Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Report: George Zimmerman to Be Charged in Shooting of Trayvon Martin

The Washington Post has learned that Florida special prosecutor Angela Corey will announce that she is charging George Zimmerman in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. (UPDATE: He will be charged with second-degree murder and he is currently in custody.) I can't stomach another protracted debate about this subject -- I've been through a number of them already and they are pointless -- but all I have to say to people who say they "can't understand" why this is being "turned" into a "racial issue" I say this: dig a little deeper (HERE and HERE and HERE, for starters) and maybe then you'll begin to see that people -- I'm talking about Zimmerman and the police in this case -- oftentimes don't even realize they're being racist, yet the ramifications are insidious, and in this case, deadly. While it true that it is impossible to ever know what was going on in someone else's mind, it was this public outrage from the basic facts that finally got the police to even properly look at this case. So if you're more concerned about the public's reaction and the media's handling of the case than you are that it finally got taken seriously, perhaps you need to question your own motivations.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

None of those articles answers the question of why the shooting itself (as opposed to the investigation that followed) is a racial issue. The most likely indicator is the 911 call where the allegations that Zimmerman made a racial epithet have been largely debunked and when asked by the dispatcher says he "thought" the person he was following was black. I agree there needs to be charges brought, since the slow grind of a criminal trial is now the only way a full and level headed investigation is going to happen now, but this may simply have been a series of horribly bad decisions by Zimmerman trying to be a cartoon cop that had nothing to do with racial animus.

Kenneth M. Walsh said...

@Anonymous: Well, that's kind of my point, and the point of those articles.

What I'm talking about is WHY did he assume this young man was doing something illegal -- to the point that he called 911 and followed him down the street -- if the teenager wasn't trying someone's door or breaking into someone's window or vandalizing someone's car? What was it about Trayvon Martin that made him so "suspicious" in George Zimmerman's mind? Zimmerman doesn't have to call someone the N-word to have allowed his prejudices to cloud his judgment -- although despite the so-called debunking, to many it does sound like he refers to blacks as coons.

(BTW: For Zimmerman's ex-lawyers to suggest Stand Your Ground is a "good" law is beyond the pale. What happened during the struggle is irrelevant to me. The law is completely flawed and invites people to provoke people they do not like in the hopes that the person will retaliate and then they can say they were fearful for their lives and open fire.)

Danny in WeHo said...

Kenneth, I must say I think you may be the unitentional rascist one by placing that third article with the other two. Race has nothing to do with proper court attire. If you included that article because you feel only ethjnic folk wear the saggy pants, then you, not the judge, are displaying a bias. I love when Judge Judy calls people out on that, no matter what ethnicity- "Why did you think you were coming?". Saggy pants are stupid and he probably would've gotten the same for a tank top.

Kenneth M. Walsh said...

@Danny: I totally love your comment, and if you're right, then it just further proves my point that even people with the best intentions can be guilty. Still, I'm not sure I agree with you on this one. People of lower economic means -- which frequently includes minorities -- often don't have extra money for "fancy" clothing, so I think judges (Judy included) are being racist-y for punishing them for it ... on top of what they're already in there for.