Zimmerman, one last round, and other stuff

I saw three interesting articles with which I shall end my involvement in the Zimmerman-Martin case.  Unless I have to go Troppo on AG Holder at some later date, which is always possible.

The first is from that eminent philosopher, Charles Barkley.  Sir Charles does an eloquent job of explaining why he believes the jury got it right.  His take highlights the double-standards being taken by both sides here:

“I just feel bad because I don’t like when race gets out in the media ‘cuz I don’t think the media has a ‘pure heart,’ as I call it,” Barkley continued. “There are very few people who have a pure heart when it comes to race. Racism is wrong in any shape [or] form — there are a lot of black people who are racist, too. I think sometimes when people talk about race, they act like only white people are racist. There are a lot of black people who are racist. And I don’t like when it gets out there in the media because I don’t think the media has clean hands.”
So, what was his take on the actual evidence?

Like I said, I feel sorry that young kid got killed, but just judging by the evidence, I don’t think that guy should’ve went to jail for the rest of his life,” Barkley continued. “Mr. Zimmerman was wrong to pursue, he was racial profiling, but I think Trayvon Martin — God rest his soul — I think he did flip the switch and started beating the hell out of Mr. Zimmerman. But it was just a bad situation.”
But the worst thing, to Charles, was that justice didn't really get done.

"The main thing I feel bad for is it gives every white person and black person who’s racist a platform to vent their ignorance,” he said. “That’s the thing that bothered me the most. I watched this trail closely and I watched these people on television talking about it. A lot of these people have a hidden agenda. They want to have their racist views, whether they are white or black … Their biases definitely come out. It was a bad situation. We all lost.”
The second comes to us from an unlikely (to me) source:  Fox's Juan Williams.  In this article, he goes down through all the mistakes made by every participant that led to the verdict that was arrived at.

Star with the political pressure for a quick arrest.  Then the prosecutor fails to ask for a grand jury, which would have likely told them that a murder conviction was pie in the sky, instead of scrambling at the end to get lesser charges introduced.  The next level was the media turning it into a race thing, just to sell their agenda.  Was it a race thing?  Well, let's step away from Juan Williams for a moment and look at the third level- An article by Pam Geller in Westernjournalism.com which will make any REASONABLE person say to themselves, George Zimmerman was not motived by racist thoughts.  Many of you have heard the factoids- Peruvian mother, black family members, and shrugged it off.  But, look here:

George Zimmerman launched a campaign to help a homeless black man who was beaten up by a white kid.
George dated and took a black girl to the prom.
George Zimmerman also mentored young black males.

George Zimmerman voted and campaigned for Obama.
George Zimmerman and his black friend opened an insurance company in Florida.


All of which was reported in the London Telegraph, which was a good enough news source to get Eric Snowden exiled for letting you know Big Brother's listening (Hi, Barry!)

So back to Williams, where, after berating the media charge to make it a racist case, also shows the other side.

To make the connection between black men and crime is not evidence of racism. As Jason Riley, who is African-American, wrote in the Wall Street Journal this week there is a disturbing high rate of convictions of black men for violent crime in America. So let’s not tell lies in an attempt to claim race is not an issue. Americans, black and white, are all conscious of race, the history of racial division in our country and the painful curves it continues to throw at us all.
And let me add something I heard on the Piers Morgan clip many of us saw yesterday:  50% of murders in this country are black-on-black killings- that's 6% of the population (the convicted black men) committing half the murders in the nation.  And yet "leaders " like Anthea Butler accuse white America of "stalking young black men" rather than trying to get these young black men from killing in the first place.  And thus you have "white people"  afraid to go out at night because the police are afraid to "profile", and the NAACP are protesting against the "oppressive laws" that might make the streets safe again.

Finally, let Juan have the last say...

Again, the media, like the prosecution, and like the jury – all failed to exercise the honesty required to act wisely.

Whether the young man threw a punch or a rock it is hard to see any wisdom in allowing a killer to walk away because he feared for his safety after scaring the victim.

But one juror, identified by her jury service number as B37, said in a post-trial interview that Martin has some responsibility for his death because “when George confronted him he could have walked away.”

It is also true that “George” could have avoided the whole incident by staying in his car.
The juror, the wife of a lawyer, allowed that Zimmerman “went too far and did not use good judgment.” She also said the laws were “very confusing.” And then she concluded idly that “someone lost their life and nothing else could be done about it.”

Four of the five other jurors issued a statement disavowing B-37’s comments. They simply said “in the end we did what the law required us to do.”
And that is where we must do better.

The limits of the law are no excuse for failing to give justice to the family of a dead, unarmed teen who had his whole life ahead of him. It is no excuse for leaving another man, Zimmerman, as a target of hate for the rest of his life.
We have to demand more of our prosecutors, our media, our juries, ourselves.


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Anyway, here's the other stuff- pictures from our truncated, molten walks lately.

Heron flying away...

...and chillin'.

Damn, it's hot!

Remember when it was pouring?  Evidently we now need the rain...

Mama and fawn last night.

 

Moonlight over the Ponderosa...

Saw the Pope this morning...

A Swallow finally sitting still enough...

By the time they get the trail connected to Foster park, they'll have to re-connect it to itself...

Kitty lounging on the trail...

And this was interesting- two Goldfinches fighting over a lady right out in the street!