Quote from piezoe:
It is a shame to take the time and money to try this case.
Sadly there are still vestiges of white racism in the nation, worse in the South or any areas with a large black population. Just as sad is the black racism against whites, which may be more prevalent than racism among whites and which is so terribly destructive of black youth. No matter the terrible injustices of the past, what is to be gained by looking for scapegoats rather than to one's self for one's plight, one's lot in life. And it seems Blacks and Hispanics don't get along well either. Such a shame!
If we are going to share the same country we, for our own benefit, must be more accommodative and accepting. Let's move forward, let the past go. (Remember the past, regret it, even rail against it, but don't dwell on it. Let it go. Look to the future.)
There is no cause for a murder indictment here. Sadly, a kid with his whole life ahead of him is dead. But we must stop looking for a villain. If their is a villain, it is our society. Racism should not be the issue in this specific case. In my opinion, though it is not immaterial under the law, it should be immaterial whether Zimmerman or Martin were racist in their views -- likely in fact both of them were. If you attack someone else physically, regardless of whether provoked, and one of you has a gun, there is a good chance that one or the other of you will get shot.
We are not going to know for sure who initiated the physical confrontation -- Zimmerman says it was Martin, but there were no witnesses -- but we know that Martin severely beat Zimmerman and Zimmerman not Martin called 911 and was calling for help. That's enough for any reasonable person to conclude that there is no basis for a second degree murder charge here. The only conclusion possible is that this court case is politically motivated.
Though no one is charged with a hate crime in the present case, I was opposed to the recently passed hate crimes legislation, because it is too difficult to get into the minds of offenders, too fraught with error. Crimes should be prosecuted based of objective criteria. All the hate crimes that may be prosecuted under a hate crimes law are already crimes under the law. That is sufficient.
Instead of trying to do what is impossible to do fairly and objectively, let us spend our time working to improve race relations so that we will have fewer crimes in which race may play a role.
