Posted on 04/17/2012 11:27:43 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Trayvon Martin’s shooter has a new lawyer. Mansfield Frazier hopes he’s advising his client to take a plea, since a protracted murder trial is the last thing we need.
As George Zimmerman faces murder charges for shooting Trayvon Martin, it’s worth asking if America is in danger of facing Rodney King, Part II?
That’s what I see down the tracks: If this case goes all the way to trial, it’s a train wreck waiting to happen. The time is now for strong hands to take the helm and steady the ship of state—not to mention our national racial, political and legal discourse. The paramount concern has to be to avert a large-scale racial calamity.
As Touré recently wrote, if sane adults are not careful, deliberate and measured in the handling of the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman affair, a dark time could descend upon America.
Look what’s already festering on the streets of Sanford, Florida. On the one hand we’ve got the three stooges of the New Black Panther Party running around Sanford, spouting off crazy ideas and becoming a total embarrassment to more thoughtful and reasoning blacks who simply want justice. On the other we’ve got the equally clownish neo-Nazis, goose-stepping around on their self-appointed mission to protect the white race. In this environment it wouldn’t take much to ignite the racial power keg we’re sitting on. One false or ill-conceived move in this case could allow the loony inmates—not Zimmerman’s current neighbors, but those who are imprisoned by their long-simmering racial hatreds—to fan the incendiary flames of bigotry into full-blown conflagrations of violence across the land.
As someone who watched the King riots unfold from a Los Angeles motel window (and sometimes from the balcony, when we weren’t too afraid to venture out), I’m here to tell you it was a nightmarish time. Thick, acrid black smoke from hundreds of fires hung over the L.A. basin for days as young, armed blacks and Hispanics roared around in open convertibles and jeeps, wearing bandannas and brandishing all sorts of weaponry. We could hear gunfire both in the distance and nearby. Stores that hadn’t been set on fire the first day were looted by the second, and by the third day TV stations were warning of an impending food shortage. A body lay in the gutter on Crenshaw Boulevard for the better part of two days before National Guard troops removed it.
We don’t want to go back there. Fortunately Zimmerman’s new attorney, Mark O’Mara, appears to comprehend the broader implications and potential danger of the situation, and seems well qualified to negotiate a fair outcome for his client, and indeed for the rest of us. He has the calm demeanor of a law professor, and speaks in measured, but not calculating, terms. His first comments seemed designed not to convince anyone of his client’s innocence, but rather to take the heated rhetoric down a few notches. He cautioned that everyone should allow the justice system to work.
So what would a fair outcome look like? To my mind, the government offers Zimmerman a plea deal that has him back on the street within this decade, and he accepts it quietly. That seems like a conclusion most reasonable Americans could live with. Of course, no matter how long or short any sentence may be, there will be those who disagree, some vehemently.
If O’Mara were successful in brokering such a resolution, he should be viewed as nothing less than a savior. A protracted murder trial of George Zimmerman is the last thing this country needs right now. America can only dodge so many racial bullets, and a not-guilty verdict in this case could very easily turn the racial cold war into a very hot one.
Of course, for such a plea scenario to work, Zimmerman will need to listen more to O’Mara than to any of the other voices clamoring for a piece of him. He’s in isolation right now, presumably for his own safety, but a side benefit is that it keeps the more rabid right-wingers from getting inside his head and convincing him to take the case to trial, based on the belief that no matter what the evidence shows, in Florida at least one juror will never vote to convict. Unfortunately, this reasoning is not crazy. The South, after all, is still the South.
But after a few weeks of isolation and the counsel of O’Mara, Zimmerman may decide going to trial isn’t in his best interest. If O’Mara is as savvy as he seems, he will probably inform his client of the stark legal facts: The state overcharged him with murder 2 for two reasons: it’s a bargaining chip to force him to accept a lesser charge, and a means to keep him locked up pretrial. The way the legal system is designed, it’s difficult for someone being held in custody to win acquittal. Even if he went to trial and managed to get a hung jury, the state would surely retry him (multiple times, if necessary), until they get a conviction or he’s spent more time in the county lockup than he would have spent in prison if he’d just pleaded guilty in the first place. And even if he were acquitted, let’s not forget the specter of a federal indictment being handed down.
In all of this, the upcoming bail hearing is key: If the judge doesn’t grant bail, Zimmerman had better start listening real intently to his lawyer.
The wild card is his father, Robert, who has so far sounded like a knee-jerk far-right ideologue. In an interview he said, "I never foresaw so much hate coming from the president, the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP," and this was before Obama said anything about the case! It will be virtually impossible to keep Robert Zimmerman away from his son, which means he’ll have ample opportunity to whisper Stand Your Ground rhetoric into his ear, possibly ginning up Zimmerman’s courage and convincing him to go to trial in spite of the danger of being convicted.
We all need to pray that Mark O’Mara is successful in bringing about a fair outcome for his client, for justice, and, more important, for America.
Stupid me. I thought the business of the courts was justice.
/johnny
To my mind, the fellow has the fair trial he's entitled to, and if he's found innocent he is released and any rioters and those inciting them shot as they deserve to be. How's that for "fair outcome", Mr. Frazier?
The gentleman is lying his face off.
Is this a column or a blackmail note? This little proposition is a bit different from the Rodney King situation. That was just a question of an obviously guilty SOB getting beaten up and then let off with bumps served. (Okay, while destroying the careers of the cops who were defending themselves, which was a crime.)
But this notion is, if possible, crazier. If the demand being made is that occasionally, some citizens must gracefully confess to sins they did not commit and go to jail because otherwise the mobs will exact vengeance on the whole society, then all bets are off. If the truth isn't admissible, we're already at war. Let's have the hot one, and get rid of this totalitarian s#$% once and for all.
Which reminds me: I think law-abiding Floridians are way better armed than the Angelinos were.
“You don’t realize that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.”
Caiaphas John 11:49-52, 18:14
If the LAPD had IMMEDIATELY done their job (Chief Darryl Gates was at an Awards Banquet and didn't even know what the hell was happening!) it would have been a short disturbance indeed.
Then the uber-wimp GHW BUsh came in and instead of arresting the Mayor for Inciting a Riot, made sure the acquitted cops were charged with "Civil Rights" violations and condemned to serious time on completely trumped up charges that even enraged .... for a while ...the ACLU! ... again to appease African-American mobs. One smart move in LA would have won him re-election!
And BTW, Bob Zimmerman did not speak out against Obama and Holder until AFTER they had shot their mouths off. I have no idea who this Mansfield Frazier guy is ... except maybe some token newsroom geek who cannot wait to go pull the Obama lever.
The writer has decided in advance what “justice” would look like and what sort of outcome he wants. He isn’t concerned about a fair trial for Mr. Zimmerman or examination of the facts.
“The paramount concern has to be to avert a large-scale racial calamity.”
F that, you racist POS. Bring on the calamity. I don’t want to share my country with people like you.
Right there with ya. I'm tired of this sh*t.
The New Black Panthers cannot possibly be dumb enough to riot anywhere but in large urban areas where they will be under the protection of Black Mayors and Black Police Chiefs. (aka "The Kiss of Death" for any American City) And you can bet they will not be taking on any Korean shopkeepers.
Mr. Frazier, I was in LA for the ‘92 riots.
I don’t live anywhere near people like that anymore. I was on my own then, so anyone in a new potential riot zone shall be on their own should it happen again.
I don’t wish for any riots to come, but I sure as shit don’t care if any riots come.
Yes.
Blackmail? Really Mr. Frazier, how disgusting. Mr Zimmermman deserves a fair trlal and if found not guilty any rioters should be held accountable for their actions. I want justice for all.
So, you are all just a bunch of thugs, eh?
I already knew that.
To your mind a Cairo outcome qoild result in the deprivation of a man’s innocence ?
To avoid a synthetic injustice ?
To avoid a so called race war?
Again whom?
A Hispanic?
A “White Hispanic?”
You are a joke. A travesty to anyone possessing reason and fairness.
You want a predetermined outcome and you publish your premise as an article of racial justice.
Justice should be blind and predicated on the facts. not your feelings of something the rest of ua don’t recognize as some endemic cancer and blight of white or Hispanic existence that by its color and quantity proves your theory.
Go to hell.
I too lived through Rodney King. I looked for a friend in LA who I find was safe only to return to San Francisco and have my evening interrupted by societill miscreants looking for any reason to burn down “Whities” vestiges of relaxation, fun and shopping.
FU and Your premise.
If zimmerman is found innocent or the charges dropped, you should quietly accept it, the same as we did with OJ.
FO and have good evening.
We are prepared for your “Get Even Society”.
It won’t end well for anyone.
But, you don’t care about the consequences.
Again, FO.
Wanna borrow my bucket?
Let it burn.
Fire cleanses.
Shibumi, bring on the tagline.
Fubar
+1
Sounds like a not-very-thinly-veiled threat, to me.
Convict or we tear you apart.
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