After an all-white jury found George Zimmerman not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin in a racially-charged case, white liberals who didn’t share their friends’ outrage had tp ask themselves some difficult questions.
White Dude’s Burden
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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Maybe I haven’t paid enough attention to know for sure, but what I know is that the emergency operator told Zimmerman not to follow the kid and he called them just because the kid was ‘standing around.’ Zimmerman was looking for trouble that day, and he’s pathetic if he got the shit beat out of him by a kid and thought he needed to respond to fists with a muzzle contact gunshot.
I never had a doubt that this was a racist murder.
WOW! I cannot believe the first 2 comments here. First – let me say that I thought that if anything, anyone expressing an agressive opinion here needed to know a few facts first. ( what a stupid thought, huh?) So – I waited, waded in, and blew past the bizarre and obviously slanted media crap, and finally went over the Wikipedia information, which, in a concise way, presented a lot of both sides’ info and conjecture for someone to consider. My take on the whole thing, and I mean “the whole thing” as far as all the info on TM and GZ is that a young thug and a wanna-be cop came into contact in a bad situation. The young thug ( I only think this because of TM’s own website photos and drug/gun/gangster photos and posts) attacked the wanna-be cop and the wanna-be cop shot him. That is all the evidence can show.
Jack heart is nuts for thinking that Zimmerman “was told not to follow the kid”, because what Jack has taken from this is completely wrong. Zimmerman never called an “emergency operator” (where did that come from?), and was instead told “we don’t need you to do that”, and may have have been confused with later requests from the same operator as to “where is he now?” or other requests for more information. As to GZ getting out of his car to check an address? Well, hell, I still know the name of every street where I live, but I couldn’t name the street number of every house on the block. Just this is enough to instill enough doubt for what the prosecution percieved.
What is my personal feeling? I shouldn’t condemn another person for my personal feelings, but most people already have, haven’t they? If George had stayed in his car or had never followed the “person he thought was wandering suspiciously through an area that had been victimized so often”, then none of this would have happened. And who knows, TM could have simply gone home and mixed up a tasty batch of watermelon soda, skittles, and cough syrup, huh? He could have thought twice about being caught with stolen goods like silver rings and diamond earings that “his friend gave him” , huh? LOL :^) It be being what it is…
And race? Race doesn’t even come into this situation or matter. The only reason the “race issue” has raised its ugly head is because the media and racist blacks and others needed the fuel to turn this into a race issue. I am from southwest USA, born in East LA, lived in Compton, CA., and i can recognize GZ as a latino or something similar, especially from his skin, skull structure, height and more – a little short peruvian dude? Yeah, that’s more than I would think than a big white boy from Lithuania! :^) This “issue” has been wrung like a wet towel for every drop of “racism’ that is possible, and the people that have responded so strongly may be not only be the most racist, but the people most likely to turn their eyes away while our own US legislators and politicians continue to give us all the shaft while we linger on this…Want things to change? Then vote those criitters out! Stop supporting them! Stop supporting a party, and start supporting change!
One issue that I have not seen addressed is the increasingly common practice of prosecutorial overreach. Once again, we have prosecutors reaching for a verdict on a charge that really would have been impossible to sustain – second-degree murder – but if they had just tried for manslaughter, they would’ve stood a much better chance. I still think there would have been reasonable doubt, but I think manslaughter is actually what happened.
Me too, Ted – I don’t know Florida law much, but I might have leaned more towards “negligent manslaughter”.
However, without more evidence, it is possible that TM went back to confront him and attacked GZ. Without more concrete evidence, we cannot rely on conjecture to make a decision that will have a legal effect on GZ. All things considered, I think that the decision to get out of his vehicle or to place himself in a situation where he continued following or left his vehice to confront TM could be construed as causing the confrontation, leading to negligent manslaughter. Unless we actually know more, we don’t know how much the person who continued to ask GZ “where is he now?” had on GZ’s possible decision to continue following or get out of his vehicle.
In any case, GZ’s life prospects may be even worse than Casey Anthony’s. This in itself is a pretty bad punishment. He may have been pronounced NOT GUILTY, but he will never be believed by many people or truly be free again. Even if what he said happened is true, he will be villified now for his entire life. That is a pretty bad punishment in itself. This is where we are now. If the media ever gets hold of you – especially with the Internet and its undying spotlight, the mob rules.
Zimmerman could only decide to react to the presence of symbols presented by Trayvon. He should have introduced himself as a member of a neighborhood watch group. Watch groups are not crime fighters; they are watch groups, deterring crime by their presence as witnesses. By their nature, they do not stop crime, but relocate it to other locations, such as security checks do at event gates.
The decision to pursue Trayvon was not based on any knowledge beyond the symbols he presented, such as styles, hoodie, skin color, etc. If Zimmerman had encountered what had appeared to be a little old white lady, his response as if criminal was present would likely not have occurred.
A woman who dresses in a manner such that an observer might decide she is a prostitute should not reduce one’s decision to rape her to a crime of merely engaging in a theft of services, even if she has a history of prostitution arrests. Conclusions based on appearances, without witnessing a crime, does not justify actions taken as if a crime were witnessed.
Trayvon Martin did not seek to engage Zimmerman so Trayvon was within his rights to stand his ground using deadly force when approached by a man, unknown to him, with a gun. Trayvon should have had a gun to more effectively exercise his rights under the law.
Considering that the vast majority of violent crimes do not result in arrests, it is naïve and foolish to not carry a weapon where the law allows it. Entertainment media does not accurately represent the failure of law enforcement to protect the public or arrest and convict for violent crimes. A Supreme Court decision in 1985 explicitly states that law enforcement agencies do not have the responsibility to protect the public and cannot be held responsible for failure to do so.
Florida has a stand-your-ground law. It means that Zimmerman was permitted to use force without an obligation to retreat. Unless someone had a videotape of Zimmerman putting two bullets into the back of Martin’s head, the case was over before it began.
Am I the only one who sees why this went to court in the first place? The anti-gun people used Trayvon Martin’s death for their agenda. You think they give a fuck about some black kid with a black name who had been suspended from school? All they care about is being able to be outraged in front of a lot of cameras. Stevie Wonder? His outrage I believe. But most of the people on this thing? They were involved because that’s how they make their living: manufacturing outrage and making sure everyone sees how angry they are. They figured the case would end in a not guilty verdict (because of what the law said), which would fire up their constituents, allowing them to accumulate more influence.
The pro-gun people also figured the case would end in a not guilty verdict (again because of what the law said), which would reinforce their echo-chamber worldview in which everyone has the right to own as many guns as possible. Do you think any of them really give a fuck about a screwup like George Zimmerman? Puh-leaze.
Martin got used. Zimmerman got used. The prosecutors got stuck between a rock and a hard place. The public outrage (manufactured, of course–when was the last time you saw even a tenth of the coverage about the prison-industrial complex or the inferiority of inner-city schools) forced a trial which had only one probable outcome. So they had to take it to trial.
Sadly, it seems pretty likely that Zimmerman, stunted and limited by his prejudices, probably actually was in mortal fear for his life from the ScaryBlackMan.
Nice lame faux introspection, where’s Lassie?
I’m sort of with Ted on this one: wrongful death, yes, but definitely not murder. Racist? Not likely. Martin made a bad call to overreact to what he probably saw as annoying profiling. Zimmerman got scared shitless when he got pummeled. Tragic end-result. Both the dead and the survivor used by unscrupulous media and pundits on “both” sides of the “ideological” divide (no, I’m not abusing them scare quotes). It’s not surprising, given the history of your country, that black people would react in almost unison like that.
What really disturbs me, though, is what you notice if you follow Glenn Greenwald’s Twitter TL: the large number of black folks among the Obamabots that pester him because of his heroic work in denouncing the NSA’s abuses. None of them seem to be disturbed by mass unconstitutional surveillance under their beloved Obama, and none of them seem to care that this Nobel Peace Prize winner blew out not one, but two unarmed teenagers in the Yemeni desert (not to mention countless Pakistani children), never apologizing to their families. That is murder.
I live in FL, if I’d been on that jury I’d have had to acquit. The SYG laws are absurdly broad, but even though it is an injustice, I can’t quite see trying to jury-null a law in order to jail someone technically ‘not guilty’ due to bad law. It somehow seems a far cry from using a jury-null to not jail someone who is ‘guilty’ of breaking a law that is unjust. Does seem like both dudes made poor choices, but Z did start off the chain of events. Without SYG, manslaughter. Homicide not proven, IMHO.
We all know the answer here….the SYG law requires acquittal…the probably is the law..not the jury decision. It’s really messed up, but what else is new? Gun laws in the US are, and always have been, designed to protect white people. Suburbs were built for…wait for it…white people…as the US becomes less white, watch this country go down the drain. Not because those “other people” can’t manage a country, but because…wait for it….white people..would rather this country burn in a nuclear fireball than to have to acknowledge race and gender as THE DEFINING characteristics of determining human outcomes in this country.
Drive around with a gun, get out and shoot some stranger dead.
Make up any story you want. If stranger was black, and you are not, then you win.
How about this: If you intentionally jump off a bridge, then a few seconds later, as you are three feet from the bottom, you no longer have any choice about whether you go splat or not. It’s totally out of your hands at that point.
Does that mean that your death a quarter second later is not suicide?
Are you not responsible for this death?
Zimmerman put a gun in his pants and went out looking for trouble. If he’d been robbing a bank and shot somebody, then “self defense” would not have been relevant. Shooting somebody in the course of randomly harassing the neighbor kids is no more unavoidable, or less criminal.
The SYG (stand your ground) never came into this case – it was cast aside early by the defense, and basic “self-defence” was used instead. Get that? SYG was never used or considered in this case. And if you spent as much time looking at the evidence and listening to the witnesses as you’ve spent writing crap about GZ, you’d find that Rachel Jeantel (in an interview after the verdict) now says that she believes that TM ‘ threw the first blow’. Evidence on the movements of each person was just before the confrontation supports the circumstance that TM went back from where he was – close to the house he was staying at, to confront GZ and attack him.
To all those saying the jury legally had to acquit:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alafair-burke/george-zimmerman-jury-instructions_b_3596685.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false
Jurors did not receive instruction on the all of Florida self-defense law and that is the fault of the cowardly judge. Even if Trayvon ‘threw the first punch,’ self-defense law applies to him too. He could have felt threatened by a big strange man following him. That would make Zimmerman the initial aggressor and would make his self-defense claim invalid. Case closed. Guilty of 2nd-degree murder. I stand by what I said before. He followed Martin because of his skin and clothing.
gavbrown01, Glenn, drooling zombies everywhere I agree.
alex and bucephelus good points.
rikster, Zimmerman called police, whatever you want to call it. He was clearly the aggressive, suspicious one of the two. And he has a history of violence.
Every once in a while the court of public opinion makes up for the lack of justice from the ‘real’ courts. Zimmerman is screwed for life thankfully.
Sorry, Ted – Zimmerman stalked Martin, first in his car, then on foot. By any reasonable understanding of the word, he was the attacker, and Martin had an inherent right to self-defence, quite irrespective of dodgy «stand-your-ground» laws. Mr Zimmerman should have been convicted of murder, but since he was playing a cop-like role, he was acquitted (the fact that Martin was black undoubtedly helped). You are living in a police state – whether you reside in New York under Raymond «Stop and frisk» Kelly or in Florida….
Henri
For all the discussion of Stand Your Ground Laws, they had nothing whatsoever to do with the trial. Zimmerman was found not-guilty on the basis regular self-defense as the defense claimed he no ability to retreat at the moment of the shooting.
Stand Your Ground laws grant immunity to prosecution, which means if they are found to be applicable, there isn’t criminal trial and no civil suit can be brought. Zimmman’s lawyers chose not to persue that legal avenue, most likely because the SYG concept requires that the defendent not have done anything to provoke the assault and Zimmerman;s actions obviously provided the initial provocation.
Ironically, had Martin, in response to being stalked by an armed man, killed Zimmerman, he would likely have been able to raise the Stand Your Ground defense.