Just This: Why I’m Mad…
About the Zimmerman Verdict
I don’t generally think that public opinion, whether mine or others, should hold any sway over legal decisions.
That would be a terrible precedent.
That said, I’m terribly upset over the Zimmerman ruling, as many are.
I don’t even necessarily believe that the Zimmerman verdict is wrong.
Legally, he is innocent. That is the problem.
All of the extraneous details aside: Zimmerman’s racism, his instigation, his gun;
Trayvon Martin’s youth, his blackness, his actual being in the right.
None of these matter in the eyes of the law.
Legally, Zimmerman was allowed to kill Martin without recourse.
This is legal in Florida, and quite a few other places.
The law is supposed to protect the innocent from wrongdoing.
In this case, the effect is quite the opposite.
Trayvon Martin was profiled as a troublemaker and accosted as a thug, likely due to his race or fashion.
He was picked out as not belonging simply due to his appearance, and whatever the actual details of the moment, was killed for it.
The law should discourage such a thing.
I’m mad because the law is wrong.
I’m also mad because Zimmerman was wrong, and there’s no going back on that one.
He doesn’t even have to.
He didn’t have to be right, to get away with killing.
He just had to decide he was right, and stand his ground.
It didn’t matter that he’d come to the wrong conclusion.
It didn’t matter then, because he had might in his gun.
And it doesn’t matter now, because he has right, in the law.
But worse is that there’s no reason this won’t happen again.
Letting the killer off means that this is accepted and will happen again.
Signing off on racist actions means perpetuating racism in deadly ways.
I want to tell those in Martin’s place of persecution to arm themselves and stand their ground…
but (caving to the gun lobby aside), that’s been shown to be ineffective.
I’m mad because Trayvon Martin is dead, and legally we’re saying it was inevitable and nbd.
Giving someone the right to kill someone opens up the interpretation of a threat to unacceptable and problematic means, as shown in this case.
The law needs to change.
We need to change it.
