ZIMMERMAN SHOULD HAVE BEEN PUNISHED

JUSTICE WAS NOT SERVED for the family of Tryvon Martin, or Zimmerman, or USA Juris Prudence System.

I did not follow the trial. After the verdict was announced, I read the 911 tapes; a video by Juan Williams; the testimony of the Gun Shot expert; the FBI Report; the Suit filed by Zimmerman against NBC; videos of commentary by the Jurors; and a lot a gobbly-gook by main streat media.   Several of these source stories are listed below.

My findings and thoughts:

The picture of Treyvon Martin was not a current picture of him. He was more mature.  

Zimmerman should have stayed in his car and waited for the police as advised by the 911 operator.  His judgment was obnoxious.

The case of the State vs Zimmerman was corrupted by Obama's comments ("If I had a son, he would be like Treyvon.") and the venom deposited by Al Sharpton and his gang of racists.

If the case were developed without BIASED media input and in a dispassionate manner, it should have been possible to punish Zimmerman on a charge of minor manslaughter.  It does appear the death was a result of racism, not a hate crime;  maybe a case of self defense;  but most certainly a case of COLOSSAL STUPIDITY.  

WHY SHOULD A NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH PERSON BE CARRYING A GUN?  WELL, I DO KNOW THE HASIDIC JEWS IN NYC CARRY GUNS ON THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH.

BUT WHEN YOU MIX RACISM AND POOR POLITICS AND EMOTIONAL JOURNALISM AND A TRIAL, YOU GET CRAP.

We spent 6 weeks in Africa meeting thousands of young hardworking africans.  There were no hoodies.  There was no Al Sharpton. 

In our paper on our trip, we mentioned that the trip changed a number of of our beliefs. 

For one, we now believe American people of African descent are for the most part racists or totally misinformed by their leaders;  of course, Racism is a billion dollar business in the USA.

I am prepared to challenge my African American friends on this issue the first chance I get.

Shame shame on Barack Obama and his AND HIS CADRE OF RACISTS.

Not a malicious offense, but a stupid offense 

Joe

reply from Jean Vallieres: 

I just love law and the philosophy of law. J  I’m currently reading The Common Law by Justice Holmes as well as Hart’s 1961 book, The Concept of Law.  I think both bedrock books in legal realism and positivism . – a must read for serious law students, even if most have never read or heard of them.  Odd isn’t it.  I find these books good companions to  Joseph Wambaugh’s Harbor Nocturne, which I am also enjoying. J How I wish I had read these twp more serious books in college instead of all those Harold Robbins novels. J

With regard to your comment on ‘faulty judgment’, if faulty judgment was a crime, who would not spend time in  jail at one time or another. J I feel his pain.

With regard to observations on the media and courts, there is all too much emotion in today’s court rooms, too little logic in today’s newspapers. We teach reports how to write, but fail in the thinking courses.  Oh well.

Zimmerman was, in my judgment,  proven not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.  Tax Payer money was spent here to satisfy national political organizations and political figures.  But the money may yet be judged as well spent if those who count learn something from all this.  Recall what  Fitzgerald wrote as his closing lines of the Great Gatsby “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” It’s a great last line. Melancholic. The line only makes sense if you’re over 30. J 

I found the trial interesting, but equally saddening.  I listened to both the opening statements and closing arguments and found them quite worthy of note. If I had been selected to make the opening argument for the defense in this case, instead of that ridiculous joke he opened with  I’d have begun with the sentence "Call me Ishmael."   I argue this  short, short opening line would have better set the stage for this  long, long trial ahead and been remembered as a milestone quote in criminal case law as well as literature. Move over Melville. LOL… 

Sadly we as a society are  like the old Roman Empire in one respect.  Today millions here in the U.S. live on ‘ bread and circuses’.  Take away our sports and mindless TV entertainment, along with government handouts at the state and federal levels and what is left.  What is left?

I have provided more comments re. your email response below.  Some may be worth reflecting on.  Maybe, maybe not.

Bread and Circuses" is a metaphor for a superficial means of appeasement. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the creation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion; distraction; or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace,as an offered "palliative." Juvenal decried it as a simplistic motivation of common people. The phrase also implies the erosion or ignorance of civic duty amongst the concerns of the common man.  In modern usage, the phrase is taken to describe a populace that no longer values civic virtues and the public life. To many across the political spectrum, left and right, it connotes a supposed triviality and frivolity that characterized the Roman Republic prior to its decline into the autocratic monarchy characteristic of the later Roman Empire's transformation about 44 B.C.  Source: Wikipedia, a great gift to mankind. J

____________________________

joseph brophy [mailto:josephbrophy@brophy.net]
Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2013 8:49 AM
To: 'R. Jean Vallieres'
Subject: RE: zimmerman should have been charged with something and punished.  [What punishment would you give for Zimmerman’s ‘bad judgment’ other than the moral judgment he must live with?]

No question he was not guilty as charged  AGREE.  HE WAS FOUND NOT-GUILTY AS CHARGED.

But Zimmerman was not provoked in any way  MAYBE, MAYBE NOT.  WE DO NOT KNOW.

And he ignored the advice of 911 to not engage.  HE IGNORED ADVICE.  THIS IS NOT A CIMINAL ACT.  HOW MANY OF US HAVE FROM TIME TO TIME.  WHEN WE IGNORE ADICE AND BENEFIT WE ARE DEEMED GENIOUS, WHEN WE IGNORE AND DO NOT BENEFIT, WE ARE DEEMED IMPRUDENT.  GO FIGURE.

He was guilty of bad judgment which falls under manslaughter somewhere NO, I THINK NOT. HE WAS INDEED QUILTY ON HINDSIGHT OF BAD JUDGMENT.  BUT, BAD JUDGEMENT IS NOT A CRIME.   ALL UNLAWFUL ACTIVITY INVOLVES BAD JUDGMENT. HIS ACTIVITY THAT NIGHT WE WILL NEVER QUITE KNOW.  HENCE THE CONCEPT OF ‘REASONABLE DOUBT’.  INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT.  Reasonable doubt is the highest standard of proof used in court.

In civil litigation the standard of proof is either proof by a preponderance of the evidence or proof by clear and convincing evidence. These are lower burdens of proof. A preponderance of the evidence simply means that one side has more evidence in its favor than the other, even by the smallest degree. Clear and convincing evidence is evidence that establishes a high probability that the fact sought to be proved is true. The main reason that the high proof standard of reasonable doubt is used in criminal trials is that criminal trials can result in the deprivation of a defendant's liberty or in the defendant's death, outcomes far more severe than occur in civil trials where money damages are the common remedy.  Reasonable doubt is required in criminal proceedings under the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In in re winship, 397 U.S. 358, 90 S. Ct. 1068, 25 L. Ed. 2d 368 (1970), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the highest standard of proof is grounded on "a fundamental value determination of our society that it is far worse to convict an innocent man than to let a guilty man go free."  [In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358 (1970) The case has come to stand for a broad proposition that in a criminal prosecution, every essential element of the offense must be proved beyond reasonable doubt.]

Self-defense or private defense is a moral countermeasure that involves defending oneself, one's property, or the well-being of another from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force in times of danger.  I suspect that Zimmerman acted in self-defense. I cannot prove by suspect that he was swung at by Martian and then fought, finally acting irrationally thinking his life was in serious danger.  Hit my head a few times on solid ground and I too would not have hesitated to use a firearm if I had been him.  This having been said, there is all too much reasonable doubt in this entire matter to have convicted this guy.

  JOhn

'Crackers,' a 'teenage mammy' -- the sorry truth about race and Zimmerman trial

"White Hispanics," "Creepy-Ass Crackers," "Teenage Mammies," and "Suspicious A--holes who always get away" -- that is the vernacular of the George Zimmerman trial.

George Zimmerman faces life in jail as a jury considers second-degree murder charges against him for killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. But thanks to the media he is already sentenced to life in the American public's mind as a racist.

NBC edited a tape of Zimmerman’s call to police as he was following Martin to make him appear to be focused on Martin’s race.

The New York Times has referred to him in unique racial terms as a “white Hispanic." The terminology was necessary to have the story fit into a well-worn news narrative throughout American history from the Scottsboro Boys to Emmett Till to Rodney King – the black victim of white racism. Hispanic people can be as racist as black or white people in a country with a deep history of racism. But, apparently for the Times, Zimmerman's whiteness was important. It fit their good versus evil tale of a white racist killing an innocent black man.

In June, before the trial started, a CNN poll asked Americans if they believed the murder charges against Zimmerman were true or false. Without any courtroom testimony or evidence, but based on the racially charged media coverage, 62 percent of Americans said the charges were “probably true” or “definitely true.”

My bet is that poll would have different results today. The trial has failed to prove Zimmerman acted with a “depraved mind” – as required for a second-degree murder conviction – or even with a racist mind. He certainly killed Martin. And the jury may decide he is guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter. But what we heard in the courtroom fits with an FBI report that found race was not a factor in Martin’s shooting death.

The strong public judgment of Zimmerman’s guilt in the poll reflected a racially weighted media telling of the story. Photos of a bloodied Zimmerman after the incident, Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense and the police decision not to charge Zimmerman all got a dismissive glance from the press and contributed to public assumptions about Zimmerman before the trial.  

Liberal and conservative news TV and radio have played to the racial theme, too. The left, notably Rev. Al Sharpton, have made the case a crusade for racial justice. The right-wing media, especially talk radio, has responded by making Zimmerman a hero. In fact, Zimmerman’s lawyer, Mark O’Mara, created an online site that attracted more than $145,000 from people who somehow made Zimmerman into their champion, possibly their great white hero.

The national focus on race in this case hit a high point when Rachel Jeantel, a 19-year-old student, testified that she spoke with Martin just before he was killed. Jeantel, Martin’s friend, told the court that Martin complained that a “man was just watching him.” And Martin described this man, Jeantel said, as a “creepy, white, excuse my language, cracker --- creepy-ass cracker.”

Jeantel’s testimony set off a stupid debate, requiring total ignorance of slavery and legal segregation, about the equivalence of blacks using “cracker” to describe whites, versus whites using the word “nigger” to describe blacks. 

And Jeantel’s physical appearance, as a dark, heavyset young woman, speaking with a Southern dialect as she gave the lawyers a lot of attitude with her curt answers, contributed to the racial view of the case. 

She became the “teenage mammy,” in the words of a sociology professor quoted in the New York Times, caricatured for “not being smart and using these racial slurs and not being the best witness.”

And now the media, especially some conservative talk radio outlets, are fixated on the possibility of race riots if Zimmerman is acquitted. Meanwhile, Twitter and other social media sites are full of threats from angry black people to kill Zimmerman if he is not held accountable by a jury for killing Martin.

Martin, the 17-year-old, is dead. But he has not escaped the racial slander attached to this case. Zimmerman’s backers note that Martin had smoked marijuana – as if that is unusual among American teenagers. They seem delighted to find online messages in which he took on a rapper, street-thug persona and posed as a tough guy.

These are all caricatures of two real people caught in a tragedy.

Zimmerman should have listened to the 911 emergency dispatch operator who told him to stop following Martin. 

Why did he have a gun if he was simply part of a neighborhood watch program? 

He had no basis to suspect Martin of any crime. So why does he describe Martin as “suspicious” to police? 

Why does he apparently lump Martin with people he describes as “these a--holes, they always get away.”

Why didn’t Martin just walk away from Zimmerman?

But Martin is dead. He can’t speak for himself and get beyond the box of racial stereotypes the media built for him.

Zimmerman is alive. He has chosen not to speak at his trial, and although the prosecution played an interview he did with Fox News' Sean Hannity, it is still no match for skipping an ideal chance to tell his story when everyone is listening in the courtroom and on television.

Now, no matter what the verdict, he is going to carry his box of racial stereotypes around until his death. His identity will always be as a want-to-be cop who trailed a black kid who was not doing anything wrong, got in a fight with him, pulled out a gun and killed him.

Ultimately, it is the job of the media to give straight, objective coverage of any story. 

Whatever the final verdict on Zimmerman, the media is clearly guilty of playing on the most primitive racial divisions in our society to fuel racial animosity and boost ratings.

There are no winners here.

Juan Williams is a Fox News political analyst. He is the author of several books including "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America--and What We Can Do About It" and "Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate."

- - - - - -

Zimmerman lawyer to move ‘asap’ against NBC News

Last night’s not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial will enable the neighborhood-watch volunteer to resume his case against NBC News for the mis-editing of his widely distributed call to police. Back in December, Zimmerman sued NBC Universal Media for defamation over the botched editing, which depicted him as a hardened racial profiler.

George Zimmerman (R) talks to defense counsel Don West during his trial on Saturday. (EPA/JOE BURBANK / POOL)

Here’s how NBC News, in

a March 27, 2012, broadcast of the “Today” show, abridged the tape of Zimmerman’s comments to a police dispatcher on the evening of Feb. 26, 2012:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.

The full tape went like this:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. Or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about. Dispatcher: OK, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic?
Zimmerman: He looks black.

NBC Universal Media responded to the Zimmerman complaint by noting that other media outlets played up the racial angle of Zimmerman’s deadly encounter with Trayvon Martin.

The company also noted the pivotal nature of the second-degree murder case: “[I]f Zimmerman is convicted, that fact alone will constitute substantial evidence that the destruction of his reputation is the result of his own criminal conduct, and not of the broadcasts at issue which, like countless other news reports disseminated by media entities throughout the country, reported on the underlying events.”

That formulation is now null.

According to Zimmerman attorney James Beasley, the case against NBC News was stayed pending the outcome of the criminal case. Now that’s out of the way, and Beasley is ready to proceed. “We’re going to start in earnest asap, we just have to get the stay lifted which is a ministerial act,” says Beasley, a Philadelphia lawyer, via e-mail.

When asked how the not-guilty verdict affects the civil case against NBC News, Beasley responded, “This verdict of not guilty is just that, and shows that at least this jury didn’t believe that George was a racist, profiling, or anything that the press accused George of being. That probably doesn’t get you that much but it’s simply time for us to start the case and hold accountable anyone who was irresponsible in their journalism.”

Read more about the George Zimmerman verdict:

Jennifer Rubin: Jurors see through the shabby case against Zimmerman

Erik Wemple: Don’t blame media for Zimmerman prosecution

Ruth Marcus: Zimmerman verdict shows the flaws of justice

Editorial: Zimmerman goes free, but tragedy remains

Jonathan Capehart: A crushing verdict for the Martin family

- - - - - -

FBI records: agents found no evidence that Zimmerman was racist

 

 

Frances Robles and Scott Hiaason | Miami Herald

After interviewing nearly three dozen people in the George Zimmerman murder case, the FBI found no evidence that racial bias was a motivating factor in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, records released Thursday show.

Even the lead detective in the case, Sanford Det. Chris Serino, told agents that he thought Zimmerman profiled Trayvon because of his attire and the circumstances — but not his race.

Serino saw Zimmerman as “having little hero complex, but not as a racist.”

The Duval County State Attorney released another collection of evidence in the Zimmerman murder case Thursday, including reports from FBI agents who investigated whether any racial bias was involved in Trayvon’s Feb. 26 killing.

The evidence includes bank surveillance videos from the day of the killing, crime scene photos and memos from prosecutors.

Among the documents is a note from the prosecutor who said one of the witnesses said her son, a minor, had felt pressured by investigators to say the injured man he saw was wearing a red top. The boy’s testimony had been considered key, because it backed up Zimmerman’s allegation that he — wearing red — was being pummeled.

Federal agents interviewed Zimmerman’s neighbors and co-workers, but none said Zimmerman had expressed racial animus at any time prior to the Feb. 26 shooting of Martin, a black teen, in a confrontation at a Sanford housing complex. As Sanford police investigated the circumstances of Martin’s death, the FBI opened a parallel probe to determine if Martin’s civil rights had been violated.

Several co-workers said they had never seen Zimmerman display any prejudice or racial bias.

Two co-workers told agents they spoke with Zimmerman the day after the shooting, and both said they noticed injuries to Zimmerman’s nose and the back of his head. One person said Zimmerman was “absolutely devastated.”

Zimmerman told both colleagues that he followed Martin — whom Zimmerman described as a “suspicious person” — so he could tell police where the teen went, but was then “jumped” by Martin. Zimmerman told both that Martin reached for Zimmerman’s gun before Zimmerman shot Martin.

In all, the FBI interviewed 35 people about Zimmerman, from current and former co-workers to neighbors and an ex-girlfriend.

Among the revelations found in nearly 300 pages of records:

• Zimmerman arrived at one of his police interviews with a friend who works as an air marshal. That friend told police Zimmerman was physically abused by his mother and had been estranged from his family.

• The day Zimmerman turned himself in to be charged with second-degree murder, authorities confiscated a handgun from his car.

• A gun dealer called police to say that some time in mid-March, Zimmerman called to say he was afraid for his life and “needed more guns.”

• An ex-girlfriend said Zimmerman had outbursts and sometimes threatened suicide. She suspected it was a result of Accutane, the acne medicine he took. She said he was the “last person in the world” she thought would be involved in such an incident.

• The ex girlfriend said she and Zimmerman had a violent argument when she caught him on a singles dating web site, even though they were engaged to be married.

• Trayvon’s cousin said he would swear “on a stack of bibles” that the person shouting in a 911 tape that recorded screams during the struggle was Trayvon.

Zimmerman, 28, claims Trayvon attacked him, breaking his nose and slamming his head on the concrete at the Retreat at Twin Lakes townhouse complex. Specially appointed prosecutors who investigated the case charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder, which carries a potential life sentence.

The state attorney’s office says Zimmerman wrongly assumed Trayvon was a criminal, and says he did not suffer injuries serious enough to require deadly force to defend himself.

The U.S. Department of Justice and FBI stepped in about a month after the killing, as protesters nationwide criticized the investigation. The original probe was conducted by police in Sanford, the central Florida community where Zimmerman lives and Trayvon was visiting while suspended from school.

- - - - - - - - -

CNN) -- [Breaking news update at 8:55 p.m. Monday]

One of the jurors who acquitted George Zimmerman said she had "no doubt" Zimmerman feared for his life in the final moments of his struggle with Trayvon Martin, and that was the definitive factor in the verdict. The juror spoke to CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" on Monday.

[Original story, posted at 8:48 p.m. Monday]

Juror: Zimmerman's 'heart was in right place' but judgment was lacking

(CNN) -- One of the jurors who acquitted George Zimmerman said she believed his "heart was in the right place" the night he killed Trayvon Martin, but that he didn't use "good judgment" in confronting the Florida teen.

Juror: Zimmerman's heart in right place

The juror spoke to CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" on Monday night. Her identity was concealed.

"I think George Zimmerman is a man whose heart was in the right place, but just got displaced by the vandalism in the neighborhoods and wanting to catch these people so badly that he went above and beyond what he really should have done. But I think his heart was in the right place. It just went terribly wrong," she said.

If anything, the juror said she thought Zimmerman was guilty of not using "good judgment."

"When he was in the car, and he had called 911, he shouldn't have gotten out of that car," she said.

She also said she believes Martin threw the first punch in their confrontation.

Zimmerman probably feared for his life before shooting Martin, and it was his voice that was heard screaming for help in 911 calls, the juror said she believes.

She will be writing a book about her experiences, literary agent Sharlene Martin said before her interview aired.

"My hope is that people will read Juror B37's book, written with her attorney husband, and understand the commitment it takes to serve and be sequestered on a jury in a highly publicized murder trial and how important, despite one's personal viewpoints, it is to follow the letter of the law," the president of Martin Literary Agency, wrote in a statement.

"It could open a whole new dialogue about laws that may need to be revised and revamped to suit a 21st Century way of life," Martin said.

Verdict debate doesn't end debate in Martin's death

Jurors were not identified by name during the trial.

However, according to HLN, CNN's sister network, juror B37 has been married 20 years, has two adult children and once had a concealed weapons permit. She has lived in Seminole County, Florida, for 18 years and volunteers for animal rescue groups, according to HLN.

In addition to exploring Florida self-defense laws, gun control and race relations, the book will show readers "why the jurors had no option but to find Zimmerman not guilty due to the manner in which he was charged and the content of the jury instructions," Martin said.

Martin has handled a number of other controversial high-profile books, including "If I Did It," the book written by O.J. Simpson, but acquired by the family of murder victim Ronald Goldman, detailing how the killings of Goldman and Simpson's former wife Nicole Simpson might have been committed.

- - - - - - - - -

Subject: In light of the Zimmerman verdict, this worth a second read...

There is factual information here precluded from the trial that sheds light on Zimmerman's character and Martins' intent.  For those who see it for the first time, the picture becomes clearer and verdict more righteous. 

nrg

the excellent article by Karin McQuillan is preceded by this note from the author ...

Dear Friends:  The day after I wrote about Obama’s abuse of power in targeting George Zimmerman (below), Judicial Watch published its findings of DOJ documents it got via Freedom of Information Act – Eric Holder’s DOJ paid for and bussed in black protesters to Sanford County during the initial investigation, leading to the resignation of the police chief.  http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/documents-obtained-by-judicial-watch-detail-role-of-justice-department-in-organizing-trayvon-martin-protests/       The significance of the DOJ’s involvement cannot be overstated.  The Obama administration intervened in a police investigation to bring in crowds of people to pressure a police department to corrupt a police investigation and create a race-based show trial.  (Police Chief) Bill Lee, who testified Monday in Zimmerman's second-degree murder trial, told CNN's George Howell in an exclusive interview that he felt pressure from city officials to arrest Zimmerman to placate the public rather than as a matter of justice.

"It was (relayed) to me that they just wanted an arrest. They didn't care if it got dismissed later," he said. "You don't do that."

When Sanford police arrived on the scene on February 26, 2012, after Zimmerman fatally shot unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, they conducted a "sound" investigation, and the evidence provided no probable cause to arrest Zimmerman at the scene, he said.

It had nothing to do with Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law, he said; from an investigative standpoint, it was purely a matter of self-defense…. From CNN http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/10/justice/sanford-bill-lee-exclusive/index.html

******************************************************************************************************************

July 11, 2013

President Obama vs. George Zimmerman: America Loses

By Karin McQuillan

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/07/president_obama_vs_george_zimmerman (see comments here)

As the Zimmerman prosecution falls apart, the country faces the threat of race riots.  A case that lacked any evidence of malicious murder was wrongfully brought to court under political pressure.  And our president, who instigated this mess, is floating above it all, having moved on to other things.  Will Obama speak out to avert the racial violence he set in motion?  Unless he sees some political advantage, the answer is no.

Judicial Watch has obtained documents disclosing that the Department of Justice actually helped organize demonstrations and protests against George Zimmerman.

The Zimmerman case began with the media making up a racist story: a black kid carrying candy is shot in cold blood by a white man in a gated community.  It was a story that sent fear and anger through black people across the country.  President Obama was in a low point in his re-election campaign, trying to gin up the black vote.  Zimmerman, as a scapegoat, was used as a chance for Obama to bond with fellow blacks.  So, making history, the president of the United States intervened in a criminal justice matter to foment race-hatred and fear.  President Obama himself made it an issue of skin color: "If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin."

Once the president of the United States weighed in, Zimmerman had a target on his back.  An ounce of election advantage to our privileged, Ivy League president versus the ruination of a Hispanic man's life -- it was an easy choice for Obama.  Obama's great appeal to voters in 2008 was his self-presentation as a black man without animus or grievance, eager to move the country beyond divisions of all sorts -- black and white, red and blue.  In reality, Obama is obsessed with divisions -- race, class, gender -- and is expert at fueling war between us, to his political advantage.

Obama has used accusations of racism before, to rally his troops and attack his political opponents.  Opposition to ObamaCare?  Racist.  Opposition to big government?  Racist.  His core liberal supporters like this stuff, and the other voters give him a pass on this, as on everything.  The election analysts were predicting that even black turnout could dip in 2012.  Obama moved from racial slurs on opposition groups to attacking a particular individual citizen.  Zimmerman was sacrificed.

The Sanford police had concluded, based on a careful gathering of evidence, that they had no case for murder or even manslaughter.  Being caught up in a tragedy is not a crime.  Zimmerman had a right to self-defense.  After Obama's intervention, the police were overruled, and a case of malicious, racist murder was taken to court.

The liberal media piled on.  American blacks were purposefully stirred up, angered, heartbroken, then mollified.  Obama underlined his racial identification with their grief and outrage, capitalizing on the poignant childhood photo of Martin, his imaginary son.

Zimmerman didn't get to be the president's imaginary son.  Wrong color.  Zimmerman got to be the enemy.

Of all Americans, blacks should believe in their hearts that a man is innocent until proven guilty, no matter the color of his skin.  Instead, too many black Americans have allowed themselves to be manipulated by the liberal media and self-serving politicians to become a lynch mob, threatening violence if the trial doesn't convict.  Evidence that things are not as bad as they thought only makes them angrier.

Jonah Goldberg writes at RealClearPolitics:

The Washington Post reported this week that civil-rights activists in Florida are dismayed that the George Zimmerman murder trial in Florida isn't racially divisive enough. "It makes you feel kind of angry and kind of bad that race is not a part of this," the Rev. Harrold C. Daniels, told the Post. "It's a missed opportunity."

The "problem," as even the Martin family's attorney concedes, is that there's just not much evidence that Zimmerman was motivated by racial animus. You'd think that would be good news. But it's not because so many people invested in the idea that "Trayvon Martin is Emmett Till!" in the words of one demagogic radio host, and countless other commentators. 

Teenage blacks aren't gunned down by racist whites in America anymore -- if they were, we would all be reading headlines on that case.  But Democrats rely on angry, scared blacks to be their loyal base.  So the media and the president had to make do with Martin and Zimmerman.  So far, the trial has, witness by witness, destroyed the prosecution's case, but the liberal community has not let go of its narrative -- a white man in a gated community killing a kid with candy because he was black.

Nothing in their story proved true.

It wasn't a white man; it was a Hispanic.

George Zimmerman is not a racist.  He is an outstandingly race-blind man who was raised with two black children his mother was a nanny for, who were beloved by his family and remain close to this day.

The prosecution cannot make a case for racism, because they would have to allow the following as evidence:

Zimmerman conducted a one-man crusade to get justice for a black homeless man beaten by a policeman's son.

In late 2010, a homeless African American man, Sherman Ware, was knocked unconscious for no reason whatsoever by the son of a Sanford City police officer, George was upset that the son was not arrested and that no one seemed to care about the homeless man. George produced and distributed a notice of what had happened and rallied support for the homeless gentleman. George put this notice on vehicles and passed it out at churches as services ended. Eventually, largely due to George's efforts, the police officer's son was charged with the assault.

Zimmerman and his wife mentored two black children, and helped their mother with home repairs.

Although George was working full-time and going to school, he made it a priority in his life to do as much for these children as possible. When I met these two young children I did not know who they were, I asked where they knew George from. They replied 'he's our mentor'. I was unsure what these two young people meant by the word 'mentor' so I asked them what that was. Their reply was that "George takes us places, helps us with things, and teaches us to do the right things. We really love George". George also assisted their mother as much as possible with any repairs or help that may be needed around their house. Unfortunately, the mentoring program ended. However, George and Shellie continued their activities on their own. When George's mother asks why he had to travel to such a dangerous area to mentor children, George's reply was 'Mom, I really love these kids and if I don't go, they won't have anyone".

It was not a privileged white gated community, but an interracial place peopled by upwardly mobile working- and middle-class families trying to remain safe in a high-crime neighborhood.  Zimmerman got along well with his black neighbors.

Prior to George's arrest, the media asked two African American neighbors of George if he was a racist. One said that she knew George very well, nothing about George portrayed in the media was accurate, and that to this day she would trust George Zimmerman with her life. The other commented that George Zimmerman was the only individual, black or white, that had introduced himself when she was moving in. He gave her his phone number and said if there was anything she needed at any time, please call him or his wife. She is totally convinced that the individual portrayed in the media is certainly not the George Zimmerman that she knows well.

Nor do they know much about Trayvon Martin's downward spiral after this father's second divorce, when he was forced to leave the stepmother he grew up with most of his life.  They believe in the cultivated image of a kid "carrying candy" and "iced tea," and they resent speaking ill of the dead.

The truth is different.  Martin had gone to the 7-11 to buy a cigar under the counter, which he and his friends used to fill with marijuana, called a "blunt."  He bought Skittles and Arizona Watermelon Fruit Juice Cocktail to lace with codeine from cough syrup to get high with, a druggy concoction called "Lean."  We know all this from his online chat with friends about blunts and Lean, testimony from his cousin to the police, and the store video camera.

Martin was not the small sweet-faced boy shown in the media photos, but a big, angry 17-year-old.  He was recently suspended from school when they found that his backpack held burglary tools and 12 pieces of stolen women's jewelry and a watch.  It is not unlikely that he was out on that rainy night casing houses to burgle.

Jack Cashill spells out "What the Media Choose Not to Know about Trayvon":

In the past year or so, his social media sites showed a growing interest in drugs, in mixed martial arts-style street fighting, in a profoundly vulgar exploitation of "bitches." 

Trayvon posed for one photo with raised middle fingers, another with wads of cash held in an out-stretched arm.  One YouTube video shows him refereeing a fight club-style street fight.  A cousin had recently tweeted him, "Yu ain't tell me yu swung on a bus driver," meaning, if true, that Trayvon had punched out a bus driver.

Zimmerman never saw the cute little boy that the TV audience did.  He saw a full-grown man, a druggy, a wannabe street fighter, the tattooed, gold-grilled, self-dubbed "No_Limit_Nigga." 

There is no evidence that Martin was chased and cold-bloodedly gunned down.  That's another fabrication.  Zimmerman was on the phone with the dispatcher almost the entire time.  He says Martin jumped on him from the shadows and began beating him as he headed back to his truck.  Their location in the housing development, not far from Zimmerman's truck, supports Zimmerman's account, not the imaginary chase scene.  There is an eyewitness to the beating, who saw Martin on top, beating Zimmerman "mixed martial arts-style."

Each mother claims that it is her son's voice calling for help on the 911 tape.  But the wounds were on Martin's fist and on Zimmerman's face and skull.  The eyewitness saw Martin on top of Zimmerman, raining blows on him.  Martin's own father and brother initially told police they did not think it was Martin's voice yelling for help.  The one witness told police at the scene that it was Zimmerman calling for help.

The defense asked Good to confirm what he told Serine immediately after the shooting: "So I open my door.  It was a black man with a black hoodie on top of the other, either a white guy or now I found out I think it was a Hispanic guy with a red sweatshirt on the ground yelling out, 'Help!'["]

Yet the liberal lynch mob acts as if their initial made-up story is still the true version.  The black community is disappointed that the prosecution didn't present evidence of malicious racism and murderous intent, needed for the second-degree murder charge to stick.

The prosecution had no such case to be made, but Democrats know who is guilty -- the man the liberal media and press fingered.  Evidence and lack of evidence in a court of law do not impress them.

So they ignore all the details, since the details don't support their rush to judgment.

Here is Juan Williams, hardly a race-baiter:

So, if a black guy shot a white kid, and they said, 'Oh, the kid was carrying Skittles and iced tea, but you know what these punks get away with it all the time.' People would say forget who was on top of who and who was punching who. Why was a guy with a gun deciding that he had to act violently with a teen with an iced tea?

Juan is acting like we don't know the answer to that question: the guy with the gun was on the ground having his head bashed into a cement sidewalk by a teenager bigger and stronger and meaner than he was, when "the teen" reached for the guy's gun and said, "You're going to die tonight."  That's why the guy shot the teen.  Wouldn't you defend your life, Juan?  Why does iced tea enter in?  Why does race enter into this?  There is no reason to think George Zimmerman would make it all up so he could shoot a black kid.

What is going on here is a tragedy for the whole country, a tragedy of many black lives blighted.

Thomas Sowell, in a superb column entitled "Who Is Racist?," writes:

Is this what so many Americans, both black and white, struggled for, over the decades and generations, to try to put the curse of racism behind us ...

What went wrong? ... black leaders have ranged from noble souls to shameless charlatans. After the success of the civil rights insurgency, the latter have come into their own, gaining money, power and fame by promoting racial attitudes and actions that are counterproductive to the interests of those they lead.

Groups that rose from poverty to prosperity seldom did so by having racial or ethnic leaders. While most Americans can easily name a number of black leaders, current or past, how many can name Asian American ethnic leaders or Jewish ethnic leaders?

The time is long overdue to stop looking for progress through racial or ethnic leaders. Such leaders have too many incentives to promote polarizing attitudes and actions that are counterproductive for minorities and disastrous for the country.

The Civil Rights Movement had aims so lofty they seemed impossible.  Then we accomplished them.  Martin Luther King and his supporters united to fight not just segregation, but the evil of racism that lay behind it.  It took most of the country working together, black and white, Republican and Democrat, Christian and Jew.  We succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.  Discrimination was ended in America.  Within a generation, racism became rare and socially unacceptable.  According to the world map of racism compiled by the World Values Survey, only 3.8% of Americans are reluctant to have a neighbor of another race.  Within two generations, we elected a black president.

Yet despite all the practical gains by blacks, defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory.  The Zimmerman trial reveals how black racial pain is kept alive.  Liberal carpetbaggers foment black racial fears and resentments for their own political and media power and financial gain.

Black children who are told that that the game is rigged against them, who live close to the boil of churning racial anger, are cheated of Martin Luther King's success.  They have been handed over to the Jesse Jackson race-hustlers and the Al Sharpton race-baiters and the Barack Obama manipulators.  Perpetual victimhood, and the accompanying fear, pain, anger, resentment, and self-pity, are not emotions that promote success in life.  The doors of opportunity may be open, but too many black children, especially boys, are hobbled and don't develop what it takes to walk through.

Trayvon Martin was one of their victims.  So is George Zimmerman.  Thanks to President Obama, so is the whole country.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/07/president_obama_vs_george_zimmerman_america_loses.html#ixzz2YwdZdF3D
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

- - - - - - - -

Share:

More . . .

A    A   |

   Email Us   |

   Print   |

   Forward Article

 

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/ben-carson-zimmerman-verdict/2013/07/17/id/515562?s=al&promo_code=1434F-1#ixzz2ZQhYuW8C
Urgent: Should Obamacare Be Repealed? Vote Here Now!