This Person is a Member of the US House of Representatives

[Lemur]

You stepped into this dismissing "the little thug that got shot," and now you're up in arms that you've been misrepresented. Puh-leeze. This is a difficult case that has a lot of people upset; entering with a blithe, thoughtless dismissal of the guy who got killed wins you no debate points.

-edit-

Look, the reason I pushed back immediately on your "little thug" comment is the exact same reason I would have pushed back on anyone trying to smear the shooter. Personal attacks on either of these guys are pointless, and play into a false narrative. Some rightwingers want to paint this as a black thug who was asking for it (and you appeared to be parroting that line of attack); that's misleading and profoundly unhelpful. Likewise, those calling for Zimmerman's head without knowing the facts are being profoundly unhelpful.

I think in the latter half of your post, where you went into the Stand Your Ground law and the appropriate use of force, you were getting someplace interesting. But by opening the conversation repeating the "thug" talking point you did yourself a disservice.

Lastly, if the media is boiling this down to race that's their problem. They always go for the simplest possible narrative of conflict; that's their bias. But like I said, if race were central or causative to the outrage around the Martin case, there would have been a similar circus around the recent Wisconsin shooting, and there is not.