One of my friends recently referred to the George Zimmerman trial as the black man's O.J. Simpson trial. I'm not really sure how much I agree with that. There are definitely different problems at play and the factors that led to O.J.'s trial lasting so long are different to this one. Also, O.J.'s trial was a lot more about the drama and scandal of Hollywood. The Zimmerman trial was a lot more about two ordinary people and some very unfortunate chain of events created by their human error. I can't help but feel that race was involved. I will explain, but not yet. What matters is that there is a boy who is dead and he could so quickly be forgotten.
First of all, I am infuriated that an adult killed a child. I don't care if the child was 17, almost 18, or the size of a bigger adult. From the viewpoint of someone approaching 30, he is a baby. I remember changing diapers of babies who are now that age. I was a baby at that age. There is so much that you don't know at this age. There is so much still left to achieve, to experience, to discover! I deleted a post on Facebook that I wrote when all I knew was that George Zimmerman had a gun and saw someone who looked suspicious and when he approached the suspicious person, he got attacked (with no gun or knife, just bare hands), so he shot out of self-protection. I am writing this blog, because I shouldn't have deleted my post. Even if the comments that responded weren't in reverence, they still recognized what happened. This trial does not deserve to be forgotten even if the outcome was not favorable.
Back to the guns against no guns things. Maybe George Zimmerman was never taught to throw a punch, in which, if that was the case, maybe there needs to be a law that states you should know how to throw a punch before you can fire a shot. This is the first major, major red flag to me. Now, I am an uber big sci-fi, comic book-themed movie/t.v. show fan. If you are following me, then you know guns fight guns, fists fight fists, daggers have a weird middle ground place. Whew, thank goodness there were not any knives at play, because that would throw a whole lot of complication in this. The fact is, Zimmerman shot a kid who didn't have a gun. Did he not know where he could kick Martin to get him off him? Did he not know he could shoot him in leg to get him off of him? If so, he did none of the above. He shot to kill.
Some would say that since he felt his life was in danger then he should have shot to kill in order to save his own life. Knowing the details, my mind immediately goes to so many places for this statement, but I won't go there. Today, I learned there was apparently a 911 call that Zimmerman placed. Who knew he did something right? Well, apparently the 911 dispatcher at some point told him to stay in his car! Now, I believe that over 90% of people who actually feel threatened and in a dangerous situation would have actually stayed in their car. I'll take a moment to explore some aspects of the human psyche. I honestly don't know how big of a guy George Zimmerman is. I am sure a google search would tell me, but right now I am just rambling. There are a couple of people types who would feel they could confront someone whom they thought was a threat to their neighborhood or self. This person either needs to be 6'4 and look like Arnold Shwertzenager (I have no clue how to spell that right) or they have some kind of self defense mechanism that would protect them under any circumstance. I mentioned movie interests. Now, there is always the nerdy out of shape guy who thinks they can somehow magically turn in to superman at the last minute and fight danger. Haha...right? That never happens. I'm not saying that Martin was a danger, I'm just saying that people create disillusions in their heads. I would say seeing that Zimmerman did not look anywhere near like Arnold Shwertzen....whatever his last name is...that he falls under the category of having some kind of self defense mechanism that would protect them under any circumstance. This would be the only thing that could make him willing to go up to someone he did not know and confront that person. So he definitely fits into where less than 10% of the human population would fall if they really felt threatened. This, to me, puts a little crazy streak in his head. As stated previously, the other more-than 90% of the population, if really felt threatened, would have stayed in their car. I mean think about it! You are driving around in your car, you see a teenager (who you may not really know is a teenager) and you think they shouldn't be in your neighborhood. Some headlines said Martin was on drugs? Maybe? I don't know all of those details, but say you see a drunk or high looking guy. The only reason you would get out of your car is if you want to give him a ride home. I highly doubt Zimmerman wanted to do that. Zimmerman got out of his car, after being advised not to, and knew that he could confront this stranger, because he had a gun and, if the situation turned less desirable, he had an easy out (shoot the other guy) and an easy explanation for pulling the trigger. So, I guess, yes, Zimmerman shot Martin because Martin was attacking, but it could have all been avoided. If Zimmerman would have stayed in his car, Trayvon would still be alive.
I've heard it countless times said that Trayvon was high on Marijuana. Well, having recently moved away from the NW and being years into adulthood, all I can say is that I'm starting to believe there is a large part of American population high at any given moment or wanting to be high. Recreational marijuana is not becoming legal, because people want to get high once a week. My response to the original statement is, "what was George's excuse?" Maybe Trayvon wasn't a model, straight A student. Who says he had to be? There are hundreds of teenagers walking home on any given night in America, after a night of drinking, smoking, and probably other worse things. There are hundreds of adults doing this on any given night, also. Does every drunk or high person be confronted? Zimmerman just needed to stay in his car. I just went back and did some googling and didn't find anything saying he was on drugs at the time of his death. So lets go there.
Now, I'm gonna go there. I'm not afraid to talk about race, and I'm gonna go there. I'm only half white, so I'm going to speak from my asian side, in order to remove any biases. I gave the description of Trayvon that is being given on the news. He was suspended multiple times from school, had a marijuana pipe, did this , did that. How often in the news do you hear such a description about a white kid? Usually, when they go out and commit a mass murder. But, you know what, in the case of a white kid, no matter how bad the story, they always work in the phrase, "he was a model student, everyone loved him, or no one ever thought he would do that (that statement is usually saved for when there is nothing else good to say about the kid, but they gotta say something)." The point is that a boy was shot and the web if filled with nothing but stories of his "at risk" childhood. I'm sure his momma and daddy could say millions of good things about that boy. Those didn't come up when I googled his name. I'm not saying the shooting was racially motivated and I'm not saying it wasn't. I am saying this case would have looked a lot different if Trayvon was caucasian, named Tray, had a letterman jacket, had just given up his virginity to the captain of the cheerleading team, had a little too much budlight and made the "responsible" decision to walk home that night when he was confronted, got angry and threw the man down. Then, to add on top of it, that this version of Tray had a father who was a powerful attorney and the end would be history. I just created the image of a modern day martyr. If you disagree, just watch a little more Lifetime T.V. or a little more MTV.
I don't know what else to say. Ah, I said a lot. I don't know what to say about how the legal system worked. It just stinks. On paper, maybe it worked. I just think it isn't fair that if Zimmerman would have stayed in his car none of this would have happened. Why did he have to use his gun? Why didn't he wait until the police came? Why didn't he go home and lock his doors if he felt in so much danger? I do know that according to all my sci-fi shows I watch, that taking a human life changes you. It's one thing to kill made up monsters and supernatural beings, but when you kill a human you are forever changed.
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