Trayvon and white madness

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

“The government would have to prove that Zimmerman was motivated by racial animus.”

When Trayvon Martin was murdered by a “creepy cracker” in February, 2012, an outraged Black America mobilized to force the State of Florida to put the perpetrator on trial. Seventeen months later, in the words of President Obama, “a jury has spoken,” affirming Florida’s original contention that Trayvon’s death was not a criminal act.

The White House also wanted Trayvon to be forgotten. Three weeks after the shooting, speaking through his press secretary, the president declared, “obviously we’re not going to wade into a local law-enforcement matter.” A few days later, Obama sought to placate Black public opinion with a statement of physical fact: “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”

In the wake of the acquittal, Obama’s press people have announced he’ll stay out of the case while Attorney General Eric Holder pretends to explore the possibility of pursuing civil rights charges against George Zimmerman. Holder told the sorority sisters [11] of Delta Sigma Theta that Martin’s death was “tragic” and “unnecessary,” but a federal prosecution of Zimmerman is highly unlikely. The government would have to prove that Zimmerman was motivated by racial animus – a fact that is as obvious to Black America as a mob lynching at high noon at Times Square. However, except for the fact that he murdered a teenager, George Zimmerman is no more provably racist in a U.S. court than most white Americans – which is why the Florida cops and prosecutors initially refused to arrest him, why the jury acquitted him, and why the bulk of the corporate media empathized with the defense.

“Zimmerman was acting on the same racist assumption that motivates police across the country.”

The white public at-large shares with Zimmerman the belief – a received wisdom, embedded in their worldview – that young Black males are inherently dangerous. From this “fact” flows a reflex of behaviors that, to most whites, are simply commonsensical. If young Black males are inherently dangerous, they must be watched, relentlessly. Black hyper-surveillance is the great intake mechanism for mass Black Incarceration. Zimmerman, the self-appointed neighborhood watchman, was acting on the same racist assumption that motivates police across the country, which is why the cops in Zimmerman’s trial were more valuable to the defense than to the prosecution. The same goes for the prosecutors and judge, much of whose daily lives are organized around the inherent dangerousness of young Black men.

Naturally, the cops testified that they saw no racial animus in Zimmerman’s actions – just as they would deny that their own hyper-surveillance of Black communities is motivated by animus. The jury, like the vast majority of white Americans, approves of the Black surveillance regime, and of those civilians that also keep an eye out for “crime” – which is synonymous with “Black males.” As juror B37 [12] put it, Zimmerman’s “heart was in the right place” – meaning, she saw Zimmerman’s profiling and pursuit of Trayvon as well-intentioned and civic-minded; clearly, not malicious. Something “just went terribly wrong” – an unfortunate turn of events, but not a crime. The unanimous verdict shows the other jurors also perceived no malice – no racial motivation – by Zimmerman.

In fact, white folks in general do not think it is racist or evidence of malice to believe that Black males are a prima facie threat; it’s just a fact. Therefore, it is “reasonable” that civilians, as well as cops, be prepared to use deadly force in confrontations with Black males.

“The white public at-large shares with Zimmerman the belief that young Black males are inherently dangerous.”

The answer to the question: What would a reasonable person do? is essential to American law. Police, prosecutors, judges and jurors base their decisions on their own subjective perception of the state of mind of people who harm or kill, and the reasonableness of their actions. To most white people, it is reasonable to reflexively suspect young Black males of having criminal intent, and reasonable to fear for one’s life in a confrontation with such a person. “Not guilty” is reasonable, when everyone that counts shares the same assumptions as the perpetrator.

Black people cannot fix that. We cannot change white people’s warped perceptions of the world, although, Lord knows, we’ve tried. It has been 45 years since passage of the last major civil rights bill, the Fair Housing Act, yet housing segregation remains general, overwhelmingly due to white people’s decisions in the housing market, based on their racial assumptions. So powerful is the general white racist belief in Black criminality and inferiority, the mere presence of African Americans on or near property devalues the land. This is racism with the practical force of economic law. The same “law” has locked Black unemployment at roughly twice that of whites for more than two generations – an outcome so consistent over time it must be a product of the political culture (racism) rather than the vicissitudes of the marketplace.

The Brown Supreme Court decision is nearly 60 years old, yet school segregation is, in some ways, more entrenched than ever – again, because of white peoples decisions. Not only is school segregation on the rise, but charterization is creating an alternative public-financed system designed primarily for Black and brown kids. In many cities, whites can only be retained in the public schools by offering them the best facilities and programs. School desegregation has largely been abandoned as a lost cause, because of the whites’ “intransigence” – a euphemism for enduring racism: a refusal to share space with Black people.

But, the criminal justice system is white supremacy’s playground, where racial hatreds, fears and suspicions are given free rein. One out of eight prison inmates on the planet are African American, proof of the general white urge to purge Blacks from the national landscape. Trayvon Martin fell victim to the extrajudicial component of the Black-erasure machine.

“Racism is a form of mental illness, in which the afflicted perceive things that are not there, and are blind to that which is right in front of their eyes.”

White people don’t think they are malicious and racist; rather, they are simply defending themselves (quite reasonably, they believe) from Black evildoing. That whites perceive themselves as under collective attack is evident in the results of a Harvard and Tufts University study [13], which shows majorities of whites are convinced they are the primary victims of racial discrimination in America. Such mass madness is incomprehensible to sane people, but racism is a form of mental illness, in which the afflicted perceive things that are not there, and are blind to that which is right in front of their eyes.

To live under the sway of such people is a nightmare. Most of African American history has been a struggle to mollify or tame the racist beast, to find a way to coexist with white insanity, possibly to cure it, or to make ourselves powerful and independent enough that the madness cannot harm us too badly. George Zimmerman’s acquittal is so painful to Black America because it signals that our ancient enemy – white supremacy – is alive and raging, virtually impervious to any legal levers we can pull. The feeling of impotence is heightened by the growing realization that the Black president – a man who, in his noxious “Philadelphia [14]” speech, denied that racism had ever been endemic to America – cannot and will not make anyone atone for Trayvon.

We have been in this spot before – or, rather, we have always been in this spot, but have for the last 40 years been urged to imagine that something fundamental had changed among white Americans. Trayvon smacks us awake.

We must organize for self-defense, in every meaning of the term, and create a Black political dynamic – a Movement – that will make our enemies fear the consequences of their actions.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

Source URL: http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/trayvon-and-white-madness

OpEds: A Perfect Symmetry

Racist Verdicts Are About the Future Not the Past

by RANDY SHIELDS, Simulpost w. Counterpunch

Can’t we all just get along, whites and blacks, and agree that Barack Obama is a racist? Not that he hates white people like the Tea Partiers say — it’s black people that he can’t stand. Whether he’s trashing black males on Father’s Day or softening them up with body blows for the worldwide economic race to the bottom at a Morehouse College speech or indifferently presiding over the greatest destruction of black wealth in 100 years or simply singing a tune of betrayal of a longtime friendship (“Jeremiah Wright was a bullfrog– and no friend of mine!”), Obama is just not into you, black America. And now we have his statement on the Trayvon Martin verdict.

“The death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy,” says Obama in his cliched, bloodless, pacifying, bullshit, don’t-give-a-fucking-damn truth-betraying statement. An armed racist not merely looking for trouble but causing it is not a tragedy — it’s an atrocity. It’s a crime. “I know this case has elicited strong passions.” He doesn’t feel these strong passions himself but he has heard tell of them. Figuratively, he doesn’t really know what all the shooting’s about. Literally, he kills innocent people like Trayvon Martin every week. BFD. Obama and George Zimmerman are both vigilantes — they just have different budgets.

“We are a nation of laws and the jury has spoken,” so STFU uppity black America (or what’s left of it) says the judge, jury and executioner who sits down every Tuesday with his crime family and decides who they’re going to murder next, including American citizens. Says the man who will let no jury speak for the people thrown into the hole of Gitmo for years without charge or trial. Says the man who won’t make restitution to these innocent men or let them go even when they are cleared for release. Says the man who won’t prosecute CIA torturers or Wall Street fraudsters. Says the man who illegally spies on the entire world to supposedly protect Americans — but he didn’t protect Trayvon Martin or any of the other black people who are gunned down every 28 hours in America by racist police, security guards and peckerhead vigilantes like Zimmerman, according to the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.

“We should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our own communities.” What the fuck are you talking about, Obama? “Widen the circle of compassion”? That’s the way we animal activists talk when we’re trying to get speciesist bigots to treat chickens and squirrels better. These non-humans don’t have their laws yet, unfortunately. Human beings do have laws on the books which are supposed to protect us. White racists don’t have to “widen the circle” of their “compassion” — they have to abide by laws and not take them into their cold death-dealing hands. And when they violate those laws they should have the book thrown at them the way Trayvon Martin most assuredly would have had he killed Zimmerman.

All that this “little man” racist had to do was follow the police dispatcher’s directive to stop following Trayvon Martin — and Martin would still be alive. The majority of white gun owners I’ve known have always been on the edge of their seat, eagerly waiting for some black male to color outside the lines so they could blow his fucking head off. That’s the racist reality of America. But we have to pretend — with the exquisite guidance of this half-assed, half-black, half-baked Democrat — that America is a post-racial society and we’re past all of that. The world calls bullshit on you, Obama. The most gratifying protests of the verdict were Americans burning the American flag in the streets of Oakland just to make absolutely clear the complete break with this wretched murderous government and the solidarity with people in other countries who are also victims of it. They’re not our enemies, Obama. You and Bush and Nancy Pelousy and Feinstein and McCain and Lindsey Graham cracker and James Reinhard Heydrich Clapper — all of you are our enemies. It’s so perfectly symmetrical now. It’s the American government versus every person in the world.

“We should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis.” (See the the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement above for who’s causing a good bit of this violence.) This crime wasn’t about “gun violence.” Trayvon Martin didn’t have a gun or kill anyone. A racist vigilante did — and the state gave its blessing. The coward Obama won’t address the killing directly. Instead, his meaningless disembodied statement is in keeping with his tendency lately to refer to himself in the third person when he’s discussing his own crimes of drone murder and eavesdropping. Shredded scorched Muslim bodies are now just airy debating points. He implies that Trayvon Martin was part of some unfortunate unpreventable situation, as if Martin was caught in some random crossfire of bullets instead of being caught in hundreds of years of calculated racist state-sanctioned murder. Barackus Obombus Caesar has spoken: forget about justice, you fucking slaves.

These routine racist verdicts aren’t about the past — they’re looking ahead to the future, to keep giving Amerikaners permission to keep on firing as they become a minority in “their” country. We’re gonna go down bravely slaughtering unarmed people of color whether it’s in Florida or Yemen or New York or Afghanistan or Cincinnati or Somalia or Detroit or Pakistan or Oakland, right to the bitter end. And an obsfucating black American president will always be ready to blow the hopium of excuses and stasis and surrender right into our faces.

Lastly, we’ll know when the American working class starts to get well, whether it’s about racist violence or totalitarian surveillance: we won’t all go to work the next day like nothing ever happened. We may burn the fucking country to the ground and start over or we may do something else. But we won’t go to work. We will bring this ridiculous inequitable invasive violent criminal illegitimate shithouse to a standstill.

Randy Shields can be reached at music2hi4thehumanear@gmail.com.

His writings and art are collected at innagoddadadamdavegan.blogspot.com.

OpEds: The US v. Trayvon Martin

How the System Worked

by ROBIN D.G. KELLEY, Counterpunch.org

Who can now give him back his life? Race profiling or not, vigilantism walks in America.

Trayvon Martin: Who can now give him back his life? Race profiling or not, vigilantism rocks in America.

In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, Senator Rand Paul, Florida State Representative Dennis Baxley (also sponsor of his state’s Stand Your Ground law), along with a host of other Republicans, argued that had the teachers and administrators been armed, those twenty little kids whose lives Adam Lanza stole would be alive today. Of course, they were parroting the National Rifle Association’s talking points. The NRA and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the conservative lobbying group responsible for drafting and pushing “Stand Your Ground” laws across the country, insist that an armed citizenry is the only effective defense against imminent threats, assailants, and predators.

But when George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, teenage pedestrian returning home one rainy February evening from a neighborhood convenience store, the NRA went mute. Neither NRA officials nor the pro-gun wing of the Republican Party argued that had Trayvon Martin been armed, he would be alive today. The basic facts are indisputable: Martin was on his way home when Zimmerman began to follow him—first in his SUV, and then on foot. Zimmerman told the police he had been following this “suspicious-looking” young man. Martin knew he was being followed and told his friend, Rachel Jeantel, that the man might be some kind of sexual predator. At some point, Martin and Zimmerman confronted each other, a fight ensued, and in the struggle Zimmerman shot and killed Martin.

Zimmerman pursued Martin. This is a fact. Martin could have run, I suppose, but every black man knows that unless you’re on a field, a track, or a basketball court, running is suspicious and could get you a bullet in the back. The other option was to ask this stranger what he was doing, but confrontations can also be dangerous—especially without witnesses and without a weapon besides a cell phone and his fists. Florida law did not require Martin to retreat, though it is not clear if he had tried to retreat. He did know he was in imminent danger.

Where was the NRA on Trayvon Martin’s right to stand his ground? What happened to their principled position? Let’s be clear: the Trayvon Martin’s of the world never had that right because the “ground” was never considered theirs to stand on. Unless black people could magically produce some official documentation proving that they are not burglars, rapists, drug dealers, pimps or prostitutes, intruders, they are assumed to be “up to no good.” (In the antebellum period, such documentation was called “freedom papers.”) As Wayne LaPierre, NRA’s executive vice president, succinctly explained their
position, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Trayvon Martin was a bad guy or at least looked and acted like one. In our allegedly postracial moment, where simply talking about racism openly is considered an impolitic, if not racist, thing to do, we constantly learn and re-learn racial codes. The world knows black men are criminal, that they populate our jails and prisons, that they kill each other over trinkets, that even the celebrities among us are up to no good. Zimmerman’s racial profiling was therefore justified, and the defense consistently employed racial stereotypes and played on racial knowledge to turn the victim into the predator and the predator into the victim. In short, it was Trayvon Martin, not George Zimmerman, who was put on trial. He was tried for the crimes he may have committed and the ones he would have committed had he lived past 17. He was tried for using lethal force against Zimmerman in the form of a sidewalk and his natural athleticism.

The successful transformation of Zimmerman into the victim of black predatory violence was evident not only in the verdict but in the stunning Orwellian language defense lawyers Mark O’Mara and Don West employed in the post-verdict interview. West was incensed that anyone would have the audacity to even bring the case to trial—suggesting that no one needs to be held accountable for the killing of an unarmed teenager. When O’Mara was asked if he thought the verdict might have been different if his client had been black, he replied: “Things would have been different for George Zimmerman if he was black for this reason: he would never have been charged with a crime.” In other words, black men can go around killing indiscriminately with no fear of prosecution because there are no Civil Rights organizations pressing to hold them accountable.

And yet, it would be a mistake to place the verdict at the feet of the defense for its unscrupulous use of race, or to blame the prosecution for avoiding race, or the jury for insensitivity, or even the gun lobby forcreating the conditions that have made the murder of young black men justifiable homicide. The verdict did not surprise me, or most people I know, because we’ve been here before. We were here with Latasha Harlins and Rodney King, with Eleanor Bumpurs and Michael Stewart. We were here with Anthony Baez, Michael Wayne Clark, Julio Nunez, Maria Rivas, Mohammed Assassa. We were here with Amadou Diallo, the Central Park Five, Oscar Grant, Stanley “Rock” Scott, Donnell “Bo” Lucas, Tommy Yates. We were here with Angel Castro, Jr. Bilal Ashraf, Anthony Starks, Johnny Gammage, Malice Green, Darlene Tiller, Alvin Barroso, Marcillus Miller, Brenda Forester. We’ve been here before with Eliberto Saldana, Elzie Coleman, Tracy Mayberry, De Andre Harrison, Sonji Taylor, Baraka Hall, Sean Bell, Tyisha Miller, Devon Nelson, LaTanya Haggerty, Prince Jamel Galvin, Robin Taneisha Williams, Melvin Cox, Rudolph Bell, Sheron Jackson. And Jordan Davis, killed in Jacksonville, Florida, not long after Trayvon Martin. His murderer, Michael Dunn, emptied his gun into the parked SUV where Davis and three friends sat because they refused to turn down their music. Dunn is invoking “stand your ground” in his defense.

The list is long and deep. In 2012 alone, police officers, security guards or vigilantes took the lives of 136 unarmed black men and women—at least twenty-five of whom were killed by vigilantes. In ten of the incidents, the killers were not charged with a crime, and most of those who were charged either escaped conviction or accepted reduced charges in exchange for a guilty plea. And I haven’t included the reign of terror that produced at least 5,000 legal lynchings in the United States, or the numerous assassinations—from political activists to four black girls attending Sunday school in Birmingham fifty years ago.

The point is that justice was always going to elude Trayvon Martin, not because the system failed, but because it worked. Martin died and Zimmerman walked because our entire political and legal foundations were built on an ideology of settler colonialism—an ideology in which the protection of white property rights was always sacrosanct; predators and threats to those privileges were almost always black, brown, and red; and where the very purpose of police power was to discipline, monitor, and contain populations rendered a threat to white property and privilege. This has been the legal standard for African Americans and other racialized groups in the U.S. long before ALEC or the NRA came into being. We were rendered property in slavery, and a threat to property in freedom. And during the brief moment in the 1860s and ‘70s, when former slaves participated in democracy, held political offices, and insisted on the rights of citizenship, it was a well-armed (white) citizenry that overthrew democratically-elected governments in the South, assassinated black political leaders, stripped African-Americans of virtually all citizenship rights (the franchise, the right of habeas corpus, right of free speech and assembly, etc.), and turned an entire people into predators. (For evidence, read the crime pages of any urban newspaper during the early 20^th century. Or just watch the hot new show, “Orange is the New Black.”)

If we do not come to terms with this history, we will continue to believe that the system just needs to be tweaked, or that the fault lies with a fanatical gun culture or a wacky right-wing fringe. We will miss the routine character of such murders: according data compiled by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, a black person is killed by the state or by state-sanctioned violence every 28 hours. And we will miss how this history of routine violence has become a central component of the U.S. drone warfare and targeted killing. What are signature strikes if not routine, justified killings of young men who might be Al-caeda members or may one day commit acts of terrorism? It is little more than a form of high-tech racial profiling.

In the end, we should be able to prevent another Sandy Hook school tragedy—and the $7.7 million dollars that poured into Newtown on behalf of the victims suggests a real will to do all we can to protect the innocent. But, sadly, the trial of Travyon Martin reminds us, once again, that our black and brown children must prove their innocence every day. We cannot change the situation by simply finding the right legal strategy. Unless we challenge the entire criminal justice system and mass incarceration, there will be many more Trayvon Martins and a constant dread that one of our children might be next. As long as we continue to uphold and defend a system designed to protect white privilege, property and personhood, and render black and brown people predators, criminals, illegals, and terrorists, we will continue to attend funerals and rallies; watch in stunned silence as another police officer or vigilante is acquitted after taking another young life; allow our government to kill civilians in our name; and inherit a society in which our prisons and jails become the largest, most diverse institutions in the country.

_{Robin D. G. Kelley, who teaches at UCLA, is the author of the remarkable biography Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (2009) and most recently Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times (2012).}

OpEds: Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, acquitted of all charges

How the media represented this trial. Draw your own conclusions. The above report is typical of all parties involved.

By Barry Grey, wsws.org

The acquittal of George Zimmerman, the killer of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, is the reactionary culmination of a process that has from the start been a travesty of justice. The basic tragedy is the death of a young man who committed no crime and posed no danger to his assailant.

This outrage was compounded by the initial refusal of the Sanford, Florida police to even charge the perpetrator. Now, a jury has allowed the self-appointed “neighborhood watchman” Zimmerman to walk free after having stalked and fatally shot an unarmed African American youth.

The naked miscarriage of justice announced Saturday night has triggered protests in cities across the United States. From the political establishment, beginning with President Barack Obama, it has evoked pious and hypocritical admonitions to “respect” the verdict and honor the “rule of law.” Behind such sanctimonious statements from media commentators, lawyers and officially designated “civil rights leaders” is an awareness of the explosive state of social relations in America and the potential for an event such as the acquittal of Martin’s killer to spark upheavals.

Obama posted a brief statement on the White House web site Sunday that declared, “We are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken.” This was written by a president who has effectively suspended the Bill of Rights in order to carry out the illegal surveillance of the entire US population and untold millions more people around the world, and has ordered the drone assassinations of thousands of people, including American citizens.

The murder of Trayvon Martin and acquittal of his killer reflect a deeply dysfunctional society. The prosecution case, undertaken in the first place only under pressure from popular protests denouncing the failure to charge the killer, was conducted in an ineffectual manner, with police who testified for the prosecution barely bothering to conceal their sympathy for Zimmerman.

But more fundamental processes were at work. The Trayvon Martin tragedy is the product of decades of political reaction in America, during which the political and media establishment have relentlessly promoted all manner of backwardness, deliberately seeking to pollute the public consciousness with law-and-order demagogy, militarism, the glorification of guns and the promotion of vigilantism.

One expression of this was the passage of so-called “stand your ground” laws in Florida and other states, which provide legal sanction for disoriented and violent individuals to take the lives of others they deem to be threats to their safety.

This process has been intensified under both the Bush and Obama administrations, which have sought to create a climate of fear under the cover of the so-called “war on terror.” They have promoted a spirit of hardness and lack of empathy for others, and a general devaluation of human life.

This has gone hand in hand with an assault on the living standards and democratic rights of the working class, and a vast growth of social inequality.

Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman—the disturbed would-be cop turned vigilante—is a social type nurtured by the promotion of political reaction.

Racism likely played a role in the Trayvon Martin tragedy. But racism is not an independent factor. It is one of the ideological tools used by the ruling class to divide workers and defend capitalism.

The verdict in the Zimmerman trial has predictably been seized upon by so-called “civil rights” leaders such as Al Sharpton and a host of pseudo-left organizations that base themselves on identity politics to rip the issue of race out of its roots in class exploitation and capitalism. This type of amorphous opposition to racism cannot go beyond presenting the issue in moral terms, and is therefore incapable of fighting discrimination and oppression.

As always, those leaders and organizations that promote it are tied to the Democratic Party. They oppose a unified and independent political movement of the working class and work to channel social discontent behind this party of the American corporate-financial elite.

Democratic politicians, leaders of official civil rights groups and sections of the media are calling for a “national conversation on race.” This is a diversion. What is needed is a “national conversation” on poverty, unemployment and social inequality that assumes the form of a mass working class struggle for socialism.

OpEds: Zimmerman—Not Guilty of Cold-Blooded Murder

By Stephen Lendman

Zimmerman walks. A botched, mishandled case from the beginning, and laws that facilitate gross injustice.

When is killing a non-threatening unarmed teenager not murder? When civil rights don’t matter. When Jim Crow justice prevails. When the victim is black. When mostly white women jurors call cold-blooded murder self-defense.

(Note: Juror B29 was the sole Hispanic. Zimmerman’s white. He’s Hispanic. His voter registration form identifies him that way. His father calls himself white. His mother’s Peruvian).

Killing Trayvon Martin’s not murder when a jury of peers representing both sides fairly is verboten. When killing black males in America is OK when whites do it.

[pullquote] “Trayvon Martin will forever remain in the annals of history next to Medgar Evers and Emmet Till as symbols for the fight for equal justice for all.” [/pullquote]

When a culture of violence prevails. When institutionalized racism is longstanding. When conventional wisdom says black males aren’t victims. They’re prone to violence. When equity and justice are four-letter words. When human life has no value. When society doesn’t give a damn if a black male dies. When lawlessness is part of the national culture.

George Zimmerman murdered Trayvon Martin. He did so in cold-blood. He’s free to kill again. Wrongfully claiming self-defense saved him. It’s the American way. It’s always been this way.

Cold-blooded murder’s not self-defense. Not now. Not ever.

The ACLU responded to Trayvon’s killing saying:

His death “once again laid bare the reality that, too often in our nation’s history, police actions have been motivated by racial bias and that crimes with an undeniable racial motive have too often been overlooked or swept under the rug.”

Florida’s Seminole County Court Judge Debra Nelson concluded proceedings telling Zimmerman: “You have no further business with the court.” Benjamin Crump represented Trayvon’s family. He expressed their outrage saying:

“Trayvon Martin will forever remain in the annals of history next to Medgar Evers and Emmet Till as symbols for the fight for equal justice for all.” He appealed for calm, adding: “For Trayvon to remain in peace, we must all be peaceful.”

NAACP President Ben Jealous issued a statement saying:

“I know I am not alone in my outrage, anger, and heartbreak over this decision.”

“When a teenager’s life is taken in cold blood, and there is no accountability for the man who killed him, nothing seems right in the world, but we cannot let these emotions alone rule.”

“In these most challenging of times, we are called to act. There is work left to be done to achieve justice for Trayvon.”

“The Department of Justice can still address the violation of Trayvon’s most fundamental civil right – the right to life, and we are urging them to do so.”

“We continue to grieve the loss of Trayvon with his parents, his family, and all who loved him. Do not forget what brought us to this day.”

“(W)e have a choice. We can be felled by our sorrows over the jury’s decision, or we can turn our frustration into action. We can demand the Department of Justice address the travesties of this tragedy. We can take a step forward in our efforts to finally end racial profiling in America once and for all.”

Legal proceedings against Zimmerman’s wife remain active. Shellie Zimmerman faces perjury charges. She lied last summer. She did so during her husband’s bail hearing.

She wrongfully pled poverty. She did it after she and her husband raised $130,000 through online donations. Nationwide protests followed Zimmerman’s acquittal. Public anger is real. It’s visceral. Twitter messages read:

“My heart is aching with disappointment.”

“My tears haven’t fallen this hard in years.”

“The justice system in America is RIP.”

“US jury acquits on black teen death!! Makes me sick to my stomach.”

“It’s now legal. You can chase someone, start a fight, pull out a gun, kill him & walk away scot-free.”

San Francisco protesters marched down Mission and Valencia streets. They called for justice. They held signs saying: “The people say guilty,” “No justice, no peace,” and “The whole system is racist.”

Riots erupted in downtown Oakland. Chicago protesters shouted “Who killed Treyvon Martin? The whole damn system!” Washington, DC protesters blocked a busy intersection. Marchers in Seminole County’s seat, Sanford, Miami, and elsewhere demand justice.

Trayvon was aged 17. He was an African American high school student. He lived in predominantly white Sanford, FL. On February 26, 2012, Zimmerman murdered him in cold blood. He faced second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.

Trayvon was unarmed. He carried a can of iced tea and some cash. He threatened no one. Neighborhood watch captain Zimmerman claimed self-defense. Critics called killing Trayvon a hate crime. Police tapes showed Zimmerman obsessed with law and order, suburban life minutia, and black males. He called them “assholes who always get away.”

A 2011-established Neighborhood Watch group appointed him captain. It was set up to help local police. He’s a former altar boy turned killer. In 2005, he faced assault charges. He accosted a police officer during an altercation. It was over a friend’s underage drinking arrest.

He was a first-time offender. He avoided a felony conviction. The same year, his former fiancee accused him of domestic violence. He counter-charged in response. In 2006, the case ended when both injunctions expired.

Stand your ground laws facilitate anything goes. They legitimize vigilante justice. They permit killing.

Most US states have them. So does Florida. They wink and nod at murder. They do so if authorities or individuals fear assailants pose serious threats. They expand on the so-called Castle Doctrine.

US Legal.com defines it as follows:

“In criminal law, (it’s) an exception to the retreat rule. The retreat rule allows a person the use of deadly force while protecting his/her place of abode, its premises and its inhabitants from attack such as from a trespasser who intends to commit a felony or inflict serious bodily injury or harm.”

“This defense justifies such conduct constituting a criminal offense. This is also termed as defense of premises, defense of habitation and dwelling defense.”

According to Jacksonville, FL State Attorney Angela Corey:

“The stand-your-ground law is one portion of justifiable use of deadly force.”

“And what that means is that the state must go forward and be able to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“It makes the case in general more difficult than a normal criminal case.”

Florida’s law states:

“A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or to another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”

Law Professor Jonathan Turley calls Stand Your Ground, Make My Day, and Castle Doctrine laws abusive and unnecessary.

They “address a problem that does not exist,” he said. There are ample protections under the common law for individuals to use the privilege of self-defense, including reasonable mistaken self-defense.”

“Legislators are now feigning complete shock at the potential for abuse under these laws after refusing to consider” clear warnings about passing them. Shoot first laws assure trouble. Needless deaths follow. Killers get off scot-free. Wild west justice prevails.

Zimmerman wasn’t initially charged. Public outrage forced Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to act. She appointed a special prosecutor. She pressed second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.

Under Florida law, second degree murder is lawlessly killing someone. It excludes premeditation. Proving it requires prosecutors show defendants evinced a “depraved mind” without regard for human life.

They must convince jurors that they acted with enmity toward victims or that both parties had an ongoing interaction or relationship. Proving an intent to kill isn’t required. Second degree murder’s mandated if victims die while committing a felony. They include burglary, home-invasion robbery, kidnapping, sexual battery, and other offenses.

Prosecutors must show victims died as a result of an act committed by a non-participant in the felony. If the defendant or other criminal participant caused the killing, state law requires first degree murder charges.

Second degree murder defenses include:

justifiable use of deadly force to “prevent the commission of a forcible felony,” or using it “to prevent death or great bodily harm;”

excusable homicide committed by accident; or

spontaneous or negligent killing qualifying as manslaughter.

If found guilty, Zimmerman faced up to 30 years imprisonment. Life sentences may be imposed if defendants had other felony convictions, including murder. Acquitting Zimmerman reflects Jim Crow justice. Killing a nonthreatening unarmed black teenager doesn’t matter. Stand your ground laws make it easy. It’s the American way.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached atlendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book is titled “Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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