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Lowell Observatory Pushes To Name an Asteroid "Trayvon"
Flash Modin writes "The observatory where Pluto was discovered is pushing to name an asteroid after a black teenager killed in a controversial confrontation in Florida last year. William Lowell Putnam III says his family has identified with the cause of African American rights, and thus an asteroid named after Trayvon Martin is perfectly appropriate. Putnam is the sole trustee of the observatory, which was founded by Percival Lowell during his search for canals on Mars. Astronomers at the observatory discovered the asteroid in 2000, but it has not been formally named. Putnam has already asked the Minor Planet Center once to designate the asteroid 'Trayvon,' but they told him the designation was 'premature.' Now that there's been a verdict, the observatory is reapplying in hopes the naming body will see things different."
It's being followed by a pale asteroid named Zimmerman.
Table-ized A.I.
Sigh. Found it.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Regardless of the details of the case itself, it's pretty clear that Martin was a racist (he used racial insults against Caucasians). He does not deserve to have an asteroid named after him, and if the civil rights movement picks him as a symbol, it will only hurt their cause.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57591520-504083/george-zimmerman-trial-neighbor-testifies-trayvon-martin-was-straddling-zimmerman-moments-before-fatal-gunshot/
He saw. I'll take the victim's word when the back of his head is bloodied alongside a swollen face, and an uninvolved party corroborates the story immediately following the incident. Trayvon did not have a mark on him, so it's pretty clear who was on the bottom given the visible, physical damage to Zimmerman.
If you are willfully blind to the evidence, then that's your own fault, but it's time that you stop spreading ignorant information. You may want Trayvon to be innocent, but absolutely nothing points to it, including his own offline and online antics and the prosecution's lead witness admitting that Trayvon used racial slurs immediately before the fight.
some mouth breathing moron thinks he has a right to walk around with a gun
He does. Someone should re-read the constitution, and the law in florida. Just because YOU have contempt for your rights, doesnt mean the courts do.
play cop
He WAS on the neighborhood watch in an area which had suffered a rash of break ins. Come on, this was widely reported.
innocent civilians
Yes, heres the thing, a jury found that Martin WASNT innocent, and that there was grounds for a plea of self-defense. That, too is a right that citizens have.
laws that somehow support this disgusting behavior
Most societies that you would want to live in have both an adversarial court system, and a defense for killing on the grounds of self-defense. Thank goodness that is the case here. What laws, specifically are you thinking of-- hopefully not the "stand your ground" law which had absolutely no relevance to the case?
stand your ground laws, carry/ conceal laws: they have to go
Ah, yes, you were, which indicates you were successfully distracted by the media in a discussion on irrelevant laws. Look through the court transcripts and see if "stand your ground" had any relevance: You will find it did not. The issue at stake was whether Zimmerman was justified in killing Martin in self-defense.
You seem to have bought into the race-card-Zimmerman-was-a-racist story that was spun up by the media, so I really suggest you go back and look at the facts, not the op-eds and commentary that was spun up around the whole issue. The amount of bias that came out in this whole ordeal was astounding, from the doctored recordings, to the doctored photos, to the claims that Zimmerman was white, to the claims that white-on-black violence is anywhere near common (in reality, 80+% of violence is intra-racial-- white-on-white, black-on-black, etc).
I found bad judgement in the actions of Martin and Zimmerman.
I agree, both of them failed to pick the safest possible path. GZ should have stayed in his truck, and he should have looked the other way. TM should have walked directly home. They haven't done that. However none of what they actually did - until the first blow landed - was illegal. They were not accused of walking the public streets; they were not accused of looking at people; they were not accused of talking to each other. All that is legal. (Well, GZ was actually accused of that because the DA wanted to hit him with crime of racism; but that was unfair, and it didn't work.)
Being not exceptionally careful is not a crime. You aren't careful if you choose to walk through a ghetto at midnight. But it's your right - and if you survive you won't be put on trial. All actions of GZ and TM were legal - until TM struck. That's when legality ended, and that's what got TM killed. TM would be killed just as well if he walked up to any stranger and hit him in the face. The preceding actions may have contributed to anger, or fear of disrespect, that TM seemingly had. But those actions are just as legal for them as for a man to follow a woman in a dark alley. They just go in the same direction. A woman may be scared; but legally it means nothing; she is not entitled to, for example, turning around and throwing a knife at the man. Trayvon may have been upset, but that gave him no special right to assault anyone. He held a phone in his hand all the time - he could have called 911 at any time if he had a genuine fear. He, an active football player, could have outrun pretty much anyone and be at home within seconds. There are many paths TM could have taken that don't include hitting people in the face and then trying to murder them.