That's Why It's a Sin to Kill a Mockingbird

Well, needless to say, I found the verdict in the case of the State of Florida vs George Zimmerman to be repulsive, although by no means surprising. I’m still trying to figure out how it can reasonably occur that a 17 year old kid coming home from the store is profiled, stalked and shot dead by a self-revealed racist with a history of physical violence and nobody is held to account for it. I am saddened and disappointed and, of course, angered and my anger and sense of frustration are exacerbated by the large numbers of my fellow citizens who take the position that justice has been done and we can all sleep well at night again.

It is not my intention to analyze the legal merits of the prosecution or defense of the case and it is not my intention to impugn the character or the intelligence of the jury. It is not my intention to question the efficacy of our legal system or of any of the specific decisions or actions of that system made or taken during the course of the trial. I was not present during the trial and cannot evaluate the quality of the presentation of the evidence or the manner in which it may have been refuted, and I did not participate in the jury deliberations and cannot assess the intent or substance of those deliberations. I do not know if it was proven that Mr. Zimmerman was guilty beyond all reasonable doubt of the charges brought against him, but I do know Mr. Zimmerman is guilty of being an avatar of the sick paranoia and cult of hatred and violence that so many people promote as a virtue in 21^st Century America.

America has always been a racist nation. We were born through the genocide of countless millions of aboriginal peoples and built upon the violently extracted sweat of African slaves. These actions required us to value the lives and rights of certain classes of people less than our own. The extent to which these facts of our history are diminished or denied has continually astounded me, and the righteous justification that allows us to absolve ourselves of moral culpability for such things contributes to the creation of people like George Zimmerman who feel that their assumptions about certain types of people are evidence of clear and present danger that warrant pre-emptive action. Racism is by no means dead in modern America, and the very argument that Mr. Zimmerman’s fears were reasonable because “young black guys commit all the crimes” is sterling evidence of that.

What really drives my dismay about this verdict is more deeply personal, though. I have two sons, one who will be 21 in a few months and another who will be eighteen in a couple of weeks. I love them and fear for their welfare a good deal more than my words or deeds generally indicate. They have not always followed the narrow path and I can easily see either of them wandering around somewhere unfamiliar at an unusual time and being confronted by a resident suspicious of their presence. I can also see the brashness of youth resulting in an uncooperative attitude which is then viewed as confirmation of suspicion and an escalating exchange where both parties vent their frustrations; frustrations over perceived danger on one hand, and the frustration of not being able to pass unmolested down a public street on the other. Such encounters usually result only in harsh words, or, at worse, the police being summoned to intervene, but if a person like George Zimmerman is introduced into the mix, I might be grieving the death of a child who was guilty only of standing up for himself and not being experienced enough to know how dangerous that can sometimes be.

On the night of February 26, 2012 George Zimmerman observed a person legally walking in his neighborhood that he thought was suspicious. He thought he was suspicious because he was the same race and age of persons who were thought to have committed property crimes in the neighborhood. George Zimmerman armed himself with a handgun and followed the “suspect” in his car. At some point he got out of his car and confronted the individual. Some sort of exchange ensued and an unarmed Travon Martin was shot dead. Whether George Zimmerman planned to shoot anyone is impossible to say; it is clear he prepared himself to so. The jury says there was no crime, but the jury can only judge the guilt of an individual, not a society, and crime and sin are not always the same thing.