No justice for Trayvon…

It’s kind of hard for anyone to talk about anything else today. Last night, a jury in Florida acquitted George Zimmerman for the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Needless to say, a lot of people are less than impressed with the decision. But a lot of people just don’t understand how the jury came to this decision.

The fact is, there wasn’t enough evidence to convict Zimmerman beyond a reasonable doubt. There was compelling evidence but the defense poked enough holes into it to create doubt. If there is doubt, you can’t convict, that’s how the justice system works over here. Being acquitted doesn’t mean your innocent, it just means the burden was not met. We have to remember that Michael Jackson and OJ were acquitted as well. Acquittal doesn’t equal innocence…

I’ve seen some people compare this to the Rodney King incident and that’s just uncalled for. There are many differences between the two, the biggest being the King beating was on video so there was no doubt that what those people did was wrong. With this case, there was no video and no witnesses who saw what actually happened. There are no riots over the Martin cause cause it really wasn’t anywhere near the mountain of evidence that they had going into the decision that lead to the LA Riots.

There is ongoing assumption that I need to address: George Zimmerman is not Caucasian, he’s Latino. His (adopted) father is Jewish and his mother is from South America. He’s no more white than Obama is… so people need to stop calling Zimmerman a white guy because if you bothered to look at a picture of him, he’s clearly not. So people charging this as a race issue need to realize that this is the case of one minority being shot shot by another.

This case is not as black & white, closed case as people wanted it to be and those are the people who are flipping out right now. Sure, people are upset but I have to note that there are no riots. I’m pleased to see that protests have been peaceful… and I hope they continue to stay that way.

Am I happy Zimmerman is a free man today? No, I’m not. If I was in that jury, my vote would have been for manslaughter. I don’t think the prosecution did enough to warrant a murder conviction, but Zimmerman had no business being there and his actions lead to a man’s death. That alone warrants a manslaughter conviction so I am just as disappointed in this jury’s decision as most of you are.

George had no right to follow Trayvon, and he should have backed off when told to by the authorities over the phone. Zimmerman made a choice to follow and engage, that makes the result which was someone death his responsibility. That’s why I think he was (at minimum) guilty of manslaughter. So in my opinion, the jury to this wrong and I am very disappointed in them.

Here’s a question for you guys: back when Sandy Hook was shot up, the NRA was quoted as saying the only thing that stops a bad man carrying a guy is a good man carrying a gun. Do you remember when the NRA guys said that Trayvon would still be alive if he had armed himself too? Me neither… and that’s a part of the problem.

Peter