The entire country is aflame with the Trayvon Martin incident in Florida. I guess, it would be more appropriate to say that “Trayvon Martin murder in Florida.” For anyone that does not know, Trayvon Martin was a 17 year old Black male that was shot and killed by a self-proclaimed “Neighborhood Watch” man in Sanford, Florida. (If you need more information, Google it.) There are several things about this situation that I find concerning and/or troubling.
First, I really want to say that I really hope people really just want Zimmerman (the shooter) to have his day in court. If we just want to go after George Zimmerman in a wave of “street justice,” we are no better than what we accuse Zimmerman of doing. We should not want “retribution” or “revenge” in the name of “Justice.” None of this will bring back Trayvon Martin.
Also, i really wish the conversation would stop straying from the topic at hand. I feel the hoodies and the individuality of this instance are overshadowing the true problem here. Zimmerman shot and killed Martin and was not even charged by the police. All over America, Black males being murdered seems to illicit much less concern than anyone else being murdered. Every time a Black male is killed, people have to speak up and point out that he was not a criminal or immoral person. Why? The issue at hand is that murder is illegal. Do we really want to start placing levels of value on person’s murdered?
So, yes, this is bigger than Trayvon. It’s about everyone in America having equal protection under the law. It should not matter the colour of a person or their social status as to how much we care about their murder.
The other issue I see in this is the right of George Zimmerman to own a handgun. Is this what was in the Second Amendment? I don’t see it. Many of the defenders of the “Second Amendment” point out the text of the second amendment.
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Everyone seems to want to ignore sections of this text. The NRA types want to ignore the text that says “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state…” This has nothing to do with George Zimmerman, especially in context of when this amendment was written. In the 1700′s, the contrast to a militia military was a professional military. George Zimmerman is not defending the United States from anything. Neither is someone who wants to shoot deer or rabbits in Montana, nor someone who feels safer from home invasion by having a gun in their nightstand.
The murder of Trayvon Martin brings a culmination of contemporary issues in America to the forefront. One is definitely the issue of race, which some GOP candidates and pundits want to decry. The truth is that Trayvon was murdered because he was Black and Zimmerman was not arrested immediately because he shot someone who was Black. This is not new. From Henry Louis Gates’ arrest in his own home to the murder of Amadou Diallo, Shawn Bell, and even Emmitt Till, Black males have been being treated as second class citizens in America.
Farther, how many of America’s children need to be shot before we realise where these “gun rights” get us. Can anyone name me one civilian with a gun that has defended the United States from foreign or domestic threats to the nation since the Civil War? When looking at gun violence in the United States and comparing it to other modern polities, it only compares to countries like Columbia. Is that our goal? To keep shooting each other?
I need to do another draft of this… I recognise that. I have just been really busy and not writing lately and felt the need to do something on here.
The DOJ now permits Blacks to place a hefty bounty on a white man’s head with impunity. The judge and the jury would be wise to convict – no matter what the facts.
I probably could have just anticipated this and posted it for you.
Let’s remain oblivious to the fact that no one has actually paid any attention to the “New Black Panther Party” and they have managed to stay a fringe group of morons that are classified with the SPLC just like Stormfront and The American Renaissance.