Trayvon Martin & George Zimmerman
UPDATE: As President Obama said today:
“Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago,” Obama said, adding that “it’s important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away.”
In the wake of the not-guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman, the passion and controversy surrounding the shooting death of Trayvon Martin have only grown. And that is not an unexpected outcome. The major problem with the trial and verdict, as I see it, is that we cannot just let it be about itself.
Inevitably, it takes on higher significance, meaning and symbolism beyond its own particulars. It is, in sum, all about confirmation bias.
John Douglas and I have written a good deal about confirmation bias lately, most extensively in our recent book Law & Disorder. We showed how the investigations and trials of the West Memphis Three and Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, and the rush to judgment on John and Patricia Ramsey, were all a result of confirmation bias. The apparent crime scenario fit into the preconceived ideas and world view of the men and women investigating each crime, the prosecutors who took on the cases, the media that seized each narrative and the public that couldn’t get enough.
In the Martin-Zimmerman case, we have a compounding of confirmation biases, all with their own personal claims on truth, that prevented a generally satisfactory outcome.
An African American teen in a hoodie after dark confirmed Zimmerman’s bias that in this mixed neighborhood that had experienced numerous break-ins, such an individual could be up to no good and must be closely watched. A chunky, white, dorky looking vigilante with a gun probably confirmed Martin’s bias that young men of his race were considered second class citizens and the white folks had it in for people like him. Martin’s skirmishes with law and school authorities confirmed that blacks can’t live up to the standards society sets for them.
The initial unwillingness of the police to charge Zimmerman confirmed that law enforcement has a double standard for white and black, that racial profiling alone is an acceptable means of crime prevention, and it’s okay to shoot black teens, just as it has always been in the South and many places in the North.
The verdict confirmed for some that there is no such thing as equal justice for minorities; that nothing has really changed. And for others, it also confirmed that African Americans don’t want to accept responsibility for their own actions; they want special treatment.
The real problem with the Zimmerman trial is that this nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, was born in original sin. And that sin is slavery and racism. We have never gotten past it and may never. In one way or another, we are all affected and all responsible.
The fact of the matter is that a sworn jury did not believe it could confirm, beyond a reasonable doubt, what the prosecution put forth. And therefore those six women concluded they had no choice but to judge George Zimmerman not guilty. Not innocent, for no American jury ever renders such a verdict. Merely not guilty, meaning the high burden of proof was not met.
And if the case could just be considered on its own facts alone, the system could be said to work as best it could, and as designed.
But of course, in a case like this, in a country like this, that would be impossible.
For every media pic of Trayvona s a younger teen there were ample attempts to paint him as a thug, asked on useless facts like having weed in his system. For a while there was even a widely circulated picture of “Trayvon” with gold caps on his teeth snarling at the camera, turned out to be some completely unrelated black boy though so the bias and smear campaign were ample.
Meanwhile scant attention was paid to Zimmermans history of violence and abuse.
That picture is a manipulation to insight hatred for whites, Zimmerman should have never been out playing John Wayne, but the Martin you all see is him 6 years ago!! How is that for your race war? It is not good because reason can’t trensend sence and the low class minoraties have neither so expect this to get worse, it is changing profiling and the FBI do not care they are wrong about a suspect and that sketch is what they always wanted, blame a black for Tate and whites will act out. They have used their kids like Israel Keyes and completed his dirty scheme. But I am smarter than these criminals and I will destroy this era which he started. But remember he is still a threat to our society.
Video — Zo tell whites of certain factors that make it difficult to get past racism, even false accusations of racism and how America should respond to the new racial polarization brought on by the aquittal of GZ.
http://alfonzorachel.com/1647/white-people-and-the-curse-of-racism-trayvon-zimmerman-case-follow-up-vid
Video — Bill O’Reilly with a segment on Obama and the race problem.
http://www.ijreview.com/2013/07/67526-oreilly-president-obama-the-race-problem/
The suspect on the Allanna Gallagher case had been shot but is alive, 17-year-old, Tyler Holder. Victim and suspect both caucasian. Turns out the case has gotten some publicity — only because the mother is in a polyamorous relationship with two men, none of which are suspects.
Prior to today’s shoot-out, someone set the victim’s family’s car on fire and also the little yard tribute and flowers. Now that the polyamorous family has been ruled out and there’s no race component, I expect this story to have a shorter life.
There’s already a photo online of the 17-year-old suspect looking like a grown thug. I wonder if his parents or the press will start releasing photos of him when he was 10 and innocent looking.
Well, get ready because here we go again with another “he’s just a little boy with Skittles” story. Currently in progress in Saginaw, TX, just outside Ft. Worth, Allanna Gallagher, 6 years old, went missing recently and her nude body was found in a tarp. While serving a warrant on a teenage suspect who lives 4 houses down, an officer has been shot. Live reporting is ongoing on KRLD radio at the scene. Another shot has been fired and they are trying to confirm if the shooter — I mean innocent little boy — has now been shot by police. No idea of any races involved here, but you’ll be able to tell by whether it hits the national media or not, I guess….
This article sums up the whole of the fracas. In Indianapolis, we’ve been dealing with a rash of gang violence, which included trouble at the funeral home of one victim that lead to the entire sectors police being called to the scene. We completed the Black Expo, only to have one teen shot and killed in a parking garage at 3 AM due to an accidental discharge in a car by another minor.
You see this not about race it is about intelligence and minorities in low income and high crime areas love blaming the system.
Like Matula Shakur, his following is ridiculous that man is a domestic terrorist. I hope realized that he caused the death of Tupac Shakur. For example, Assata Shakur is a follower of Manson, I know this because I know Manson and he started that rainbow she speaks of that marked the serial murder by using Sharon Tate as a catalyst to a race war. “PIGS” The black rap culture still uses this term, why? They want a race war also! The BLA was formed after Charles Manson, make no mistake he is loving the Martin case, because it insights a reason to murder whites, then the Morgan Harrington case, that is a dangerous case the FBI is selling. And they are because of a Rock Band which follows Manson, their name Metallica the motive is a race war. The evidence is on the FBI website, look into Morgan Harrington and ask yourself why the FBI thinks a black killed her, I can prove it is wrong and I did but they still will not take down the picture they revised, and that got a young girl in Detroit killed, John we have big problems in the FBI.
The media is selective in what they report and how much coverage a story gets. Here is a story of a murder that barely made the news.
My name was Antonio West. I was the 13-month old child who was shot in the face at point blank range by two black teens, who were attempting to rob my mother, who was also shot.
I think my murder and my mommy’s wounding made the news for maybe a day, and then disappeared.
A Grand Jury of my mommy’s peers from Brunswick, Georgia ruled the black teens who murdered me will not face the death penalty… too bad it was me who got the death sentence from my killers instead, because Mommy didn’t have the money they demanded.
See, my family made the mistake of being white in a 73% non-white neighborhood, but my murder wasn’t ruled a ‘hate crime’.
Oh, and President Obama didn’t take a single moment to acknowledge my murder. He couldn’t have any children who could possibly look like me – so why should he care?
I’m one of the youngest murder victims in our great Nation’s history, but the media didn’t care to cover the story of my being killed in cold blood.
There isn’t a white equivalent of Al Sharpton, because if there was he would be branded a ‘racist’. So no one’s rushing to Brunswick, Georgia to demonstrate and demand ‘justice’ for me. There’s no ‘White Panther’ party, either, to put a bounty on the lives of the two black teens who murdered me.
I have no voice, I have no representation, and unlike those who shot me in the face while I sat innocently in my stroller – I no longer have my life.
Isn’t this a great country?
So while you’re out seeking ‘justice for Trayvon’, please remember to seek ‘justice’ for me. Tell your friends about me, tell you families, get tee-shirts with my face on them, and make the world pay attention, just like you did for Trayvon.
I won’t hold my breath.
I don’t have to anymore
Bill Whittle presents evidence that was not allowed at Zimmerman’s trial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebu6Yvzs4Ls&feature=youtu.be
What I find most alarming about this trial and the aftermath is CNN’s commentating on it. They are using dozens, if not hundreds, of commentators giving opinions, and there is no journalist investigating and correcting anyone’s BS on either side of the issue. This makes people think that everything being said is true. They just printed a statement by Martin’s father who said, paraphrasing, the jury knew what they needed to know, that they “knew Martin ran away.” Now that isn’t true, and I understand the family will never be able to think of it in any other terms, but when a news station abdicates the responsibility to correct statements like that, they need to stop purporting to be a news station. Most of the public is running wild based mainly on false information right now, in addition to their, as you eloquently say, confirmations.
Interestingly, I went to the top newspapers to see what they were reporting and found they stick closer to the facts; but yesterday the NY Times had nothing to say about it at all, which I actually found kind of refreshing since about all there was to report was double-sided propaganda.
Department of Justice addressed the issue by talking about the “stand your ground” law but, conveniently, didn’t bother to remind the panel and audience that that law wasn’t used in the trial.
As they say: When the law is on your side, pound the law; when the truth is on your side, pound the truth; when neither is on your side, pound the table.
As best as I understand it there had been a series of breakins over an extend period of time in the community, and Zimmerman saw an individual, who he didn’t recognize, or who didn’t belong in the neighborhood, going from house to house peaking in the windows, and that caused him to become suspicious, so he got out of his truck and followed him so he would know where he was going so he could help the cops catch him when they got there. Lots of people would be guilty in a situation like this because they would do the same thing if it was happening in their neighborhood.
I haven’t had a chance to read “Law and Disorder” yet, so I’m not sure what you mean by confirmation bias. Is it something like first impressions? Everyone has those when encountering a person for the first time, and they are usually correct, or a person forms an opinion based on information they hear or see in the media.
If you act like a victim you will be treated like a victim. If you carry yourself as someone of importance you will be recognized as such. There are always exceptions, such as in cases where law inforcement is anxious to make an arrest without having all the facts.
As long as there are people or groups who are looking to other’s for self-worth or value, or compensation in some form, there will be perceived injustice by them, because until they recognize their worth within themselves, they will always feel cheated, mistreated, or let down. People have to learn to forgive and let go of the pain, if they in fact are suffering, but too often it’s a sympathy ploy for personal gain. No one can change that for them.
As for equal justice for minorities, seems to me if those minorities committing crimes really believed this, they have a greater insentive to obey they law than they white person who may believe he can escape justice. Yet it is the blacks who commit the majority of the crimes.
I’m not going to feel guilty or apologize for being white. I am who I am by the grace of God. I have not deliberately ever set out to cause harm to anyone, and I am not responsible for my ancestor’s may or may not have done. Not all slaves were badly treated by their owner’s and many likely had better lives than some people have today.
There will always be the White Supremist and the Black Panther’s, but otherwise most Race problems would end if people would drop the slave mentality and everyone realize that each of us regardless of color have the freedom to choose the path we take that can help us reach our goals. White people are not judging blacks as inferior, they judge each individually based on their actions, but nothing we say or do will convince them as long as they remain enslaved by their thinking. Blacks tend to look at all situations as a group, whereas whites see each situation separately and I believe that cause many problems, because they perceive insult where none was intended.
All races have been slaves at some time in history, and the Jews more than other’s and they have moved forward, yet the blacks after 150 years still refuse to let go of the past.
No one every promised life would be fair or easy. It’s not, never has been, never will be. Few people of any race can say that accomplishment came without hard work, sweat, and tears.
I don’t think it was Zimmerman who judged Trayvon because he was wearing a hoodie. That was something the media blew out of proportion. Where I live it’s not uncommon to see anyone wearing a hoodie, regardless of thier race.