Finally!

If I may steal a quote from Ice Cube, "Today was a good day". Rush is being taken off the main wingnut radio station here in Philly, and the man who killed Trayvon Martin is finally going to have to face the criminal justice system. Lord knows it took long enough. If the Sanford, Florida police department had shown some guts from the start, we would have never gotten to this point.

So anyway, this tough seasoned republican prosecutor- as well as the vast investigative team at her disposal- found enough evidence to go forward. She says that they launched an "intensive investigation" and they found what many of my wingnut friends were hoping that they would not. Hopefully my right wing friends will now take note. All the so called facts (and evidence) that they say will prove that Mr. Killerman acted in self defense will now have to be proven in a court of law.

Mr. Killerman is being charged with second degree murder. If Florida is like Pennsylvania he still has to go before a judge for preliminary hearing, and he or she will decide if there is enough evidence to go forward. Then there is the little matter of his bail. Maybe his friend Sean can put up some money for him.

The fact that it took so long to get an arrest in this case is a travesty and a real stain on the America justice system. And what some of my friends in the majority population do not understand is that this case was not about racism per se on the part of the killer of this young man. The fact that he had Cuban American roots means nothing. (BTW, hang in there Ozzie. My Cuban American friends ain't like my other brown friends if you get my drift. ) This case was about a police department devaluing the life of a young black man, who sadly laid on a slab in the morgue for days before his parents were even notified of his death. It's about an unarmed child being killed while minding his own business by a citizen, and that citizen remaining free for 45 days while real racists and ideological whores in this country rallied around him only because his victim was black.

I hope Mr. Killerman enjoyed his last supper with Sean Hannity last night. I am sure that throughout the trial the folks over at FOX will try yo help the defense team and that they will try to paint everything that comes out in a light most favorable to the defendant.

"He reached out to me, we spoke on the phone about his case and I agreed not to report on the contents of that conversation," Hannity said. On his radio show Monday, Hannity said he had confirmed that Zimmerman was a mentor to minority children. "Now, if you were racist, I don't think you'd be a mentor to minority children," he said."

*shaking head*

Anyway, I won't be doing victory laps. As others have said, this is not a time to celebrate. A family has lost their son, and the scabs have been peeled off the sore that is A-merry-can racism once again.

Maybe today is not such a good day after all.  
   













  

Where is George?

If any of you Negroes happen to see George Killerman around, please leave him alone. Remember, he is a free man. He has not been charged with a crime.

Mr. Killerman's lawyers are dropping him, and they swear they don't know where he is.

Well gentlemen, if you want to find someone who shot an unarmed black man to death, you might want to start looking over at FOX NEWS.

Yes folks, it seems that Mr. Killerman has reached out to his FOX friends. Apparently he believes that getting favorable publicity is better than good legal representation. Maybe the folks over at FOX will get him a very expensive lawyer. Apparently they are already raising money for him on their website.

"The two attorneys made a strange case even stranger. The official basis for their withdrawing from the case seemed to be the news that Zimmerman had contacted special prosecutor Angela Corey and offered to come in, and told her he wasn’t represented by counsel, calling Sonner and Uhrig “special advisors.” (Corey said she couldn’t speak to him without counsel.) But their move came the same day Zimmerman revealed a bizarre, flag-bedecked website raising money for his defense that looks like it was designed by the folks at Fox Nation, which the lawyers said they hadn’t been told about.
So an armed man who shot an unarmed teenager and who may be emotionally unstable has stopped talking to his attorneys, but will communicate with a conservative talk show host? Could this case get any weirder?"

Yes, it could.

Finally, let's talk about racism here in A-merry-ca. According to a new poll from Newsweek Magazine, many of you Negroes are not very optimistic about our future when it comes to race. White folks, as usual, don't see a problem. Yes people stereotype you, but that doesn't affect you when you try to buy a home or move up in business. ?????

"At the heart of America’s persistent racial divide is a fundamental disagreement over the frequency and severity of discrimination against African-Americans. When asked, vast majorities—89 percent of blacks and 80 percent of whites—agree that racial stereotyping still occurs in America today. But ask how racial stereotyping actually affects people’s lives, and blacks and whites no longer see eye to eye. Seventy percent of whites, for example, think that blacks have an equal shot at affordable housing; only 35 percent of blacks say the same. Seventy percent of whites believe that the two races receive equal treatment in the job market; a mere 25 percent of blacks concur. And while more than 80 percent of white people say the cops and courts usually or always treat blacks the same as whites, that number doesn’t even clear 50 percent among African-Americans. It’s no wonder, then, that blacks are twice as likely as whites (82 percent versus 38 percent) to say that race played a role in the shooting of Trayvon Martin. They are simply more likely than whites to still see race as a factor in how people are treated, period." [Source]

Michael Medved was saying today that Obama has caused racism to be worse because he promised to be a uniter and racism has actually gotten worse under his watch. That logic is seriously flawed. Yes, racism has gotten worse under Obama, but you can blame the "color aroused" tea party folks and other wingnuts for that. (BTW, racism is not exclusive to the right wingnut) Not him. Obama's presidency just brought out emotions that they couldn't hold in anymore.  Having a real HNIC only made them bitter and angry. And, true to form, they acted on their fears and resentment.

Still, all is not lost in A-merry-ca. Some of you really do get it:

"When I speak publicly about systemic racism and analyze incidents like the Martin killing from that lens, I know that meanings and beliefs about who I am and what compels my actions will be mapped onto me – with or without my approval. To be sure, sometimes they are positive. I’m keenly aware that I’m often privileged to speak critically about race and have my voice and perspectives valued in ways that my friends and colleagues of color can rarely assume. To many, I’m a curiosity – a white person speaking frankly and passionately about race – how about that? And, I’ve been rewarded to be embraced as a sister, friend and ally in the struggle for racial and social justice, freedom and self-determination.

Nonetheless, I know too, there’s a flipside.

I mark myself when I speak critically about Racism. White Supremacy. Whiteness. And yes, White People.

And, I will pay costs for doing so. Certainly, I will pay less of the direct, material costs that people of color pay for their activism; let alone their simply “being non-white” in the world – costs they don’t choose but which have been chosen for them. But at a bare minimum I can count on paying psychic and personal ones." [Source]

Remember Negroes, if you see George just leave him alone. Please follow him, though. We need to know where he is.  Some people might be looking for him soon.

This is no way to get the "caterpillar" vote.

Fellows, like most of you, I pretty much "outkicked my coverage" when it comes to the woman I married. So anyway, I am looking at the beautiful Mrs. Field and I am happy to say that she looks nothing like the picture that goes with this post.

Sadly, however, this is what Reince Priebus, the head of the RNC, believes that Mrs. Field and all other A-merry-can women look like.

Read what Vanessa over at Feministing wrote:

"RNC Chairman Reince Priebus had the loveliest thing to say yesterday about the discussions around the GOP’s “war on women” that’s been dominating the political landscape as of late:

“If the Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars and every mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that Republicans have a war on caterpillars, then we’d have problems with caterpillars,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt” airing this weekend. “It’s a fiction.”

I’ll admit I’m kind of loving how these GOP tactics to try to dismiss this conversation as silly and meaningless are just further trivializing the issues that women and other folks with uteri care about, and just keep diggin’ themselves deeper and deeper into this hole of voter abandonment." [Source]

Well Mr. Priebus, eventually caterpillars become beautiful butterflies. But unfortunately for you and your party, they won't be flying your way come November. 

Finally, I hate to agree with Jason Whitlock, but the issue he raised about the Trayvon Martin case has been bothering me as well.

Why is it that during the entire O.J. Simpson circus white folks were saying that he was guilty before we even had a trial? Why did they excoriate and berate the jurors who found him not guilty? In their minds they all thought he was guilty, and they made no bones about it. (BTW, I thought that he was guilty as well. Yes black folks, I hate to break it to you, but O.J. killed his wife and that young man that night.)So why does George Killerman get the benefit of the doubt? Why can't these same people convict Mr. Killerman in the court of public opinion the way they did O.J.? That was a rhetorical question. I know the answer:Trayvon is not a woman, and he is not blond.

"..long before Geraldo Rivera preached to Trayvon Martin’s parents about the evils of hoodies, he sat on CNBC during the mid-1990s and led the media prosecution of O.J. Simpson. Geraldo was so good at it and the American public so enamored by it that smart TV executives quickly launched MSNBC (July 15, 1996) and FOX News (Oct. 7, 1996) to capitalize on the ratings gold Geraldo discovered.

So forgive me for pointing out the obvious: At best, the whining about the left-wing media’s passionate belief that Zimmerman should be arrested and charged with a crime in the death of Martin is embarrassingly hypocritical and delusional. At worst, it reveals an appalling racial bias.

There is significantly more evidence that Zimmerman committed a crime on Feb. 26, 2012 than there ever was that Simpson committed one on June 12, 1994. The Trayvon Martin case isn’t a who-done-it. We don’t have to speculate about motives or opportunity. We know who was carrying the gun and who was carrying the Skittles. We know who a police dispatcher advised to abandon pursuit. We know who was the 28-year-old wannabe cop complaining about “f---ing ‘oons” and who was the 17-year-old boy talking to his girlfriend.
It took five days for the police to arrest and charge O.J. Simpson. Thirty-six days after police listed Martin as John Doe, George Zimmerman is a free man and apparently being elevated to martyrdom in some influential circles."

Correction Jason, it's been 39 days. But who is counting?




     

Before there was Trayvon.

*I read a wonderful article by Frank Fitzpatrick in my local paper today which I am going to share with you. We are living in the days of Trayvon Martin, Kendrec McDade, and Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr.; so I think this story is quite relevant.

"Amid the waters roiled by Trayvon Martin's death, Charlie Janerette's name bobbed to the surface.

The two compelling images of Janerette that once coexisted in my head - the Penn State all-American with a master's degree, and the disheveled, mentally ill man with a policeman's bullet in the back of his head - weren't easily reconciled.

It was easier to forget both. And so, for me, a resumé filled with remarkable accomplishments disappeared on a bloodstained Center City sidewalk 271/2 years ago.Some of the questions now at play in Martin's death were raised when Janerette was killed in 1984: What is acceptable force? What role did race play? And how much did perceptions cloud reality?

In Janerette's case at least, they've never been fully answered, which only adds to the heartbreak of a life marked by famous acquaintances, significant firsts, and terrible irony.

Born in 1937, Charles Janerette Jr. grew up in the Richard Allen Homes in North Philadelphia and later in East Oak Lane. He was the only boy among Charlie Sr. and Lillian's five children. All would earn master's degrees, two of them earned Ph.Ds.

One of his closest boyhood friends was Bill Cosby, who has hinted that the supersized youngster was the inspiration for his Fat Albert character. During a 1973 appearance on the Dick Cavett Show, the comedian said he used to laugh hysterically whenever Janerette's mother called her physically precocious son "Junior."

The two went to Germantown High School, where they starred in football. Janerette, described as smart and sweet-tempered, also became the first black president of Germantown's senior class.

At 6-foot-3 and 250 pounds, the lineman earned all-city honors and a football scholarship to Penn State. He had planned to major in premed before the demands of big-time college football disabused him of that ambition.
Janerette was a second-team all-American guard as a Nittany Lions senior in 1959. Joe Paterno, an assistant to then-head coach Rip Engle, once recalled that the Philadelphian had arrived in State College as a "sensitive, shy" young man who "got tougher and tougher."

It was in his final collegiate game that Janerette made history. Until Penn State's 7-0 triumph in the inaugural Liberty Bowl, which took place at Municipal Stadium, Alabama had never played against an opponent with a black player.
C.J. Schexnayder, an Alabama writer working on a book about that bowl game, explained its significance: "By playing a team with a black starter in 1959, Alabama broke a racial barrier that would have been all but impossible even a year later due to the polarized political climate in the state over segregation."
Selected in the fifth round of the 1960 NFL draft by the Los Angeles Rams, Janerette's seven-year professional career also included stints with the NFL's Giants, with the Jets and Broncos in the AFL, and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Canadian Football League.Paterno hired him as a graduate assistant after he became head coach and Janerette earned his master's in educational counseling at Penn State.

He married, had a daughter, and lived for a while in Syracuse, N.Y. It was there, relatives later contended, that he began exhibiting the first signs of a mental illness, a condition later diagnosed as manic-depression.

In 1972, Janerette pleaded guilty to driving-while-intoxicated charges after he struck and killed a pedestrian. He served no prison time, but for the rest of his life the date, Oct. 18, was an emotionally painful anniversary.
When he took the lithium doctors prescribed, Janerette apparently functioned well. He accepted a job as an English teacher at Daniel Boone School in North Philadelphia, where the principal said he was "absolutely no problem."
But he grew to dislike the medication, and the more he ignored it, the more erratic his behavior became.

On Oct. 25, 1984, Janerette failed to show up at the school on North 26th Street. Later that day, he reportedly had an angry confrontation with a neighborhood merchant and turned up near the seedy bus terminal at 13th and Arch Streets. At about 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 26, near 15th and Cherry Streets, Philadelphia Police Officer Kurt Von Colln stopped two men on mopeds. It was then that Janerette stumbled onto the scene.

Fourteen years earlier, as he sat behind a desk in a Cobbs Creek Park guardhouse, the policeman's father, Sgt. Frank Von Colln, had been killed by gunmen who branded themselves as black revolutionaries.

Now, as the slain officer's son talked to the youngsters in the middle of the night, Janerette entered Von Colln's empty, idling cruiser. All agreed that he sat in the vehicle, but the policeman said that he'd tried to drive it away.

One of Janerette's sisters, Hope, told the New York Times that her parents had taught their children that if they ever needed help, the best thing to do was to find a police car and get inside.Whether or not they ever intended or envisioned that a 45-year-old might be in that position, it's impossible to assess Janerette's motives. When the 5-foot-7, 180-pound Von Colln attempted to remove him, an altercation ensued. It ended when Janerette was shot once in the back of the head. He died 12 hours later in Hahnemann University Hospital.

There were immediate questions about the shooting and conflicting versions of what had led to it.

The joyriders initially reported that Janerette had been shot during a scuffle, but later altered their stories. A neighbor said she'd seen the victim up against a wall being frisked by the policeman. An Inquirer truck driver reported seeing the officer and the ex-football player wrestling.

Janerette's family sued. A U.S. District Court jury ruled in 1987 that Von Colln was justified in using deadly force, but negligent. It awarded the family $188,000.

The ambiguous verdict made nothing any clearer. No one is ever likely to know exactly what happened that night. Maybe the violent death ended a life hurtling downhill. Or maybe it only assured that someone desperately in need of help would never get any.

All these years later, there's really only one thing certain about the incident: Charlie Janerette's terrible death forever obscured a wonderful life." [Story]

*Pic from Philly.com.

A partisan view of a killing.

Fred Clark over at the slacktivist wonders why conservatives have made the killing of Trayvon Martin political.

"I don’t understand the partisan response to the killing of Trayvon Martin.
Yes, many liberals are upset that a child was gunned down with impunity. (It’s been more than a month now.) But they are not upset for partisan reasons or for “liberal” reasons or for Democratic Party reasons.

They are upset because a child was gunned down with impunity. That ought to upset conservatives too. I appreciate that the Republican Party ca. 2012 has a knee-jerk opposition to anything that President Barack Obama says, but just because Obama is saddened by the senseless killing of a child shouldn’t have to mean that Republicans should reflexively take the other side.

This shouldn’t be partisan. Those saddened and angered by the killing of Trayvon Martin are not fighting a partisan battle. This child’s death does not advance some liberal or Democratic agenda. Those of us upset by this are not saying, “A child has been shot and therefore we must restore parity between taxes on labor and taxes on capital gains.” We are saying that it is horrifying and wrong that a child can be gunned down with impunity.

There is no reason that conservatives shouldn’t completely agree with that.
Well, there’s one reason, but there’s no decent, moral, legitimate reason." (Source)

I wonder what Fred is thinking of. I bet he and I are thinking of the same thing.

Finally, have you ever heard those wingnuts complain about the liberals and leftist teaching their kids in America's colleges and universities? It has gotten so bad that they have actually started creating their own personal wingnut institutions of higher learning complete with their own wacky curriculum.

Anyway, I am here to tell you that America's colleges and universities are full of right wingnuts and racist. Just because you are smart enough to get into college, doesn't mean that you can't carry around a certain amount og ignorance with you.

I give you exhibit A, the editorial board of the University of Texas student newspaper.

"The University of Texas‘ student newspaper, The Daily Texan, was accused of being racially insensitive when it printed a bias cartoon on Tuesday that belittled the

The cartoon depicts a Mother reading a book to her child and referring to Martin as a “colored boy,” with an underline and three arrows pointing to it for added emphasis. The title of the book also labels the coverage of the Martin case as “yellow journalism,” which is journalism that is sensational or crudely exaggerated. 

The editorial board of the paper — who first stood behind the cartoon’s artist — has now apologized for printing the controversial cartoon. The artist has also been given the boot, reports the Los Angeles Times.
When word began to spread about the racially insensitive cartoon, tempers began flaring. How could The Daily Texan sanction such blatant racism and make light of an unarmed teen being brutally shot to death by a trigger man who felt threatened by a youth who was minding his own business?
Working on a school paper should offer lasting teachable moments, but a few people made some very poor judgements, and the editorial staff are now being called on the carpet. Seemingly backing up their cartoonist, the paper initially printed the following statement late Tuesday evening:

The views expressed in the cartoon are not those of the editorial board. They are those of the artist. It is the policy of the editorial board to publish the views of our columnists and cartoonists, even if we disagree with them.

Not good enough.

The media soon got wind of the blatantly racist cartoon. Its artist, Stephanie Eisner, who also spelled Trayvon’s name incorrectly, got lambasted as a racist about her tongue-in-cheek depiction of the Martin case. Eisner put forth the following apology on the day after the cartoon was published:

I apologize for what was in hindsight an ambiguous cartoon related to the Trayvon Martin shooting. I intended to contribute thoughtful commentary on the media coverage of the incident, however this goal fell flat. I would like to make it explicitly clear that I am not a racist, and that I am personally appalled by the killing of Trayvon Martin. I regret any pain the wording or message of my cartoon may have caused." [Source]

"Ambiguous cartoon"? OK, we get it. The Trayvon Martin killing has not made A-merry-cans collectively look and see injustice. It has caused folks who view certain people in society as less than human to double down and defend their position and a child's killer. 

The "Nig" in chief.

I wish Ricky (I should be in a) Sanitarium could control himself sometimes. I know all republicans think it, but at least they can control themselves. Ricky, on the other hand, not so much.

Poor Rick. Him of the now infamous "blah people" gaffe. This time around he caught himself before dropping the N word. Oh my! The 24 hour cable news folks would have had fun with that one.

"In this speech, he had been blasting Barack Obama for all things real and imagined. Then where this clip begins Santorum continues "We know the candidate Barack Obama...what he was like. The anti-war, government nig... (insert stumble here)."

FOX NEWS: "Well, I am sure he didn't mean Nigger as in black people are Niggers, Bill. What he wanted to say is that Obama is Niggardly when it comes to the government and the war." "Of course, I mean we all know that the man is not a racist. How could he be and be so devoted to his church....."

Anywhoo, all is well that ends well. Unfortunately for Ricky he was not going to be the candidate that faces his Oness come November. He was dying a slow death by a thousand dollar bills.

It's actually a shame, because I wanted him to hang in there a little longer. Now it looks like the candidate who can keep his thoughts to himself and keep his mouth in check will be the party standard- bearer.

I bet he won't call O a "Nig". At least not publicly.

Finally, while we are all outraged about Trayvon Martin, let's not forget that this kind of thing is par for the course for black men in A-merry-ca. I bring you a story from the ironically named town of White  Plains, New York. (h/t Tia for this story)

"As the Trayvon Martin case draws national attention, we look at another fatal shooting of an African-American male that has received far less scrutiny. Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr., a 68-year-old African-American Marine veteran, was fatally shot in November by White Plains, NY, police who responded to a false alarm from his medical alert pendant. The officers broke down Chamberlain’s door, tasered him, and then shot him dead. Audio of the entire incident was recorded by the medical alert device in Chamberlain’s apartment. We’re joined by family attorneys and Chamberlain’s son, Kenneth Chamberlain, Jr., who struggles through tears to recount his father’s final moments, including the way police officers mocked his father’s past as a marine. "For them to look at my father that way, (with) no regard for his life, every morning I think about it," he says."
[Full story here]


Oh, and before I forget; if any of you field hands happen to win the Megamillons Jackpot tonight please holla at your boy.

A video and eyewitness is not enough.

Just listened to an eyewitness to the Trayvon Martin murder on CNN. Anderson Cooper has an exclusive with the person. Looked in my e-mail inbox and there was an e-mail from CNN's PR person. One good thing about running a popular blog is that you get e-mails from folks in the know and cable news people all the time.

selected sound bite from the interview below -

Anderson Cooper: What did you observe after the shot?

Eyewitness: "As I said it was dark, but after the shot, obviously someone, one man got up and it was kind of like that period of him – I can’t say I actually watched him get up – but maybe it was only in a couple seconds or so that he was walking towards where I was watching. And I could see him a little bit clearer, and see that he was a Hispanic man and he was, you know, he didn’t appear hurt or anything else, he just kind of seemed very, worried or whatever, walked on the sidewalk at that point, with his hand up to his forehead and then another man came out with a flashlight..."

 

Shimrit Sheetrit
CNN Public Relations

1888 Century Park East - CC12079
Los Angeles, CA 90067
310.***.****

I don't know, maybe if folks hear the problem with the Trayvon Martin killing from a white perspective they will understand. Meanwhile, the racist continue to dig in and double down that somehow Trayvon Martin brought his death on himself.

But back to that article:

"President Obama transformed the Florida shooting that has become a national protest movement with a single sentence: "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon." Once again, the president transcended race while addressing it.

Obama spoke as a father - any father. And yet there was no one who read or heard his words who didn't understand that he was also speaking as a black father who could have had a black son resembling Trayvon Martin, the teenager whose shooting death has inflamed black America while reminding white America that the legacy of racial injustice is long, complicated, and always painful.
I am a white father who has a story about his black son - that is, a boy who grew up with my son, as close as two friends can be.

They met in first grade at Meredith School, a public elementary school at Fifth and Fitzwater Streets, in a South Philadelphia neighborhood that people were still getting used to calling "Queen Village." It was the early '70s, and young white families who were buying rowhouses in such neighborhoods, as my family did, were referred to in real estate sections as "urban pioneers" rather than gentrifiers.

We were innocents of a sort in the Philadelphia public school system. Still in our twenties, we initially expected our kids to get the same education we had in the suburbs. Meredith at the time was 80 percent black, with many of its students coming from the high-rise public housing projects five blocks away, where parents fudged their addresses so their children could go to Meredith. We sent our children to Meredith because we liked and believed in it, and we continued to believe in it through grade school. Today, Meredith is one of the success stories of neighborhood public schools in Philadelphia, but back in the day, it wasn't so easy.

Best friends
My son Danny was bullied by a kid from the neighborhood, a mean white kid whom I remember as half my son's size, and yet who terrorized him to the extent that Danny retreated inside at any hint of his presence.

And then came Robert. Robert was Danny's classmate, a black kid who lived in the projects down the street. How they became best friends, I do not know. Robert just showed up one day and never left.
The bullying stopped whenever Robert was around. Danny grew more confident by degrees. By fifth grade, he was unafraid. By seventh grade, he was adventurous.

By eighth grade, he was - well, as he once put it to me, black. He was joking, of course, because he would always be white in the eyes of America. And of the Philadelphia police.

'Next time'
One spring morning in 1985, while Robert was walking to school from his mother's apartment in the Southwark Plaza housing project, at Fourth and Washington, he was stopped by the police and put in the back of a wagon. He was 13 years old.

The officers drove him to Sixth and South Streets, where a woman's purse had been snatched. The woman was waiting there when the police wagon pulled up. When its back doors opened, a bewildered boy in tears emerged.

The woman was furious. "I told you it was a man who did this, 6 feet tall. You've brought me a boy. Don't you know the difference?"

The police officers shrugged, put Robert back in the wagon, and drove him back to Meredith School, where he had told them he was a student. They pulled up outside the front doors on Fifth Street about half an hour after classes had begun. Robert was still sobbing when they opened the doors and left him on the sidewalk alone.

The policemen didn't call his mother, didn't offer to walk him inside to explain why he was late, and didn't apologize for the mistake. They simply let him out and drove away after a four-word warning: "Next time, don't cry."
Those are words that no white father in Philadelphia would ever expect a policeman to say to his son. "Next time ... " - because surely there will be a next time, and boys like Robert should learn how to take it like men. And if I had actually been the father of a boy who looked like Trayvon Martin, I would have known that.

That was all 27 years ago. We moved to West Philadelphia soon afterward. Danny and Robert went to different high schools and drifted apart, though they remained friends.

Robert eventually got caught up in drugs and dropped out of high school. But he came from a strong family, and at 19, he joined the Army, got his GED, and learned a trade. When he died of leukemia at the age of 25, he had started a family and was working for a top chef at a Center City hotel. At his funeral, I heard my son cry like I had never heard him cry before."
[Source]

I am still waiting on that all important autopsy report. Not that it will make any difference to folks who think that the "thuggish" black youth got what he deserved, but it should make things so much clearer.

Eyewitnesses are sometimes wrong, that is not the same for videos and forensic evidence.

Let the push-back begin.

"Damn field! Why do you allow all those racist trolls to comment on your site?"

 I get that a lot. And my answer is always the same: Get used to it. Those trolls could be your neighbor, your co-worker, or even the person you set next to in church.

The thing about the Internet is that allows folks who couldn't always do it to hide behind an anonymous label and call you all kinds of vile things. He or she can do it from the safety of their trailer park or the Wal- Mart bathroom, and they can send it out to thousands of people reading every day with one push of a button to a black run website. Isn't technology beautiful?

The thing is, far too many of you so called progressive thinking people have been fooled into thinking that A-merry-ca is this forward thinking place full of enlightened people. You watch too many commercials with hip interracial friends getting along while sipping beer and playing with puppies. That is not A-merry-ca. That is what Madison Avenue wants A-merry-ca to be.

The real A-merry-ca is a place filled with the kind of folks you see commenting on this web site on a daily basis. The real A-merry-ca is full of envy,hate, and "color aroused" angst brought on by ignorance and prejudice. It's why you are seeing the blow- back from right wingers and some folks in the majority population with the Trayvon Martin case. Now you will hear what a bad kid he was. You will hear that he might have been kicking his killer's ass before he was slaughtered in that housing development like roadkill on a Florida highway. You will hear that Mr. Zimmerman actually had a black friend, and that he mentored black boys. And you will hear that if George Zimmerman didn't kill Trayvon Martin, the seventeen year old was going to beat him to a bloody pulp with those "street hardened" fists of his.

You will hear it, but don't believe a word of it. And even if you do, it should not affect how you feel about this case one little bit. The truth of the matter is that an unarmed seventeen year old was lawfully walking down the street to go and watch a basketball game at the home of a friend. He was spotted, profiled,  hunted down, and eventually killed.   

Trayvon Martin is dead, and George Zimmerman is free. Therein lies the problem. Justice has not been served. George Zimmerman has not even been arrested for a lessor crime than murder. Most A-merry-cans see the injustice in this. Most.

Sadly, in the dark hearts of many A-merry-cans, this is exactly how it should be. Because the person who died is a "young black thug". The hoodie wearing suspect fit a profile and fit our perceptions of what people who end up dead when there is a violent confrontation should look like. This fits the narrative. All the protesting and calls for justice does not.

So what's a good knuckle dragging racist to do? Well,for one, they can comment  and troll on black websites. Or, if they are fortunate enough, they can tell the world how it should be or manipulate the facts from their own websites. Or, thanks to their very own 24 hour cable news channel; they can go on television and tell millions of like minded people to ignore the calls for justice because justice was already served.

"Field, by allowing these trolls to leave these nasty comments and say all those vile things, you make it hard for me to go to your website."

I will miss you. But remember, you not reading the Field Negro blog and me blocking their comments won't change how they feel in their hearts or how A-merry-cans, in general, feel about you and me.

I just want you to understand what is happening here in the land of only some are free. It's been here all along. But we have a black president now, and black people, people of color, poor people, and progressive whites, are now demanding  that A-merry-ca lives up to her claim of exceptiona ism. The rest of the people in A-merry-ca want to know why. "Haven't we been exceptional all along?"

No, we haven't. And our actions and words lately prove more than ever why we have not.

"It's clear the president has been not a uniting figure on an issue that, I think many Americans thought he would be. And it’s very tragic and to take a horrible situation like that and inject this issue, which, you know, may be a factor, may not be a factor, but even if it is a factor, it’s one… If it is a factor, it’s obviously one sick man and to use that instead of just saying, as a healing president would do, try to bring people together, but instead try to divide people is really a sad, tragic legacy of this president.”

Wrong again Mr. Santorum. The "tragic legacy" of this presidency will be the behavior of those who thrive on division and are driven by hatred.

 “What the president said, in a sense, is disgraceful,” Gingrich told conservative talker Sean Hannity. “It’s not a question of who that young man looked like. Any young American of any ethnic background should be safe, period. We should all be horrified no matter what the ethnic background.”

We should "be horrified". But we are not. Not at the killing of that young man.  Instead we make excuses for justice denied to a dead young man and his family.

“It is a tragedy this young man was shot. It would have been a tragedy if he had been Puerto Rican or Cuban, or if he had been white, or if he had been Asian-American, or if he’d been a Native American,” he continued. ”At some point, we ought to talk about being Americans. When things go wrong to an American, it is sad for all Americans. Trying to turn it into a racial issue is fundamentally wrong. I really find it appalling.”

What I find "appalling" Mr. Gingrich is the fact that you would politicize the death of a human being to score cheap political points with like minded people.

You all deserve each other.






          

More on you know who.

It is day 27 since he killed Trayvon Martin, and George Zimmerman is still free. We live in quite a country. A celebrity with zero talent is flour bombed and the person throwing the flour is arrested immediately as if they just shot the president. Flour!

"I think 'What if that was some other substance? What if that person had a dangerous weapon?" Kardashian told US. "And so we are definitely changing things up a little bit, amping up security, taking some measures, and... I'm gonna definitely deal with it because it is not acceptable."

Yes, God forbid she had thrown some skittles at you.

And I see that it didn't take long for Mr. Zimmerman's lawyer to use the some of his friends are black defense. His lawyer, Craig Sonner, said that he actually mentored a "black kid...."

First of all, if what I read about George Zimmerman's background is true, that kid should have probably been mentoring him.

Totally off topic. But I have to blog about it before I forget. There is a story out that Dick Cheney had a heart transplant. I just hope that he gets a human heart this time. He had been on the waiting list for 20 long months. I guess those "death panels" republicans like to talk about spared his life.

Finally, I need you all to tell me what you think of the following story. I know I chase the Big R a lot, but sometimes the Big R can be so silly that I don't even feel like chasing it.

"A black ninth-grader in Fairfax Country, Virginia was reading a Langston Hughes poem in class when his teacher instructed him to read it blacker, The Washington Post reports.

As Jordan Shumate recalls the incident to The Post, the teacher didn’t hold back in punches in expressing her displeasure with how he was reading the poems.

“She told me, ‘Blacker, Jordan — c’mon, blacker. I thought you were black,’ ” said Shumate, who is African American.

When he refused to comply with her ridiculous request, the teacher read the poem herself. “She sounded like a maid in the 1960s,” Shumate told The Post. “She read the poem like a slave, basically.”
Watch a video report of this story to see Shumate express his shock at his teacher’s behavior" [Source]

I swear these poor young black men can't buy a break in A-merry-ca these days. If you speak correctly and with proper diction they tell you to speak "blacker". And, If you wear a hoodie, they shoot you to death.

*Pic from Globalvoices.

The hoodie did it.

That pic right there is why it's tough to rip his Oness. (I don't care if it's photoshopped.) Yes, he can be too politically wishy washy at times. But just when I started to wonder about his heart he restored my faith in his humanity by coming out and making a statement about the Trayvon Martin case. I mean if you are going to insert yourself into the Skippy Gates and Sandra Fluke cases, you better have something to say about this one.

 "If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon".

Well that's true Mr. President, and as a parent of black children it would be very hard for you to divorce yourself from this case. I bet Michelle was giving you an earful every night: Forget Axelrod and your pollsters, so what if you alienate some white voters. If this causes you to lose the election so be it. You will be able to live with yourself for the rest of your life."  O, always listen to your wife.

Anyway, as is to be expected, some folks are not too pleased:

"Newt Gingrich called Obama's remarks about Trayvon Martin "disgraceful" in an interview with Sean Hannity, according to CBS/National Journal.
“It’s not a question of who that young man looked like. Any young American of any ethnic background should be safe, period. We should all be horrified no matter what the ethnic background," Gingrich said. "Is the President suggesting that if it had been a white who had been shot that would be ok because it didn’t look like him?" [Source]

Actually Newt, if he was white he most likely would not have been shot. The truth of the matter is he was shot because he was black.

 "It would have been a tragedy if he had been Puerto Rican or Cuban or if he had been white or if he had been Asian-American of if he’d been a Native American. At some point we ought to talk about being Americans."

Newt, that would be nice. But......

"Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Thursday he is willing to go before the NAACP and urge blacks to demand paychecks, not food stamps.
Gingrich told a town hall meeting at a senior center in Plymouth, N.H., that if the NAACP invites him to its annual convention this year, he'd go there and talk about "why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps." [Source]

*mouth open*

Anyway, Newt made his cretinous and moronic statement while giving an interview on FOX NEWS. The same FOX NEWS who hires one Geraldo Rivera. (Is there a "Drop Squad" for Latinos?) Geraldo wants all of us to know that Trayvon Martin was killed because of his hoodie. Yes, the hoodie did it. Not George Zimmerman. Trayvon Martin contributed to his own death by wearing a hoodie. It's the victim's fault.

*shaking head*

Finally, shout out to the LeBrons for stepping up and making a powerful political statement about the Trayvon Martin killing. I rip athletes and celebrities all the time for not involving themselves in social causes, so when they do I have to acknowledge their actions.

I think I am rooting for the Heat to go all the way this season.

Two wrongs......

"Field, all this talk about Trayvon Martin, why aren't you writing about the white kid who was torched and taunted by black kids in Kansas City?"

It was a terrible tragedy. And the young men who did it should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Thing is, the police are searching for the thugs who committed this terrible crime; and I am quite sure that when they are found they will be arrested and prosecuted. This is not quite the case with Trayvon Martin. He is dead and his killer has still not been arrested. Thankfully, Ms. Coon's son is still alive----Wait, did I say Mrs. Coon? I swear you can't make this stuff up--- I am happy for her, but Trayvon Martin's parents will never hug their child again. 

Anyway, as is to be expected, rather than show mutual disgust and unite around an obvious injustice; wingnuts have chosen to play tit for tat and revert to childish we do it but you do it too, games.

"The only surprise, to me, is that there's any media coverage of this at all.

Had it been two white teens setting a black teen on fire, the entire ****ing world would've descended on Kansas City like a load of bricks.

Hypocrisy, thy name is minority rights. " [Source]

Yes, those minorities always want a right to live. *shaking head*

A quick Google search brought me a full page of news about this story from major news sites such as CBS, Huffpo, the Daily Mail, and so on. So this story is being reported.  

The Trayvon Martin story is being well reported now as well. At least by most credible news outlets. One news outlet that is not reporting the story is FOX NEWS. I suspect it is because they, too, are of the mindset that if the main stream media isn't going to blow up the attack of a white kid by blacks; well then they aren't going to report on the killing of a black youth by an out of control vigilante.

Typical FOX NEWS. And over on their website they are actually making jokes about Martin's murder.


"FOX News, long known for their propensity to either spin the news or ignore it, depending on their agenda, is once again making headlines for their near non-existent coverage of the Trayvon Martin case, reports Think Progress....

Though it should come as no surprise that FOX News doesn’t value justice for Black children and is taking a pro-actively racist stance by willfully suppressing Zimmerman’s crimes in the news, one would think that their viewers would be insulted by the narrow, white-washed view of the world that the network provides.

According to poll results released November of 2011, FOX News viewers are less informed than people who watch no news at all, reports the Huffington Post." [Source] 

I guess I could try to use the old adage that two wrongs don't make a right. But it probably wouldn't do any good. Unfortunately, there are some folks in A-merry-ca who only see wrong when certain people do it.





     






  

 

Still free.

Another day has passed and George Zimmerman is still free. *shaking head* Anyway, a grand jury will convene in early April and unless the people of Florida are as dumb as their local law enforcement officials, criminal charges are sure to follow. I also have to commend the Department of Justice for getting involved. It's amazing what a little pressure can do. All you people who helped to blow up this story should be proud of yourselves. Nancy Grace isn't going to pick up our stories, so we have to make it a story and hope that the main stream media will chase it.

Sadly, I continue to learn more about what happened on that night in Central Florida, and the more I learn the angrier I get. It's getting harder and harder for the enemies of justice to justify the actions of the racist vigilante masquerading as a protector of law abiding citizens. Florida's seven year old self- defense ("stand your ground") law was made for the victim in this case, not for the shooter. But the shooter hid behind the law and avoided being charged by inept local law enforcement officials.

Still, there are some who do not believe that all the hoopla over one teenager getting shot to death in Florida is justified. (Just read the comments after this Will Bunch column in my local paper) To them it's just another black teen who was profiled and lost his life because of the actions of others in his community. "If young black men weren't so dangerous and didn't commit such a disproportionate number of crimes, upstanding law abiding citizens would not be in such fear of them."  That's the latest narrative from the clueless A-merry-can crowd. Get used to it; you will be hearing it over and over again. This is a crowd who is more upset over the TSA pat down of a toddler than they are about a teenager actually losing his life. (BTW, way to go dad. Posting a video of your kid all over the web for the world to see and scrutinize.)

“They always get away,” Zimmerman told dispatch in a 911 call released Friday, and he kept tracking Martin. Zimmerman had a gun. Martin was carrying only an ice tea and the Skittles he’d just bought at the store. The two had a struggle that no one saw. Hearing shots, neighbors called 911. In one call that’s hard to listen to, a woman anxiously says she can hear someone calling for help while in the background, a terrified, wailing voice pleads, "No! No!"

I heard that "wailing voice". And it didn't belong to George Zimmerman. 









    








 







   

Why Trayvon Martin is not "America's problem."

So I was listening to a talk radio host here in Philly on my drive home today talk about the Trayvon Martin case. Dude was saying that he has sons who are Trayvon's age and that they are prone to wear hoodies every now and then. "But for the grace of God go I" is what he said. Sorry Mr. Smerconish, with all due respect, your sons would have not been shot to death on that fateful day in Central Florida. Your sons do not look like Trayvon Martin.

This is one of the benefits of white privilege that most whites take for granted. In a "color aroused" society, you don't have to worry about how you will be perceived by Joe Public. I am fortunate enough to be able to go to some very nice establishments, and I am always aware of what I wear to certain places. It shouldn't have to be that way, but it is. Unless you are a famous black person (and even when you are), you just do not get the benefit of the doubt. Those "color aroused" instincts always take over and makes things uncomfortable for certain people. Unfortunately, sometimes the results can be deadly. 

Some pundits worry and wonder why this particular case is not "America's problem" and why it is only a black one:

"Trayvon Martin, like so many “suspicious-looking” young black males with similar "fates, did not have that luxury. No one can hide his or her skin color and, in the context of vigilante violence, the false threat of black skin is a uniquely black male problem. That doesn’t mean that those who have not experienced it cannot see why it is so obviously troublesome, nor does it exonerate non-black people from the responsibility of demanding a more just legal system that sends a clear enough message that murders like Martin’s are so unacceptable that they will, for the most part, go away. That lack of joint responsibility may be the single most troubling part of this story.

When Caylee Anthony disappeared, Nancy Grace almost single-handedly decided for us that this was America’s Problem. For a good year, this was America’s Problem. This was America’s Problem despite the fact that, by the time Caylee’s mother was arrested and acquitted, there really wasn’t anything anyone could do about it. Black media leaders had to cover Casey Anthony’s trial, too. And Joran Van Der Sloot’s. And Amanda Knox‘s. The lack of reciprocity, particularly in cases with black victims, is stark and needs to be addressed."  [Source]

It "needs to be addressed", but believe me, if it's not, we won't be surprised.
As Americans we do have a lot in common, but unfortunately, problems like this isn't one of them.

Finally, Rick Santorum came out against pornography the other day; and he has been forceful in his condemnation of this particular phenomenon in A-merry-can life.

I admire the guy's passion, but if he really wants to do away with pornography he has to stop posing shirtless for all the world to see. I, like, Justice Stewart, know obscene pornography when I see it. That pic, my friends, was obscenely pornographic.


*Pic courtesy of The Grio.

What if Charlize Theron had adopted Trayvon and not Jackson?

Congrats to Charlize Theron for joining a bunch of other Hollywood A- list folks in the adopt little black boy game. I sure hope that she knows what she is getting into. I don't care if she is a Hollywood celebrity, raising a young black male in this society is no joke. Just ask the parents of Trayvon Martin. If the young thugs who have no respect for your life or their own don't get you, "some color" aroused citizen or law enforcement officer will. That's how it is here in the land of the [only some are] free.

But I blame some of you Negroes as well. Yes we should be outraged at the killing of Trayvon Martin, but we should be just as outraged at the epidemic of young black males killing each other in urban A-merry-ca. When we don't value the lives of our own children this is what happens: they are slaughtered in the street, and those in authority who are charged with dispensing justice do nothing. Because, to them, it is just another young black male. Unless they are running up and down a basketball court or running with a football, we don't really care about them. Occasionally one will become a glorified family pet to some celebrity, but that's the extent of it. They are at the bottom of the A-merry-can pecking order, so if you are charged with raising one you better get all the help you can. You have a tough job, and unfortunately nothing in our society will make it any easier for you. 

If you have ever been in the unfortunate position of having to visit the emergency room, the crime scenes, and the funerals like I have, you will see what I am talking about. The tears from family members and loved ones are real. The people in those churches and hospital rooms aren't just a quick mention on the evening news; they are real people going through real suffering because they lost a child, a brother, a cousin, or a friend.  

Charlize Theron will never have to see what I have seen, because she is far removed from the mean streets of Philadelphia. The thing is, though, Charlize Theron might have just brought the mean streets of Philadelphia to her beautiful Hollywood home.





 




  

Those Southern voters.

Watching the republican primaries now and it doesn't look like any of the thre main stooges have things locked up. The networks are still saying that it's too close to call in the key Southern states.....wait, are those prison inmates in prison stripes working the polls? Man those Southerners sure love free labor.

If Newt doesn't get a win tonight he really should head off into the sunset and find someone willing to pay him to confuse everyone within earshot of his shrill sounding gibberish.

Fifteen days and counting on this Trayvon Martin case. I wonder what's taking them so long to charge Mr. Zimmerman. I am trying to close my eyes and imagine a different scenario: Black neighborhood watch captain shoots and kills a seventeen year old unarmed white youth. If you guessed that Negro would be under the jail by now you would be correct. But alas, this is A-merry-ca.

"The police have refused to release the tape of the 911 call Zimmerman made that night, as well as the tapes from other 911 calls made by residents regarding the alleged fight between Zimmerman and Trayvon. The family, frustrated after weeks have passed and nothing has been done, have filed a lawsuit to force the police to turn over the 911 tapes as well as all the other investigative documents. They believe they have been lied to by the police and are being given the run around by the local authorities so that Trayvon's killer can go free.

The Martin family’s frustration with Sanford police extends beyond the 911 tapes — the family also says Sanford police misleadingly told them Zimmerman had a clean criminal history.In fact, Orange County court records show Zimmerman was arrested in 2005 for resisting an officer with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer. The charges were later dropped. [...]

A day earlier, Bill Lee, Sanford’s police chief, said the 911 tapes would not be released because the investigation was still underway.
“There is evidence that George Zimmerman acted in self-defense.” Lee said." [Source]

Check out the rest of Steven D's wonderful article on this story over at Booman Tribune. [h/t Greg Fuller]

Wait, I have an update: The police of Sanford, Florida, who are obviously too
cowardly and afraid to handle this case themselves have decided to turn the case over to the state attorney's office of Florida. [Source]

We will see where it goes from here.

Finally, if you are planning on getting your "Jungle Fever" on you might want to stay away from Alabama and Mississippi:

"While support for interracial marriage is at an all-time high nationally, 29 percent of likely GOP voters in Mississippi and 21 percent in Alabama think that marriage between people of different races should be illegal.
theGrio: Interracial couple express shock over marriage denial
Perhaps because of attitudes in the South, a Pew study released last month found that interracial couples are more likely to reside in the Western United States.

The last U.S. anti-miscegenation laws were overturned in 1967, six years after Barack Obama was born to a white mother and black father. The case of Loving vs. Virginia was one couple’s attempt to fight back against the criminalization of interracial marriage in the South. The Lovings won their case in the Supreme Court, reversing a nearly 84-year-old precedent that was set in Alabama with Pace v. Alabama." [Source]

Oh wait, those are republican voters. Sorry. I guess as long as you stay away from republican hangouts with your significant other you should be fine. Just don't try to vote.











     

Trayvon Martin, a widow's defense, and an uninformed electorate.

I am still waiting to see what the police department in Sanford, Florida does with the Trayvon Martin case. FOURTEEN DAYS and counting. I am glad to see Adora Obi Nweze, President of the Florida State Conference of NAACP Branches, get involved.

Parts of her statement:

"This murder of an unarmed black teen occurred on February 26, 2012 during Black History Month and while Orlando hosted basketball’s finest event-‐the All--‐Star Weekend (February 24–26). The shooting death of young Trayvon was kept under wraps—it went unreported by the media.

It was not until  All Star Weekend was over and with mounting pressure from the family’s attorney that the death
of this young man was released to the public.

One thing is certain: according to public records, the shooter, George Zimmerman, who has confessed, has a violent history,having been charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest with violence

in 2005.


It is unheard of for a neighborhood watch volunteer to carry a loaded gun or (as apparently happened here) to reject the clear instructions of police on a 911 call not to continue to follow Trayvon." (h/t to David for this release) [More here]

I just saw the widow of Professor Derrick Bell on the Ed Shultz show, and the woman was the personification of class. It's just  a shame that this woman had to go on national television to defend her late husband's honor because of the belly crawlers  and goons over at FOX NEWS. 

So anyway, thanks to to the likes of FOX NEWS, there is this new poll out which should make some of you living in A-merry-ca with an education past the 8th grade consider packing up and moving to Canada.

Public Policy Polling has released information about southern republican voters that show that many southerners still believe that President Barack Obama is a Muslim.  It is no clear from the poll how these people have come to this conclusion.

The information shows that only 14% of Alabama republicans believe that Obama is a Christian, while 45% believe he is a Muslim, and the 12% of Mississippi republicans believe that Obama is a Christian, while 52% of Mississippi republicans believe he is Muslim. [Source] 

You will need your passport to travel to Canada.

Finally, I have this theory about the GOP lawmakers waging war on women in A-merry-ca: They are men who, for whatever reason, were not too fond of women in the first place. I suspect that this is a chance to get back at all those women who wouldn't give them the time of day when they were in high school and college. For them, it's payback time.

They couldn't get a vaginal probe then, but they will be damned if they don't get one now.

  

Skittles, the new weapon of choice among young black males.

That seventeen year old in Florida who was armed to the teeth with Skittles, lost his life because a "color aroused" neighborhood watch captain decided to take the law into his own hands and issue a death sentence. (h/t to Tia for turning me on to the story) We should get used to this, because more citizens are arming themselves in post- racial A-mery-ca. Fear will do that to you. As Negroes continue to take each other's lives in urban A-merry-ca and white folks read about it or watch it on the local news, their fear intensifies and they believe that they could be next. I suppose that a bag of Skittles could be like a dangerous weapon if it's in the right Negro's hands. Poor Trayvon Martin must have seemed like a trained Skittles assassin to that neighborhood watch captain.

Well, the authorities are investigating; let's see where this investigation takes us. I don't want to pass judgment on those fine public officials down in South Florida until I see what they do with the case. Some of you Negroes are already anticipating that there will be no charges. Or, if the Paul Kersey wannabe is charged, it will be for a lesser offense. (Can you say self-defense boys and girls?) 

"The police department told the Miami Herald that the case was still under investigation.

"We need to get all the facts and circumstances straight so that we can determine what truly happened," police chief Bill Lee told the Herald.
The Martins’ attorney said the family is running out of patience.
"We need answers," Crump told the Herald. "The neighborhood watch was supposed to protect him, not kill him."

On Trayvon's Facebook page, his friends and family mourned the teen's death.
"I just want to cry my heart out," one commentor wrote. "I can't believe you're really gone."

Oh believe it. And you could be next if you don't watch where you go with a pocket full of Skittles.

Finally, I see that Mitt's boy in South Jersey, Governor Krispy Kreme, is at it again.

"... Christie called on 34-year-old law student William Brown. The two got into a debate over a plan to rename Rutgers University, Rutgers Camden-Rowan. Brown, who is active in Democratic Party politics, says the merger and name change would negatively affect the university's reputation.

After Christie says that Brown and his fellow classmates who are already enrolled at the university will still receive a Rutgers diploma, Brown interrupts him, shouting back, "What about my son? What about my neighbors? What about my friends?"

Christie then appears to lose his temper, saying, "If you decide what you want to do is put on a show today, let me tell you, I can go back and forth with you as much as you want. And let me tell you something; after you graduate from law school, you conduct yourself like that in a courtroom, your rear end's going to get thrown in jail, idiot."

Christie then tried to explain his behavior to the receptive audience, saying, "I tried to be patient with the guy. Every time I tried to answer, he's like, yelling over me again." And he received applause for what may turn out to be a regrettable follow-up quip, when he said, "I mean, damn man, I'm governor, could you shut up for a minute?" [Source]

Governor, that's not a good look calling a man who served his country with honor an "idiot". You really should do something about that temper.

Hey, I know; maybe you can give some of that fire and passion to your boy, Mr. Starch Jeans, and see if he can finally connect with the A-merry-can people.