WTF....I wear hoodies all the time....

I got this article from ESPN:


MIAMI -- Dwyane Wade and LeBron James were only a few miles away from Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, participating in the NBA All-Star Game on the night the unarmed black teenager wearing a hooded sweat shirt was shot to death by a neighborhood crime-watch volunteer.

They never knew the teenager, but on Friday they decided it was time to speak out.

Wade posted a photo of himself from a previous photo shoot wearing a hooded sweat shirt, otherwise known as a hoodie, to his Twitter and Facebook pages on Friday morning.

A couple hours later, James posted another photo -- this one of the Heat team, all wearing hoodies, their heads bowed, their hands stuffed into their pockets. Details of when and where the photo was taken were not immediately available.

Among the hashtags James linked to the photo: "WeWantJustice."

"As a father, this hits home," said Wade, who has 10- and 4-year-old sons.

Martin was killed in Sanford, Fla. as he was returning to a gated community, carrying candy and iced tea. A neighborhood crime-watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, said he acted in self-defense and has not been arrested, though state and federal authorities are still investigating.

The Heat released a statement, saying: "Our hearts go out to the family and loved ones of Trayvon Martin for their loss and for everyone involved in this terrible tragedy.

"We support our players and join them in hoping that their images and our logo can be part of the national dialogue and can help in our nation's healing."

Protests have popped up nationwide in recent days, with thousands of people -- many of them wearing hoodies -- calling for action.

James told confidants that when Wade's girlfriend, Gabrielle Union, called Wade and James' attention to the issue, the two NBA stars spent several days talking about the case, gathering information and deciding how to make a statement.

According to his confidants, James and Wade decided a team-wide message would make a stronger statement and organized the photo taken at the team's hotel in Detroit, where the team is scheduled to play the Pistons. Mike Miller, the team's only white player, was not in the photo because he was not with the team on its current road trip because of injury.

"This situation hit home for me because last Christmas, all my oldest son wanted as a gift was hoodies," Wade told The Associated Press Friday from Auburn Hills, Mich., where the Heat were to play the Detroit Pistons. "So when I heard about this a week ago, I thought of my sons. I'm speaking up because I feel it's necessary that we get past the stereotype of young, black men and especially with our youth."

Wade and James decided Thursday to make their reactions about the Martin situation public, and James felt the best way to do that was the team photo with everyone wearing hoodies.

Wade has also been retweeting comments from CNN's Roland Martin on the case.

"You don't think your voice matter? 1,354,645 have signed the change.org petition demanding justice for Trayvon Martin," said one of Roland Martin's tweets, which Wade retweeted. "But the Trayvon Martin case is NOT over. Keep pushing. Keep prodding. Keep planning. Keep protesting. Justice is not an overnight thing!"

Miami-area high school students have held walkouts in protest, calling for justice for Trayvon Martin. Gov. Rick Scott appointed a special prosecutor in the case and established a statewide task force to study the law.

President Barack Obama spoke out on the case Friday, calling it a "tragedy."

"If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon. I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and we're going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened," Obama said.

On Friday, Fox News Channel commentator Geraldo Rivera said on "Fox & Friends" the hoodie Martin wore when he was killed was as much responsible for his death as the man who shot him. Rivera later said his comment was "politically incorrect."

Separately, a Florida state lawmaker, Rep. Alan Williams, a Democrat from Tallahassee, urged the Heat stars -- along with New York Knicks forward Amare Stoudemire, a central Florida native -- in an early Friday post on Twitter to wear hoodies during pregame warmups to call attention to the Martin story.

Such a move would not be permitted under the NBA's uniform policy, although Heat players are planning to pay tribute to Martin in some manner when they face the Pistons on Friday night.

"When you see Trayvon, when you see that image, he could be anybody's kid, black or white, Hispanic, Asian, what have you," Williams said in a telephone interview. "Basketball is a sport that kind of transcends race and class and all those things that divide us. For me, as a state representative, we have to go beyond the traditional routes that some people would take."

The NBPA called not only for Zimmerman's "prompt arrest," but a review of the Sanford Police Department.

"Their silence in the face of this injustice is reprehensible and they cannot be trusted to safe guard the citizens of the Sanford community equally," the NBPA said. "The NBPA seeks to ensure that Trayvon Martin's murder not go unpunished and the elimination of the injustices suffered by the innocent."

 

Typical, people jump on anything that will sensationalize a tragedy. Fact is the boy is dead, and we may never really know what happened that night. It is also a fact that hoodies are worn by many gang members, crooks and thugs to help shield their face from cameras and people who may be able to identify them. I've also seen many teenage to mid-twenties wanna-be punks wear them while trying to look tough, even when out out in 90-100 degree weather.

Is the hoodie at fault? of course not, I own them as well, but only pull the hood up with it's incredible cold out side or I get caught in the rain/snow without a jacket. I don't routinely wear them up throughout the day, glaring at other people trying to look tough. I'm not saying this poor boy did anything wrong, I'm just saying that there are people in this world who do very bad things under the mask of hoodies, if you don't want to be cough up in something like this then maybe it's a good idea to put on a jacket.

 

they're trying to make this political when it ISNT.... change.org petitions demanding justice? that's total bs. this wasn't a black vs white thing that they're making it out to be.

this is another crime that was committed and there are 2 families that are completely broken right now. it wasn't self defense. it wasn't a stand your ground, nor was it a castle doctrine issue either. martin was being followed. this is a murder case - plain and simple.


everyone in florida with a ccw permit should KNOW that you can't shoot a fleeing person. that's what this was. zimmerman clearly broke the law, and killed someone - a 17 yr old, and should be tried for murdering a 17yr old. and i believe he will be.


i honestly think that its the political machine trying to just 'use' this case for their own gain. its bull****. screw everyone that is trying to make this something that it isn't.

 

Not gonna touch any aspects except the gun laws because people are screaming about the "stand your ground" statute.

Any shoot by a civilian should be met with an immediate arrest and go to a grand jury for charges or exoneration. I carry and I can live with that. Even if there was a live video of a maniac shooting into a crowd and I shot him in defense, it should still go before a grand jury. A judge could easily release me on Personal Recognizance. But the point is justice would be immediately served and no outrage about justice delayed.

 

too soon?

 

Absolutely.

I'll go public for a minute. I saw this post when it went up and decided to let it go instead of shutting it down. Members have said they want more freedom to discuss serious topics, which could be potentially sensitive. And topics like this are the chance. But if people are going to discuss serious and sensitive topics, the topic and feelings of those who participate must be treated with respect.

If not, we can just go back to locking and deleting them in pre-emptive fashion.

 

'Killed for wearing a hoodie?"

No, he was killed because someone who probably got crime fighting training watching Dirty Harry movies was trying to be a hero.

However, my opinion is based on what has been reported in the mainstream media. Who knows what really went down that night?

Kurioshio is right. Any civilian shoot should immediately go before a grand jury for examination.

 

It's an election year. Anything and everything is political.

If Snookie said she was considering an abortion on the next episode of the Jersey Shore, you can bet every Republican nominee and Obama would weigh in on it before end of day.

 

Well at least I'm not the only one that was more interested in what happened than what two NBA players did. I've got enough firearms training to see that some facts were omitted in this here article. . . "well officer, I shot because he was wearing a hoodie." Than again I dont think that a neighborhood watch needs be armed; kinda like arming a mall security guard. Doesn't matter if the guy used to be /is currently a police officer, a firearms instructor for the NRA or military; he was the neighborhood watch. There are far to few situations that it would be beneficial to be carrying over even a tazer or CS spray.

I would like to read what actually happened. Regardless the shooter needs to be arrested, investigated and stand trial. Even if he was well within his right.

 

I'm not real happy that this has absolutely nothing to do with motorcycles ... or CBRs in particular. And while we have relaxed the Off Topic so that it isn't absolutely mandatory to be bike related, well, heck, this is a bike site not a current events/politics site so it would warm my little blackened heart if this thread stayed on the up and up.

If it gets political it's gone. Have questions? Read the forum rules and code of conduct (both in the noob section, stickied, for her pleasure) before PMing the staff.