be convicted of a crime. But this curious result says as much about Florida's judicial and legislative sensibilities as it does about Zimmerman's conduct that night. This verdict would not have occurred in every state. It might not even have occurred in any other state. But it occurred here, a tragic confluence that leaves a young man's untimely death unrequited under state law. Don't like it? Lobby to change Florida's laws.
Well, "coon" is not used down here that way ... At least not since I have been born. Sadly the "n" word is the more wider used term down here (which is no better). The closest thing I have heard would be the term "coon ass", in reference to someone from Louisiana (black or white).
I don't think that Zimmerman himself is a racist or he followed the guy because he was a black kid. I just think he thought his neighborhood was going to be harmed & he was protecting his neighbors.
But since other people have brought the race card into this, I wonder (as someone whose fiancée is of Mexican decent) if the kid had been Latino & Zimmerman had called him "Hispanic ". I also find that the same people who cry out over the terms "coon" & "black" will freely call illegal immigrants "aliens" & refer to them like animals ... Just saying.
I am really saddened by this thread...seriously. This was ABSOLUTELY about race!!!! It was about the fear and myth of the "dangerous" black guy.
From January 1, 2011 through February 26, 2012, police were called to The Retreat at Twin Lakes 402 times.[67] During the 18 months preceding the February 26 shooting, Zimmerman called the non-emergency police line seven times. On five of those calls, Zimmerman reported suspicious looking men in the area, but never offered the men's race without first being asked by the dispatcher.[81][82][83] Crimes committed at The Retreat in the year prior to Martin's death included eight burglaries, nine thefts, and one shooting.[84] Twin Lakes residents said there were dozens of reports of attempted break-ins, which had created an atmosphere of fear in their neighborhood.[2]
In September 2011, the Twin Lakes residents held an organizational meeting to create a neighborhood watch program. Zimmerman was selected by neighbors as the program's coordinator, according to Wendy Dorival, Neighborhood Watch organizer for the Sanford Police Department.[5][5][85]
Three weeks prior to the shooting, on February 2, 2012, Zimmerman called police to report a young man peering into the windows of an empty Twin Lakes home. Zimmerman was told a police car was on the way and he waited for their arrival. By the time police arrived, the suspect had fled. On February 6, workers witnessed two young black men lingering in the yard of a Twin Lakes resident around the same time her home was burglarized. A new laptop and some gold jewelry were stolen. The next day police discovered the stolen laptop in the backpack of a young black man, which led to his arrest. Zimmerman identified this young man as the same person he had spotted peering into windows on February 2.[2]