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What’s Special About Trayvon?

You Know I'm Right | Commentary by Betty Arenson

Betty Arenson | Friday, Jul 26, 2013

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In the scheme of things, Trayvon Martin is not special. Except for his parents and other loved ones, he is simply another citizen. But: Trayvon is hailed as special, and therein lies yet another tragedy added to a long list of tragedies.

The list includes Trayvon’s death, his family’s grief, the ruin of George Zimmerman’s life and his future, the lives of Zimmerman’s family – who are hiding because of death threats – and the ripping of the fabric of a country’s citizens by a mindset of fame seekers and a bunch of uninformed good-for-nothings.

At the top of the list should be the utilization of Trayvon’s death as currency by the likes of Al Sharpton. It is accentuated by celebrities who feel compelled to jump on the band wagon and tell the world what fabulous, all-knowing people they are.

Where’s Sharpton & Co. on the 54 Chicago deaths occurring just during the dates of Zimmerman’s trial?

Where is Sharpton & Co. on the reports by The Huffington Post’s referencing NBC Chicago, that as of Jan. 6, 2013, Chicago had 12 murders; New York City had seven murders between Jan. 3 and Jan. 7; and Detroit had six by Jan. 6?

The media have been despicable. That’s becoming uniform for the media.

The media planted, fertilized and grew this event into a dangerous farce. Most certainly, we cannot overlook that our president chose to enter the fray frequently with his errant information, as well.

Zimmerman is suing some in the media – as well he should, and may he hit the jackpot.

It is telling of the state of our country’s media when NBC “edits” an audio tape to distort facts that could lead to a citizen’s demise. This, accompanied by ABC intentionally altering a video tape of Zimmerman’s head injuries after the shooting.

It is worth noting that the prosecution had a doctor testify that Zimmerman’s injuries were insignificant. Equal to an abrasion. If the injuries were so tiny, why did ABC have to minimize and mask them, and then lie to the public?

Early accounts revealed Zimmerman’s best friend is a black man. He was interviewed on television. Zimmerman and his wife housed a black neighbor-lady who was in fear from the community’s crime. Zimmerman’s high school prom date was a black lady.

All of that was smothered.

Smothered are the authentic adult-like photos of Trayvon Martin: 17 years old and an adult-sized body. We are plagued with the angelic, adolescent photos.

Smothered are Martin’s young life of crime with possession of drugs, a burglary tool and stolen jewelry.

The following will not be seen in the mainstream media:

“System’s Leneincy Toward Trayvon Led to His Death.”

In order to make his crime statistics look good, Police Chief Charles Hurley of the Miami-Dade School Police Department is suspected of juicing the numbers by treating outright crimes as simple disciplinary problems. As Robert Stacy McCain reports in The American Spectator, Trayvon Martin ended up being a victim of this practice. Instead of being arrested and charged after being found with a burglary tool and 13 pieces of jewelry stolen from a house a half-mile from the school, Trayvon was suspended from school. Trayvon was also caught with marijuana. Either of those incidents could have put Trayvon Martin into the custody of the juvenile justice system.

However, because of Chief Hurley’s attempt to reduce the school crime statistics — according to sworn testimony, officers were “basically told to lie and falsify” reports — Martin was never arrested. And if he had been arrested, he might never have been in Sanford the night of his fatal encounter with Zimmerman.” LBN (News) of July 21, 2013.

LBN is not a conservative news source.

Alan M. Dershowitz is a Harvard law professor and considered a criminal law expert. He is also a liberal. He said: “I think there were violations of civil rights and civil liberties — by the prosecutor. (T)he prosecutor sent this case to a judge, and willfully, deliberately, and in my view criminally withheld exculpatory evidence.”

Dershowitz said it was “the right verdict. (T)here was reasonable doubt all over the place.”

He also called for disciplinary action against the lead prosecutor, State Attorney Angela Corey.

Protesters beat the drum for “justice.” They wanted Zimmerman arrested and tried by a jury, to end in a verdict. They got it. Now they don’t like it.

Oh, now we get it. It wasn’t their kind of justice.

Betty Arenson has lived in the SCV since 1968 and describes herself as a conservative who’s concerned about progressives’ politics and their impacts on the country, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She says she is unashamed to own a gun or a Bible, couldn’t care less about the color of the president’s skin, and demands that he uphold his oath to protect and follow the Constitution of the United States in its entirety. Her commentary publishes Fridays.

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6 Comments

Judy says:

Saturday, Jul 27, 2013 at

But what if it were your son? Instant justice shouldn’t reign, and no one knows whether any crime was committed by this kid. He was black, wore a hoodie and maybe wasn’t afraid to shoot his mouth off, and that’s why some seem to think it was just fine for him to be killed.

Reply
- EJody says:
  
  Saturday, Jul 27, 2013 at
  
  NO ONE thinks it was “just fine for him to be killed.” State your sources. His death was tragic and preventable.
  
  We has not shot for shooting his mouth off. He was shot by a man who was defending himself against Martin’s deadly and unprovoked attack against him. Martin was committing assault and battery and even told Zimmerman, “You’re going to die tonight.”
  
  How was this “instant justice”? Would you have just laid there and allowed someone who’d just broken your nose and knocked you to the ground to repeatedly smash your skull into the concrete?
  
  Why is Martin being promoted to sainthood? What are we teaching young people about violence? That it’s OK to attack someone… that the victim shouldn’t fight back and let you do whatever you want to them? That violence is an acceptable first response?
  
  How’s that been working out so far in America? In Chicago, D.C., New Orleans, L.A…?
  
  Reply
  - Greyling says:
    
    Saturday, Jul 27, 2013 at
    
    NO ONE is “promoting Trayvon Martin to sainthood.” State your sources. And yes, his death was truly tragic and preventable.
    
    The reality is, we only know what George Zimmerman told us. Trayvon Martin is dead and cannot speak for himself.
    
    Zimmerman had told so many different stories about what happened that night it’s impossible to find the truth.
    http://www.hlntv.com/article/2013/07/02/george-zimmerman-trial-versions-story
    
    And how do you know Martin wasn’t fighting back against Zimmerman’s attack? You don’t.
    
    Just because Fox News doesn’t cover something, does not mean it does not happen.
    
    “Why Don’t Black People Protest ‘Black-on-Black’ Violence?”
    http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/04/why-dont-black-people-protest-black-on-black-violence/255329/
    
    Reply
Greyling says:

Saturday, Jul 27, 2013 at

Trayvon Martin is special because he was an unarmed teenager guilty only of walking home, who didn’t get a chance to stand his ground against an older man with a gun.

George Zimmerman was a vigilante judge and jury and murdered a young man based on prejudice and hatred instead of facts and waiting for the police as he was instructed. He knew he would be protected by his father the judge and Florida’s Stand Your Ground (SYG) law no matter what he did.

But how nice to see an ultra conservative white Christian lady like Arenson caring so very much about black crime in the inner cities.

For the first time ever.

And only because it seems conservatives think people can only care about one thing at a time. Only Trayvon Martin or only Chicago. Not both.

This will come as a shock to Arenson, but black groups have been working in inner cities to fight crime for decades.

But that isn’t reported on Fox News, so she wouldn’t know about it.

What is really happening in America? For starters, how about 1.6 million homeless children. How about 80% of Wal-Mart workers on food stamps. How about poverty. Hunger. Discrimination. Racial profiling. Corporate welfare. A deregulated Wall Street gambling with mortgages and pensions and crashing the economy. Companies outsourcing jobs and not paying taxes. Perpetual war. Gun violence. Institutional racism. Bigotry.

Blacks and whites do marijuana at the same rate. But blacks are 4 times more likely to be arrested than whites. Why?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/04/the-blackwhite-marijuana-arrest-gap-in-nine-charts/

The Koch brothers and American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) teamed up in 2005 with the National Rifle Association (NRA) to write and pass SYG laws to allow people to shoot first and not bother to ask questions at all. Vigilante laws. If you are “scared” you can shoot to kill, no worries.

(When will the NRA call for all young black males to be armed so they can stand their ground, the way they did for all school teachers to be armed after Sandy Hook? I’m not holding my breath.)

In Florida, where the SYG law was first enacted, homicides are up 300 percent. Now 31 states have enacted similar laws.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/five-years-since-florida-enacted-stand-your-ground-law-justifiable/1128317

The Tampa Bay Times investigated Florida’s SYG law and found people who killed a black person went free 73 percent of the time; people who killed a white person went free 59 percent of the time.
http://www.tampabay.com/stand-your-ground-law/data

That is just the tip of the iceberg.

And a wake-up call. SYG must be repealed in all states, just for starters.

This, and more, is why Trayvon Martin is special.

Reply
- EJody says:
  
  Saturday, Jul 27, 2013 at
  
  Martin’s death was tragic and yes, preventable. But you are not paying attention to the relevant facts whatsoever. You’re only offering up more Liberal talking points in hopes that no one will pay any attention to the facts in this case and continue to holler, “Racism! Inequality! Hate! Intolerance!” You do so at your own peril, just like taking aspirin hoping it will cure cancer.
  
  The SYG law had NOTHING to do with this trial. NOTHING. Neither the prosecution nor defense brought it up as it was in no way applicable. So your entire premise has no validity.
  
  Second, you place 100% of the blame on Zimmerman, and completely ignore the reality of:
  
  (A) Martin’s documented run-ins with the law, drug possession and use, bragging about fights he’d been in, stolen property in his possession, use of hateful and racist speech directed toward whites, brandishing firearms, and Tweeting about making the street drug “Lean”, comprised of Arizona Watermelon Tea and Skittles plus Robitussin cough medicine– two of which he coincidentally had in his possession that fateful night. Oh, and THC in his system from recent marijuana use. And yellow spots on his liver indicating abuse from the street drug “Lean”. Stop making this young man into some kind of holy saint. He had a LOT of problems, and they eventually lead him to HIS actions that night.
  
  (B) Martin– younger, stronger, and larger– aggressively and physically attacking the older and out-of-shape Zimmerman– who did not have his weapon drawn and as far as we know had not even revealed it to Martin. THAT IS ILLEGAL. It’s called “assault and battery”, and when he broke Zimmerman’s nose and began bashing his head on the concrete telling him, “You’re gonna die tonight…” it because a deadly assault in which Zimmerman reasonably defended himself. (I suppose you would not have defended yourself?)
  
  (C) You continue to call it bigotry with no factual support whatsoever, and an embarrassment of evidence to the contrary: Zimmerman is not white, his business partner is black, he had black friends in his home growing up– some of them living with him– and he dated a black girl. So lay off the ridiculous race card. It only makes you look ignorant or a racist propagandist like Sharpton and Jackson. (If there is another option, let me know.)
  
  If you want to focus on the REAL problems, why even bother with the SYG laws? Is THAT the cause of the insane black-on-black murder epidemic across America? Is THAT the cause of the horrific black-on-black murders raining down on Chicagoans on a daily basis (with their useless strict gun control laws)?
  
  Your arguments are without merit. If you are serious about stopping murder, you need to deal with the underlying causes: fatherless black children, rampant abortion that teach children that some lives aren’t worth valuable anyway (if they are inconvenient, kill them), corrupt officials and unions who siphon government money away from education and societal programs for their own selfish use, removing the free exercise of religion from schools and the public square– ensuring that children will be surrounded with people with no moral compass, a persistent and growing welfare state where the government– to get their votes– instructs the young in entitlement and dependence (plantation mentality) instead of encouraging entrepreneurship and personal responsibility.
  
  You seem passionate about this, as I am, but we must deal in the realities and not just what our uninformed emotions are dictating to us. Everything else is just applying a band-aid to a spurting arterial wound. And people die that way.
  
  Reply
  - Greyling says:
    
    Saturday, Jul 27, 2013 at
    
    EJody, don’t lecture me on reality when it is clearly missing from your response and from Betty Arenson’s column. Or are YOU Betty Arenson?
    
    1. Reality is not “liberal talking points.” What about white-on-white crime? Happens in the same numbers. Black-on-black crime is just white supremacist code. Which is what Arenson’s column is.
    
    2. Stand Your Ground was indeed the focus of the trial. I am so tired of right-wing lies about this fact.
    
    a. Jury instructions from the judge: “If George Zimmerman was not engaged in an unlawful activity and was attacked in any place where he had a right to be, he had no duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he reasonably believed that it was necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”
    
    b. Jury instructions link: http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/news/documents/2013/07/12/Zimmerman_Final_Jury_Instructions.pdf
    
    c. Zimmerman’s team chose to not use the procedural portion of SYG as their defense, but the substantive portion of SYG was used in the jury instructions.
    
    d. According to Juror B-37, Stand Your Ground was key to reaching their verdict.
    
    3. Trayvon Martin was not on trial. He was the murder victim. He had committed no crime.
    
    4. Zimmerman had a gun and outweighed Martin by 50 pounds. He was well-versed in SYG, and his father is a judge. Martin had Skittles.
    
    But you won’t find these facts or reality on Fox News or any other right-wing “news” outlet.
    
    Your concern for the fate of black inner city youth in Chicago, for the very first time, is touching. But it is the number one topic on white supremacist Internet sites. You can conflate the two different circumstances all you want, I don’t think you give a rat’s behind about either one.
    
    Why don’t you right-wingers talk about George Zimmerman’s criminal past and history of violence, his anger management, domestic violence, restraining orders, arrests, violence against a police officer, drug use, and incest (he molested his cousin for 10 years)?
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2013/05/28/george-zimmermans-relevant-past/
    
    Zimmerman is a scumbag that got away with murder, and mark my words, he will do it again.
    
    Besides, it’s hard to take you and Arenson seriously on the black experience when I see the same talking points as yours on Stormfront.org.
    
    Reply

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