As soon as the judge announced Zimmerman was not guilty, Twitter and Instagram WENT HAM. For the next few hours I sat back on my hotel bed, nonchalantly refreshing my timelines on both and observing the outrage from my followers...
"So much for justice!!"
"How could the jury let Zimmerman off when a lot of them have kids? What if that was their kid??"
"WELL IT'S OFFICIAL....BLACK PEOPLE MEAN NOTHING IN AMERICA"
"The moral of the story is...don't walk around in Florida with a hoodie on at night..because someone might shoot you and get off."
Yall....I just have to speak out on this. The fact remains that NONE of us will ever know what truly went down that night. Only Zimmerman and God know for sure. The role of a jury is to take whatever evidence is set before them and make a LOGICAL, UNBIASED decision based off of it. You cannot expect for the jurors that have children to put themselves in the shoes of Trayvon's mother. They are not supposed to let their personal feelings or emotions impact their decision in any way; that is the meaning of a fair trial. Regardless of how you feel about George Zimmerman, he has the right to a fair trial just as any American citizen.
As far as the whole "Black people mean nothing in America" claim, that is just absurd. Black people are making it seem as though a white man can walk up to a black boy any time, shoot him, and get acquitted of a murder charge; you all know that isn't true. The reason Zimmerman got acquitted is because the jury was convinced he acted in SELF-DEFENSE; they were persuaded by the defense that Trayvon put his hands on Zimmerman first and thus initiated the fight. Whether this was truly the case or not, we will never know, but that was the consensus of the jury.
I was shocked and horrified to see a particular tweet that contained George Zimmerman's address, the person who tweeted it encouraging his followers to find Zimmerman and harm him. Hurting or killing Zimmerman is not going to bring Trayvon back and I pray that no one takes the law into their own hands in some deluded attempt to avenge him. In fact, for a black person to do that would be COMPLETELY counterproductive if we DON'T want America to profile us as we're walking alone at night. And people threatening to kill George Zimmerman on Twitter isn't helping either. I wish my generation would sit TF down sometimes. Yall aint killin nobody.
As a Christian man, I cannot condone killing George Zimmerman. We must remember that he is a human being just like we are. He has a past and like us, he makes mistakes. To me, he just seems like a dumb guy who followed the wrong person on the wrong night; an overzealous simpleton who took his position a bit too seriously (and may be part black himself). In all honesty, I feel Trayvon Martin's death was just a tragic mistake. Zimmerman had his trial and was acquitted, but now has to live in constant fear of his life. I feel that is punishment enough, but that's just me.
Also, I just cannot take this outrage over Trayvon's death seriously when NO ONE says nothing about the 7,000 blacks who were killed by other blacks last year. That leads me to pose the question, are we mad because Trayvon Martin is DEAD....or because the person who killed him looked white? Is it possible that, as with our use of the word "nigga," it is OK for black people to be killed as long as it is by OTHER black people?? Food for thought.
I attribute people's heightened emotions right now to media manipulation. For weeks now, we've been shown images of Trayvon's dead body and made to listen to the phone conversation in which Zimmerman refers to him as a "punk," stating "they always get away." The media is masterful at manipulating people's emotions and that is just what is happening now. Being the conspiracy theorist I am, I think that the media WANTED a riot to happen after the trial because you know who loves a good riot? The media. You know who makes plenty of money reporting on damages and murders resulting from riots? The media. That being said, it is clear to me why the media has bombarded us with images meant to enrage the black community. It amazes me how the media machine has kept us all focused on this ONE murder of a black boy, causing us to turn a blind eye to the hundreds who die around us every day. America is a big country. People of all ages and colors have killed and been killed here way before Trayvon Martin died. All I will say is that my prayers and condolences go out to the Martin family; may God strengthen them during this deeply sad period.
REST IN PEACE TRAYVON BENJAMIN MARTIN
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