Charles Blow: The Whole System Failed

[cal04]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/opinion/the-whole-system-failed.html?_r=1&

In a way, the not-guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman for his killing of Trayvon Martin was more powerful than a guilty verdict could ever have been. It was the perfect wrenching coda to a story that illustrates just how utterly and completely our system of justice — both moral and legal — failed Martin and his family.

(snip)
The system began to fail Martin long before that night.

The system failed him when Florida’s self-defense laws were written, allowing an aggressor to claim self-defense in the middle of an altercation — and to use deadly force in that defense — with no culpability for his role in the events that led to that point.

The system failed him because of the disproportionate force that he and the neighborhood watchman could legally bring to the altercation — Zimmerman could legally carry a concealed firearm, while Martin, who was only 17, could not.

[grasswire]

1. another way the *system* failed.....

....is the disproportionate disenfranchising of 30 percent of black males from ever serving on a jury.

Why is this so? Because black males are disproportionately arrested and convicted of felonies, which keeps them from serving on juries.

The system is rigged.