Shocked. That is the only word I can use to describe what I am sure many of us who were awaiting the outcome of the Trayvon Martin/ George Zimmerman case. Personally, I figured that Zimmerman would walk, but I held out the slightest hope that the jury would convict. Not because I hate George Zimmerman, but because it seemed pretty clear cut that he acted in an unlawful manner when he gunned down Trayvon Martin. You can comb through the facts of the case with a blind eye and still come to the conclusion that he shot and killed an unarmed child. Was it murder? The jury said no. The jury could not determine beyond a reasonable doubt that George Zimmerman had ill will and intent to injure or kill Trayvon. Maybe the jury didn't want to send a man to prison. Maybe the jury bought the endearing appearance that the defense carefully crafted for Zimmerman; the clean shaven face and the extra weight that gave him a much different look than the one he had on the night he fatally shot Martin. Maybe the jury bought the notion that Trayvon was a thug and that Zimmerman was afraid for his life when he drew his gun during the ensuing struggle. Maybe they bought the idea that George Zimmerman was just doing his job as neighborhood watchman when he decided to follow Martin because he looked suspicious wearing a hoodie in the rain and carrying candy and iced tea.
Maybe the jury looked past the fact that Trayvon was someones child. Someone who lived in the neighborhood where he was gunned down. Someone who was less culpable in this case than the one who was holding the gun. Someone who had no idea they were being approached by a neighborhood watchman who had aspirations to be a police officer, but for some reason wasn't one as of yet. Someone who was doing absolutely nothing wrong. Someone who had just as much a right to 'Stand Your Ground' as did the person who claimed to be doing just that. Someone who was engaged in a gunfight with nothing but his fists.
Maybe the jury had already had enough of this case. For 5 weeks they'd been dealing with it, from jury selection to the verdict. For two weeks they heard testimony from both sides. The defense had a pretty good strategy of painting Trayvon as a thug and of discrediting the prosecution's witnesses. The jury endured over 4 hours of closing argument. Maybe the jury just wanted to go home. I have a hard time believing all 6 of those jurors honestly thought George Zimmerman was not guilty. There had to be one person in the room who thought that Zimmerman's testimony didn't add up. Maybe they were the reason why it took 16 hours to come to the conclusion they ended up with unanimously. Maybe the other 5 jurors convinced them to look at things a little differently.
In the end, with all the waiting those involved with this case and all of us who watched from home did, with over a year having gone by, this is what we are left with. A not guilty verdict for a person who was guilty of, in the very least, having no regard for human life. I can't even begin to imagine what Trayvon's family is experiencing now. They had to deal with the loss of their son, wait for almost two months, from February 26th to April 11th, to get an arrest and see charges filed against the man who killed their son, their brother, their nephew, their cousin. They had to wait as the defense charged them with trying to manipulate the media by releasing photos of their son that made him look like an innocent child. The defense countered with pictures that made him look menacing, threatening and much more intimidating than the family photos. They showed him blowing smoke circles, claiming that Trayvon smoked marijuana and was under its influence the night he was killed. Martin's family had to deal with this and more for over a year while they watched Zimmerman receive financial donations to take care of his defense and his personal expenses. They had to watch their son get vilified in death as George Zimmerman walked free on bail, even after deliberately misleading authorities in regard to his finances. Once the trail began, they had to watch an aggressive defense of the man who shot and killed their son, while those who the prosecution called as witnesses were discredited. They watched as the prosecution tried to defend their son, when it wasn't him that was on trial. They watched as Trayvon was portrayed as the aggressor. They watched George Zimmerman refuse to testify and, finally, they watched as the jurors found their son's killer not guilty.
What this verdict means, essentially, is that Trayvon Martin was the one who was guilty. Yes, a not guilty verdict on behalf of George Zimmerman means that Trayvon Martin, somehow, ends up being the guilty one. It means that George Zimmerman had the right to shoot and kill an unarmed teenager who was walking to the home in which he was staying during that time. It means that George Zimmerman, although he acted against directions from a police dispatcher to not follow Martin any further, did nothing wrong according to the law.
What's sad is that this outcome was probably predetermined at the outset of the trail. It was long questioned why the State Attorney, Angela Corey, decided to charge Zimmerman with only 2nd degree murder. Manslaughter charges were later considered before the case was handed to the jury, but it was an all or nothing approach from the beginning. Maybe it was because the evidence against Zimmerman was so clear cut. But it is not outlandish to think that George's father Robert Zimmerman, the retired judge, didn't have an influence here. Couple that with the prosecution failing to drive home a number of important facts of the case, mainly of which was that Zimmerman was the head of an unarmed patrol as neighborhood watch leader. It would seem that should have been a major sticking point in an effort to dispute the weight the Stand Your Ground law had in this case. Also, George Zimmerman pursued Martin, defiantly against police dispatch direction, establishing himself as the aggressor. Now, I'm no lawyer, but those two facts seem to stack the deck heavily against Zimmerman. But the jury didn't see it that way.
So now the public gets to weigh in from both sides. While it's obvious support will be split among racial lines, we are starting to get a real sense of the racial climate of this country. While the death of Trayvon Martin will probably not be carried in the same historical context as Emmit Till, the social ramifications may well be. Zimmerman's lawyers defiantly postured in front of the cameras during the press conference after the trail, painting their client as the victorious victim. The lead attorney, Mark O'Mara threw race right into the mix by charging that if Zimmerman had been Black, he would have never been charged. There are many people like O'Mara who feel the same exact way. Others feel like Black on Black crime isn't cared about in the Black community and that we use race as an excuse to create martyrs out of thugs when someone of another race commits a crime against a Black person. They say we defended Michael Vick, who killed dogs. They say we defended OJ Simpson, who murdered a white woman. They say we continue to stand by Barack Obama and he is destroying our country. They say Black people are the real racists. I say, as Melissa Harris-Perry said, that Black people are the only group of people that experiences racism from all other groups, even from within. There is a racial stigma that only Black people face. The pending results often show up as disparity when it comes to the Justice system. But what also occurs is criticism of the public outcry that comes from the Black community. It has been stated many times in regards to this case that George Zimmerman is Hispanic, not white. Many people who aren't Black, and some who are, have stated that since this is the case, then it's not an issue of race. The same thing was said when Sean Bell was shot, due to the fact that some of the cops that were involved in that shooting were Black. But the truth of the matter is that it is about race. If young Black Trayvon Martin just happened to be young white Kyle Mickelson, this situation doesn't happen. George Zimmerman never made any calls to the non-emergency dispatch regarding suspicious young white men. You never hear of 4 Black cops shooting an unarmed white man 41 or 50 times. You don't hear about people locking their car doors when a menacing group of white teens dressed in khakis and polo shirts approach their vehicle. But you have cases where young Black men are not allowed to fly on airplanes or where they are ticketed or asked to leave malls because their pants "sag". You have curfews instituted in small towns when young Black kids decide to venture into the downtown areas. And you have Newt Gingrich saying that "500 people died in Chicago last year but no one protested that". So, while the case may not have been about Black vs. white, it was about race. It was about how a race of people, Black people, are depicted and perceived in society and how the law isn't designed to supersede that. In fact, as demonstrated in this case, it is designed to reinforce that stigma. George Zimmerman is a free man today because of that fact.
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