Nattering Naybob: Red Ranger, I know our little blog has been quiet lately, for which I take sole blame in my role as defacto blog administrator. Anyhow, the aftermath of the George Zimmerman verdict has cooled down just a bit but even so I believe the issues surrounding it are still very much pertinent.
Accordingly, I would like to calmly review some of the charges that you and many on the Right are putting forth about Trayvon Martin as it pertains to his being killed by George Zimmerman after Zimmerman was ordered by his supervisor to “stand down” and not pursue or directly confront Martin. First, your claim that he “had drugs in his system”. First off, there was only one “drug” in his system, not “drugs”, which implies that he experimented with multiple narcotics. As this article in Time Magazine by Maria Szalavitz points there is an inherent problem with any implication that Martin’s use of marijuana had any material impact on the struggle between Zimmerman and Martin, or the case as whole:
…The levels of THC detected don’t reflect Martin’s character or even his state of mind the night he was shot. For one, they are so low as to almost certainly not be connected to recent intoxication: 1.5 nanograms of THC were found as well as 7.3 nanograms of THC-COOH, a metabolite of THC that can stay in the system for weeks after cannabis has been smoked. Immediately after inhaling, THC levels typically rise to 100 to 200 nanograms per milliter of blood, although there can be a great deal of variation.
“THC in blood or urine tells us nothing about the level of intoxication,” says Carl Hart, associate professor of psychology at Columbia University and author of the leading college textbook on drug use and behavior. “That would be like someone going to have a beer some evening, and when he goes to work the next day, you can find alcohol metabolites in his bodily fluids. That says nothing about his functioning.” (Full disclosure: Hart and I are working on a book project together).
Moreover, even if Martin had been stoned out of his mind, it wouldn’t predispose him to violence. “I have given hundreds of doses of marijuana to people in the lab, and no one has gotten violent ever and everyone has been able to respond to the situation in an appropriate manner, when given low or large doses and single or repeated doses,” Hart says.
The night of the killing, Zimmerman began following Martin, who had gone to a 7-Eleven to get Skittles and an Arizona iced tea during a break in the NBA All-Star game. Zimmerman told a 911 operator that he was worried about Martin because he “looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs.” He was informed that the police would handle the situation and that he should not take further action. Zimmerman didn’t heed that advice; an altercation ended with Zimmerman shooting Martin in what he says was self-defense. He was charged months after the Feb. 26th killing, following widespread public outrage over the perceived lack of an appropriate criminal justice response.
So explain exactly why, The Red Ranger, you and your Right-wing friends are so insistent on bringing this up at every opportunity since it has absolutely nothing to do with the case?
The Red Ranger: Your continued misstatement of the facts is dumb founding me.
First off Zimmerman’s 911 call was handled by a 911 operator who is not his supervisor. Secondly, he was not ordered to stand down as you put it. When he told the 911 operator he was following the suspect the operator responded, “We do not need you to do that” which is a far cry from an order and certainly open to interpretation.
From now on I will only refer to the single illegal drug found in Martin’s system. Thank you for pointing that out. Now that I know he only had one illegal drug in his system I guess that is OK. In your warped view of the world is it OK for everyone to only have one illegal drug in their system?
Since there is no way of knowing how any one individual may act with an illegal drug in their system you cannot say with certainty that it did not have any bearing on this case. He did have the drug in his system which is a fact that cannot be argued. The impact of that drug is debatable. But after all people take drugs to change their mood or actions not to act exactly like they would have if they didn’t take the drug.
Nattering Naybob: Yes, having a single type of drug in his system is in fact “better” than having “drugs”, plural, in his system, especially when it is marijuana. What is your main issue with this fact: that marijuana is illegal (as I agree, by the way, that it should be), or that it supposedly altered his personality to the point where it made him overly aggressive during the altercation with Zimmerman.
You say that it was not Zimmerman’s supervisor and he was not told to “stand down”. According to the report above that I excerpted.
Zimmerman told a 911 operator that he was worried about Martin because he “looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs.” He was informed that the police would handle the situation and that he should not take further action.
What part of “he should not take further action” does not equate with “stand down”? Additionally, since the 911 operator is viewed an adjunct of the local police, the fact that it was the 911 operator and not his “supervisor”, makes his refusal to do as told, even more egregious.
I do not understand why you have such hatred for this kid. In your world, because Martin did not have an idyllic life out of a Dick and Jane book, he bears partial responsibility for being shot. That’s what it comes down to.
The Red Ranger: I do not have any hatred for Trayvon. Just because I disagree with his lifestyle of drug use and fighting doesn’t mean I hate him. What I do hate is the fact that the media was so quick to convict Zimmerman, so much so that they intentionally distorted the truth. The fact that the public was so easily swayed by the false presentation of the facts by the media just leads me to worry that this will happen on a much grander scale in the future.