Armed Racial Entitlement: Zimmerman’s Acquittal Comes as No Surprise
On July 13, 2013 a Florida jury found George Zimmerman not guilty of murder or manslaughter in the slaying of an unarmed black teenager. The verdict could hardly be described as surprising. Given America’s long history of tolerating the murder of black men the outcome was sadly predictable. Yes, perhaps many of us hoped that in 2013, maybe this time at least, a black man’s killer might be brought to justice, but those hopes were dashed by a jury comprised of six women, five of them white, who chose to acquit George Zimmerman.
Even in the 21st century it appears that the mere fact that a murder victim is black is enough to generate reasonable doubt in the minds of a mostly white jury. Many voices will argue that the Zimmerman case is not about race. Those voices of “post-racialism” will accuse Trayvon Martin’s defenders of playing the race card. They will insist that the system works, although for black people it really never has worked. We live in a nation of armed racial entitlement, where white people can shoot black people and stand a reasonable chance of being acquitted on the grounds that they were acting out of fear or for self-defense, even when their black victim is unarmed.
In 2012 alone, 136 unarmed black men and women were killed by police officers, security guards or vigilantes. While some of the unarmed victims were suspects in crimes, many were not. At least twenty-five unarmed African-Americans were killed by vigilantes. Ten of the killers were not charged at all. That means that in 2012, forty percent of vigilantes who killed an unarmed black person were not charged with any crime. Others like Zimmerman were eventually charged but not convicted, and some plead guilty to reduced charges. In short, if you kill an unarmed African-American in the United States, you have about a 50/50 shot at getting away with murder.
While Stand your Ground and Castle Doctrine laws have not worked out well for African-American defendants claiming self-defense, they have effectively sanctioned extrajudicial executions committed by those who justify the shooting of African-Americans. In Slider, Wisconsin, 20-year old Bo Morrison, who was biracial, was shot to death on the covered porch of Adam Kind, who is white. Morrison was hiding between a refrigerator and a dresser because police were breaking up a party next door and Kind was underage and had been drinking. Although Kind, who had called the police to break up the party, knew the police were just 300 feet away, instead of letting them know somebody was on his porch, Kind shot Morrison with his Colt 45 revolver. He could have called police who were already next door, but instead chose to take the law into his own hands. He did not need to shoot Morrison, but perhaps he wanted to. Kind, protected by the Castle Doctrine, was not charged with any crime
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/07/14/armed-racial-entitlement-zimmermans-acquittal-surprise.html
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