@engineer,
Quote:
Bill is not the only one selectively looking at the evidence presented. There is an effective case on either side and that leads to reasonable doubt. From where I sit, I'm more in the Zimmerman started it and there is a case to be made for manslaughter camp, but I can't fault the jury verdict and I find the cartoon you posted implying the jury is racist to be very unfair to people who had to look at all the evidence, put aside their pre-conceived notions and make the call.
I can't fault the jury verdict, although I do think that both jurors who have spoken out were unclear on how to interpret the law regarding manslaughter, and that may well have affected the verdict. One juror clearly had a question about manslaughter that never got answered. I don't blame the jury for that, I don't think the prosecution clearly explained the manslaughter law to them and how it applied to this case.
I don't think the jury was racist, but I do think they bought into the covert racial profiling of the victim that was part of the defense's strategy, even though race was not explicitly mentioned during this trial. When the first juror who spoke out talked about Jeantel and Martin, by saying "the language
they use" and "their culture" I was very taken aback--this woman has problems connecting with, let alone identifying with, black people--they are somewhat foreign to her. So, how might have that affected her perception of the victim? She said she had no sense of what he was like. That made it somewhat easier for her to buy into Zimmerman's concern about black criminals, and to disregard the fact Martin wasn't one of them, and that he really was minding his own business that night. I think at least one black juror might have made the outcome different. The only Hispanic on the jury was also the longest hold-out. So subconscious racial/cultural factors did influence this jury, even though they might not have been consciously aware of them.
Race and racial issues were very much a part of this case, and that's the dialogue and discussion that should continue to go on in this country. It's a subject that white people tend to be uncomfortable with, and no one wants to admit to bias, but it does affect us, and it does affect our criminal justice system. And when the black community, rather overwhelmingly, cries out that this death, and the way it was handled from the very start, has to do with race, I think white people, and everyone else, should start paying attention and listen to what they are saying. Nothing will change unless everyone does become aware of their biases and how they operate. And it's those who are affected by that bias who help to make us more aware.
BillRM isn't just selectively looking at the evidence--he's actually making up his own case which involves a heavy distortion of the victim and the events. Now he's saying that Martin, who was a middle class kid, from a decent middle class family, was a gang member. Not only is there nada to support that nonsense, even gang members have a right to act in self-defense, if some stranger starts following them around in the dark when they are minding their own business, and even gang members shouldn't be shot without adequate reason. By the time BillRM gets through weaving his fantasies, Martin will probably be the one who pursued Zimmerman through that housing complex.
I don't think I looked selectively at the evidence, I did consider all of it. And I found Zimmerman's version of events very problematic--it was inconsistent, and not entirely supported by actual physical evidence, in some instances the evidence contradicted his account, and some of what he alleged happened just didn't ring true for me, it didn't make sense. If something is clearly self-defense, I don't think those troubling problems should be there. I had, and still have, considerable reasonable doubt about whether this killing was legally justified. But I can accept and live with the verdict. And I actually see little point in continuing to re-hash the facts of this case--it's over.
I'm not sure which cartoon you're referring to--I've posted a lot of them. But I'm not accusing the jurors of being racists, and I'm not accusing Zimmerman of being a racist, but I do think that racially biased thinking, and racial stereotyping, may have affected all of them, subtly and subconsciously. That's why I think our country needs to continue the conversation about racial profiling, and how racial factors affect us, because, no matter how much we'd like to deny it, these factors do affect us. The solution has to involve heightened awareness, education, and different groups actually listening to each other.
