Column by new Root Striker Kevin M. Patten.
Exclusive to STR
Now that the inevitable and unsurprising acquittal of George Zimmerman has been handed down, scores of angry citizens will be asking, “What’s next?” It should at some point cross the minds of those rioting in Oakland [4] and those currently “taking the freeway” in Los Angeles [5] – the same activists who are all about “horizontal” structuring and community organizing – that Zimmerman was a man who indeed did take charge in defending his own neighborhood, one that had recently come under siege by a rash of burglaries [6]. They’ll just have to deal with that truth as it is, and come to grips that the 29-year old, overzealous that he was, did not leave his wife and kids at home one night only to travel five or ten miles out of their little suburb hoping to find trouble, as one might expect a racist killer to do. He was only three houses away, doing something I believe he believed was moral and just.
But that isn’t the point of the Zimmerman spectacle. It wasn’t about “Stand Your Ground.” Not about self-defense. Neither was it about a fair trial. Nor is it even community organizing. To them, it’s much more simplistic and easier to digest: a bloodthirsty racist stalked a black teenager in the middle of a rainy night and found a way to kill him. Case closed, it seems.
Frank Taffe, a neighbor of Zimmerman’s, [7] disagrees with that narrative, stating: “We had eight burglaries in our neighborhood all perpetrated by young black males in the 15 months prior to Trayvon being shot. It would have been nine--there would have been nine, but George Zimmerman through his efforts of being a neighborhood watch captain helped stop one in progress, documented in the 911 calls February 2. My house was being robbed, and George on his nightly rounds watched this burglary in progress, called Sanford P.D., waited for them, and helped ensure that nothing bad happened to my house. And it's documented the 911 call for February 2. That was my residence that George Zimmerman helped stop.”
Again, facts are facts, and they’re not intended to make the race-whores of the liberalized population foam at the mouth, nor to get myself called a “racist” for the ten-thousandth time. (You can’t really be a white person in America and not be accused of racism.) Should it be a question only of race when a quiet Florida community comes under attack by burglars who all happened to be dark-skinned? Zimmerman shouldn’t be blamed for categorizing his suspicion any more than all those street activists who now believe “white America” is disregarding the emotions involved only to quietly extol the tragic death of a young person of color. We should be offended at the suggestion that all those who thought justice was delivered are now jubilating in the pubs, waiting for the next black person to be killed so we can dance the night away once again and laugh in their faces.
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, including that Zimmerman had tutored young blacks [8], had led an investigation into the beating of a black [9] homeless man, that he was given the house keys of his black neighbor who had recently been a burglary victim – that he wasn’t even white but of Peruvian descent! – racialism happened to be the primary factor. The “dominant narrative,” spoken I suppose from the mass media, was given far and wide by people like Al Sharpton and Nancy Grace, and no liberal could escape the vortex of this perception; evidencing not a “supremacist” system (obviously extended to that system’s main outlet, the Networks) that concerns itself with apologizing and excusing “whiteness,” but more determined to excite emotional biases, and one that can effortlessly conflate situations like this into disproportionate levels of attention distracting from other – in my opinion far worse – abuses from the State.
Example: where were all these crusaders when Marissa Alexander [10] of Jacksonville was recently sentenced to 20 years for firing a warning shot at her abusive husband, who continued to approach her inside of their home? Let down by the “Stand Your Ground” legislation, she was also let down by these same others who were far too busy equating a complicated murder trial with the epitome of racial oppression. Since that involved a black residence, it’s apparently not important enough to discuss, and can and will be used to call me and others “racist” simply for reporting on that most unfortunate verdict. It’s horrible that those of us who do suffer from a slight twinge of “white guilt” can’t ever speak about the problems involved in black communities, because somehow if we do, it’s only because we want to be looked at as heroes or to feel jaded or “anti-racist” or something else. Fine. No changing that today.
Yet at some point, as everyone knows, lead prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda would had to have asked State Attorney Angela Corey: “Can we convict him of second degree murder?” Of course not. What magic could? The chances of it weren’t ever seriously believed by anyone, and while there aren’t any laws against community watchmen following residents on their tax-paid-for city streets, there are laws against battery and attempted murder.
The real question then has always been who instigated the fight, knowing full and well that the complexities and lack of evidence would mean more division from people who search endlessly for reasons to revolt against a corrupt “system” – having no clue how to define its anatomy, or remedy a solution other than kicking over trashcans, breaking some windows, and blocking a few cars. It’s going to solve a whole lot, I’m sure. Had there actually been a video of Trayvon assaulting Zimmerman first, nobody would be offering an opinion on this case, unless they are to suggest that city organizers have no right to do their job, and that it’s totally acceptable for people to assault others for perceiving them to be a threat. Suppose then it would have been alright to confront those in the Occupy Camps who had a task of following around the numerous “infiltrators” – and thereby attack them on the basis of “what the hell is your problem?”
Of course the President had to weigh in also. Soon after the fateful night, on March 23rd, Obama precariously [11] stated that a hypothetical son would have assuredly looked like the dead 17 year old. Really? All black people look the same? Who can’t immediately notice the hook in the water, fishing for those who will for the sake of some kind of perceived justice not heed to it and extrapolate the racial sentiment to its furthest limit, especially now that his Justice Department [12] ponders federal charges? Balkanization in the past meant that two opposing and completely incompatible groups were separated by region. Neo-Balkanization today means that despite the many similarities that could be shared between white and black America (in fact all people), it will separate itself with piety, misconceptions, hate – and all while Obama and the New World Order snidely carry out their murderous war on the black population of Libya [13] and other ethnicities the planet over.
The conversation about the trial shouldn’t have ever been about “race vs. race”; instead it should have focused on the role of the community – so precious to these fools causing a mild ruckus – and the exchange of their authority over that of the police’s, so hated by them as well. As YouTube commentator “PainLessRisen [14],” a black activist who also supported Zimmerman solely on the grounds of self-defense, recently said to all those in the streets: “You need to grow up,” urging that if they do tear up their neighborhoods, “do not help them rebuild.” Perhaps if Trayvon Martin had been in charge of watching the neighborhood, the deceased would have had a different pigmentation. Ah, but then nobody would have heard about it, and no trashcan tonight would feel the lynch mob’s wrath.
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