Posted on 03/25/2012 5:42:32 AM PDT by Kaslin
A young man was shot dead by a neighborhood watch captain a month ago in Sanford, Florida, a town I’ve only driven through during a vacation or two.
The particular facts of the case, at least as they’ve been reported, are that the victim, 17-year old Trayvon Martin, committed no crime and was totally unarmed — unless a package of Skittles and an iced tea are considered dangerous weapons. Still, the shooter, 28-year old George Zimmerman, has not been arrested or charged with homicide.
The killing and the lack of an arrest — or even any sign, until recent days, of a serious investigation into the deadly incident — have understandably elicited public outrage and protest.
That anger and offense seems as universal as anything can be. President Barack Obama as well as Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have all expressed it.
GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney called the shooting a “tragedy” and offered, “There needs to be a thorough investigation that reassures the public that justice is carried out with impartiality and integrity.”
Newt Gingrich also called it a “tragedy” and said, “we’re going to relentlessly seek justice.” Rick Santorum argued it was “horrible” that local police didn’t “immediately go after and prosecute this case.”
The president went much further, stating that, “All of us have to do some soul searching to figure out how does something like this happen.”
Yet, the trigger wasn’t pulled by “all of us.” It was pulled by George Zimmerman.
On Fox News, Geraldo Rivera shifted blame elsewhere: onto hoodies. “I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters, particularly, not to let their children go out wearing hoodies,” he said. “I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as much as George Zimmerman was.”
Beware the dreaded hoodie makers and those heartless retailers!
Throughout the news coverage and political punditry the issue of race is consistently raised. Some contend that Zimmerman is a racist. On the tape of his calls with a 911-dispatcher, some say they hear Zimmerman use a racial epithet. I’ve listened to the recording a dozen times and just can’t hear anything.
Zimmerman’s father adamantly denies his son had any racial animus, since “George is a Spanish-speaking minority with many black family members and friends. He would be the last to discriminate for any reason whatsoever.”
In his younger days, Zimmerman had been the victim of a criminal assault, which might have influenced him to be more fearful of being victimized, quicker to pull a trigger. There is no indication of a racial component to that earlier incident.
On the more crucial issue, self-defense, it appears that it was Zimmerman who was following Martin, not the other way around. This seems to obliterate a defense under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which allows the use of deadly force when under threat.
As for any tendency toward violence, in 2005 an ex-fiancée won a protective injunction against Zimmerman citing domestic violence. The implication of this is muddied up by the fact that Zimmerman filed and won his own injunction against her, too.
George Zimmerman attended a four-month law-enforcement program put on by the local sheriff’s office in 2008 and claimed at that time that he hoped to become a policeman one day. He has also worked with the Retreat at Twin Lakes neighborhood watch for eight years.
The bottom-line? We know too little about Mr. Zimmerman’s state of mind before or during this tragic clash. But whether his shooting of Trayvon Martin was spurred by race or an itchy trigger finger or a hero complex or something we know absolutely nothing about, or was actually somehow in self defense, is beside the point.
The point is that our justice system ought to get to the bottom of it.
We innocent bystanders are no more responsible for this deadly tragedy than are hoodies. But a miscarriage of justice by those who work for us — our government, our police — is our responsibility. Even though African Americans have experienced a lack of justice for far too long, the broader lesson here is for all of us to stand up in whatever way we can to demand and secure justice for each and every individual.
Sabrina Fulton, Trayvon’s mother, put it all in proper perspective, when she said, “This is not about a black and white thing; this is about a right and wrong thing.”
Doing the right thing isn’t always easy, and the complexities of this case may have baffled the police in the first instance, discouraging action. Or habitual racism may have been a factor in officialdom’s initial inaction, even if it played a scant role in the shooting itself.
Whatever proves to be the case, public reaction and a free press seem to be doing their job, spurring review, investigation and, ultimately, some justice.
Doing the right thing, like writing an unbiased article that is lib-snot pretending to be down the middle reporting.
This guy sees racism in this case, if it is not the shooter, it is the dreaded "officialdom racism".
Every American, except the American born black, is a racist, just ax one, and they will tell you.
Your being born white makes you a racist and them a victim; I am so sick of this crap.
What do you think the media reaction would be if someone put a $5,000 reward out for mikhail muhammed, the leader of the black panthers, regardless that no warrant has been issued for his arrest?
Do not know, I just know the former judge lady on fox, said the watch commander stuff was bull, he self appointed himself. His so called attorney also told her he was not his attorney, he had only provided some legal advice, that means, I do not work for you until your step dads check clears, when I get it. She also said, that in the real operations manual for approved community watch groups, it says they cannot carry weapons and they cannot approach anyone.
I understand that the Sanford police department wanted to arrest Zimmerman, but the DA said they didn't have a case and not to. If new evidence came out they could arrest him later, but once they arrested him the clock starts ticking. Apparently there was sufficient evidence of Travor attacking Zimmerman, mainly a broken nose and injury to the back of Zimmermans head and a eye witness.
Since the DA and the police work together all the time that is why the police won't criticize the DA.
BTTT!!!
The weasel should sign up on FR .. he'd have plenty of company amongst the head^ass crowd.
African Americans have experienced a lack of justice for far too long.
Wonder what the name of that complex would be called?.
Constitution...Rule of Law...Innocent Until Proven Guilty. America.
Another blacks are not responsible for what they do guy...
The Left wants Stalinesque Show Trials.
> tell me what race I am CNN. Come on. I’m waiting.
I’m not CNN, but I’m going to play as though I were.
You must be lily-white, regardless of your skin color, or you would not be posting in here, except as a troll, which, evidently, you are not.
White hispanic usually refers to people with a hispanic background who are obviously white. It includes people of European heritage who are descended by a a Spanish-speaking culture. My very white wife, who is descended from Spanish Minorcans, is technically hispanic now. Since “Hispanic” refers to neither race nor nationality and now doesn’t even require you to speak spanish, I think the government did this to create a sub-category to exclude white people who are technically Hispanic from cashing in on the Hispanic giveaways and setasides.
To me, Zimmerman does not appear to be a “white hispanic”. But, in the Leftist Heirarchy of Victimhood, Hispanic on Black crime does not create the “right dialogue”, so the lighter-skinned of the two needs to be portrayed as white to set the narrative.
Even Richard Pryor said after meeting all the brothers in jail, “Thank God We Got Penitentiaries!”
This article is speculative horse hockey wrapped in a big dose of stereotypical, bigoted racism.
It looks as if they keep tripping on the facts, try to sweep them under the carpet and find that they stubbornly keep exonerating Zimmerman.
The only way this works for the TOTUS and the Tawana crowd is if they can intimidate the witnesses into telling it the way they want it not the way it happened.
Paul Jacob
1960
Contents
1 Draft resistance
2 Rise in the Libertarian Party
3 Political philosophy
4 Political targets
5 Titles
6 Prosecution by Drew Edmondson
7 See also
8 External links
Paul Jacob (1960 - ) is an activist, organizer,
His bio:
Draft resistance
Jacob first came to political prominence in the early 1980s as a draft registration resister. His crusade against forced military service and for the all-volunteer army was featured in Rolling Stone magazine. In 1985, after being convicted of violating the Selective Service Act, he served five months in federal prison, longer than any American draft resister since the Vietnam War.
Rise in the Libertarian Party
Jacob served on the National Committee of the Libertarian Party and then in 1987 and 1988 as the party’s national director. In 1988, he worked to put Ron Paul on the ballot for president as a Libertarian, winning ballot access in 47 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam.
See Libertarian Party ballot access.
Move on. Nothing more to see here...
In all honesty, Zimmerman doesn’t need an attorney at this time. The person subject to Grand Jury review doesn’t have a legal representative at a Grand Jury. People wait for the Grand Jury to decide as to whether to indict them or not. If one is indicted by a Grand Jury, then you either hire an attorney or a public attorney is provided for your defense.
Innocent Until Proven Guilty. America unless your white.The media has a real problem with white guilt znd they love riots.
Very good question! So if Hussien is just some average guy living in a neighborhood, and he shoots a Black guy, does that now make him a White-Black?
Hey! CNN! I got a question for you! Is the President Black or Black-White or White-Black?
Since you are making all the race determination rules, perhaps you could enlighten us.
How do we even know Zimmerman is half White? Is his parent White enough? We'll have to ask the CNN race determination squad to send us a list of their ‘Who is White and Who is Black’ rules.
Then shouldn’t they always refer to Obama as a White Black?
He will get a public defender, but his step dad whatever father, the form judge, who has picked up after him for years, will cut a plea deal.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.