Thanks for sharing this article Michael. As Shafer openly admits, he didn't watch the whole trial, (I caught most of it) and I think his premise is just a little skewed, but he brings up an excellent point; a point that is, (as Plain Ol's calls it) "Spot On".
In my humble opinion, our Nations' States, Counties and municipalities all made a grave, serious mistake, like here in Florida, when in 1985 we removed the "law" that required and mandated it a citizen's duty to use whatever force necessary to resist an illegal or wrongful arrest. This was replaced with statutes that mandated it was illegal to resist a law enforcement officer.....In Florida, the minor infraction is titled: "resisting an officer without violence" and the felonious charge is captioned: "resisting an officer with violence". Both of these statutes, but especially the "without violence" charge are "catch-all" criminal infractions and hard to prove against. They should be repealed in every jurisdiction, and the old laws that required a citizen to resist illegal arrests be reinorporated. I believe that this is just one more check to balance out overly aggressive and errant law enforcement officers. On Sun, Jul 14, 2013 at 9:23 PM, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > > *What Bothered Me Most About the Zimmerman Trial > *Butler Shaffer > July 14, 2013 > > I did not watch the entirety of this trial, but I did watch most of the > closing arguments. There was a tone to the prosecution’s summation to the > jury that left me with the impression that the core of George Zimmerman’s > offense was that he was *not* a police officer. While giving lip-service > to the propriety -- even the desirability -- of “neighborhood watch” > practices, the state’s prosecutors saw a conflict between ordinary people > and “official” police officers doing what Zimmerman did. Toward the end of > the state’s summation, it was said that if a person wanted to do what > George Zimmerman did “you’d better have one of these” (whereupon a photo of > a policeman’s badge was projected onto the screen). > > What the state was implicitly acknowledging -- whether such was its intent > or not -- was the real-world dual standard that operates on the streets of > virtually every city in every state: a police officer will almost never be > held to account, criminally, for wrongs committed against innocent victims. > Take the identical facts in the Zimmerman case and change just one: have > George Zimmerman be a city-appointed police officer. Is there anyone so > naïve as to believe that his actions would have turned him into a criminal > defendant? Would the event have even made it into the media -- apart, > perhaps, from a blurb news report on page 23 of the local newspaper? > Because the state is defined as a system enjoying a monopoly on the use of > violence, its practitioners must be shielded from the consequences of their > violent acts. > > I shall not hold my breath awaiting the media babblers addressing this > issue. The institutionalized keepers-of-the-questions-to-be-asked would > never be so foolish or careless as to allow such a thought to surface. > > -- > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. > * Read the latest breaking news, and more. > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "PoliticalForum" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
