Bill Cosby has become the latest celebrity to share his thoughts on the Trayvon Martin case. Cosby is no stranger to gun violence, having lost his son Ennis to tragedy in 1997. The younger Cosby was shot to death while changing a flat tire on the off ramp of a Los Angeles freeway.
In an interview with David Gregory of NBC's Meet The Press, the actor-comedian blamed the death of the Florida teen on guns, not race. "It's about the gun. It's about this gun, guns in our country," he said. Cosby was compassionate in his statement as well as his actions as he made the gun gesture with his hands to explain his stance.
Cosby also reflected on his time in the Navy when he was on shore patrol and given a night stick, instead of a gun, to protect himself. He said because of this weapon, his mentality shifted from a common patrol to a sort of fear, looking for things and people. Cosby said, "I know when you have a gun, you may not realize it, but you put it on your person and you mean to pull this and kill somebody. That's what you mean to do."
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We need to bring some good out of this terrible tragedy. The organization called ALEC has actively fostered the spread of "STAND YOUR GROUND" laws to many states. These are the very same laws that led to the Trayvon Martin murder in Florida....laws that “allow” vigilantes to be judge-jury-and-executioners! Some mainstream corporations have funded ALEC. BUT... as their funding has been publicized, they have withdrawn their support. Call or write or email the following two ALEC supporters: JOHNSON and JOHNSON, and STATE FARM ...or ....visit www.pfaw.org/ditchALEC. Please urge these two companies to their cut ties with ALEC. Tell them that they should not want their brands associated with the dangerous laws ALEC promotes -- including voter suppression, NRA-backed “stand your ground” laws, extreme racial profiling laws targeting immigrants, privatizing public education and protecting corporate polluters. If you do not want YOUR hard earned money to be used AGAINST your best interests, then tell State Farm and Johnson and Johnson, in no uncertain terms: DON’T FUND ALEC!
Stan - Thank You for your sane, positive referral. I have been involved with PFAW for two years now. This is not partisan politics. It is about the transformation from a fear based culture into an educated well developed and thoughtful one. No one has an agenda of taking away anyone's right to bear arms. This is the result when a few (the NRA) want to control the outcome of Justice by the end of a gun barrell. There should be accountability at the Judicial level, law enforcement level through our local governments. When that is not satisfied, the process moves up the ladder as this case. Unfortunately, Trayvon Martin's murder needed to attract through peaceful protest and public awarness Justice. The NRA, ALEC et.al. are a symptom of Americans' wake up call to participate in their Government before it is sold out from under them. Democracy is an active participation not a passive one. The media and sound bytes should not sway our decision making when we vote but candidates rely upon it. Very few of us actually research issues and candidates before voting hence the heavy campaign emphasis on emotional appeal...that first "reaction" not necessarily the most intelligent manner in making important decisions like electing representatives from the local to the national level.
Sadly, we have too many people in this Country who like to "cling to their guns", and kill people like Trayvon Martin. We cannot be the Judge , Jury, and Executioner. This gun law makes people think they can. It also takes them back to a time in the 60's and before that you could, rape, bomb, kill, hang a black child or adult and never serve a day; as a matter of fact I remember the time and they laughed about killing blacks. Most of the time the killers were a part of the law enforcement and judicial system. We (Blacks) suffered. We will not go back to that!! We will fight back!!
Oh SusieQ: Blacks in our inner ciities throughout this country are suffering at the hands of other blacks in epidemic proportion, the young men mostly, but the daily toll of Murders, Shootings, Assaults, Rapes, Theft, and Property destruction spills over to everyone in those communities. When it spills over to the surrounding suburbs, their is the occasional clash of other races and ethnicities. But the vast, vast, difference between the numbers of blacks killing and injuring blacks, or whites or hispanics or asians or native Americans and blacks killing each other is so very, very slanted to the former, you must admit!
Every since the guy in Pasadena, Texas told the dispatcher he was going outside to kill two guys that was robbing the neighbor's house you knew it was a bad law. Then the guy claimed his life was in danger where those guys never stepped onto his property. Yes the guy got off with that law. This was his opportunity to kill someone and get away with it and he did it. Maybe George Zimmerman thought he could do the same thing after the dispatcher told him not to go after the guy and he did it anyway. The story about the Pasadena guy is not new and you can find the story anyway so yes it is about the gun and those who uses the gun.
MSNBC, specifically the Chris Mathews Hardball show had distorted this presentation of the taped 911 call from the shooter, giving a written and Mathews voice over misstatement that the shooter outside of his house was heard to say "Now...you're dead!" When what he clearly called out to the two thieves he caught climbing out of the neighbors window with a bag of stolen articles was "Move and you're dead" He was attempting to accomplish a citizens apprehension until the police could arrive.The thieves refused to heed his warning. No one knows if they had tried to run away, or whether they charged him, perhaps trying to get to his shotgun. Two shots only, it certainly wasn't overkill. And who really, really cares that two more criminals were taken out? Not me!
Her shot them both in the back, so it's sort of unlikely that they charged him, unless they did so running backward.
I agree with Bill Cosby,but hate seem to make it easier to pull the trigger! like they always get away,that hate or anger.
In a crime of passion, emotion may be behind the pulling of a trigger, in the hands of one who carrys a firearm or has one in one's home or vehicle, it is an act done out of resolve, steeled by careful training to know the whats and whens and whys and hows to take that action.
Thats the most sense Bill has made in years.
Mxr...Bill Cosby has always made sense. His humor, since his first comedy album was released and we listened to him on Saturday nights when I was growing up, has always been intelligent and well thought out. This man has never inappropriately opened his mouth. He has no need to react to everything in the world just to satisfy his ego...he has never been a celebrity for that reason nor has he used his celebrity to politicize anything he did not personally believe in. He's always been a no nonsense kind of person.
If you have a weapon, you are more likely to use it. That is why we regulate nukes. Similarly, with the advent of stun guns we see stun gun use being abused. The purported purpose of the stun gun is to avoid shooting someone, but nowadays stun guns are routinely used to corral, punish or intimidate.
Whitefeather, you'd do well to leave idiots' comments to stand alone as conclusive proof of the idiots who made them. Dr Cosby's comments were profound and bear deep reflection by all Americans: very simply, he said that holding a loaded gun cancels out instinctual fear. We should believe him because he speaks from experience.
The limbic brain is what decides "fight or flight", and when instinctual fear is gone, so is the need to consider "flight" as an option. So until our brains evolve beyond this instinctual "short circuit", these "Stand Your Ground" laws are the recipe for disasters.
Now ask yourself one more question: if this had been a case of a black man stalking and shooting a white teenager, what differences (if any) could we expect from the way the police handled this entire matter?
Civilization is the process where reason wins against our base instincts. Do Americans realize how astonished the rest of the industrialized world is at laws that encourage us to act on our primal fears?
While I sympathize with Cosby, guns are like abortion. Don't want one, don't get one. The kid with the stupid name was only expediting the eventual fate, 3 times suspended from skool (in his case) already? Yeah, he was on his way to becoming a productive citizen.....or thug.
3 times suspended from skool
I wonder how often you have been suspended from school. You can't even spell the word correctly.
Productive citizen or not, nobody deserves to be killed.
In a crime of passion, emotion may be behind the pulling of a trigger, in the hands of one who carrys a firearm or has one in one's home or vehicle, it is an act done out of resolve, steeled by careful training to know the whats and whens and whys and hows to take that action.
while I agree With bill he needs a Razor
At least Bill wasn't wearing a hoodie like that riduculous congressman from the Chicado slaughterhouse of black youths killing black youths, all wearing hoodies as the uniform of drug culture gangsta' gangbangers.
On Paris Hilton one of those sweatshirts looks somewhat charming, on a 6'3" suspicious character lurking in the dark, unlit backyards on a rainy Florida night staring into the houses it looks suspicious and ominous, as its intention is to hide the face from recognition, just like the old time Western villians wearing bandanas across their faces.
I would love to be the prosecutor. Hey FL Prosecutors you don’t even have
to pay me:
1. George Zimmerman, are you a police officer?
2. George Zimmerman, do you have a domestic violence felony?
3. George Zimmerman, have you ever assaulted a police officer?
4. George Zimmerman, how did you get your gun?
5. George Zimmerman, was Trayvon Martin committing a crime at the time
you saw him?
6. George Zimmerman, at the time, what was Trayvon Martin wearing?
7. George Zimmerman, why did you call 911?
8. George Zimmerman, what did 911 tell you?
9. George Zimmerman, why did you put your car in park?
10. George Zimmerman, where did you and Trayvon Martin have the confrontation? In front of the complex where you saw him or behind the complex where the police found Trayvon Martin’s body?
11. George Zimmerman, did you know Trayvon Martin was a child?
12. George Zimmerman, was that you yelling for “help” on the 911 police recordings?
13. George Zimmerman, when did you go to the hospital?
14. George Zimmerman, did you receive a broken nose?
15. George Zimmerman, was Trayvon Martin armed? And what was he
carrying?
16. George Zimmerman, was Trayvon Martin trying to “stand his ground”
when you confronted him?
17. George Zimmerman, did you know you fought a minor 3 doors down from
his father?
18. George Zimmerman, how much do you weigh?
19. George Zimmerman, you do know sir, that you don’t have any self-defense
claims?
20. And more….
Purty please, let me be the prosecutor. Let me show the Casey Anthony’s prosecutors how it’s done.
Of course over half those questions would be objected to as irrelevant and sustained. Most of the others would receive the answers you don't want to hear.
exp.: Q; are you a police officer Objection! Badgering! Sustained.
Q; ever assault an officer? A: No. (of course this line of questioning would also be objected to and sustained).
Q; ever comitted a felony domestc violence? A; No. (of course this line of questioning would also be objected to and sustained.)
Q; how did you get your gun? A; bought it after I obtained a firearms possession and a firearms carry permit also in Seminole County.
Q; was Trayvon committing a crime at the time you say him? A: Yes, transpassing.
Q; at the time what was Martin wearing? A: gray hoodie sweatshirt, bluejeans, white sneakers.
Q; why did you call 911? A: I didn't. I called a saparate police department number provided to me by the Sanford Police Department as I served as theneighbood Watch Commander.
Q: what did 911 tell you? A: I didn't talk to 911.
Q: why did you put your car in park? Objection! Irrelevant! Judge: Sustained.
Q; where did you and Martin have the confrontation, etc etc. Objection! Thats three separate questions. Judge: Sustained! Mr. Prosecutor, you know, i'm sure, how to directly examine a witness correctly. Rephrase your question appropriately, counselor.
And etc, etc. etc. Get the picture fool?
Q: You don't know court room procedure or the rules of direct or cross examination, do you? A: No, I don't!
First rule: Never ask a question you don't already no the answer to! Othwise you wind up like Martha Clark in the OJ Simpson aquittal!
what more can i add...
Getting your head slamed against concrete and having the perpetraitor tell you he is going to kill you will make you pull the trigger as well. The court case will prove or disprove what they can, but I will protect myself from any piece of trash who thinks he can just walk over and threaten to take my life. I will do everything within my power to not use the gun I can legally carry, but if my life is threatened, as in I may die here, I will use the weapon and the person who I use it against will not survive. I do not shoot to wound. If one shot stops the attack, great, I'll attempt first aid when I am no longer in jeopardy. There are too many people in this country who will just roll over and take whatever comes their way. that is why the criminals continue to get away with it. I am sympathetic and sorrowful for what happened to Ennis Cosby. The ones responsible should get the death penalty, unfortunately in California, they will be taken care of in prison for the rest of their life. Some justice. If it is proven that Zimmerman is guilty, fry him. It is his word against a dead man and the wounds that have been shown so far indicate that the "innocent" Trayvon was beating on him severely. We shall see. Had Zimmerman not had a gun, one he may have listened to the cops and stayed away until they arrived, or two he may be the one who was killed.