This week’s post is brought to you by guest writer, Suzanne Olden, a long-time professional in the legal field.  Ms. Olden writes:

It no longer fazes me that the mainstream media (“MSM”) does not care  about its awful effect on justice in this country.  Cases are won and lost in the media well before a trial occurs and the chance of finding an untainted jury are nil to zero .  The Trayvon Martin/George Manuel Zimmerman situation is a perfect example of how the MSM and America’s obsession with racism is skewing a case that hasn’t even been brought before a grand jury.

As the days wear on, more and more “facts” are coming to light.  Each contradicts the “ultimate truth” of the other.  I want to preface my statements with the following:

1. No crime victim “deserves” what happened to them, no matter what their past;
2. This situation never would have happened had directions from authorities been followed; and
3. I’m not excusing the actions of either party involved.

Each side in this matter has its “facts”:  Side 1: Martin was an innocent 17 y.o. lamb of a person who simply walked  to the store and upon return, was chased and shot.  Side 2: Martin was acting sketchy, confronted and assaulted Zimmerman who shot in self-defense.  Each side finds “proof” and “witnesses” to back up their version of events, yet there were only two people there that night: Martin and Zimmerman.

These are indisputable facts:  Trayvon Martin was a troubled teen.  He had been suspended and due to such, was staying with his father.  The suspension was for possessing marijuana in school.  He was suspected of burglary.  He was hardly the innocent babe that the family, understandably, makes him out to be.  The family calls the leaked history “reprehensible”, but as the parent of two teens, I’m not naïve enough to believe that by virtue of age alone, all are innocent.  What was the family doing  to curtail his criminal behavior?  That said, he didn’t deserve a death sentence.  What these facts yield is the lack of Zimmerman’s arrest (to date) is due to the Florida State’s Attorney determination that there wasn’t enough evidence for a conviction.  It’s called reasonable doubt,  folks.  

George Zimmerman wasn’t affiliated with any of the organized neighborhood watches, but his neighborhood had been very recently victimized with a spate of burglaries, spurring neighborhood watch activity.  He had a temper.  He was carrying a gun, registered and permitted, but carrying nonetheless.  Though shorter, he also outweighed considerably outweighed Martin.  The victim’s family states there is video depicting no injuries on Zimmerman. Police reports written at the time of incident state otherwise.  Zimmerman’s family and friends state he didn’t have a racist bone in his body. Imagine if he had been white?  Or if the situation were reversed and Trayvon were white?  The former would have resulted in even greater MSM-fueled civil unrest and the latter, probably a passing comment at the end of a slow news day.

As my sister-in-law put it correctly and succinctly;  this situation should have remained a police matter.  Tha the alleged “factual” leaks have only accomplished in provoking more divisiveness in this country.  Several examples of irresponsible post-incident actions:  Film producer Spike Lee used his Twitter account to either tweet or retweet, depending on the source, what he thought was Zimmerman’s address.  He did this with the full knowledge that irrational, inflamed people could and it could be foreseen, would, go this address and seriously injure or kill  Zimmerman.  The address Lee tweeted was in fact not  Zimmerman’s at all and put the lives of an elderly couple at risk when enraged people actually did show up; a literal lynch mob rushing to attack Mr. Zimmerman.  The couple had to leave their family home and flee from the danger that Lee intentionally imposed upon them. Although Lee has apologized to the couple, he hasn’t acknowledged that his behavior was wrong.  He simply apologized for having the wrong information. Why hasn’t he been arrested?  The criminal activity he spurred was obviously foreseeable.

Demanding that someone be arrested for behavior/acts that may not rise to the level of criminality and that leaves a gaping hole which could not be filled in with probable cause before an investigation is concluded  is not only irresponsible; it’s illegal.  Demanding that federal authorities investigate the matter when there isn’t evidence to support their involvement is irresponsible.  High profile people, including our President, weighing in without an investigatory conclusion is extremely irresponsible.

Should George Zimmerman be arrested and prosecuted, how can he receive a fair trial by an untainted jury?.  The jury members in the Casey Anthony case have attested to the fact that their own lives were in danger simply because they based their decision to acquit the defendant on the evidence presented to them in court (and not presented in the MSM or by Nancy Grace).  Will this be lost on another Florida jury pool?  If so, will there be riots in the aftermath?  The same people who cheered when 60 people were killed in the Rodney King riots, shrugged their shoulders and claimed that the jury has spoken in the OJ case. The media is turning us all into hypocrites.

We need to be careful how we allow our media to affect our freedoms.  When we let them run amok, falsely, under the protection of “freedom of the press” then we curtail our own freedoms and safety.  The Constitution doesn’t give the media license to cause the furor that we now see, nor should it enable people to encourage violence and the potential murders of suspects as happened with the Twitter incident.  We the people, and not the government, need to restrain them by not buying into their nonsense.  Future crime “suspects” have my sympathy.  I would rather operate under the rule of law than mob rule.

Related articles

• Why The MSM Desperately Needs George Zimmerman To Be Guilty, Trayvon Martin To Be Innocent (neosecularist.com)

Filed under: In The News, News | Tagged: crime, fl;orida, Manuel Zimmerman, media, MSM, shooting, Spike Lee, Trayvon Martin, twitter | 1 Comment »