Below is a slightly expanded version of today’s column in USA Today on the Zimmerman verdict. As I wrote before the case was sent to the jury, I saw no alternative to acquittal even on manslaughter and expected the jury to render a full acquittal. I respect the conflicting views of many on this blog on the case and how it was charged and handled. We will now have to wait to see if the Justice Department will re-try Zimmerman as a civil rights matter. I have serious reservations about such an effort, but that can be for a later discussion. For now, a few observations on the verdict can serve to as a foundation for our own discussion.Separating Law And Legend In The Zimmerman Verdict
Jonathan Turley | Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law, George Washington University
Be this as it may legally, the Zimmerman-Martin case will be read side-by-side with the Marissa Alexander case.
Marissa Alexander had never been arrested before she fired a bullet at a wall one day in 2010 to scare off her husband when she felt he was threatening her. Nobody got hurt, but this month a northeast Florida judge was bound by state law to sentence her to 20 years in prison.
Alexander, a 31-year-old mother of a toddler and 11-year-old twins, knew it was coming. She had claimed self-defense, tried to invoke Florida's "stand your ground" law and rejected plea deals that could have gotten her a much shorter sentence. A jury found her guilty as charged: aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Because she fired a gun while committing a felony, Florida's mandatory-minimum gun law dictated the 20-year sentence.The Huffington Post
Marissa Alexander Gets 20 Years For Firing Warning Shot
Mitch Stacy
Comparing these cases in which a black youth is shot by a stalker and a Black woman sent to prison for defending herself against domestic violence, the conclusion seems to be that it is OK to kill Blacks in the United States and not OK for them to defend themselves.
While one can argue with the logic, this is the impression that a lot of people are going to take away from this both domestically and globally, creating Black fear of disempowerment and further erosion of American soft power as the myth of American exceptionalism is shown up as hypocritical. The lights are going out in "the shining city on a hill".
This is not a healthy direction to be heading.
44 comments:
Agree that blacks are punished more than whites, with Marrissa's case being just one example. But that does not make it OK to hate Zimmerman. The reaction to the Zimmerman case has been irrational.
I wouldn't want the likes of Zimmerman in my community. The police should have been on his case from day one.
I really don't understand the sympathy for Zimmerman at all. He armed himself with a gun, accosted a strange person on the street, and proceeded to interrogate that person. He's not a peace officer, so he was way out of line. If that happened to me I would regard myself as under assault.
Dan, You have not one fact correct regarding the Zimmerman case. Not one. Is this how you approach all matters you opine on?
Dan Kervick is who I'm addressing.
Which statements aren't facts, Malmo's Ghost?
Zimmerman was in his car. Told police he was eyeballing Martin. Told police Martin was running. Exited his car. Told police he was following Martin, despite them telling him not to do so. Zimmerman had a weapons. Those are all established facts.
Who provoked the incident? Who approached whom? Who was carrying a weapon?
Dan, there's no law against following someone. There is a law against attacking someone if they are following you. That's clearly illegal. Pummeling someone is illegal too. Do you live in a gated community where there is little crime? Under the law are you claiming the verdict was unjust? Are you also a legal expert? I'm not happy that a 17 yr old is dead, but the larger lesson here (especially in Florida) is that attacking another individual can lead to your death if said individual is LEGALLY armed. The jury had all the facts and they determined Zimmerman wasn't guilty. They are right and you are wrong. Simple as that.
...Oh, and I'll bet I have a shitload more black friends than you have.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/07/12/155918/more-evidence-released-in-trayvon.html#.UeNBr237aSp
I'm not talking about the verdict. The jury probably had no choice but to acquit given the paucity of decisive evidence.
But I am upset about the people who are going beyond that to defend Zimmerman as some kind of victim. Their assumption seems to be that anyone has the right to play self-appointed-cop and follow and approach people to question them, armed with weapons.
What ticks me off is not just the people defending the verdict, but all the people in the George Zimmerman crying towel brigade who are defending Zimmerman, asserting that he was grossly wronged, and claiming it is wrong to "hate" Zimmerman.
What does this have to do with black friends, etc?
MG, this is not about racism for me. I didn't say Zimmerman was motivated by racism. I think he's just a wannabe mini-cop with vigilante mentality, who goes around wearing a gun, and who provoked a confrontation with an innocent man, leading to the death of that man. There is zero reason to feel sorry for him.
It is wrong to hate Zimmerman. Are you saying you hate him? I don't. He lived in a community that experienced a crime wave. He was driving to Target when he saw Martin. He then called non emergency 911 to report a suspicious person. So what? I'd do the same. What happened after that is as much on Martin as it is on Zimmerman.
As for my background with blacks, it's only germane in that I don't profile blacks. I've had black girlfriends and many black buds, especially basketball buds. Even though I think Zimmerman isn't some monster, it has zero to do with him killing a black man. Ok?
There you go, Dan. Zimmerman didn't provoke and Martin wasn't innocent. Nice try though.
Even the seasoned processional skeptic cop believed him--Zimmerman. You know more than him, Dan?
You would call 911 - an emergency line - because you saw a guy who looked "suspicious"?
It was the non emergency line. You need to get your fact straight.
You should join the NSA. Sounds like the can use a few more good suspicious citizen like you.
LOL. I trust people. I also like people. I also like the state for the most part. It just bothers you cause I'm not upset with the verdict.
Once again, I'm not talking about the verdict. I'm talking about outpourings of sympathy for Zimmerman. You can accept the legal propriety of the verdict while recognizing that Zimmerman is a loose cannon who got away with causing a man's death.
What outpouring of sympathy for Zimmerman? I sure haven't seen it in the MSM. To the contrary.
As for him being a loose cannon, I'm sorry, but you base that on his run-in with Martin alone? Nice try, but that doesn't compute.
BTW, I have sympathy for Zimmerman and Martin's family. They aren't mutually exclusive emotions.
He had a history of violence and anger problems. He had previously worked as a sort of bouncer for an agency securing house parties, but was fired for being too aggressive.
To my mind, the only thing that most people should able to agree over is that this has the odor of vigilantism and "stand your ground" laws cast the US as the Wild West. This putting the US in the category of a Third World country, and recent stats wrt to quality of life show the US slipping to the bottom of developed nations. This is not a healthy trend, and it is liable to end badly for Americans if the country doesn't get a grip.
In September 2003, Zimmerman called police and reported that another motorist had spat on him. Zimmerman, who appears to have a history of following people, followed the man in his car until the police arrived. Daniel Osmun, the other driver, told police that Zimmerman was tailgating him and that he had spit his gum out the window “out of frustration.” While reporting the incident to the police, Osmun stated that Zimmerman had pulled up alongside him and that “at one point, he thought Mr. Zimmerman was going to attack him.” No charges were filed against either man.
After the February 26th shooting, when questioned, some of Zimmerman’s neighbors said he had a history of being overly aggressive while serving as Watch Commander and had the bad habit of following residents of the community, whom he thought looked suspicious, back to their homes.
At an emergency homeowner’s association meeting on March 1, just days after the killing, it was discovered that one resident had previously contacted the Sanford Police Department about “Zimmerman approaching him and even coming to his home,” a resident who spoke on the condition of anonymity told HuffPost. “It was also made known that there had been several complaints about George Zimmerman and his tactics” in his neighborhood watch role.
The guy had a history of getting in people's faces and provoking conflict and fear. Martin apparently was in no mood to take that kind of crap from the jacked-up little vigilante punk. So Zimmerman shot him.
Dan, If true, none of that was admissible in court. Same as martin's questionable exploits weren't.
Tom, I think it's more complicated than vigilantism. We have a severe crime problem in the US, which police are somewhat powerless to prevent. That being said, I don't like the idea of amateurs playing law enforcers. I'd rather hire more police if need be.
Dan, I'm not sure of the validity of what you cite. Certainly the court didn't see fit to allow it to be admitted as evidence, so I suspect it wasn't particularly compelling or even factual.
Not one of these witnesses was called by the prosecution. Nothingburger.
What is admissible in court and what is reasonable to believe are different things. Courts sometimes forbid attorneys from introducing uncontroversially established facts if the facts are deemed "prejudicial". There are lots of other rules of evidence that exclude information that stands up to reasonable canons of ordinary common-sense evidence.
I think in this, people need to be willfully blind to turn Zimmerman into some poor, persecuted victim of the legal system and prosecutorial zeal.
Dan, most folks carrying and discharging firearms in the US are criminal, not citizens. Get your facts straight if you want to be taken seriously.
Tom, I think it's more complicated than vigilantism. We have a severe crime problem in the US, which police are somewhat powerless to prevent. That being said, I don't like the idea of amateurs playing law enforcers. I'd rather hire more police if need be.
When government looses control of law and order, then the government's authority comes into question, those who are better off retreat into gated communities, and the wealthy hire their own security. This is step toward descent into societal dysfunction and ultimately chaos.
On the way, vigilantism rises along with paranoia, and the government has to take drastic measures to maintain order, effectively ending political liberalism for quasi martial law.
Factions begin forming and there are armed conflicts over influence and territory.
Unfortunately this is the direction in which the US is increasing heading, with paramilitary forces (gangs, militias) on one hand, and on the other a militarized domestic security force to protect major institutions and the property of the well-to do but not for ordinary policing.
'Ordinary policing': World prison Populations
Update on reaction to Zimmerman-Martin: In case anyone one hasn't noticed, the US is now engaged in a low-grade civil conflict that is almost inevitably going to escalate. Of course, it has been some time building but I would say that we are now entering the dangerous phase.
Yes Tom, I agree. Racial tensions are sitting atop a ton of dry kindling like the tinder the fuels the brush fires in Southern California. Makes me very apprehensive.
A big problem with the racial narrative the media is fronting is the fact that a Hispanic man shot a black man. That dog don't bark very well with the race hustlers. This wasn't white on black, no matter how much the race baiters want it to be. I realize the NYT calls Zimmerman a white-Hispanic, but most reasonable folks know that is horseshit. By their idiotic reasoning, Obama is a white- African American. The lion's share of fanning the racial flames falls squarely on the MSM giving disproportionate voice to race hustlers without calling them to task on their trumped up allegations/analysis. The average person on the street, not following the case closely, is probably justified in thinking this is a white/black, non self defense case, given the mass medias awful portrayal of the facts. If blood ends up on anyone's hands over this incident, it will be on the MSM's first and foremost.
I don't see this as exclusively racial although that is a significant component of it. It is a Right-Left thing, a federal-state thing, and a lot of other things that add up to polarization and increasing societal dysfunction.
Many folks on the right see this a a struggle for the future of America and increasingly they are willing to take measures that are ordinarily considered to be extreme in order to prevail. Unfortunately the cooler heads are riding the tiger as their preferred strategy. That is a huge mistake on their part, I think.
I don't foresee a race war although race will be part of it. But, I expect it to be a relatively minor part in the overall scheme of things. It will be centered on preserving America as a predominantly European nation as demographics shift and America browns into a muti-ethnic and multicultural society, with a resulting shift in power structure.
In the larger picture, this is about political control going forward, refashioning America into something that about half a divided nation is dead set against.
The good news is that the driving force is reactionary, and reactionary forces are seldom successful for long in the course of history. Time is against then. But that is small consolation while they are in power.
One never knows what will spark a smoldering condition. I think that this is definitely going to fan up some flames, in that a lot of people seem to feel emboldened by it, and Zimmerman is being prepped as a hero on the Right. On the back page is a story of Ted Cruz heading to NH to test the waters and Rand Paul has all but declared.
I like Stefan Molyneux's take on the matter. Eons better than the rabble ill willed,rousing soundbites at MSM venues across our country:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bF-Ax5E8EJc
"A big problem with the racial narrative the media is fronting is the fact that a Hispanic man shot a black man. That dog don't bark very well with the race hustlers. This wasn't white on black, no matter how much the race baiters want it to be."
What many done's realize is the various racial polarities that exist. Many Latinos are heavily prejudiced against Blacks and it seem that Zimmerman's Peruvian mother was one of those.
Many Whites assume that they are at the top of the racial hierarchy but that is just in the Western mind. Some Asians consider Whites "pig-faces," for instance. There's still a lot of tribalism in the human psyche, and this is part of what this is about.
America's great contribution as the melting-pot lies in moving beyond that. But it has not, is not and will not be a smooth process. At times it's bloody.
Tom, I live and work near Chicago. I know many Blacks and Hispanics. Given the fact that a large percentage of Hispanics live adjacent to Blacks in Chicago proper, my experience is that Hispanics by and large are not warm to Blacks--ghetto Blacks. It's a different story at work and in the suburbs, however. There's more assimilation and acceptance in that venue. What's odd about the city, though, is that even though both Hispanics and Blacks are in close proximity, they very rarely engage each other violently, even though there is clear tension between the respective communities. It's an odd detente if you will. Pretty much the way it goes down in Chicago is that Blacks kill Blacks and Hispanics kill Hispanics. In the suburbs, this happens much less in total, but you do get an occasional Black killing white or vice versa or Hispanic killing white or Black or vice versa. These are the cases that make the news, but they are rare, like the Zimmerman case is rare. Like my Chicago cop friend tells me, the gangs, which do most of the crime, keep it internecine. That keeps the heat off them and allows them greater freedom in drug dealings, etc--as long as they kill each other.
...BTW, if a black kills a civilian white in Chicago (which rarely happens) the cops go ballistic. The perpetrators will be turned in by gang leaders in days if not hours.
More good commentary by James Howard Kunstler:
http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/american-anxiety/
This is for Dan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7FixvoKBw
LOL.
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