Politics

The parents of a Florida boy are experiencing something that frightens most who have children: the prospect of burying their child. This is a case that’s gone very public. I’ve watched my Facebook blow up with people loudly proclaiming Zimmerman, the shooter of Trayvon, to be a murderer. Using the Facebook posts and insinuations by talking heads, let me piece together what the initial truth looked like:

Zimmerman (heavyset white racist redneck) saw Trayvon Martin, puppyfaced honor roll student, walking down the street with skittles in his hand. He called 9-11 on this kid, for no reason, because people do this. The 9-11 dispatcher said, “no don’t do anything, police are en route.” Zimmerman walks over to Trayvon Martin and shoots him dead. The police win the “Officer Barbrady” award for saying, “nothing to do here”

Information comes out about Zimmerman that seems to paint him as a loose cannon. Pictures of Trayvon as an 11year old are shown. The media jumps on this. Obama made a speech as he did with that “The uhhhh, Cambridge police acted stupidly” situation. I saw things on my Facebook showcasing Michael Vick vs Zimmerman, more or less implying Michael Vick went to jail for being black.

Because as we all know, Michael Vick must have been wrongly convicted, nor did he actually do anything wrong. He only more or less ran a dog fighting ring at his house. We also know for a fact that Zimmerman is a murderer. Zimmerman’s trial is  unnecessary, because only un-uniformed Al Queda terrorists caught on a battlefield shooting at American soldiers overseas in a warzone should get the benefit of a trial.

Well, more details have come out, including from witnesses actually at the scene.
-Witnesses say that the screaming heard on the 9-11 tape is from Zimmerman, who was being beat up by Martin.
-Zimmerman was apparently walking back to his SUV when he was attacked by Trayvon Martin, who pursued him and tackled him. Trayvon “Slimm” Martin (as labeled on his Facebook page) struck Zimmerman in the face, and slammed his head into the sidewalk, leaving him bloodied and battered- according to law enforcement.
“I could observe his back appeared to be wet and was covered in grass, as if he had been laying on his back on the ground,” the officer wrote. “Zimmerman was also bleeding from the nose and back of his head.”
-Zimmerman was more or less a “Self appointed” neighborhood watchman, in his gated community where there were a string of recent robberies. People in the community were on the look out for suspicious individuals.
-Zimmerman had never seen Trayvon Martin, who was walking through the gated community after hours with a hood over his face.

More on our “racist” Zimmerman:
-Zimmerman is a registered Democrat (looks like he can’t be a racist Republican/TeaPartier)
-Turns out he tutors young underprivileged black children on weekends, on his own time. This must be because he’s SO racist he’s trying to avoid looking racist.
-Zimmerman is in fact hispanic. For those who were assured only caucasian whites were capable of racism, this complicates things.
-Zimmerman does have a diverse group of friends in terms of their ethnic make up.

Here’s what else has occurred:
-The Black Panther Party has put a bounty on the head of Zimmerman, dead or alive. This is illegal and outrageous.
-Spike Lee tweeted the address of Zimmerman, it may not have anything to do with the above mentioned point. Turns out it wasn’t Zimmerman’s address. I hope the homeowners (Who turn out to be an older couple), are able to lawyer up and protect themselves.
-People are blaming this on “Florida’s shoot to kill law”. Note: They have not looked at how this law has affected crime (pro or con), they have not talked about whether or not it’s the will of the Floridians. Instead, those who will often tell you proudly that their political ideology is the one of empiricism, science, “reason”, understanding, open-mindedness, hugs and unicorns, et al – are now saying this law is the problem given the overwhelming evidence of this singular event, one in which they apparently are 100% sure of what has occurred.
-The media and outraged TV watchers have demanded for the resignations in the local Police. We do not know if in fact the officers that handled this are in fact the best (or worst) officers in the entire nation. Technically speaking, they could be among the best officers in the entire state. We do not know this. However, given media reports of an incident that has not yet gone to trial, this is sufficient to ask for resignations.
-Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are publicly doing whatever it is that they do.
-Sabrina Fulton (Trayvon’s mother)  is seeking marks for the phrases “I Am Trayvon” and “Justice for Trayvon,” according to filings made last week with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In both instances, Fulton is seeking the trademarks for use on “Digital materials, namely, CDs and DVDs featuring Trayvon Martin,” and other products. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/trayvon-martin-trademarks-769123
-I’m leaving out “details” on Trayvon Martin’s school record, but apparently there are things in it that make people question the honor-student-angel narrative.

Here’s my take, given the “evidence” we have now, in this case that has not yet been tried.
-Zimmerman should not have pursued Martin. He should have let it go. Martin’s problem was being in the wrong place at the wrong time in the wrong garment. Those things are not crimes. It’s a tragedy that he’s dead now. But it’s too late for that. For a great % of this encounter, he did nothing wrong, and Zimmerman, in retrospect, was being stupid. That night should have ended with two people scratching their heads, one guy feeling like an idiot for being jumpy, the other enjoying his skittles.

- Trayvon Martin was not shot for being black. Trayvon “Slimm” Martin was shot because he, apparently, assaulted Zimmerman. He should not have tackled Zimmerman while he was heading back for his car. He should not have repeatedly struck him despite Zimmerman’s shouting for him to stop. He should not have slammed Zimmerman’s head into the ground.  Zimmerman shot him, in what most other scenarios that wouldn’t even get local media attention. “Person A beating the daylights out of Person B, Person B shoots them after having their head slammed into the ground” is a “Good shoot” in most states (And by most states I mean 40+).

-The media needs to disengage their “Ralph Nader Crusader” mode. Some are blaming this on Florida’s stand your ground law. Even if this turns out to be a murder (after this case actually goes to court), this law would not apply. See, driving a car at 65MPH is legal, when doing so on a highway in a lawful manner. Driving a car off the road at 65MPH into a crowd of pedestrians is murder. Instead of doing actual research on this law and seeing if has curbed crime in the state, instead of actually asking the question, “maybe people shouldn’t have to flee criminals who would do them ill will”, the media has blamed this “crazy law” for what had occurred. That’s absurd, a knee jerk reactionary judgement made on next to no evidence, based on a case that has not even gone to trial yet. Laws like these exist all over the nation, and it has not turned the nation into the wild west. The talking heads need to stay in their lane on this one. Intellectuals love to state that “people are stupid in groups”- those calling for draconian gun restrictions in the face of what may, for all we know, be a legitimate self defense shooting, is a case study in this.

-On the race related conversation some want to have: If your religious beliefs include ‘political correctness’, you won’t like this. Apparently even a cursory look at statistics shows that Black on Black violence rates and Black on White violence rates are staggeringly higher than White on Black violence. My belief is: all of this violent crime is a problem!  - regardless of what that person’s race is. When a violent crime victim does not return home to friends and family, it is a tragedy no matter what their race is, no matter what their job is, no matter what their religious beliefs or sexual orientation is. I don’t think the most important conversation here is one race on another’s violence, it’s violence as a whole.