Media Martyr

So hey, everyone's giving their two cents on the Trayvon Martin case, so I thought I'd actually give mine, which is likely based more in reality and fact than the majority of anything else being vomited across the web as we speak.

What nearly everyone whining about this case seems to fail to understand is that George Zimmerman was never on trial for whether he killed Trayvon Martin.  This was established already, because, you know, he admitted it.  From the start.  He never denied killing this kid.  This trial has always been about the motivation of the act.  And based on that motivation, there were only three possible verdicts: guilty of 2nd degree murder, guilty of manslaughter, or not guilty.  A jury chose the latter, because the other two could not be proven.

So for all of the "hurrrr if Zimmerman didn't kill Trayvon, then who did" people, which I've seen a million of at this point, shut the fuck up already.  You've already proven that you have absolutely no understanding of this case, so you no longer are allowed an opinion of it.

Now let's look at the actual facts that were available in this case, which, again, most people don't bother with looking into:

 - Zimmerman never owned a gun until roaming pit bulls in his neighborhood posed a threat, one of which cornered his wife at one point, after which an official told him the best way to  protect himself and his family was to "get a gun."  To be such a terrible racist murderer, he certainly seemed to have no interest in guns until his family was threatened by vicious animals.  This also explains owning the hollow-point ammunition.

- Zimmerman was appointed head of his local neighborhood watch group.  This implies that he was a likable individual in his community, and that they trusted him with this position.

- The neighborhood had been robbed multiple times within the last year alone, by young black males matching Trayvon's thuggish description.

- Trayvon was a self-proclaimed thug.  He was interested in drugs and guns.  Everything from his Facebook posts to his court-obtained text messages prove this.  Given his appearance and body language, Zimmerman's concern over him being in the neighborhood, acting in the way that he was, when it was dark and raining, was justified, as someone who was dedicated to watching out for his neighborhood from the same description of people who had robbed it previously.

- During the initial 911 call, when Zimmerman was calmly talking to the dispatcher from his truck, he indicated that Trayvon spotted him following and then made a gesture at his waistband, giving the implication that he was armed.

- Trayvon suddenly ran.  Zimmerman got out of his truck to follow him.  Dispatch recognized that he was following based on his winded voice, and told him that they didn't need him to do that.  So he stopped.  You can hear this in the 911 call very clearly.  He completely lost sight of Trayvon.

- Zimmerman stays on the line with the 911 dispatcher for several more minutes after giving up pursuit.  You can listen to the call for yourself and see that Trayvon has a lifetime to escape the area, or to run home, which he was very close to.

- After Zimmerman hangs up, Trayvon then returns to confront Zimmerman, and the physical conflict ensues.

- Zimmerman is pummeled in the face multiple times while laying on his back on the ground.

- A single gunshot kills Trayvon.  The autopsy showed skinned knuckles from his assault on Zimmerman, and no other injuries, since Zimmerman never even got a punch back on him.


These are the facts of the case.  These are known based on the timing sequence of the 911 calls, and by the physical evidence taken when the police arrived.

Based on these facts, how can you prove that Zimmerman killed Trayvon with malicious intent?  There's absolutely nothing here to justify that line of thinking other than personal bias.  The facts indicate that Trayvon was the aggressor.  It doesn't matter that Zimmerman followed Trayvon; that did not justify the physical assault on Zimmerman which resulted in Zimmerman firing his weapon in alleged self-defense.  If you recall from the 911 call, Trayvon had already made a gesture to indicate that he was possibly armed, giving Zimmerman even more reason to fear for his life.

So you might be thinking, okay, you can't prove malicious intent from Zimmerman, but why did he not get charged with manslaughter?  Well that's because the terminology of Florida's manslaughter statute does not apply.  It specifically says that an act of negligence does not constitute the crime, nor if it were self-defense or other excusable reasons.

But even if it were a typical involuntary manslaughter charge of another state, you would have still had a hard time proving negligence.  There was no law which stated Zimmerman couldn't carry his gun while performing neighborhood watch duties.  And he stopped following Trayvon when the 911 dispatcher asked him to.  Other than the risk he put himself at to follow a potentially armed criminal, there simply was no provable negligence in this case.

The media has exploited this case to massive proportions.  It took the death of a child and turned it into a ratings frenzy, carefully crafting its narrative of Zimmerman being a villain in the death of a black person in order to fuel racial tensions and public debate.  They carefully left out the details such as how Zimmerman himself was mixed race, including black in his family tree.  Or that Zimmerman had previously been responsible for the capture of criminals in his neighborhood.  Or that Zimmerman had once fought on the side of a black homeless man who had been beaten by the city's police, and accused them of covering it up.  That Zimmerman tutored disadvantaged children (read: black) for free.  Instead, they turned him into the antichrist.  And people fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.

The facts of this case are simply indisputable.  And they never changed, from the point in which the local police initially cleared him, until even after the media forced the case open again and dragged him through court.  I urge you to go and research them for yourself if you're still in doubt.

Trayvon had the opportunity to escape, but he chose to return and assault Zimmerman.  That decision cost him his life.  It shouldn't cost Zimmerman his as well for defending himself.