Photo by Brett Davies
There are 7 universal expressions of emotion that all men and women on the planet express exactly the same way. Dr. Paul Ekman identified this.
You don’t have to know these people to interpret their emotions. You don’t have live in their country or speak their language to understand them. Simply but by looking at their face, you can tell how they are feeling.
Isn’t that cool?
Photo by WalknBoston
I was not surprised at the verdict of the George Zimmerman case. I think many people could see it coming. The state of Florida had to prove as a standard of their law that George Zimmerman DID NOT feel FEAR to win their case. A burden to prove that is overwhelmingly difficult to accomplish. I can respect the jury’s decision on this element.
However, as a citizen of the United States of America, I am absolutely appalled that George Zimmerman was not held accountable for all the lies he has told in his many interviews.
Furthermore, he racially profiled Trayvon Martin.
Please know George Zimmerman was not held accountable for lying or for his racist profiling when he was tried for self-defense and I am deeply disturbed this, because if we had the truth, we’d see a very different story.
It seems like today we can lie openly in a court of law. We can racially profile another person and take the life of another if we feel fear–regardless if we brought on that fear ourselves. And then if we kill the only witness who knows what the truth is, we can walk away free as a bird. It causes me great sadness and I feel for people who will continue to be racially profiled. It’s wrong: Plain and simple.
I pray and hope that the Department of Justice files a federal case against George Zimmerman. Sign the petition here.
On that note, an Eyes for Lies reader posted a comment written by her brother on my Facebook page yesterday and I thought the comment was brilliant. It’s incredibly ironic what will become of George Zimmerman after what he did…
Dear George Zimmerman,
For the rest of your life you are now going to feel what its like to be a black man in America.
You will feel people stare at you. Judging you for what you think are unfair reasons. You will lose out on getting jobs for something you feel is outside of your control. You will believe yourself to be an upstanding citizen and wonder why people choose to not see that.
People will cross the street when they see you coming. They will call you hurtful names. It will drive you so insane some days that you’ll want to scream at the top of your lungs. But you will have to wake up the next day, put on firm look and push through life.
I bet you never thought that by shooting a black male you’d end up inheriting all of his struggles.
Enjoy your “freedom.”
Sincerely,
A black male who could’ve been Trayvon Martin
Alex Fraser on Facebook
There is more irony to this story. George Zimmerman is afraid a citizen will come after him now–he’s afraid for his life. Does HE not realize that he fought for the right of another person to chase him down, profile him, scare him and then pull a gun on him and kill him in self-defense? Because that is exactly what he did.Disqus comments are off for this post.
By Juliette Culver
The jury will be given instructions to follow the law today to decide if George Zimmerman commited 2nd degree murder, manslaughter or neither.
Here is the Florida law which the jurors will have to apply:
2nd Degree Murder:
The unlawful killing of a human being, when perpetrated by any act imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind regardless of human life, although without any premeditated design to effect the death of any particular individual, is murder in the second degree and constitutes a felony of the first degree, punishable by imprisonment for a term of years not exceeding life ….
Manslaughter:
The killing of a human being by the act, procurement, or culpable negligence of another, without lawful justification according to the provisions of chapter 776 and in cases in which such killing shall not be excusable homicide or murder, according to the provisions of this chapter, is manslaughter, a felony of the second degree ….
Does it matter if George Zimmerman lied in this case?
That he was racially profiling?
That he made poor judgements?
That he followed Trayvon Martin with a gun?
YOU DECIDE.
An Eyes for Lies reader today who wishes to remain anonymous sent me this picture (no longer available) and pointed out where George Zimmerman indicates his gun is during the fight with Trayvon Martin.
If Trayvon Martin was on top of George, as he claims, it would (A) be much harder to see –especially in the dark–remember they were in the dark, and (B) George could have easily stopped Trayvon from getting the weapon by rolling on his side crushing Martin’s fingers.
See this video here — go to Video 2. Start at time marker 5:21.
George Zimmerman has been caught in lie after lie, but it appears this case is not about the truth or lies. I’ve come to accept that, sadly.
In a case where people are strongly divided on their opinions on a person’s right to own a gun and defend themselves–getting to the truth is a lot harder.
Why?
Because of emotional bias.
When people have a strong belief in something, they will cling to it at all costs–and will even disregard the truth repeatedly.
Science has studied this and found that our emotions trump logic nearly every time.
It’s a human shortcoming people have unless they are (A) aware of it, (B) work hard to overcome it–which is not an easy process. It requires looking in the mirror and identifying your own shortcomings–which most people don’t do.
So when we see all these people testify that they believe they heard the person screaming and know who it is–I don’t put much weight on it. Some of the testimony has been flat out ridiculous! They are just convincing themselves of what they want to believe to support their emotional biases.
If you strongly believe in self-defense and gun ownership, you are likely siding with the defense. If you don’t, and feel strongly opposed, you will agree with the prosecution–regardless of the truth.
Those who are not strongly opinionated will have the best chance at seeing the truth by wading through the facts.
Are you biased? Do you take that into consideration when searching for the truth?