Comments on Trayvon

I found this post and wanted to comment on it, but found the Comments closed (Don't you HATE when that happens...), so I decided to re-post it on MY blog, so I could comment on it....

From "The Audacity of Despair, collected prose, links and occasional venting from David Simon"

The article titled simply, "Trayvon" posted on July 13th, 2013

You can stand your ground if you’re white, and you can use a gun to do it. But if you stand your ground with your fists and you’re black, you’re dead.
In the state of Florida, the season on African-Americans now runs year round. Come one, come all.  And bring a handgun. The legislators are fine with this blood on their hands. The governor, too. One man accosted another and when it became a fist fight, one man — and one man only — had a firearm. The rest is racial rationalization and dishonorable commentary.
If I were a person of color in Florida, I would pick up a brick and start walking toward that courthouse in Sanford. Those that do not, those that hold the pain and betrayal inside and somehow manage to resist violence — these citizens are testament to a stoic tolerance that is more than the rest of us deserve.  I confess, their patience and patriotism is well beyond my own.
Behold, the lewd, pornographic embrace of two great American pathologies:  Race and guns, both of which have conspired not only to take the life of a teenager, but to make that killing entirely permissible.  I can’t look an African-American parent in the eye for thinking about what they must tell their sons about what can happen to them on the streets of their country.  Tonight, anyone who truly understands what justice is and what it requires of a society is ashamed to call himself an American.

What gets me about this article is the fact that it's nothing but raw emotion.  The Author doesn't care about justice, who is right, who is wrong or the facts about anything.  The verdict didn't go the way he wanted so let's destroy the system.

First let's look at the "Stand Your Ground Law".  About 1/3rd of all the claims on Stand Your Ground were filed by African Americans in Florida, even though they make up only about 1/6th of Florida's Population.

Second, let's look at the "Race Issue".  George Zimmerman isn't "White", he's half Peruvian and Half Jewish, hell he went to Prom with a black girl that he had dated in High School.  From the time he was 6 to 11 he lived in a Black household, his Business partner is black and so is his grand father.  To top it off, he tutored black kids for free in an after school program, after it was officially cancelled by the State.  Does this sound like the kind of guy that "hated" black people?

Finally, let's talk about Trayvon, he wasn't some little, tiny, innocent 12 year old as he was portrayed by the big media outlets.  He was a towering over 6' tall, fully developed teenager constantly getting into trouble.  He lived in Miami with his mother, but his mother sent him nearly 4 hours north to stay with his Father in Sanford, after he got suspended from School (AGAIN), for writing Graffiti on a wall in school and because they found a bag with traces of Marijuana in it.  At the time, they also found a bunch of jewelry in his backpack with a screwdriver, which Martin had said was given to him by a "friend" which he wouldn't name.

Draw your own conclusions, but from what I see, the African American community enjoys protection from "Stand Your Ground" at a disproportionate rate to the rest of the population, Zimmerman was anything BUT racist and Trayvon was anything BUT an innocent bystander.  People want to make this about race, but it's not.  It's simply a tragedy of circumstances and no amount of Bricks, Race Baiting or Punditry will ever change that fact.