Patterico's Pontifications

7/16/2013

Stevie Wonder: I’m Boycotting Florida — And All the Stand Your Ground States!

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:54 pm



Let us know how that works out for you:

Florida fans of Stevie Wonder who want to see the legend sing are going to have to go on a road trip for the near future. During a performance in Quebec City, Canada, on Sunday, the Grammy-winning performer spoke out about the recent acquittal of George Zimmerman and announced he would boycott the state.

“I decided today that until the ‘Stand Your Ground’ law is abolished in Florida, I will never perform there again,” he told the audience. “As a matter of fact, wherever I find that law exists, I will not perform in that state or in that part of the world.”

Like Florida, California has no duty to retreat, and I believe many other states follow suit, although I have seen varying numbers. This NPR article says it’s “21 plus.” Leave more accurate links in the comments.

I have a feeling his principles are going to evaporate, or there will be some parsing (“That’s not really a stand your ground state!”), once old Stevie realizes how many places he has taken off of his schedule.

As for me, I’m going to boycott blind singers.

Rachel Jeantel Tells Piers Morgan “Creepy Ass Cracka” Does Not Refer to a White Person, Morgan “Forgets” Her Courtroom Testimony to the Contrary

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:49 am



Rachel Jeantel talking to Piers Morgan:

RACHEL JEANTEL, FRIEND OF TRAYVON: Well, the jury, they see their facts. My thoughts of the jury, they old, that’s old school people. We in a new school, our generation, my generation. So —

PIERS MORGAN: Let’s talk about ‘creepy ass cracka.’ People have said that that is a phrase used by black people, cracka, to describe a white person. Is that true?

JEANTEL: No! Like I said —

MORGAN: How do you spell it, first of all?

JEANTEL: Cracka.

MORGAN: There’s no ‘e-r,’ right?

JEANTEL: No, it’s an ‘a’ at the end.

MORGAN: C-r-a-c-k-a.

JEANTEL: Yeah. And that’s a person who act like they’re a police [officer], who, like a security guard who acting like — that’s what I said to them. Trayvon said creepy ass cracka.

MORGAN: It means he thought it was a police or a security guard?

JEANTEL: Yeah, he acting like the police. And then he keep telling me that the man is still watching him. So, if it was a security guard or a policeman, they would come up to Trayvon and say, ‘Do you have a problem? Do you need help?’ You know, like normal people.

Naturally, Piers the Professional Journalist confronted her with her courtroom testimony where she said “cracker” meant a pervert who is white. From courtroom testimony:

PROSECUTOR: Is that to mean, you mean like a white individual?

JEANTEL: Yes, Caucasian.

That’s from 1:19 in this video:

She’s a liar. But then, we already knew that, as she admitted lying several times in her testimony.

This is the type of witness the prosecution used to try to convict Zimmerman. This is the type of witness upon whose word Ursula from the Little Mermaid bases her opinion that George Zimmerman is still, despite the acquittal, a “murderer”.

WHO’S READY TO BREAK SOME HEADS AND STEAL STUFF?

Riots Break Out Over Zimmerman Verdict

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:59 am



The L.A. Times does it best to spin this as “youths” who “broke away” from the “peaceful” demonstration — so you see, it’s not really the fault of Trayvon supporters:

A peaceful protest of the George Zimmerman verdict in Los Angeles turned violent Monday after youths broke away from the main demonstration in Leimert Park, stomped on cars, broke windows, set fires and attacked several people.

KCBS-TV/KCAL-TV reporter Dave Bryan and his cameraman were among those who came under assault. One of the two journalists was taken to a hospital with a possible concussion, Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Andy Neiman told The Times.

Protesters also stormed a Wal-Mart in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles, pushing their way through as guards scrambled to close security gates. A short while later, LAPD officers wearing helmets and carrying batons swarmed the store as others marched through the parking lot.

Young vandals who entered the Wal-Mart stormed in, threw merchandise on the ground and yelled, shoppers told a Times reporter. Some tried to break open the jewelry glass displays.

Ah yes, the time-honored manner of protesting perceived injustice in the criminal system: by stealing stuff. But don’t forget attacking people of a different color: that’s always important too.

The violence also included the apparent assaulting of bystanders and the hurling of hunks of concrete at officers on Vernon Avenue, the Los Angeles Police Department said. No injuries were reported.

. . . .

A masked man struck a waiter in the head with a hammer while the worker was trying to keep the windows protected at the Flora Restaurant and Bar, which had been vandalized over the weekend during similar protests, local media reported.

The waiter was seen bleeding and was treated by paramedics, according to reporters with the San Francisco Chronicle and the Bay Area News Group, which includes the Oakland Tribune and the San Jose Mercury News.

Garbage was set on fire and fireworks were thrown at police officers, officials said, while graffiti was scrawled across buildings — one message said “REVOLT,” according to KTVU-TV — and some burned U.S. flags. Windows were shattered at a Men’s Wearhouse, a Comerica bank branch, and Youth Radio, according to police and media reports. A KPIX-TV reporter said vandals broke into the CBS affiliate’s television truck.

If we could be assured that media people who were attacked and had their property destroyed were the very ones who spread a phony narrative about Zimmerman’s actions and racism; who elided exculpatory statements in 911 calls; who filled the papers and airwaves filled with images of a younger and smaller Trayvon Martin; who suppressed the material from his Twitter account . . . if we could be assured that the people who perpetrated these assaults on the truth were the very people suffering the results of their distortions, we could write this all off as karma. If you told me that the people responsible for the NBC distortions were beaten by an angry mob, I would register my regret by downloading an mp3 of Alanis Morrissette’s “Isn’t It Ironic?” (a silly song that I despise) and blasting it out of my computer speakers while sipping a cool glass of lemon-flavored iced tea. But just as every white person is not the Hispanic George Zimmerman, not every media person is the scum at NBC News who chopped up the 911 call to smear Zimmerman.

I hope they know who is secondarily to blame, after the people who attacked them and vandalized their stuff. That would be their brethren in the media. Let them report that story.

P.S. Eric Holder is already taking sides after the verdict:

Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday called the killing of Trayvon Martin a “tragic, unnecessary shooting,” and said the Justice Department will follow “the facts and the law” as it reviews evidence to see whether federal criminal charges are warranted.

I won’t go so far as to say the jury found the shooting necessary, but it may have been — and at a minimum, the jury found that Zimmerman believed it was necessary, and that that belief was reasonable under the circumstances. I am going to assume that this is just disgusting pandering from a partisan, dishonest, race-obsessed clown who knows DoJ is never going to pursue a prosecution. But I don’t trust him, and I can’t trust DoJ while he’s running it — and just as Florida mounted a baseless, politically motivated prosecution, so too might the feds under a race hustler like Holder.

Hey, assaulted media people? While you’re looking for people to blame for your busted heads, you might consider looking at people like Holder, and Barack “Trayvon could have been my son” Obama.


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