An elderly couple has to leave their home and go stay in a hotel because some racist asshole tweets their home address as belonging to George Zimmerman and then race-baiter Spike Lee retweets it.
Think about this for a second. Zimmerman, an innocent man,* has a $10,000 bounty on his head with an armed group of racist vigilantes looking for him. Lee and others know this and yet see no problem with retweeting what they think is his home address. If that's not an outright endorsement of vigilantism I don't know what is.
I can only imagine what the fallout would have been if that tweet had caused a mob to descend on their house and then this elderly couple were forced to defend it.
The more I look at this case the more I agree with Weer'd. The more I look at the actual facts of the case, both what we know and what we don't, the more I'm inclined to support Zimmerman. Does that mean I think he acted correctly? No. If he hadn't gotten out of his car that night perhaps none of this would've happened. Does it mean I don't have empathy for the fact that Martin is dead? No.
I'm looking at this in an objective, legal sense. The facts, at least those released to the public, do not support most of the absurd and incorrect claims being thrown about. Like Tam said, and I said a week ago, we know A and D, but not B and C. The facts as we know them, evidence collected at the scene, as well as the one witness statement corroborate Zimmerman's statements to police.
The State AG also thought there was a lack of evidence, despite what some of the cops might have thought. This happens all the time folks. Police and victims routinely get peeved because a suspect isn't arrested or isn't charged. Hell, there are times where the Prosecutor(s) all think a crime occurred, but a man walks free anyway because there simply isn't enough evidence. That's exactly how our system should work. We don't put the guilt or innocence of a man to a vote by mob rule. America is not a Democracy.
That's not all that uncommon and it's one of the reason why good prosecutors have such high conviction rates. They're not arresting and charging people when they have a really weak case (or no case) You can't arrest, charge, and try people based on what you think happened, especially when you have the only witness stating he saw Martin on top of Zimmerman beating the shit out of him and your physical evidence (as we the public know it) fits both that witness statement and those of the defendant.
There are plenty of factual pieces we don't know about this case, but based on what we do know you cannot objectively decide this man is guilty. The facts certainly don't support a murder charge.
As for the racist tweeter, here's what he had to say, Very classy.
" Black power all day. No justice, no peace" and an obscenity.
Be careful out there. I fear that no matter how this case plays out there will be massive anger at the decision. I would hope we don't see widespread rioting, but that's a possibility. There are people who simply want blood. If the protections of our legal system get in their way things could get ugly fast.
*I don't care how you feel about this case. The man is innocent until proven guilty and the New Black Panthers and others threatening his life should be prosecuted fully for what is a clear violation of the law.
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Guilty or not, this is an election year, the public is screaming for Zimmerman's head, and this case has become more about politics than about justice. The powers that be will find a reason to put Zimmerman in jail, guilt or innocence be damned.
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