If the not-very-reverend Al Sharpton is involved - it's BS!

'Fun and games' of an exceedingly tricky nature are going on 'over there' following the shooting of a black youth by some sort of semi-official policeman, a sort of community cop, I gather.  I haven't followed the story in great detail because the minute the Rev'd(?) Al Sharpton put in an appearance I knew that it would all degenerate into a PR blizzard in which the truth would end up 'deader than the kid'!  Needless to say, the Great American Public, for whom I am beginning to feel an increasing sense of sympathy, have been wickedly served by their so-called 'free press'.  Here is a prize example, via those watchful critters at IHTM (God bless their smelly socks!), who pointed me to the Riehl World View which ran this story:

Among a few interesting items uncovered in trying to examine the facts behind the shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin without drawing any conclusions, was that a widely viewed photograph of Martin appears to have been altered, somewhat.

Here is the original photo:

Not a good image, is it?  I mean, you would be quite right to avoid going down a dark alley with a 'youf' who looked like that.  However, appearance is not proof of guilt or innocence.  Appearance is just that, appearance, and no more.  However, that was not good enough for the picture editors of the MSM who had to - how shall we put it? - lighten the image up a bit!  This is the picture that appeared in the papers:

Now, that's more like it.  Looks like a proper boy scout, doesn't he?  But, of course, I say and stress again, looks do not prove guilt or innocence.  Or do they?  I mean, why would the MSM go to all that trouble to alter a photo if it wasn't important?  Dan Riehl ends his story with two cryptic sentences:

However, [the confusions in the story] did not stop Barack Obama from weighing in, claiming if he had a son, it would look like Trayvon Martin. That may depend on what photo of him he's seen, of course.

The whole tragic incident is sounding like a plot line from a Tom Wolfe novel.

Comments

[Able]

SSDD!

I agree unreservedly with Tams take at VFTP.

http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/where-are-they-getting-these-crystal.html

It seems Zimmerman was a member of his 'neighbourhood watch' followed a young male acting suspiciously, after calling the police. 'Something' then happened which resulted in him being beaten on the ground which he, apparently fearing for his life, used a legal concealed handgun and shot the male.

What happened no one yet knows. But of course the 'victim' being of a certain ethnic persuasion has all the usual suspects out in strength demanding a lynching (and already the 'Black Panthers' have put a price on his head). And the photo, not only having been photoshopped to be made more appealing, is a number of years old too apparently - shades of 'Bonfire of the Vanities' anyone?

Almost like home isn't it?

(Oh and don't read it if you are actually an Elton John fan or oversensitive to lashings of snark!)

[David Duff]

Not quite sure, Able, what "SSDD" stands for but I'll take it as complimentary! Your blogger on the link is entirely right. No-one, except the shooter, knows what happened because as far as I know there are absolutely no witnesses. Incidentally, if anyone's photo needs re-imaging it is the shooter's because it is not a flattering portrait. However, as I said above, looks count for nothing in judging guilt or innocence.

[Whyaxye]

I found this brilliant quote from Sharpton on his Wiki page:

“White folks was [sic] in caves while we was building empires.... We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it.”

Beautiful, isn't it?!

As for Obama's comment, that must have had his advisors wincing!

"Bofire of the vanities" was considered a bit lightweight when it came out, but I would put it among the 10 best novels of the 20th Century.

[Whyaxye]

DD, I think "SSDD" means "Same stuff, different day", a colloqiual expression with some variants which you might have encountered.

[JK]

Do be curious at this pairing of his Revering Sharpton David - with Tawana.... oops Trevor Martin. The photos we are being presented with are of the 12 years-old version of the (at the time of decease) 17 years-old, 6' 4" 240 pounds, to Zimmerman's 5' 7" 160 pounds.

Zimmerman (for some odd reason the MSM has yet to announce) was sent immediately to the infirmary to receive 17 stitches sewing up a "profusely bleeding cut to the back of his head and set a broken nose" as well as numerous bruises and grass-stained clothing.

Probably inflicted when young Mr. Martin slipped in the wet grass and innocently lost his grip on that cup of iced tea which then catapulted into the back of that evil Mr. Zimmerman's noggin.

And of course Reverend Sharpton has some history of this sort of stuff:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Sharpton#Tawana_Brawley_controversy

[JK]

Oh what a difference 72 hours makes. Just finished watching the morning news program I always watch - yes it's afternoon but I watch on the internet. Reverend Al is regularly featured and he made an appearance today... oddly, the fellow was taking the sort of step I normally associate with campaigning politicians - that is, "walking back a previous statement."

Seems quite a few in the MSM are walking backwards. Methinks they could've avoided that, had they taken the time to read the original police reports prior to the shit hitting the fan. (Once the shit did hit the fan, the Feds jumped in and the original reports got, what here in the US, we know as "sealed.") Still, except for this link switching (for now) the weight of the two participants - things're becoming clearer to some:

http://gma.yahoo.com/trayvon-martin-shooter-told-cops-teenager-went-gun-030349812--abc-news.html

[Andra]

mmmm mmmmm

[David Duff]

'W', thanks for the translation, being 72 years out of date can sometimes be a bit tedious!

I think Bonfire of the Vanities is a great, classic novel which will certainly last well into the future.

JK, thanks for the links. Oddly enough, the more information that comes to light the more confused one gets.

Andra, that was rather a mooted response from you!

[Dom]

Well, I'm officially depressed. Turns out the young boy's mother is trying to obtain a trademark on the phrase "I am Trayvon Martin", which is being used in rallies.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/trayvon-martin-trademarks-769123

[JK]

"JK, thanks for the links. Oddly enough, the more information that comes to light the more confused one gets."

Actually David, were the reports you are receiving over the wild blue yonder full and complete the confusion would melt away and the shroud would be lifted from your eyes.

The newspaper that serves the Sanford Florida town where the shooting took place is The Orlando Sentinel, sometime back, monetary restraints you know, anyway Orlando Florida being some 40 to 60 miles distant from Sanford - well The Sentinel closed it's Sanford bureau.

When "the incident" took place over a month ago the reporter who finally latched onto the tale "apparently" failed to perform due diligence and in the page six, four paragraph footnote on the shooting the reporter "again apparently" just noted the name Zimmerman.

See where this sordid tale is headed David? Had poor Zimmerman been named something like Garcia - heck - Che Guevera, all this could've been avoided. But. No, no, no. The reporter reported Zimmerman was white. (Slapped your forehead yet, David?)

This should be enough to explain why a fellow like Al Sharpton was soon on a plane - well "soon" being relative (the national media didn't pick it up until a month later) but Sharpton if he is anything - is against anything smacking even faintly of racism. But only whites in American are capable of being racist. The wheels began to fall off the cart when it finally dawned on somebody in the media, Zimmerman is not white, he is Hispanic.

[JK]

What the heck is wrong with your "preview thingie" David?

[David Duff]

JK, I have no idea what is wrong with my 'preview thingie' because I have never knowingly used it! However, I can tell you that you are in the habit of forgetting that to STOP italics you need to put the '/' in front of the 'i' not behind it. I have corrected your comment. That will be a hundred lines, of course, to be completed before supper!

As for Trayvon, read Dom's link above for the final turd to fall on this whole nauseating shit-wagon! Honestly, I don't think even Tom Wolfe could make this story up!