Over the past weeks I have noticed many of my friends, family and acquaintances jumping on the race guilt bandwagon and calling for the lynch mobs to come out and get George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin.
What folks don't seem to understand is that they DO NOT KNOW the full details of the incident. All any of us knows is what we have heard from the "news" media. And we all know how thorough the media is in their reporting. They always give us ALL of the facts, and never leave ANYTHING out, or try to SPIN what they tell us. The media NEVER tries to SENSATIONALIZE any incident, and NEVER tries to turn ANYTHING into a RACIALLY MOTIVATED act. Right? Yeah, sure.
We ALWAYS hear about the white guy who shot the white guy, right? We ALWAYS hear about the black guy who shot the white guy, right? We ALWAYS hear about the hispanic guy who shot the asian guy, right? Hmmm.... well, maybe we don't. Of COURSE we don't. Unless the person who got shot was black and the person doing the shooting was something other than black we don't hear a peep on the news. And there are no RIOTS unless the shootee was black.
All we hear from the news about Trayvon Martin is what HIS family wants us to hear. We see the pictures of him when he was 12 years old. We hear what a "good boy" he was. We don't hear that the reason he was in a neighborhood where he didn't belong was because he was on a five day suspension from school. What gets a kid suspended for a week? We don't hear that he was 6'2" with the build of a football player. We don't know if he had any gang affiliation, or if he was prone to shooting his mouth off, or if his parents had bred the all too common sense of entitlement into him. We don't have any idea what type of person he was last month. Only what type of person he was five YEARS ago. And people change.
As for Zimmerman, the media seems to be stuck on reporting that Zimmerman is white. The fact they are overlooking is that he is HISPANIC. Sure his father is white, but his mother is hispanic. Certainly there are some things in Zimmerman's background that will call his judgement into question, but why is the focus all on HIM? Where are the "reporters" who should be looking for the things Martin may have done in his life? Just because he's black he's automatically the victim?
Witness statements suggest that Zimmerman was on the ground with Martin on top of him beating on him. I wonder why we haven't heard that on the news.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not coming out AGAINST Martin or FOR Zimmerman. I don't have enough information to pick a side. I'm just concerned that so many seemingly intelligent people are developing an opinion and calling for blood based solely on what they have heard or read in the media. I don't know all the details, so I can't say who was right or wrong. Neither can you.
The local police who are investigating this matter interviewed Zimmerman and several witnesses. They would have interviewed Martin as well, if they were able. When they finished, they determined there was not probable cause to arrest Zimmerman. That doesn't mean he will never be charged. That doesn't mean they think he did absolutely nothing wrong. It just means they couldn't find sufficient legal cause to arrest the man. He can still be charged with a crime if the District Attorney reads the report and believes he committed a crime. That's how our legal system works, and anyone who was paying attention in High School would know that.
Perhaps it really was self defense. Or perhaps it wasn't. WE DON'T KNOW FOR SURE BECAUSE WE WEREN'T THERE AT THE TIME!
So forgive me for my cynicism on this matter, but I have a hard time pointing fingers at either Trayvon Martin or George Zimmerman without knowing all the details. Then again, I didn't point fingers at Johannes Mehserle or Oscar Grant without details either.
Folks need to seek out information before they apply their name to ANY cause. Make sure you know ALL the FACTS before you jump on a given bandwagon. Because once your name is out there as a supporter, you can't get it back, even if you later find out you didn't know everything you thought you knew, and you change your position.
It's common sense, but maybe I'm asking too much.
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6 comments:
I agree wholeheartedly.
I am really surprised people have so much of time being invloved with issues that do not concern them directly. Are those the ones living on tax payer's money?
I was under the impression that the average citizen had enough problems of his own, to indulge in these things.
Nice post, anyway
my thoughts exactly...thanks
Oh, and let's not forget our Racist-in-Chief not wasting any time in throwing in his 2 cents.
Btw, where did you get the info that he had a build of a football player? From the reports I've seen Martin was 6'2" and ~160lbs, which seems to be on the skinnier side unless he had the physique of Manny Pacquiao.
As for who's guilty and who's not, it's impossible to tell unless there is an independent and credible account of what was said and done before the fight and shooting took place. Unfortunately, anything Zimmerman says has to be taken with a huge grain of salt for obvious reasons.
What really sickening is the speed at which race baiters, liberals, and anti-gun loonies jumped at the chance to wave the bloody shirt and further their political agenda.
All this drama is happening in my own backyard here in Florida. And it is sooooo annoying to have to deal with this every freakin' day!! The media has nothing better to do than cove this drama non-stop. *SIGH*
The killer that murdered one of our cops last year just had his trial the same week all this drama happened. And not once has the media even bothered to report on the trial & its outcome! (He got life in prison only because he was 16 yrs old when he killed Officer Crawford)
The media only cares about political agendas and does not care about the TRUTH or portraying fairness. I am so sick of it, that I cannot even turn on my own television without hearing about this drama every 5 minutes! It is absolutely ridiculous how big this thing has become here!
I cannot wait for this to be over!!
it heavily irks me that the media touts Zimmerman's guilt and vilifies the police department for not arresting him on immediately. It is as if the media think they know what truly happened and thus convince millions of sheeple to buy into their story too, the fact is none of us will know for sure until the trial. What we DO know is that the media will have made it damn near impossible to select a jury pool that is not heavily biased in the case thanks to the ridiculous coverage.
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