After hesitating some (and they should have hesitated more), all the anti-gunners have jumped on Race Pimp Sharpton's "Hoodie Hoopdie" and are in full cry.
Problem is, all the facts aren't in, so they are all jumping the gun, so to speak. Jumping the shark, too.
I have gleaned one important trend from this case, since it's not dependent on understanding the entire chain of facts.
When your opponent's hoodie goes up, you pull your pistol.
This entire hoodie thing bears some looking into.
The hoodie, or hooded sweatshirt, is a piece of casual athletic attire. The hood is meant to ward off the chill of a cold breeze on your flushed head after exertion, since more body heat gets radiated by the head and neck than any other body part.
That's the science of the hoodie. Everything else is custom and emotion.
The hoodie was adopted years ago by the hip-hop generation as their symbol of rebellion from the preceding generations. From there, it was adopted by the gangsta-rap pukes as their symbol (when they weren't wearing formal pimp attire).
So, the idiot race pimp Sharpton does us all an unintentional favor, by highlighting the hoodie thing with his "million hoodie march".
Get this straight, people: the hoodie is meant to intimidate.
OK, if it is meant to intimidate, be properly intimidated.
What do you mean, 'Dog, "properly intimidated"?
What I mean, is that in every defensive shooting situation, or even in cases where you just pull your pistol and don't have to use it, there has to be a justifying factor. The hoodie is that factor. Your opponent wears a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up for only two possible reasons: he has just exerted himself and wants to keep from chilling down too fast, or he is trying to intimidate those around him. If he's been exerting himself, you'll likely see sweat, or heavy breathing, or some other sign that he has. If you don't see those signs, and especially if it's warm out, he's wearing the hood up to try to intimidate. Your state of mind now turns to stronger defenses, if you are thinking tactically.
Now, consider aggravating factors: your opponent, who has been walking away from you, turns towards you, advances on you AND pulls up his hood. Pilgrim, if you DON'T take that as immediate aggression on his part, you are about to be a victim yourself. No race involved. In my part of town, there are few blacks, but all the pukes of all races wear hoodies or hooded parkas in their gang colors.
So, thanks very much, Sharpton. You're not smart enough to avoid these pitfalls, so now you've brought the whole hoodie thing out into the open. If there ever WAS a "cool" factor in wearing hoodies, and I don't believe there ever was, it was a rebel factor, there isn't now. You, "Reverend" Sharpton, have just helped to remove the "cool" factor of that garment.
The hoodie is about intimidation, that is all. Take that to the bank AND the Grand Jury.
Besides, the hoodie makes your opponent more closely resemble that silhouette target you practice and qualify with at the range. Three shots, two to center of mass and one to the head.
Bang-bang, beak. practice it.
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IMMEDIATE UPDATE: After posting this blog, I note that Geraldo Rivera is thinking along the same lines.
Rivrsis, do YOU wear a hoodie for intimidation? Not that I've noticed. Do you wear one for the "cool factor"? Not that I've noticed. End of comparison. Since the comparison ended, your extending of it to my Nazi-salute analysis is not only speculation, it is deliberate injection of that issue into your life to attempt to influence ME. That is sophistry of the worst order.
Since you seem to want to be "attacked" though, let me ask this: do you wear cashmere sweaters to impress folks about your wealth in society?
Posted by: Rivrdog | March 25, 2012 at 17:21
Comparing my opinion about hoodies to the use of the Nazi salute, are you? And furthermore, you have no idea what brought Zimmerman to stand astride the kid and push down on him, AFTER HE HAD SHOT HIM, according to the witness. I rather doubt it's because he was wearing a hoodie prior to the gunfire. And you don't know at all that he even put his hoodie up, let alone that it dislodged his earpiece. Buncha wild speculation, and no more comparing yr own sis to Nazis, however distantly.
Posted by: Rivrsis | March 25, 2012 at 15:51
I stand MY ground. New information in now from an eyewitness suggests that Martin had Zimmerman down on the ground and was beating him up, so it seems that would confirm my suspicion about the other eyewitness, Martin's girlfriend, who has said she lost contact with him, probably when he pulled his hoodie up and knocked out his bluetooth earpiece. This is likely what happened: Martin got tired of the guy following him, so he decided to confront him, but before he did so, he pulled up his hoodie to cover his facial features (THAT move is also a part of the "hoodie culture"), then spun around and jumped Zimmerman. Martin, a football player, is athletic, and had the element of surprise on his side. He knocks Zimmerman down and begins to pummel him aggressively. Zimmerman pulls out his gun and kills him.
The only legal questions remaining seem to be answered by the language of the Stand Your Ground Law, which says you don't have to flee, you can use force, up to and including deadly force, to ward off an attack. The Grand Jury will have to decide whether Zimmerman, trailing Martin as he was, thereby divested himself of the protections of the law, and then, if he didn't, whether he was correct in invoking it's provisions when he used force.
The first question is not clear, but it's also probably moot. I would think that the law would be in effect because Zimmerman was just FOLLOWING Martin, not trying to apprehend him (assuming he was JUST following him). Did Zimmerman actually "corner" Martin? In a blind alley? Up against a fence that he couldn't climb? I haven't seen any such reports. As I understand it, Martin first headed pretty much home, but when he realized he was being followed, he began to take an evasive route. There is ZERO question in my mind that the SYG law applies once Martin displayed the aggressive move of pulling up his hoodie and jumping Zimmerman.
There are unanswered questions, mostly regarding any verbal exchanges which might have taken place between Zimmerman and Martin. If Zimmerman was demonstrably just staying within verbal range of Martin with his following, in an attempt to communicate verbally with him, there is NO way any jury would ever determine that to be aggressive intent, in fact, it is his job if he is actually trying to protect his neighborhood. Just using your eyeballs on your quarry is not proactive, you have to let your quarry know that you are watching, and to do that, you have to get within voice range and stay there as the quarry gets evasive.
I've had occasions in my own neighborhood to communicate with suspicious people. I have good powers of observation, but I have NO doubt in my mind that I'm FAR more effective when I actually challenge those strangers whose activities seem out of place. Zimmerman probably though along those same lines. As to the Dispatcher telling him not to get involved, I was a dispatcher back in 1974, and I told lots of people that, because I was required to, and would have been reprimanded if I didn't, even knowing, as I did, that simple contact from the reporting person to the suspicious person would, in 99.999% of the cases, result in there being no crime committed. Burglars and footpads are hinky people, and as soon as they know that they have been "made", they will give up that area and go somewhere else to commit crime.
On balance then, my "hoodie culture" analysis is spot-on, as is Geraldo Rivera's. Rivrsis, a lot of Hoodies are sold, I'll grant you that, but the thuggish aspect of our culture that their purchase and use represents is not one bit more desirable because of their universality. Remember, everyone in the Third Reich routinely gave the Nazi salute, most of them probably not people who were diehard Nazis, but the fact that they made that salute indicated their acceptance of, and fealty to, Adolph Hitler. Our youth and all who slouch around in Hoodies are indicating their acceptance of the street-gang culture, and that's a bad sign. I hope the luster of the Hoodie died with Trayvon Martin.
Posted by: Rivrdog | March 25, 2012 at 09:32
While the hoodie does have a negative image in certain situations, let's not lose sight of the fact that Zimmerman ignored the instructions of a dispatcher to "stay put". Then he made it worse by not merely following, observing, and reporting via cell phone, he cornered Martin. VERY bad judgement; he was neither a LEO, on his own property, or coming to someone's rescue.
I'm guessing he will be indicted on manslaughter charges, and convicted of the same.
Posted by: Termite | March 24, 2012 at 10:20
Get off the hoodie nonsense, bro! It's part of the American uniform/native costume, like jeans and T-shirts. Old ladies wear pink hoodies to breast-cancer runs. There are hoodies for babies. There are Christmas hoodies. I have several hoodies and I'm an old woman myself. And apparently it was raining when Trayvon was attempting to get home, so he likely had his hood up. Which is what it's for. I believe Heraldo himself apologized for his remark.
Posted by: Rivrsis | March 24, 2012 at 09:31