George Zimmerman Murder Charge, After Playing Race Card For Weeks

As his life ebbed away, Trayvon Martin might have wondered "Why me"? Then again, he knew that for young Black men, it could always end so quickly and in such a senseless manner.

[Black Star News Editorial]
 
Instead of a jury of his peers he went to Sean Hannity

George Zimmerman has been getting bad advice in the weeks since he killed Trayvon Martin. Whether the came from his father, friends, or the lawyers who quit yesterday, remains to be seen.

He’s now turned himself in after being charged with the second-degree murder of Trayvon Martin. Now Zimmerman and Martin get their day in court. The teenager has already paid the ultimate price.

Zimmerman’s supporters, including his father, Robert, a retired judge, have been proclaiming his innocence since he killed the unarmed 17-year-old teenager who was returning from a convenience store with a soda and a bag of skittles.

Yet for a person who professes innocence, Zimmerman and his team have been acting in a very odd manner. Zimmerman’s father started playing the race card, fast and furious. These are some of the recent highlights:

[] Robert Zimmerman, the father, accused President Obama of being hateful, because the president remarked that if he had had a son, he would have looked like Trayvon, while noting the pain the parents must have been going through. The President made no judgment on the case itself. Zimmerman’s father also condemned the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP. This was perverted reasoning. The protests that have occurred throughout the U.S., in reaction to the killing of Martin, have included people of all ethnic  and and racial background. Robert Zimmerman insulted all ethnic groups.

[] Robert Zimmerman proclaimed that his son was “Latino” and therefore couldn’t be racist.

[] Yesterday it was revealed that George Zimmerman, rather than spend his time with his attorneys to plan his defense strategy, had been talking with Sean Hannity, who is, after Rush Limbaugh, the most racially polarizing person on radio today.

[] George Zimmerman, again without the consent or knowledge of his attorneys Craig Sonner and Hal Uhrig, who have since quit, launched a website to supposedly raise funds for his defense. That in itself is not a problem. But Zimmerman was appealing to racial resentment and hostility; one of the images on the website was of the graffiti-splattered wall of a Black student center on a campus.

[] Zimmerman’s camp had paraded Joe Oliver, an African American on most of the national media outlets to proclaim to all who would listen that Trayvon Martin’s shooter wasn’t a racist. Presumably, since he and Zimmerman were friends, he couldn’t therefore possibly be racist. Again, perverted logic; recall that the New York Police Department officer Justin Volpe, who sodomized Abner Louima with a broom stick, had a Black girlfriend. She had proclaimed that the love of her life couldn’t be a racist; this was before Volpe was convicted.

Zimmerman, it seemed, wanted to stoke up race tensions across the country. Many people don’t believe it’s a coincidence that this past weekend two men launched a shooting spree in Tulsa, Oklahoma, mowing to death three Black people and wounding others.

Perhaps Zimmerman had worried that his “stand your ground” alleged defense wasn’t credible. Perhaps he was hoping that heightened racial animosity would discourage the Special Prosecutor from filing any charges at all? Perhaps he was hoping –before the Prosecutor opted to forego a Grand Jury proceeding– that he would never be indicted at all?

Race tensions will intensify going forward. Hannity has already proclaimed Zimmerman can’t be a racist because “he tutors Black kids.” But playing the race card won’t preclude a court date.

Here are the issues:

On the night of February 26, Zimmerman saw Trayvon Martin, a young Black man wearing a hoodie, and he decided to ignore the 911 dispatcher who told him not to follow the teenager. On that night, Zimmerman, 28, decided to emerge from his car and pursue the teenager. Had he remained in his car Trayvon Martin would be alive today.

Finally, when Trayvon Martin stood his ground to find out why he was being followed by a strange man whom he did not know and who outweighed him by 100 pounds, the teenager ended up dead with a bullet from Zimmerman’s gun lodged in his chest.

As his life ebbed away, Trayvon Martin might have wondered “Why me”? Then again, he knew that for young Black men, it could always end so quickly and in such a senseless manner.

He would never get to see his mother, Sybrina Fulton, who has throughout shown such composed dignity, again; or the father, Tracy Martin,
who was waiting for his return so they could watch the rest of the NBA All Star Game at the home of the father’s girlfriend.

Might he not have wondered, too, whether Zimmerman would ever have to explain why he shot him in the chest in a court of law?   
That answer was delivered today.

Whatever happened on that night, the “Stand Your Ground law” only applied to Trayvon Martin. When he stood as he had every right to do, to defend himself, he was deprived of the right to life.

“Speaking Truth To Empower”

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