In my foreign land, murder is OKFollow

The big thing is most cases don't become this big. Due to all the media attention it became too big to control, and now we're left with this fiasco. They're going to try their damnedest for a fair trial, but in the end no matter what happens it'll never really be resolved. Much like the OJ trial, where even after all this time people still butt heads over the result.

I guess every generation needs a ****** shitstorm.

Well, B&E is a much lighter sentence than, y'know, double murder. Besides, OJ's gonna find the guy. One of these days. Killers always spend twenty years hiding out on golf courses.

The real one. Three weeks ago, there were new headlines about the case daily, at least. The average number of articles being published about the case was exponentially higher than it is now.

The press exists to to sell itself, and it will do that. But overloading the audience makes them stop caring to learn more. When the news first broke, people were finding out everything they could, so there was money to be made in donating a large percentage of your resources to reporting on that issue. But it's just not news anymore--they are only reporting the things that will get people reading, because the personal motivation to do so has been greatly reduced.

When Zimmerman was first arrested, the papers went so far as to discuss what purchases he had been made in prison. As a headline. Since then, the news has definitely tapered off to only covering the significant events. No one cares about what Zimmerman is doing in prison anymore (you know, if he was still in prison). Now the news sites are only headlining the major events, and covering less of the possible topics.

No one wants to read about how much rebuilding is still left to do in New Orleans, for instance, or how much of it has yet to even have basic utilities restored. The public doesn't want to read about it.

Yet it was a headline after the Japanese Tsunami that a cat had survived by perching on a pipe.

Do you see what I'm getting at?

He's out on bail.

Is that really too much to ask? I mean Neko-chan's a frickin' hero!

It's not the cat that was on the pipe, but check out Picture 41.

Meanwhile back at the topic, someone pointed out to me today that judges in the lower courts are elected in Florida. No wonder they're all trying to distance themselves from this case.

Honestly, I never heard any news stories about what he purchased in jail. I believe you, but let's not ignore the possibility that we're looking at different sources and thus have different perceptions of things.



Again. I didn't see anything about the snacks. I did see stuff about the bail hearing, a special on CNN about race relations as they relate to the case, stuff about the police chief, stuff about the pictures of Zimmerman's head, stuff about Zimmerman's past arrests, etc. While I suppose the volume of marches and rallies has dropped a tad, that's not really surprising and it doesn't reflect a lack of emotion with regard to the issue itself.



Yes. I do. Do you know how much time passed between when the initial outrage about the Rodney King video occurred and when the trial occurred? Want to guess how much daily news coverage there was between those two? Yet, despite all those months of no talking about it, and despite the fact that most people didn't even realized that the trial of those police officers was going on until the verdict came in, once it did and the media reported it, all those folks who forgot about it became really really angry that things didn't turn out the way they assumed they would.

See. Those people assumed that the cops must be found guilty. They saw it on tape, right? They formed such a strong assumption about the events, that once the legal process started rolling, they just assumed they would get justice for Rodney King. And then when it didn't happen, they were shocked. How could this happen? The system must be rigged! Time to riot!!!



Actually, I think you're wrong. I think that the longer it goes with the public assuming a given result, and minimal coverage in between to decisively make them realize differently, the greater the odds of a violent response to an acquittal. You're not looking at this from the right perspective. To someone who has formed a complete opinion, Zimmerman is guilty. They know this. Unless something happens to change their mind, they will continue to believe that, right up to the moment he's acquitted. And at that moment, because they still believe absolutely that he must be guilty, the assumption will not be "gee. I must have been wrong", but "OMG! The system is broken. Justice was not served"

The longer it goes, the more violent people will become if the result is not what they believe it should be. Obviously, that's my subjective opinion. Every case is a little different. However, I think you are underestimating how time reinforces peoples assumptions. The best time to counter an assumption is as soon after it's formed as possible. If you show up months later with a different answer and *then* attempt to explain why their assumption was wrong, you've got a much steeper hill to climb than if you challenge them right off the bat.



It'll be relative to how certain they were that the ruling was unjust. And that'll rest heavily on how its reported, but also whether they're prepared for the possibility along the way. This is the part that can be a bit hazy. If the news begins doing more and more stories questioning the veracity of the charges, and going over in more detail how the self defense laws apply to the case, more people will be more likely to accept an acquittal based on those things. But aside from the more talk focused news outlets, most are not doing this. So average Joe who just watches the evening news a few times a week has a month of outrage and rallies and headlines to reinforce his opinion about Zimmerman's guilt, and more or less silence since then to suggest otherwise. If he then wakes up one day to a headline about Zimmerman being acquitted, he's going to be shocked, confused, and possibly quite angry.



Yup. Problem is that it's quickly becoming less and less of the Zimmerman case right during the time period where there's less outrage from the family and other political figures and more calm analysis available. But the news doesn't tend to report calm analysis. It's looking for the emotionally charged stuff. And in a case like this, that's almost all going to occur with anything that makes Zimmerman look guilty.


Again, your rage builds argument would suggest that there shouldn't have been riots after the Rodney King verdict. But there clearly were. May I suggest that rage comes back really really quickly in certain situations, and the appearance of a black person being screwed over by the justice system is one of those situations. As I said earlier, I would absolutely love to be wrong about this, but I have a bad feeling that I'm not.

That's a sure-fire way to ensure that no riots ever occur.

Sure, but the rest of us will have to hear about it for two weeks, and I'd much rather news stories about cats on pipes.

What an idiot.

I'm curious what normally happens when people receive a bunch of money for legal defense in situations like this, and whether the Zimmerman's actions are unusual in that context. Their biggest mistake here appears to have been not hiring an accountant to manage the money for them.