Thank you for a remarkable piece, Mr D'Alessandro!

An extremely important point about the role of Forida's "Stand Your Ground" law. Thank you

Thank you Mr. D'Alessandro for raising the point that is most often ignored, that a person who is recognizable as 'other' is the easy target. Zimmerman may yet be found not to have committed a hate crime, but he still killed a boy in what looks very much like a gung-ho effort to confront someone who he thought 'looked like he didn't belong' in the gated community. That attitude will always be a dangerous one.

Mr. D'Alessandro suggests that it is the better course in life for a person to FIRST be defiant in asserting their rights than it is to seek the, usually, easier and better path of being polite and respectful to adults and figures of authority. Amazing. I was raised in the South and told by my parents to say "Yes Sir/Ma'am" to EVERYONE. Why? Because everyone we interact with loves to be treated with respect, FIRST, and because using this method MAXIMIZES the probability that one will, in turn, be treated with respect and cooperation as well. My experience has been, with the police, business people, customers and just about everyone I've ever met, this method works exactly as my parents described; most of the time people have been impressed (if not embarrassed) at the level of respect which I initiated with them. Has it always worked? No. In fact the first police encounter I had where I said "Yes sir" to a cop in the North he asked if I was being "smart". D'Alessandro has good reason to feel abused. He clearly was. However, his idea of being consistently defiant will not serve HIM anywhere near as well as being polite (at least initially). We certainly have the "right" not to be polite, not to instigate the most favorable atmosphere by showing initial respect in this manner. We also have the right to make foolish choices that don't work for US or anyone else in a transaction.

I wish I could agree that it's high time for everyone to stand their ground in the face of mindless authority, but until the glorious day comes when all those charged with protecting the peace understand and practice the appropriate use of force, even I, a middle aged white guy, will continue to respond to the cop on the street with only the words I was taught, and that I have taught my son, and his friends: Yes, sir. No, sir. Thank you, sir. / / / That response doesn't ensure something bad won't still happen, but any other response virtually guarantees it.

Another one jumping to conclusions. As the facts come out Trayvon was not the person he was made out to be.

It's interested that there is no response on the NRA's position regarding this matter. Even as a white male growing up I have always felt that a fully submissive behavior was the best way to avoid being abused by over jealous authoritative figures. The over reaction was by the person who had the uppper hand and should have reacted with restrain.

Imagine if young Martin had stopped when queried, responded with "yes sir and no sir", politely understanding that all Zimmerman was trying to do was protect his neighbors. Even if Zimmerman had been rude and aggressive, how likely is it anything else would have transpired had an innocent person, politely, answered even the biggest jerk in the world? Assuming Martin was perfectly innocent, why wouldn't this approach served HIM best (much less everyone else now involved)?

Mr. Zimmerman certainly called the police and began to follow Mr. Martin because Martin was suspicious by virtue of "walking while black." We may never know exactly what happened after Martin asked Zimmerman why he was following him and Zimmerman asked what Martin was doing there. If, indeed, as has been recently reported, Martin hit Zimmerman, knocked him down, and got on top of him, we will probably never find out what led to this assault, or, for that matter, why Zimmerman got out of his car in the first place. Clearly, Zimmerman should not have continued to follow Martin, and should not have gotten out of his car; had he done otherwise, this tragedy does not occur. Similarly, had Martin kept walking and not confronted Zimmerman (perhaps he should have called the police to report being followed?--but maybe the police would have arrested him instead?) then this does not happen. Very sad.

I was with you (somehow being white hasn't prevented being abused by cops) until you said Stand Your Ground gives immunity on the claim. It doesn't. It codifies and clarifies a pre-existing affirmative defense is all. The cops may as well have said "The Affordable Care Act says we can't arrest him."

So Mac, you think you should an an attitude? That's great. Lots of folks have been offering their personal fantasies regarding this death, about which we all know very little. I'll offer my fantasy..see you take two guys, each with an attitude. Having attitudes fuel conflict where none may otherwise be needed. Races of each dont matter. In the conflict, someone gets hurt and the world looks at the simple, sad circumstance, and says "how can this event feed MY attitude?" Mac, if your new attitude feeds a circumstance where you get hurt or hurt someone else, you won half the blame.

Let's suppose, for the sake of discussion, that everything in the recent press about Trayvon is true, including the unflattering things. How does that change the fact that he was killed by someone who has not (yet) been charged, with the police citing Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law as the reason?

And what if you were continually not treated with respect and or treated with suspicion --never mind having your hair pulled. You might not, probably would not, be so magnanimous.

Wonderful column. I should add, though, that I'm white, but I raised the same way by my parents. It was always to be "Yes, Sir" to cops and anyone else in authority, and avoid confrontation. I pretty much lived by that code most of my life, although there have been exceptions. Maybe that's one of the reasons that I'm still alive at 71.

Maybe Mr. Martin had smoked so marijuana a few times, or a lot of times. Probably a majority of young men have done that. So what? Maybe his school grades weren't so good. So what? Zimmerman has a history of VIOLENCE. Why is nobody making a big deal about that? There a lot of people out there who actively WANT the black kid to be the perpetrator and not the victim. Why? Is it racism? If it's not racism, what is it?

Coherent posts are much appreciated by readers of all persuasions.

Thank you! Your message is that excessive and insincere ingratiation will shield one from undue persecution by police (and vigilantes). I totally get it now. I am a white, educated, middle-class male and I have practiced the same protocol but I have also been subject to undue abuse from a very small number of law enforcement personnel over my 6 decades. In my experience, the great majority of law enforcement officers behave in a professional and respectful manner, but I learned when I was I was a young man that right doesn't matter. If it is you and them, they have the badge and the gun, you would do well to accept what is meted out, keeping in mind that it could get a lot worse. Please do not misunderstand me, being a cop is seeing people at their very worst and it is not likely to encourage a rosy view of human nature, but they are human too. I remember very well how I was treated by white cops when I was a white teenager doing absolutely nothing in the late 60s. Mr D'Alessandro's piece struck a chord with me, making me wonder what it would be like to be black, not white and middle-class, and to be stopped by a policeman for no good reason. Your courtesy to police (and baggers) is admirable, but please do not insult my intelligence by suggesting that simple courtesy and respect are all that's needed to protect someone from being detained, or worse.

"All racism should be condemned even if it means calling-out the hate of blacks." I don't understand this comment. Can you be more specific?

I take part of Mr D'Alessandro's point to be that he was unjustly detained and abused in the aftermath of an ACTUAL crime, for no reason that can be discerned other than that he was a young person of color in the same general area. In Mr Martin's case, we are being asked to believe that that the crime which resulted in his death was his unwarranted assault on a civilian without a uniform or a badge who was following him in an unmarked car on suspicion that he was acting strangely. This same man was advised by police to break off his pursuit but he apparently declined to do, exiting his vehicle and somehow interacting with this young, unarmed man who was 10 years his junior and over 100 pounds lighter. Mr Martin appears to have smoked pot at some time and had been suspended at school more than once. Mr Zimmerman cried for days after the shooting. None of us will ever know what transpired that night, but as the father of a teenage son, I want to know why this young man had to die, instead of being briefly detained by duly appointed law enforcement personnel, who hopefully would not have resorted to yanking him by the hair to a victim, who in this case did not exist. Thanks again to Mr D'Alessandro for a piece that everyone should read to get a benchmark on "how far we've come".

I'm white and 60 and had the same reaction as who-cares-1940. I might easily have become a cop, God knows that would have pleased my old man, but I'm glad I didn't because it wouldn't have been good for anyone in the long run because I can run hot. It's not an easy life for cops, but the good ones find a way to live with it and hopefully bad ones get winnowed out, before they hurt anyone. Mr Zimmerman was not a cop, but his gun made him just as dangerous as a bad cop, but without the training, supervision, and accountability that cops have. In the dark that night, I wonder if Mr Martin had a chance to say "Yes, sir" or "No, sir" to a large dark figure that was challenging him. Did he know that this guy was "neighborhood watch", whatever that should mean to a kid? Maybe he just saw this big guy get out of a car and come after him. Wouldn't we all just stop and show ID to a total stranger without a police car or a badge, or maybe you might think that he was a freak who was trying to get you into a car and that would be that. But Martin's dead, and Zimmerman's crying, along with Martin's parents.