Monday, July 15, 2013

The George Zimmerman Verdict and Aftermath


For the past few days I have resisted weighing in on the George Zimmerman murder case and the fact that he was found not guilty of both Second Degree Murder and Manslaughter charges.

It is a verdict that doesn't sit well with many. But it is, nevertheless, the verdict. And no amount of rioting, looting and breast beating will change that.

Of course, Americans have become accustomed to seeing turgid goons rampaging through city streets on the heels of just about any trial perceived to involve race. It has become almost a given that stores will be burned and looted. How that helps the victims in these cases remains a mystery.

But hey, when you have an excuse to get "free stuff" from "cracker"  and "Buddha-head" store owners why not go for it. After all, don't they deserve it? So go ahead and smash those windows and take a few flat screen TVs in Oakland, Cal. That'll show those Florida Gomers that they can't get away with letting white/hispanic man go free for shooting a 17-year-old black guy in self-defense.
Anti-Zimmerman Protesters After Verdict

That is what the evidence in this case revealed. One evening in February 2012 George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain, confronted Trayvon Martin who was walking through an area that had experienced home invasions and break-ins in the past several weeks. Testimony and evidence revealed that an altercation began with Martin knocking Zimmerman to the ground and pounding his head into the concrete walkway. Zimmerman, with Martin on top of him, managed to pull a pistol and shoot Martin in the heart, killing him almost instantly.

It was terrible tragedy--one that I am confident Zimmerman will regret for the rest of his life. But he had a right to defend himself and that is what he did. Criminal case closed.

Now, comes round two. With the Obama White House intent on exacting some kind of retribution on Zimmerman, Attorney General Eric Holder vowed Monday to proceed with a civil rights inquiry.

In his first public comments since Saturday's jury verdict, Holder told a convention of the nation's largest black sorority that the federal government is "determined to meet division and confusion with understanding and compassion – and also with truth. The Justice Department shares your concern. I share your concern," Holder told the Delta Sigma Theta delegates to thunderous applause.

Talk about preaching to the choir. What else could Holder say? Had he declined to persecute (whoops, I mean prosecute) Zimmerman for violating Martins civil rights. He would have been shouted off the podium.

The portrayal of Trayvon Martin as an "innocent child" is ludicrous.He was on his way to becoming a thug or even worse, a gang banger.

Police records that were suppressed before and during the trial show that Martin was suspended  three times for 'drugs, truancy, graffiti and theft. In addition, it appears he even attacked a bus driver. 


Trayvon Martin: Innocent Child?

Trayvon was kicked out of school after he was caught with a 'burglary tool' and a bag full of women's jewelry.

Child? Innocent? I will let you decide that one.

No matter how you slice it, anytime there is an issue involving a white person (or in this case, a half Hispanic-White person) and a black person, the race baiters will crawl out from under their rocks to accuse whites of racism. Of course blacks are NEVER racists. Right? Wrong.

As black journalist and author Kevin Jackson put it recently:

"To get a race of people to riot over a case of an overzealous neighborhood watchman shooting and killing a teen who attacked him takes some doing. If you remove the race elements from this story, black people would have as much interest in this case as they would reruns of The Lawrence Welk Show.

"Yet here we are. The Zimmerman case front and center—a 21st Century OJ trial, except this one black people want the defendant declared guilty. Thousands of black teens have been murdered since Martin’s death, yet Liberals have chosen to fixate on Martin’s death? Black Liberals should ask themselves why they have disproportionate emotion in this case versus the thousands of others. 

"Recall the young girl, Hadiya Pendleton who had visited with Obama at the White House, then two weeks later was unceremoniously gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Chicago? If only her murderer had been Zimmerman!"

Meanwhile, life as an average guy in the Florida suburbs has ended for George Zimmerman. Some people have vowed vigilante justice against him. My brother will likely live in fear for the rest of his life, his brother Robert Zimmerman Jr., told CNN Sunday.
George Zimmerman: What Now?

"There are people who would want to take the law into their own hands as they perceive it, or be vigilante's in some sense," he told CNN. "They think that justice was not served, they won't respect the verdict no matter how it was reached and they will always present a threat to George and his family."

So what are the lessons learned here? Number one: Don't volunteer to be a neighborhood watch captain. And if you do, do not carry a gun.

Instead, allow yourself to be beaten senseless with possible brain damage for asking a hoodie-wearing 6-foot tall black teenager what he is doing in your neighborhood. It's the least you can do in order not to be accused of being racist.

It's the same mindset that materializes when a white person publicly criticizes President Obama or his caustic policies. Beware, because once you do, you will forever be branded a racist.

But you know what, I don't care. Because the term "racist" has become so diluted by its relentless overuse for any perceived affront, slight, or transgression that it has lost all meaning.

I am no longer sure just what racism is. One thing I do know is this: Racism is not a man acting in self-defense to protect life and limb, which is what the jury, after weighing tons of evidence, found in the George Zimmerman trial. Case closed!