Trayvon and tort law-what have we done?

The internet and the airwaves (I suspect—I refuse to watch broadcast “news”) are still full of opinions and disinformation about the Trayvon Martin killing and the  lack of an arrest.

No single report I have read had all the facts or accurate details.

I listened to the 911 calls—the dispatcher did not tell Zimmerman not to follow. The phrase “We don't need you to do that” does not constitute an instruction. (In fact, it is narcissistic in the extreme… and speaks to what the cops needed--not to what might protect EITHER of these two men. If the “suspicious” walker had indeed been, say, a gang member bent on shooting a rival gang member, the caller would have been at risk.)

Most of the responses have been visceral. Most have confused the racism in the situation with  the inescapable result of the NRA sponsored BAD law.

In fact, this law is a gross distortion of the common law rules regarding duties of people toward one another,  and was a disaster waiting to happen.

Most people do not realize that English Common law—which we ex-colonies adopted promptly upon revolting from the Crown and declaring independence—impose duties on all citizens, upon all adult humans. (We Americans like to think we are above all strictures on our free will—and this law follows that line of reasoning—but the duties are there and have always been.) Trayvon was an adult for tort law purposes--I did not check on Florida criminal law rules, but he was a juvenile for most purposes.

Here is what a former “peace officer” had to say: “In fact, I, along with other Florida chiefs of police, said ... in a letter to the Legislature in 2005 ... we opposed the passage of a law that not only enshrined the doctrine of “your home is your castle” but took this doctrine into the public square and added a new concept called “stand your ground.”  See http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/24/opinion/floridas-disastrous-self-defense-law.html?_r=1

"Proponents also maintained that there should be no judicial review of such a shooting...

As Florida police chiefs predicted in 2005, the law has been used to justify killings ranging from drug dealers’ turf battles to road rage incidents. Homicides categorized as justifiable have nearly tripled since the law went into effect.”

This law never served any useful purpose. It is very easy for me to take as credible the claims I have seen that the NRA lobbied for it to gin up business.

And the reason there has been no arrest may well be tinged with racism—I grew up in the South and I know this theme well. But after some digging, I saw that the cops here have been I the same spot in numerous homicides—even gang shootings. The law grants IMMUNITY.

This is not good. It was DESIGNED to shut judges out. This is… insanity.

Yes, Zimmerman pursued the kid. Yes, it now seems the kid may have bloodied Zimmerman’s nose—whether purposely or not we don’t know. We know (it is in the 911 calls) that someone screamed for help. (Armed men usually don’t scream for help unless they have been disarmed---and we know this didn’t happen.) We know the kid was on his cell. We know Zimmerman pursued Trayvon. These are ALL that is fact.

We know –now that  it has blown up in their faces-- no one wants to say this law applies if there is pursuit, but the wording of the law is silent on that and there is NO case law interpreting it,  as it CHANGES all the literally 400 years of law that preceded it . Because of this, it is NOT clear what the law says about “pursuit.”

Alas, I cannot reconstruct any scenario in which an armed man lets an unarmed kid bloody his nose. I hate to say it, but I find it much easier to imagine Zimmerman knew this law said he could “stand his ground’ and he used the blood he himself had he spilled –and smeared it on his face before the cops arrived.Then again, some reports say there was damage to Zimmerman's head. Then three-- Zimmerman had two previous run ins with the law. Trayvon had none.

I may be paranoid, but the Zimmerman fast thinking manipulation notion fits the things we know about each of these two  far better then then a fight in which this teen used a  tea can to hit a man who has a weapon-- who then shoots him. (The kid in the pictures has an open happy face. The self appointed “good guy” has a dark past and a dark take on a kid on cell phone. And a gun.)

You decide. We will never know if Zimmerman was bruised, as he was not taken into custody. (He was "questioned and let go.") I predict he never will be; it’s too late. Whatever evidence existed is now gone. It’s the word of the possibly immune shooter against a dead kid and some 911 calls and a girlfriend’s testimony she was talking to him all the way from the store until just before the shots. Oh--and a grand jury that is not going to hang anyone out to dry

However you FEEL in your gut about your right to defend yourself—every right has a duty. This law removes all duties. Heaven help us.

Insanity

Ok—who remembers when if you did not get a particular job you got another one? When it did not seem as though your very life depended on getting the one you are interviewing for?

Me.

Who remembers when debt did not make your decisions for you? When you could purchase “affordable housing” with a minimum wage job, at 24?

Me.

Well the others who remember seem to forget to say anything. Now people are giving the passwords to their social network sites to employers—and the writer of this article pretends this is truly voluntary. http://www.suntimes.com/business/11416671-420/job-seekers-getting-asked-for-facebook-passwords.html

A big fat fib—and I am sick of it. (It is also unclear if this is before or after an offer has been made-which is a significant difference in the legal world. More disinformation.)

“Chief Deputy Rusty Thomas defended the practice, saying applicants have a right to refuse. But no one has ever done so. Thomas said that “speaks well of the people we have apply.” Yeah right. The people who NEED THAT EFFING JOB!!!

Another example- the WSJ runs an article saying government numbers on the housing market are inaccurate. (Which we all know they re as banks sure NOT going to tell us how many homes eh own with no performing loans. It’s called bikini accounting. Is the house an asset? Or is it a liability? In either case what is the value of the asset??????? WTF? The agency in charge blames its budget.

Ditto expert numbers on gasoline usage-which are sued to make forecasts and other useful things.http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/02/11/does-falling-us-gas-consumption-signal-a-new-recession/

Then, too, there is yet anther article in the Huff post on how bad the need is for better treatment for veterans. Also in the Army Times. (True enough. But from where shall we get these much needed funds?)

No one is connecting up the dots. Oh-and you heard it here first-- there is a HUGE asset out there called “us.” Crowd sourcing could be used to collect data, if not to analyze it. People with skills and abilities and time could be matched up to real slots with work they love to do—from anywhere.

No one says this. Not any of it. No one mentions that government departments (like the Air Force, where I witnessed this) which near the end of their fiscal years go on spending sprees to use up what was budgeted so they will  not see that budget cut the next year. They will buy anything. And they do. (And them some important funds for, say, education get the ax.)

No one even asks "how much fossil fuel does it really cost to run an electric car?” (Most power plants run on coal. It’s still a fossil fuel.) We just pretend the "electric car" is "the answer" to too much smog, too many petro-wars, rising prices, less work. The answer to any problem. it's not. Walking? that's a solution-- to gas prices and obesity and isolation... electrical cars just shift the load to a coal plant in another state. We can do better. And we will be forced to.

So many unasked questions—so many phony reports. So much baloney. Happy cows who live in California. (In vile feedlots.) Does anyone else think about how truly insane this is? And instead of solutions we see name-calling and draconian costs to the folks who can do nothing and probably don’t vote... made by those who have enough to live for the rest of their lives in unearned income or their power and influence.

I think it’s time to tell the truth. We suck at solutions. We suck at seeing the problems. or the folks pulling our strings do.

Do-over? I think  so.

The Way I see It... continued

OK so here I am in Sedona—fasting for 19 days sunup to sunset because I am Baha’i—because for the first time since I discovered this sane faith, I CAN fast. I am sleeping almost normally. (I have PTSD from several factors-and was traumatized by a student at a very bad private school and sent into a maelstrom of further traumas.)

But now my formerly peaceful shared home has become a nightmare of loud people and difficulty preparing food at sundown when I need it BADLY. (Visiting in-laws… not mine.) Oddly, the thing that has cheered me up for 2 days—with only one day, now, left to go until the Baha’i New Year and the end of the fast--is snow. Snow! Here in the high desert snow is beautiful. Pure and white and peaceful. Clean and magical. You can eat it. It’s fluffy and pristine and exciting and you simply cannot imagine the beauty. Wha tterrific photos I have gotten. So I have managed these last two days.

I am still exhausted from the years long ordeal which started when the economy crashed and no clients could afford me, and I had to become a gypsy, work where I could live where I had to- mostly in places I hated-and getting stronger like someone training for the iron man.

Of course my family—those from my mother's side—saw all this as evidence of my being the one who was never OK. Even my cousin--who I thought was my best friend in all the world, and who I visited thinking it would be a refuge-- turned out to be utterly unable to trust that there was meaning and purpose in what I went though, and, most of all HOW.

Sadly I was carrying a crippling degree of anxiety before all this. I am embarrassed to see how badly little things could--did-- affect me then.

Now, I am fine. Even when a new acquaintance starts treating me with disrespect and contempt (familiar and before,and disabling to me) I calmly refuse to be treated that way. If my phone or my laptop or TV are inop I play with them until they work again (None of which I could do for... years.)

So I have indeed run the race—and finished in a triumph. These dismissers of my courage and my intuition, naysayers to my path, will never see it. They never did—and they can't be wrong now. After all these years!!

So soon, when  I can jog again (which I did, briefly, before the stator) and am sleeping and NO LONER EXHAUSTED I will embark on my dream of shirring what I have learned from so much going through things to the other side. From Not avoiding the hard work of growth.

In the mealtime, I am gaining ground in my creativity and speaking my mind on LinkedIn and Facebook. Because this world is way too ruled by untruths half truths and false fears.

There is so much baloney out there I gotta speak up!

OK I am sick of knowing that the collective mind set (as reflected by main steam media)  is out of alignment with what real people I know and speak with think and feel. So I am going to say what  see and what I think

First—who am I?
I am 62 years old and live in Sedona Arizona. I have been an attorney for 30 years bad am still licensed in California, despite having moved to Sedona. I have done many things in the 62 baby Boomer years of my life-studied piano and oboe, been a care giver, a go-go dancer (briefly) a waitress, an artist's apprentice, doing lost waxing casting in bronze.

. Served in the United States Air Force as an electrics technician. Watched the gas passer refuel a B52 bomber mid air from the tail of a KC 135 Stratotanker, and watched a nervous chain smoking pilot and a C141 from the jump seat,(in the cockpit just behind the pilot and co-pilot)  all out of Anderson Airbase, Guam. (Do you even know where Guam is? I didn’t. Yes, we, the US,  own it.) But I have either digressed or progressed—not sure which. But I went to college before the Air Force so, forgive me.

I made jewelry in college and was on the fire department and trained with  the trucks, those handy dandy fire hoses (when you work with water under pressure it is not as easy as it looks)  and equipment like Indian pumps. (God knows how it is I recall the names of these things… but I do.) I was a nude artist's  model in college and later at two colleges and for several artists. I stopped when my favorite artists died suddenly. (Now I know why. But more of that later.) I got my start when my senior adviser asked me if I would sit for  his wife.

This was the 60s. I said yes. (OK I admit the first I had to remove my wrap in front of a room full of strangers it was daunting,  but after that it was OK. I also remember it was a wool poncho… green I think.) I THINK I got paid... tat part has faded. It occurs to me now that, looking back, it seems I have been Little Miss Courage all my life. IN high school when we were supposed to prick out fingers to look at our  blood—I shared mine with all the folks who didn’t have the guts to prick their fingers. Hmmm. I wioder if there is any point to this factoid. We shall see.

This was a “radical” college in Vermont—Goddard College. (I went there when it was a residential college on 300 acres of wonderful Vermont farmland. Even though I grew up in Florida, I was happy as a clam in Vermont in this idyllic green mountain place, far way from my mother. I am not sure how much I learned academically,   but the opportunity to explore was great. And I did learn that I had a lot of self discipline—in my senior year, I took my work  outdoors to work on my thesis when everyone else succumbed to Spring fever. (And played baseball or otherwise goofed off.) Ah, the days of manual type writers—they work as well outdoors as they do in. I miss that.

I did not think if the possible consequences of attending a school that did  not assign grades. Youth is funny  that way. But yes, we did smoke marijuana. No one drank. The locals thought the hippies were a little strange--I caused quite a story when I got a job at the Dunkin' Donuts in Barre. (That’s rhymes with  Barry as in Dave Barry no relation.) (I am just hoping his name will draw attention.) I doubt I'd have gotten the job, but I was with my friend Cindy who was very clean cut—a blonde athletic former Olympic skier. So the unthinkable had the village agog--a Goddard student was working in the (then) only coffee and donut ship in town. I suspect it didn't hurt business at all. The curisoity was intense. So was I--they ahd t9 tell me to smile. It hadn't occurred to me!

I think I will continue these adventures anon—then you will know, maybe why I see the world the way I do. We’ll get to those opinions though.