Depravity

The crime of Second Degree Murder (in Florida) occurs when a person commits either:

·         Murder with a Depraved Mind or

·         Accomplice Felony Murder

Well, after all these weeks Zimmerman is found to be not guilty of Second Degree Murder or even Manslaughter. Personally, I think this verdict is an absolute outrage. Granted that proving someone has a depraved mind can be difficult, but manslaughter in this case was virtually admitted. I do not understand how a jury of six women could have come up with such an absurd conclusion. Indeed, I am almost in shock.

Set aside for the moment that when an adult male stalks, confronts, shoots, and kills an innocent, unarmed teenager, and shows no remorse whatsoever, that might in and of itself be evidence of a depraved mind. 

Set aside for the moment that the death of an innocent, unarmed Black teenager in Florida was not regarded as important enough even for an investigation, and only occurred 44 days later as a result of public pressure, that might rightly be considered an example of cultural depravity.  

I don’t believe a word of Zimmerman’s claim. It is true he had the right to carry a concealed weapon, but as a watchman he was not supposed to be carrying a gun. He was specifically told not to follow Trayvon Martin but disobeyed that order. He repeatedly lied, most importantly about his claimed ignorance of the Stand Your Ground law. He also had a history of domestic violence as well as a history of other misbehavior, but it was Trayvon’s character they systematically tried to destroy.  Zimmerman’s story was full of inconsistencies, exaggerations, and probably outright lies. We are supposed to believe that a 17 year-old boy turned on and deliberately attacked a larger (White) man who was following him, a man who could have been (and was) armed, and could, in fact, even have been a policeman. This makes no sense to me. Zimmerman’s claim of self defense because he was in imminent danger of his life seems to be based only on the fact that he could not overcome the teen. And we are supposed to believe that this man who wanted to be policeman, worked out regularly in the gym, took lessons in self-defense, as well as shooting lessons, outweighed Trayvon by probably forty pounds, was reduced to crying out for help in the face of a non-lethal confrontation. This strikes me as nonsensical, if not perhaps an example of outright cowardice.

There is no doubt that Trayvon Martin was stereotyped, was considered guilty, or potentially guilty of criminal behavior for no reason other than being a young Black male. He was, beyond any doubt, racially profiled as one of “them,” who are “effing punks,” “a……s, who “always get away.” He had done NOTHING whatsoever to be so stigmatized. He was innocently walking home with tea and skittles, hardly dangerous weapons. Whatever happened to the tea and skittles, did he carefully place them on the ground when he decided to attack this larger stranger who was following him? Did he throw them away when accosted? Apparently no one cared enough to even consider what happened to them (just as they initially didn’t care enough to even investigate the boy’s murder). It was also shown to be virtually impossible for Trayvon to have seen or attempted to actually get hold of the pistol that was in a concealed holster inside Zimmerman’s pants and under his shirt. And why was Zimmerman’s 9mm pistol holstered on his right side back on his hip when he is apparently left-handed? Maybe there was an answer to this question, maybe Zimmerman is ambidextrous, but as far as I know it wasn’t even considered. It appears to me that the murder of an innocent, unarmed, Black teenager was (as usual) considered inconsequential, something to get over with as easy and quickly as possible. After all, unarmed young Black males are fairly routinely shot and killed here in the good ol’ U.S.A. I think Trayvon Martin was racially profiled, not only by Zimmerman, but also by the jury (even though they could have been completely unaware of what they were doing).       

  “Race prejudice is not only a shadow over the colored — it is a shadow over all of us, and the shadow is darkest over those who feel it least and allow its evil effects to go on.” 
― Pearl S. Buck