Freeform Forum: My comments on the Trayvon Martin case
I had a conversation with a colleague yesterday about the Trayvon Martin case. It got very heated and not because we disagree. It was about the anger that we have about the case.
There are two very different points that came out of our conversation: the sense of injustice that George Zimmerman is not police custody and the ever present issue of race in our country.
Regardless of the state of innocence of George Zimmerman, he should be charged with a crime and in police custody. He did shoot Trayvon Martin and that shooting lead to George killing Trayvon. Therefore there is nothing in the law that would prevent the authorities from detaining Zimmerman. Habeas corpse wouldn’t apply here, since there IS enough evidence to support that Zimmerman killed Trayvon. However, there is not enough evidence to me that Zimmerman was “standing his ground,” and I am outraged that he is not in custody.
Earlier this week, I tweeted “@irishwombat: thinks #Zimmerman 's ‘virtually lost his life’ http://t.co/yaNyVn8P is as bad as #BP CEO Tony Hayward's ‘I'd like my life back.’ #Trayvon.” The link is from Good Morning America. George Stephanopoulos interviews Joe Oliver, a family friend of Zimmerman. Oliver calls for prosecutors investigating to release all the evidence in the case to silence cries for Zimmerman's arrest, and suggests that because of the growing controversy surrounding the case "George has virtually lost his life, too." George hasn’t virtually lost his life; he is waking up each morning, breathing, eating, talking with friends and family and gone into hiding. That’s not death; that’s self-imposed cowardly exile. Be a man, Georgie, and turn yourself in.
The interview also highlights that Oliver, a former television journalist, has made a number of incendiary and apparently at least one contradictory comment. However the fact remains that since the beginning Zimmerman admitted shooting Martin. Therefore if he is truly innocent, then he should be charged with a crime (murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault, criminal harassment or criminal menace, etc.) and our justice system will bring to light his innocence. For the majority of Americans including myself, what I define as a crime did happen on the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida.
To touch on race in America is a prickly topic. There was a dream-like optimism for a day or so after Obama’s election that we have entered a post-racial society, but that idealistic notion dissipated like morning fog. We are still a society that is hung up on race.
Here’s what I think Obama’s election let us finally realize and admit out loud: the specter of racism which embodied that idea that white people in power, who were bigots, suppressed and created obstacles for black men and women so that they would fail and only continue to proved the bigoted ideal of white superiority is a figment of imagination. We open our eyes and see clearly that racism is the irrational and usually bigoted hatred, fear, distrust or general unease against someone who is not perceived to be of the same race and this tension is greatly exacerbated when one party has a significant amount of control, influence or power over the other. This irrational train of thought empowers people to do heinous acts.
My build up is to say that a black man can be racist, an Asian woman can be racist, a Jew can be racist, a Latino Catholic can be racist and a mixed race (Peruvian and white) man who identifies as Hispanic can indeed be racist against blacks. I’ve heard the 911 tapes from CNN and I do distinctly hear the word “f***ing” however, I cannot make out the second word of his profane interjection. So I am not 100% confident that Zimmerman used a racial epithet, yet, for the sake of argument let’s say he did. Identifying as a person of color doesn’t exonerate anyone from not being a racist. Racism isn’t just for honkies anymore.
That’s what I’m left with: a) Zimmerman should be in jail and b) we need to blow the lid off of the topic of racism in America and address why anyone has irrational and bigoted feelings against someone not of their own race.
There are two very different points that came out of our conversation: the sense of injustice that George Zimmerman is not police custody and the ever present issue of race in our country.
Regardless of the state of innocence of George Zimmerman, he should be charged with a crime and in police custody. He did shoot Trayvon Martin and that shooting lead to George killing Trayvon. Therefore there is nothing in the law that would prevent the authorities from detaining Zimmerman. Habeas corpse wouldn’t apply here, since there IS enough evidence to support that Zimmerman killed Trayvon. However, there is not enough evidence to me that Zimmerman was “standing his ground,” and I am outraged that he is not in custody.
Earlier this week, I tweeted “@irishwombat: thinks #Zimmerman 's ‘virtually lost his life’ http://t.co/yaNyVn8P is as bad as #BP CEO Tony Hayward's ‘I'd like my life back.’ #Trayvon.” The link is from Good Morning America. George Stephanopoulos interviews Joe Oliver, a family friend of Zimmerman. Oliver calls for prosecutors investigating to release all the evidence in the case to silence cries for Zimmerman's arrest, and suggests that because of the growing controversy surrounding the case "George has virtually lost his life, too." George hasn’t virtually lost his life; he is waking up each morning, breathing, eating, talking with friends and family and gone into hiding. That’s not death; that’s self-imposed cowardly exile. Be a man, Georgie, and turn yourself in.
The interview also highlights that Oliver, a former television journalist, has made a number of incendiary and apparently at least one contradictory comment. However the fact remains that since the beginning Zimmerman admitted shooting Martin. Therefore if he is truly innocent, then he should be charged with a crime (murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault, criminal harassment or criminal menace, etc.) and our justice system will bring to light his innocence. For the majority of Americans including myself, what I define as a crime did happen on the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida.
To touch on race in America is a prickly topic. There was a dream-like optimism for a day or so after Obama’s election that we have entered a post-racial society, but that idealistic notion dissipated like morning fog. We are still a society that is hung up on race.
Here’s what I think Obama’s election let us finally realize and admit out loud: the specter of racism which embodied that idea that white people in power, who were bigots, suppressed and created obstacles for black men and women so that they would fail and only continue to proved the bigoted ideal of white superiority is a figment of imagination. We open our eyes and see clearly that racism is the irrational and usually bigoted hatred, fear, distrust or general unease against someone who is not perceived to be of the same race and this tension is greatly exacerbated when one party has a significant amount of control, influence or power over the other. This irrational train of thought empowers people to do heinous acts.
My build up is to say that a black man can be racist, an Asian woman can be racist, a Jew can be racist, a Latino Catholic can be racist and a mixed race (Peruvian and white) man who identifies as Hispanic can indeed be racist against blacks. I’ve heard the 911 tapes from CNN and I do distinctly hear the word “f***ing” however, I cannot make out the second word of his profane interjection. So I am not 100% confident that Zimmerman used a racial epithet, yet, for the sake of argument let’s say he did. Identifying as a person of color doesn’t exonerate anyone from not being a racist. Racism isn’t just for honkies anymore.
That’s what I’m left with: a) Zimmerman should be in jail and b) we need to blow the lid off of the topic of racism in America and address why anyone has irrational and bigoted feelings against someone not of their own race.
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