A civil rights chase of Zimmerman is doomed to failure

Financial Times ^ | July 19, 2013 | Christopher Caldwell

[2ndDivisionVet]

The evidence for a federal case against the man who killed Trayvon Martin is weak

The US attorney-general Eric Holder, speaking at the convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Tuesday, tried to have things both ways. He urged his audience to respect the decision reached by a Florida jury last weekend to acquit George Zimmerman on murder charges in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin . But he also promised that the Department of Justice would continue a federal civil rights investigation into the case.

Most lawyers and legal pundits believe no such case will be brought. But politics is involved, and Mr Holder may find he has a tiger by the tail.

The case is a tragedy. Mr Zimmerman was a “neighbourhood watch” volunteer, licensed to carry a hidden firearm in the townhouse development in Sanford, Florida, where he lived. It had been plagued by burglaries. In February last year, Mr Zimmerman saw Martin walking slowly in a rainstorm in a seldom-travelled part of the neighbourhood. He found it suspicious. Martin, who was visiting the house of his father’s girlfriend, saw Mr Zimmerman, too. He approached, and then fled, as Mr Zimmerman called the police. By the time they arrived, six minutes later, the two had struggled violently and Martin was dead.....

[null and void]

Unless you define “success” as hounding him for the rest of his life.

[ozzymandus]

Holder believes he is above the law, like the rest of the Obama administration.

[PGR88]

Obama and Holder’s brand is “racial politics.” Its a competitive market for their special sauce, with spicier and cheaper versions offered by Sharpton, Jackson, etc...

So Obama and Holder have to show interest and pander to their customers, because its what their brand is built on, and they can’t have those customers defecting and not showing up in 2014.

[MarkL]

I disagree completely. It's been remarkably successful so far, and as long as it's up in the air to keep racial tensions stirred up, Blacks won't notice how much damage the amnesty bill will do to American Blacks at the lower end of the economic scale if it passes. It's just a shiny object designed to keep the cannon fodder occupied.

Mark

[Iron Munro]

When did Holder or Obama ever make a decision based on right/wrong, legal/illegal, ethical/corrupt?

They are motivated by racial hate and their lives are dedicated to payback.

They would rather burn the nation to the ground than let Whitey own one square inch of it.

[ScaniaBoy]

Such a relatively unbiased piece on the Zimmerman case in the FT; a whole squadron of porcine pilots are ready for take-off.

[Redleg Duke]

I am not so certain. Holder has set up an anonymous tip line which, like his idea of voter registration, will absorb thousands of bogus tip, which he will weigh heavily and in the end, determine that George Zimmerman was actually a Grand Dragon of the Klan and the trigger-man for the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

[2ndDivisionVet]

[attiladhun2]

This isn’t aboout “getting justice for Trayvon.” It is about raising money for the 2014 elections and keeping the issue alive as long as possible.