Random Thoughts on a Tragedy

I thought I'd share some ruminations I had (and you probably had, too) in the wake of the Zimmerman trial:

• It's disturbing, I think, that, despite the evidence, so many blacks thought O.J. Simpson was innocent, and thought, despite the evidence, that George Zimmerman was guilty.
• It's also disturbing that so many people apparently believe that if you find yourself in the midst of being beaten to death you have no right to use deadly force to save yourself if your assailant is black.
• I also thought it disturbing that so many people apparently think that evidence shouldn't matter in determining guilt or innocence. All that matters is the race of the parties involved.
• Part of this tragedy is that had Trayvon Martin simply walked away from Zimmerman, or had walked away even after punching him and knocking him to the ground, he'd probably still be alive today. His decision to jump on Zimmerman and pound him mercilessly while Zimmerman apparently called for help was a fatal decision.
• Imagine that a similar shooting had happened but that the races were reversed. Would the case have gone to trial? Would the media have turned it into a national circus? Would there be rumblings from the DOJ after acquittal to pursue Civil Rights charges against the black man?
• I wonder why the media repeatedly referred to Martin as "Trayvon" and to Zimmerman as "George Zimmerman."
• I wonder, too, whether the media, from whom only naifs expect fair, objective reporting, can get away with distorting the facts of the case so baldly and so badly. I refer to CNN's allegation that Zimmerman called Martin a "coon," and the edited NBC tape that made it sound like Zimmerman was suspicious of Martin because he was black. Neither of these narratives were true, both were fabricated. I also refer to the media's insistence upon showing pictures of Martin as he looked when he was about twelve. Why did they do these things? Were they intentionally trying to get Zimmerman hung even before the trial began?
• Why has there been no outrage over the assault of a white grandmother on a California freeway by a black protester? If the races had been reversed the entire nation would be in flames.
• Why does Angela Corey, the execrable Florida prosecutor, still have her job while Mike Nifong doesn't have his? Corey's conduct in withholding evidence from the defense and introducing charges at the last minute, among other unethical abuses of her office, shows her to have been much more concerned with politics than with justice.
• Many have asked why, if Zimmerman is to be described as a "white Hispanic," is Barack Obama not to be described as a "white African American"? What exactly is a "white" Hispanic anyway? Perhaps it's someone who would otherwise enjoy politically correct racial immunity from the judgments of the New York Times so who must be shoe-horned into a different racial category - white - in order to be legitimately subject to the contumely and invective that the left wishes to heap upon him.
• It's amazing that anyone actually invites Al Sharpton to give his opinion on anything after his odious behavior in the Tawana Brawley case. That alone, aside from the damage his rhetoric has inflicted on life and property over the years, should have discredited him for a lifetime.

Exit Question: How many of those who are critical of the verdict would, if they were flat on their back with their head being smashed against the concrete, their face being punched repeatedly, their nose broken and in fear of their life, refrain from doing what Zimmerman did if they had the chance to save themselves thereby?