let's talk marley

if you've been following my tweets, my facebook rants, or read my blog over the past year then it's no secret to you that i have a special place in my heart for the trayvon martin/george zimmerman situation. and those who have been following are very aware of how upset i am that the verdict came out the way it did. i wasn't surprised -- legally the prosecution failed to meet the burden of proof, and the system worked the way it's designed to work: every benefit of doubt goes to the accused, little if any consideration is given to the vicitm. and on a personal level, c'mon, when's the last time a black person got justice from the courts? -- but i was angry.

and apparently my side doesn;t have the monopoly on anger. zimmerman supporters are angry that martin supporters are outraged. and some of the neutrals are mad because in their minds as long as there is injustice anywhere else in the world no one has a right to be upset by the injustice in this case, right lupe? (to him the existence of previous black on black crime renders illegitimate any outrage over this injustice)

then there's this bit of ignorance:

#JurorB37 & her fellow jurors got it right, & media, celebrities, Obama, do you even know who Marley is? #tcot pic.twitter.com/sFGOpeueRW
— l8rg8r (@HEY_l8r_g8r) July 16, 2013

for the uninitiated, marley lion was a 17 year old white kid who was murdered by a group of black men in SC following a party. as you see this persons misguided, though understandable, anger is of the lack of coverage young marley received compared to trayvon. well since you want to compare injustices, ms. @hey_l8r_g8r, let's compare injustices.

young marley was murdered while sleeping in his SUV outside of a bar. he was tired after leaving a party, and it was 4 A.M. during the attempted robbery, he was shot and killed. after a six week investigation, 4 arrests were made. trayvon martin was murdered while walking home from a seven 11 on a rainy florida evening. he had on him a  sugary beverage and a bag of candy. after being followed and confronted by a strange man, a scuffle broke out that ended in young trayvon's untimely demise.

there are some similarities: both cases had arrests made after more than a month. both featured men in their mid to late twenties shooting teenagers. both contain racial undertones. and, most importantly, both ended in tragedy. here's the difference. in young marley's case the assailant wasn't readily known. the investigation took six weeks, because the police had to do police work to find the assailants, and once they had the assailants, they brought appropriate charges based on evidence.

trayvon was not afforded that courtesy.

from the very beginning, the system failed trayvon martin. first let's look at the way the shooters were treated. when police arrested the 4 men they followed SOP: their histories sand criminal backgrounds were checked. when the sanford police arrived at the scene of trayvon's death, it was the victimized teen , not the shooter (who's record would have hurt his claims in court), who's background was searched. apparently not unusual given sanford police's history dealing with black victims. next the reason there was a 44 day gap between trayvon's killing and arrest wasn't due to the need for police work to be done, but because the shooter, who stayed on the scene, was given the benefit of the doubt. finally it is apparent that the evidence in the zimmerman case was, put nicely, insufficient and mishandled. the evidence in the case involving young marley's killers has been handled in an ethical and competent way.

i'm not going to in any way denigrate @hey_l8r_g8r for her passion; young marley deserves justice. i won't even condemn lupe for his comments. he's absolutely right about black people's need to stop celebrating death and lack of outrage at the injustices facing our young men everyday. i only ask that they not let there passion cloud the truth. the truth is, for all the similaritieds between trayvon and marley,  they're merely coincidence. trayvon's tragedy is national news because of the injustice that took place after the tragedy. it was news for the way the police mishandled the investigation, for the lack of an arrest when the assailant was known, for the racial prejudice of his shooter, and the fact that certain media outlets were loathe to recognize it, @hey_l8r_g8r i assure you that trayvon's tragedy and marley's are not unequal. twi young lives are goone, their fire's not yet ablaze, their fruits not yet ripe. trayvon's tragedy goes beyond just his life. it is a symbol for how far we as a nation still have to go. because of the way self defense laws are written people like george zimmerman will always be able to murder young black males with impunity, their unwarranted fear and hate their shield. we mourn the loss of marley lion with the same fervor. we cannot let our passions for either of these tragedies skew our judgment of the others.

strange fruit

so, justice? we got the arrest, we got the charges. but did we really get justice? did the martin family really get justice? i think not. the state of florida, who failed to find the killer of caylee anthony, or bungled the case against her mother, casey. the same state that several times let aaron hernandez walk on felony charges. the same state that did not afford a self defense argument to a woman, victimized by her abusive husband, when she fired her gun into the air. the state of florida has proven time and again that they cannot or will not find justice for anybody. and, with the verdict in this case, it's clear that on even down to the local level will be no justice for certain people.

why won't i just say that black men can't have justice? well, because that's obvious. that's always been obvious. we've known that since dredd scott had his freedom stripped from him in the famous supreme court case. the truth is in this country no white or white looking person will ever be convicted of doing anything to a black man. if that was somehow obscured by the election of  president obama, now it''s clear again. the mask is off of america and it's face is as white as it's always been. what i will say is something that might be lost on some people: this trial was a joke. zimmerman's intent was never questioned. his reasons for profiling martin were never pushed to the forefront. his psychological history was never raised. his criminal background never researched. no toxicology screen was given to the assailant. evidence containing DNA was bagged in such a way that it degraded to the point of ruin. the states attorney used ethically questionable practices with their evidence. and the way the witnesses were handled was an absolute travesty.

so what now? do we take to the streets and burn it all down? no. we fight. the right way. by taking the power back from those who would see us remain second class citizens. by urging our lawmakers to change the ridiculous laws that led to this travesty of justice. by changing our gun laws so men like zimmerman can't kill a human whom they've unfairly profiled and keep the weapon. how about by automatically treating every incident of gun violence as a potential felony FROM THE START instead of waiting over a month to start the investigation in earnest. or pushing for laws that put the ownus on the profiler, rulling the incident to have been initiated from the point wher the profiler becomes the pursuer?

there were some poignant points made on the issue tonight. one of my twitter followers who's race is the same as mine and trayvons asked "what am i supposed to tell me son to do when a man with a gun comes up to him now?". because trayvon defended himself and was killed. and according to the jury he brought it on himself. because he defended his life he was at fault when his life was taken. and mark o'mara, the defense attorney, asked why the young man felt it was necessary to lash out violently at his pursuer. we'll never know trayvon's mindset. unlike his killer, hew wasn't available to defend himself at trial.

i cannot remain silent

a bit of an oldie, but good

"...And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

those words are from our favorite slave-owning, slave-screwing founding father thomas jefferson. they are in reference to the necessity of waging war against the british if the colonies wanted their independence ("colonies" is a minor misnomer, but that's for another blog

"... a lawsuit filed last week in Washington, D.C. seeks to establish a broad Second Amendment right to carry firearms in public -- which, if successful, could mean that William Kostric's exercise in public handgun ownership will become much more commonplace. "

let's dissect mr. mccullagh's statement. for one thousands of lawsuits are filed daily. using a filed lawsuit to expand a law as evidence to support the actions of this man is tantamount to defending charles manson because he never actually committed those murders. legal or not, these actions SHOULD raise red flags in the eyes of any reasonable person. you don't bring a firearm to a political rally, ESPECIALLY if that politician is the first black president, period, notwithstanding if you're holding a sign that calls for blood. given our nations history with race relations, in which the two biggest black civil rights leaders and the president that heard their call to action were assasinated, you gotta wonder how this guy thought his display would be taken.
next, its a little presumptuous to assume that a successful case WILL prompt people to carry firearms to all manner of public forums again (i can't wait to see guns in school and .22 totin' preachers). lets face it: court decisions, even highly publicized ones, take time to catch on. hell, after the Brown v. board of education decision was publicized, 9 of the millions of black students in the country integrated a school. it took years (and the national guard, and a few additional court rulings)for integration to complete itself. and this is one of the biggest court decisions ever. so fie on your logic mccullagh!

... for i have sinned

i don't know if i ever told you guys this, but in my many adventures, i became acquainted with one of the members of the raleigh, nc sleeper cell. fret not, oh faithful followers. my contact with the individual (then known as dylan boyd, though he has reportedly adopted an islamic name) ended long before (or at least that's what i assume) he became involved with any guerilla organizations. though i make no judgments against him or defenses of his character, i'll let the justice system decide his innocence or guilt, i did find proof positive of our acquaintanceship: an email from 2004, the year we met:

sup homie?
...
Mon, August 16, 2004 5:31:23 PM
From:
Dylan Alexander Boyd
...
Add to Contacts
To: gcodeco05@yahoo.com
hey dude. Its Dylan...Holla at cha boy if u can!

though i shutter to think that a man i once called friend could be involved in any plot to kill innocent people, i will not deny prior contact with him. whatever choices he made in his life are his and his alone. he knew the risks involved and no must face the consequences. as far as i know nobody's ever put a gun to his head and made him do anything. and if he was somehow coerced into joining such a misguided cause, then here's hoping the US penal system sorts it out.