Trial By Press? Why America Needs To Be Patient In The Trayvon Martin Case

It is a sad state that so many people seem to be in favor of this so called "trial by press". Ever since O.J., we, as a society, have decided to crucify people that are involved in controversial events and seem to take pleasure  when we destroy said people's reputations before they get their day in court. Sure, some (one could even say most) of these people end up being guilty, but for every O.J. Simpson there is a Kobe Bryant. For every Scott Peterson there are people like Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans (the defendants in the Duke lacrosse rape case from 2006). It is a crying shame that people care more about Nancy Grace's opinion (Grace can rip apart and label any potential suspect as guilty, but the fact is there is a murderer on the streets due to her actions as a prosecutor that resulted in a mistrial. A Georgia court called her actions a, "disregard of the notions of due process and fairness," before overturning a conviction of arson/murder and setting the defendant free) than they do about the rights to due process granted to every citizen by the United States Constitution. Yet, despite her using false testimony while acting as a prosecutor for the State of Georgia, many people hold her opinions on legal matters in high regard...or at least react as if they do when she, and others like her, get on their high horses and declare suspects guilty before they even get the chance to face a judge and/or a jury of their peers. 

Now I'll get into the specific case that has led me to write this. At this point, what does ANYONE really know about this Trayvon Martin case? That the press is reporting that a white guy killed a black kid? That, if Martin's killing was in fact a murder, that it HAS to be a hate crime? George Zimmerman's family says he is Hispanic so it does not make sense to me why everyone is calling him white. Also, a former CNN anchor, Joe Oliver, (who just so happens to be black) said, "in this one spark incident, that [the portrayal of young, black men] wasn't the case. Race had nothing to do with it." In addition to being a CNN anchor, Oliver happened to know Zimmerman, personally, before this whole incident occurred. Although most major news sources have decided to just report on the protests by different groups who are angry at the handling of this situation, CNN did decide to report one fact that has been released; (albeit buried at the bottom of a long ass article) Zimmerman was, "bleeding, from the nose and back of his head." Those same news sources that are calling Zimmerman a white man have also have chosen to use a mugshot of him from an unrelated case in 2005 and put it next to a picture Martin from a few years ago where he looks like a little kid. Doing this is extremely prejudicial, and I believe that the media should feel obligated to report all news stories from a neutral point of view. That of course will never happen because being neutral does not bring in ratings a.k.a advertising revenue. All of that withstanding, I agree that it is POSSIBLE that race had something to do with the shooting, but it is far to early to jump to that conclusion. What if Martin attacked Zimmerman? What if that attack was because of a threat by Zimmerman towards the boy? Nobody knows yet because the police are doing their job and not leaking very much information to the press. A story was leaked yesterday that said there was evidence of Zimmerman being attacked, but who knows if that is even credible because IT IS TOO EARLY TO TELL! Potential self-defense shootings are not as simple as all of these protesters want them to be. They take time for the police to gather all of the evidence, interview witnesses and come to a conclusion. Another thing that the media is also, for the most part, choosing to ignore is that the facts of this case will be presented to a grand jury on April 10th. In Florida, prosecutors have two ways to charge a suspect: by information where the prosecutor acts within his own authority, or a before a grand jury. In a case such as this, with no eyeball witnesses, it seems that a grand jury hearing is the fair way to decide whether or not Zimmerman should be charged. With only circumstantial evidence, charging Zimmerman without a grand jury could be like, uh, I don't know, charging Casey Anthony with capital murder? It may please the media for a time, but in the end, it will backfire. While a grand jry is not the speediest way, I believe it is the fair way, even if it does mean the press will have two more weeks to continue to sully Zimmerman's name without really knowing what happened that night. Basically, I just believe people need to relax, be patient, and wait for ALL of the facts in the case to come out. I know this can be hard when a the death of young person is involved, but in the end it is what needs to be done. I also believe that the mainstream media (CNN, FoxNews, ESPN, MSNBC, etc.) contributes more to racial tensions in this country by bringing race into EVERY story that involves conflict between two people of different heritages. I know that they think they are helping, but they are not. They report something such as a black kid getting shot by a "white" guy (saying he is Hispanic does not sound nearly as controversial or as "juicy") and it snowballs out of control, when the fact of the matter is that no one knows a damn thing yet. Oh yeah, and regardless of whether the shooting was racially motivated, justified, or a straight up murder, there is absolutely no reason for the federal government to be involved in a local shooting. The local police need to man up, do their job at their own pace and not be influenced by pressure from outside sources. "Quick" justice is not the answer. As angry as people are now, it will only get worse if the police feel that outside pressure, move too quickly, screw something technical up in the process of finding out that it is, in fact, a murder and then George Zimmerman ends up going free anyways. 

I Can Stand a Black Man, I Just Can't Stand Obama

Recently, one of my friends posted this image on Facebook. I began to type a comment on it, but I realized it had just gotten too long and I decided that this would be a better medium to express my thoughts on the absurdity that this picture portrays. I know that in today's society minorities are the only ones "allowed" to get offended, but I happened to find this image to be pretty damn offensive. I do NOT support Barack Obama, but I am NOT a Republican. I am an Obama opponent, not because of his skin color, but because of his politics. If Ron Paul was the same exact person except he was black, I would support him as much as I do now. In fact, not supporting Obama is an understatement. I think he is a terrible president, but he possibly could have done a decent job had he waited 8-12 years to mature and get some more political experience. I saw this man, who is supposed to be the leader of this country, get pissed off while having a look of disgust on his face during an interview on television, as well as doing the same thing a few times while trying to mediate between political parties. While I probably would have resorted to physical violence and screaming if I were in charge of getting the Republicans and Democrats to compromise, I am not the president. The president can not act rattled or annoyed. He needs to be cool, calm and collected at all times. To me, portraying a strong, calm image is one of the most important traits to possess for the president of the United States. This is one of the many reasons that I have lost so much respect for our Commander in Chief. While I disagree with everything that this picture stands for, it brings up an interesting issue. I would be willing to bet a significant amount of money that there are more blacks out there who voted for Obama because they share his skin color than there are white people who do not like him and did not vote for him because he is black. As for any black person who reads this and disagrees, please inform me of a few of the president's acts that fall into line with your political beliefs and that you fully support. Obamacare does not count, unless you can explain the ins and outs of it to me because I consider myself pretty well informed on politics, but I still do not understand exactly who will be effected and how exactly it is changing our current system. Outside of his health care reform, I can think of a few things that may have appealed to you. Do you like that he is a serial liar and just tries to use buzz words and lies just to please his crowds (the current Republican nominees are just as guilty). Do you like that he is taking terrorists who, by their own admission, only regret that they did not kill MORE Americans during the attacks on 9/11, onto American soil to give them trials under US law? Do you like how it takes about two seconds to look up a video during Obama's 2008 campaign where he says that under his presidency no US dollars would be spent shutting down LEGAL medicinal marijuana dispensaries, and then two months into office he started ordering the DEA to raid them (talk about taking away jobs...)? How about how he promised to veto the NDAA bill (which would have overturned some of the scarier parts of GWB's Patriot Act) and then backed down from yet another promise and signed it into law anyways? Could it possibly be that you (this one is specifically for you, Jarred, as a black man in the military) believe that it is America's responsibility to police the world by attacking foreign lands to force our values on them. Just like we did by spending hundreds of billions of American tax payer dollars intervening in and bombing Libya. I thought Democrats were traditionally anti-war, but I guess not. Maybe if you are a black man you do not care about securing the boarder between US and Mexico because your buddy Obama obviously does not. This, however, is very important to me and I do not like how the issue has seemingly been ignored for the last three years. I believe that this is because Obama is scared of angering many of the Hispanics that voted for him in 2008, when in reality, just because they do not speak perfect English, does not make them stupid. Many of the ones who vote want the boarder secured so the criminals who make the image of all immigrants look bad will be stopped. These are just a few of reasons that I quickly assembled on why I happen to dislike Barack Obama. When it comes down to it, I just think he is a liar (more than the average politician) and has lied on many issues that happen to be important to me. I stuck with issues unrelated to the economy because as much as Obama has fucked that all up, most Republicans probably would have done the same (except Ron Paul who actually understands the economy...or maybe he's just a physic). For the record, I would hate Obama just as much if he were a short, white, red head as long as he had the same principles he has today. This leads me to the final and one of my biggest problems with Obama's presidency. It is not a criticism of the man himself, but rather the country that he leads and how we have reacted to having a black president. Now that our country has a black president, we need to stop making race such a big deal. One of my biggest concerns with his presidency is how the race card seems to come up so often. Let us take a trip down memory lane back to 2002. George W. Bush had not yet fucked up his presidency. In fact, his early handling of the attacks on 9/11 made him so popular that people were talking about his Secretary of State, Colin Powell, running for office once Bush's term expired. When asked about his thoughts on running Secretary Powell said that he had considered it, but if he were president he would want to be known for his policies and principles, and would not like all of the news just focusing on how he would have been the first black president**. I wish more of America would adopt this view. The demographics of America are changing and changing fast. We need to stop with all of this playing of the race card because we will only pass it on to a younger generation. A generation that would be fine without our stupid ass racial issues because by the time they are our age the amount of people in each race will be about equal in the US, with mixed race children fast approaching those who are purely one race. In the words of Ron Paul, ‎"Racism is simply an ugly form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans strictly as members of groups rather than individuals. Racists believe that all individuals who share superficial physical characteristics are alike: as collectivists, racists think only in terms of groups. By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called 'diversity' actually perpetuate racism. Their obsession with racial group identity is inherently racist." It is a shame that so many criticisms of the president are considered racist. Look at Newt Gingrich's (who would most likely be just as bad of a president in his own way) comments on Obama being a "welfare president." That was considered racist by some, when it is a fact that the number of Americans on welfare has almost doubled since 2008.  As the leader of the free world, one needs to be open to all sorts of criticism without the race card continuously being played. Criticizing the government is one of the cornerstones of a democracy. That is all I have for now, but I would love to hear from a black person about a list of policies that you have enjoyed that came from Obama's camp. Oh, and Osama Bin Laden does not count either. Obama did not order that Bin Laden be hunted and killed. That order came down ten years ago. 


A Few Notes: 


**I remember hearing this story in 2007 or 2008, but due to Google's terrible new search program that only brings me Wikipedia articles and forums I can not find the story, but I am 85% sure that it is true.
--I just now figured out the magical invention of the hyperlink. Tried to go back and source some of lies that I accuse him of, but got too lazy. Google any yourself, if you do not believe them, remember: these are just my opinions on the president. I am ALWAYS up for a good political debate as long as you know your facts.
--I use the term "black people" rather than "African Americans" on purpose. I am sorry if this is offensive to anyone, but I personally think that "African Americans" is a ignorant, politically correct term that is sometimes inaccurate. In addition to not all blacks having ancestors from Africa, (Jamaica and other Caribbean islands produce people with black skin too) I personally do not care where your great-great grandparents were born. I'm not a European American, I'm an American, just like black people are Americans. It is 2012. Forget about where your family was from and just happy to be an American!