The not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial wasn’t
a surprise, at least not to me. I hadn’t expected anything else. Proving beyond reasonable doubt that Zimmerman didn’t act in self-defense seemed a steep climb.
Was Trayvon Martin beating Zimmerman, beating him so severely
that Zimmerman was afraid for his life? Zimmerman said he was. Trayvon couldn’t give his side of the story, and there were
no witnesses aside from Zimmerman.
Who started that altercation? Zimmerman said it was Trayvon, and Trayvon couldn’t give his side of the story.
Who was heard screaming for help? When did Zimmerman pull out his gun? Did Zimmerman set out to hurt Trayvon? We have only Zimmerman’s word to go on. Trayvon couldn’t give his side of the
story.
And during the trial, did the prosecutors do the best job they could? Did they have the best expert witnesses they could find?
The trial ended with a lot of unanswered questions. But one thing is not in doubt: as Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old boy, walked down a street in a Sanford, Florida, neighborhood after buying snacks at a 7-Eleven, a private citizen decided he looked suspicious, followed him, and after a struggle with him, shot and killed him.
That should not have happened. And it did not have to.
And here are a few other things that are not in doubt:
1) The verdict sets a terrible precedent, making it likely that Stand Your Ground laws like Florida’s will lead to more tragedies.
2) This tragedy would not have happened had Zimmerman not been carrying a gun. Trayvon Martin was minding his own business, walking in a neighborhood in which he had every right to be. Given that Zimmerman thought he was suspicious, he certainly would never have followed him had the gun he carried not given him a sense of security.
3) It may have been hard to prove Zimmerman guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, but it is too big a stretch to say that race played no role, in Trayvon’s death and in the trial, where the jury included no African Americans. The uncomfortable truth is that race colors our thinking about one another. And people of color are paying the price. We cannot consider Trayvon’s death without taking race into account.
It’s also too big a stretch to think that Zimmerman would have thought Trayvon was suspicious if Trayvon were white. Zimmerman’s suspicion and Trayvon’s death were not anomalies.
A slide show on theroot.com has photos of unarmed black teenagers and men killed because somebody thought they were acting suspicious. Stories of black men and boys – minding their own business, like Trayvon – being stopped and questioned by police are common. Many black parents say they train their sons about how to act if police stop and question them.
And many black parents are terrified that what happened to Trayvon will happen to their own sons. Shortly after Trayvon’s
death, the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson referred to “the bull’s-eye that black men wear throughout their lives – and the vital imperative to never, ever, be caught on the wrong street at the wrong time.”
Early this week, Post columnist Robert Samuels recalled Michelle Obama saying that “her husband, as a black man, could be shot and killed indiscriminately at any time — so she needn’t worry greatly about attempts to assassinate the man who would be the first black president.”
White Americans do not experience this.
“Though Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law contributed significantly to Zimmerman’s acquittal,” Roxane Gay wrote on salon.com, “the root of the problem reaches far deeper and stretches all across these United States. We must forget the convenient narrative that racism only thrives in the South.
Racism is an American problem.”
Racism continues to eat away at the fabric of this country. It flourishes, in Rochester as well as in Sanford, Florida. And the George Zimmerman trial won’t be the last time we’ll try to pretend that racism wasn’t a factor in a tragic death.
This article appears in Jul 17-23, 2013.
Two lessons learned here:
1.) In states with Stand Your Ground laws, bad guys need to be put on notice that they can and will be shot if they try to harm or kill someone without provocation. The intent is to create a deterrence. I hope the bad guys in Florida have taken notice. Even in states with higher bars for the use of physical deadly force for self defense, such as NY, 1 to 3% of the population around you is armed with a legally registered and concealed weapon at any given time. In states with more relaxed gun laws, those numbers are higher.
2.) The question to black-on-black homicide – which represents around 95% of all homicides with black victims, has yet to be answered. The Martin/Zimmerman brouhaha was nothing more than a side show to detract from the real problem of violence against black people perpetrated by other black people, to which no one can seem to find a viable solution. Going after George Zimmerman and his brethren is a solution in search of a problem that doesn’t really exist. The real problems are socio-economics (i.e., inner-city poverty), single-parent households, “ghetto” culture, a generous social services system, and a weak criminal justice system that gives offenders light slaps on the wrist and too many 2nd chances. However, fixing these problems are inherently politically incorrect and goes against the grain of Democrat politicians who rely on the disadvantaged to sustain their political careers.
Mary Anna, the summary of your article is that Racism flourishes in Rochester and in Sanford, Florida and you use the Zimmerman/Martin case as an example of that Racism. Yet, the local police, the FBI both concluded that Racism had nothing to do with this event. The media from day one have attempted to sell this event as a result of Racism and unfortunately have done a great job at it. This verdict does not “set a terrible precedent”, “stand your ground” was not used in the trial, if you paid attention. It was a simple self-defense argument presented by the defense. Most Black men sadly die by the actions of other Black men. That is the terrible tragedy. You state this tragedy would not have happened if Zimmerman not been carrying a gun. It also would not have happened if Martin had just gone home. If Zimmerman did not have a gun and Martin challenged Zimmerman in the same manner, it would be Zimmerman who would have been dead as a result of the actions of the “unarmed” Martin. Lastly you attack the jury for doing their job. You want people believe they too were racists. As per their own comments, the jury found it very difficult to deal with the outcome of this event. It took them almost two days because they went over the details of the case and the law many, many times to make sure they made a lawful decision. You assume because there was not a black juror that the jury could not be fair. How dare you suggest that they must be black to make a just ruling. One of the errors in your report was that there were no witnesses, but there were and they testified what they heard and saw contributing to the verdict. Your summary should have read, no matter what you personally thought about this case, justice was done by a competent group of jurors based on the known facts. You also should have acknowledged that as long as the national media continues to make Racism a national issue for their own benefit, it will be a national problem. Lastly you should have called out MSNBC for changing the voice recording of the conversation between Zimmerman and the police to make Zimmerman look like a racist. This was probably the best example of how the media tried to convict Zimmerman before he was tried.
Yo Lester … I guess George was only guilty of playing the odds…..While Trayvon was guilty of “socio-economics (i.e., inner-city poverty), single-parent households, “ghetto” culture etc,”
What is the point you attempt to make with black homicide stats? That it was reasonable for George Zimmerman to kill a young man because statistics and his skin color prove d he was a threat deserving to be followed and confronted ?
There was black-on-black crime in the 1950s, when Emmett Till was murdered, and in the 1960s, when 3 civil rights workers were killed.And buried in an earth dam. There was black-on-black crime throughout the early years of the century -a time during which black men were hanged, mutilated, and burned for sport. I think Billy Holiday sang a song about it….. If I recall it wasn’t along the lines of “It ain’t easy being Green”. More than a few of these occurred because of a widely held belief in society that black people were violent by nature (seems the case now) using the same black on black crime stats.
Consider, though, what Sen. Lee says in this article: http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/despite-outcry-zimmermans-acquittal-was-not-based-on-stand-your-ground-laws/2131629
i.e., that “Stand Your Ground” was not legally relevant to this case. The defense’s case was self-defense. It is disturbing that a juror thought he was deciding based on the Stand Your Ground law. If someone is attacking you and you fear for your life, you are entitled to meet force with like force; that was the defense. I guess the argument was that bashing a person’s head against the sidewalk was as lethal as using a gun. And like the article says, we only have Zimmerman’s side of the story. There are lots of unanswered questions.
Bill… race had everything to do with how this incident started.
Had Trayvon Martin been Justin Martin, and had he been wearing a polo-style shirt or turtleneck instead of a hoodie, he’d be alive today because Zimmerman would not have made the bigoted assumption that he was up to no good.
Zimmerman profiled the young man, then disobeyed the suggestion of the 911 dispatcher to stay with the car and wait for appropriate law enforcement to show up.
Race didn’t have much to do with the verdict, granted, but the trial would not have been necessary had Zimmerman not been a bigot with poor judgement.
Yugo, that is 100% conjecture. You have absolutely zero idea what Zimmerman would have done if Martin was another race or dressed differently.
Maybe not, yfgcrl, but I do know what happened because Zimmerman exercised poor judgement based on prejudice.
He had a history of calling 911 on a disproportionately high number of African-American males. His mindset was not unbiased where young African-American males are concerned; his actions defied the common-sense directions of the 911 dispatcher; he directly caused the death of Trayvon Martin.
Conjecture, maybe, but based on a solid understanding of some basic facts.
Thank you Ann for your courageous voice and continued commitment to justice and exposing us to the inequities in our society that have become sadly just a way of life…
That should have read: Mary Anna
Not Ann…