There are a bunch of interesting articles on CNN this morning and several about the ‘situation’ regarding Zimmerman’s shooting of Martin. I have commented (perhaps not on my blog, I am not sure) about this before and how it is crystal clear to me based on the evidence I have heard (note that it is quite possible the evidence made public has been distorted, the government does that all the time) that Zimmerman, at a minimum, should have been arrested for suspicion of voluntary manslaughter. I find it inconceivable that any honest police investigation would simply take the word of someone that it was self-defense and based on the 911 tapes alone (before all this other evidence appeared), it is impossible to have any sort of (honest) conviction that Zimmerman is telling the truth. Some evidence is now put out that likely Zimmerman wasn’t the frothing neo-Nazi out to kill as many niggas as he could, since it seems he is Hispanic (as opposed to white) and is well connected in the ethnic (read black) community. That, however, does not absolve him of making a racially discriminating decision by going after a young black guy in a predominantly white (or so I have heard) neighborhood. And, it does not absolve him of taking aggressive actions that he was advised _against_ by the 911 operator. And it certainly does not absolve him of shooting the unarmed (and nonthreatening, based on the accounts of his girlfriend) Martin. So, to me, whether Zimmerman is white, black or Hispanic, he should have been arrested and investigated for, at a minimum, voluntary manslaughter and only after (were it to happen, but that sure isn’t looking like it is the case) an appropriate investigation should he be cleared.
As a by the by, it seems that Zimmerman went to Osborn high school in Manassas, VA. I went to Osborn Park (not sure why they named the two schools so close together so close in name). When I went to Osborn Park, there were like a handful of non-white kids in the school and probably just 2-3 that were black. We didn’t have much problems back then (way before gangs, drugs, guns, etc., etc., etc. became so common), and other than noticing them because they stood out in the crowd, I don’t think there was any other reason to be aware of them (of course, it is racist to use the terms ‘us’ and ‘them’ based on skin color, so just by having this conversation it is clear our society is light years away from being race neutral). Zimmerman, being quite a bit younger than I (about 20 years) probably went to a completely different (culturally speaking) school than I did. Manassas was quite redneck back then and the ‘damn foreigners’ (note that I was considered one of those ‘damn foreigners’ because I wasn’t a 3+ generation local) were only just starting to make some headway. I am quite sure that Manassas, today, is a mixing bowl of cultures and that whites like me are probably almost a minority (I am sure almost all the rednecks are gone, they couldn’t afford the rent/taxes anymore).
Having been born white in a culture politically dominated by powerful white people, I have had the luxury of not being specifically targeted by the police (which is not to say that I haven’t had plenty of run-ins with the Law during my ill-gotten youth, just that all those run-ins were because I was doing something wrong (or behaving in a clearly suspicious manner)), so I don’t feel in my bones the lack of trust that most blacks report:
Why black people don’t trust the police
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/22/opinion/granderson-florida-shootings/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
I can see where they are coming from, intellectually, though. Still, I get a bit from the ‘other’ side, as I have a couple of cops in my circle of friends and family and based on conversations with them they have developed a certain jaundiced view. Since they generally are only interacting with people who are in trouble with the law, then tend to start to view society through a lens colored by those experiences. They start to develop some understandable paranoia (I understand it, but am not sympathetic to it, but then again I have never had to worry about getting killed because I ignored it). They start to view ordinary citizens who have never had any complications with the law as potential offenders. They start to worry about their own family and start to see evil in what the rest of us view as normal behavior. It is likely that Zimmerman started to fall into that mindset and thus was emotionally incapable (at the time) of realizing that he was doing something wrong. He then reacted based on the story he had created in his head and when he was met with resistance (meaning Martin didn’t immediately drop into the prone position and put his hands on his back to be cuffed) he probably felt he was being attacked and reacted accordingly. This isn’t meant to excuse anything (being drunk is no excuse for running someone down either (and why don’t more of those people spend the rest of their lives in jail?)), just meant to understand that he might not have been intentionally lying when he stated he acted from self-defense.
I am reminded of a fellow Marine reservist I knew years ago (more years than I care to count). He worked at a mental hospital in DC (I believe it has been closed now) and he said that to survive there he and his fellows had to develop eyes in the back of their heads. They had to work from the assumption that they would be attacked at any moment by the patients and no matter how nice and friendly that little old lady was to your face there was a very good probability that as soon as you put your back to her she was going to swing a chair at your head. Of course prison guards have to develop the same skills, but in that case we as a society can excuse all sorts of behaviors (which as a consequence, I am quite sure, routinely leads to abuse by the guards) because we know they are already convicted criminals. The problem becomes when the police start to treat ordinary citizens the same way and the problem is exacerbated when someone like Zimmerman, who isn’t a cop and thus lacks the extensive training that law enforcement professionals get, develops the same sort of attitudes and then acts on them.
Thankfully, it seems that the local community leaders are working to ensure that an open and transparent investigation is going to take place and while at this moment it is hard to envision a situation where Zimmerman can walk away without any charges, if the investigation is indeed open and transparent, if that is indeed the conclusion hopefully society at large can accept the outcome.
