The Murder of Trayvon Martin

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by badgeguy

Isn't what you just said about "if Trayvon were white...." being racist also? There is no proof to that statement.

There's no proof out there, which is why no one thinks the feds will file civil rights charges. That said, a pretty strong inference could be made that there was racial profiling going on there. It's not as if racial profiling never happens. Anecdotally, I have black clients who are pulled over all of the time because they fit the description of someone the police are looking for--young/black/male.

On the other hand, I, a 30-something white guy have not been pulled over for any reason since something around 2002.

An NYC study on stop and frisk stops showed that despite the fact that blacks and latinos accounted for 4.7% of the city's population, those between 14 and 24 accounted for 41.6% of the stops.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/ny...nd-frisks.html

I can certainly sympathize with the sort of frustration that someone would experience by being treated with automatic hostility and suspicion from others.

This is maybe not the perfect set of facts to be out there protesting over, but it's a legitimate issue.

Zimmerman was a member of a neighborhood watch group, therefore it would stand to reason that all people who "seem suspicious" would be looked at by him, as well as other neighborhood watch people.

As I said, it's a bad set of facts to be mad about, but there are some legitimate grievances here.