Okay readers, where do I start. I guess I’ll start with a sigh. I told you so just don’t quite convey the frustration that many of us who call ourselves conscious feel right now. Our collective frustration is not with who many think it is however. We have long railed against the utter laziness of our people, from those “talking heads” who predominate our public, social and media presence, to those hyperemotional citizens who stick their heads in front of microphones when the news trucks make their runs through the “hood” to see how the “common” man thinks about one subject or another.
Before you stop reading and chalk my latest rant up to me being another apologist for the powers-that-be or the culture at large. I mean the term laziness in terms of being largely uninformed about the laws and regulations that are used to “police” your communities every day. We have degenerated to a people of bandwagon jumpers. We are largely silent day to day until the next “national tragedy” befalls one of our communities. We were outraged and violent when Rodney King was beaten, we were outraged and less violent when Sean Bell was gunned down, we were outraged when Oscar Grant was killed ON VIDEO, now we are outraged because we absolutely refuse to see that the system did exactly what it was designed to do, protect the dominant culture from legal assault.
To use a phrase from one of my favorite movies, Will Smith said in IRobot, “Somehow, I told you so, just doesn’t cut it.” I have been saying for over a year now, look back at some of my Facebook posts, that we should not be surprised if GZ was found not guilty. Why and how did I come to this conclusion? Simple, I read and I have experience with how the system truly works, how it’s designed and more importantly who it is directed towards. There is a difference my uninformed friends between not guilty and factually innocent you can be one and not the other. Was George Zimmerman factually innocent, of course not, was he not guilty . . . the way the case was constructed by the prosecution, yes he was.
To use the title of a popular film in theaters now, let me explain. A criminal charge in Amerikkka is just what it is, a charge. It is not more meaningful than someone calling you a nigger. It’s just a name, a concept that, under our laws, must be proven. In a criminal sense it must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, in a civil case it is judged by a preponderance of the evidence. That is how poor old O.J. was found not guilty in a criminal case but guilty in his civil trial. That much lower standard of justice is very important. Criminally, a prosecution must show that there was absolutely no other way the circumstances that happened could have happened any other way. Even the most vociferous Trayvon supporter has to admit, you weren’t there so you don’t know what happened. We can have a pretty good idea, but guess what, UNLESS THE DEFENDANT IS OF COLOR OR POOR pretty good ideas are not evidence. If the situation was reversed, say for sake of argument Trayvon would have wrestled his gun away from him and shot him a “pretty good idea” would probably lead to at the very least a very long prison sentence.
My point is, there was no way in hell Zimmerman was going to be found guilty because the criminal justice system is not moved by FB posts, Twitter feeds, ridiculous or photo shopped images of Trayvon eating Skittles and drinking Arizona tea with Jesus. The criminal justice system doesn’t care about Lebron James and the Heat all wearing hoodies and looking menacing. It really doesn’t even care about our President proclaiming that if he had a son he would “look just like Trayvon.” The system was here before any of that bullshit existed and will be here long after its moved on to the new novelty. The criminal justice system is designed to protect the life and property of the dominant culture, not the rights and sensibilities of all citizens. All you have to do is open your eyes and look around you. Do you really think it’s an accident that we make up less than 13% of the population but well over 50% of the prison population? Do you think it’s an accident that at the same time the system and mainstream/social media (which is rapidly becoming the same two headed monster) was obsessively masturbating over this white guy (more on that later) a black woman was getting sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot in the general direction of a man she had a protective order against. Trayvon Martins happen every hour of every day in Amerikkka. The tragic thing is that most of them happen at the hands of other Trayvons waiting to happen. In some poor white neighborhoods George Zimmerman is killing another George Zimmerman; most people murdered in Amerikkka are killed by perpetrators of their own race. So this is beyond race, this is about privilege. If you noticed, the Judge in this case, as well as the prosecution and the defense took pains to take race out of this trial. We didn’t hear much about the “coon” statement GZ supposedly made, we didn’t hear much about the “some cracker” remark by Trayvon. The one thing we did hear about, not in the trial but in the foreplay before the collective sexual assault that poor people took during this trial was that it was made plain that Zimmerman was a “white Hispanic.” Wait. A what? What the hell is that? Zimmerman was given the opportunity to play the race card in the beginning. He was able to nimbly skip between the dominant culture and the oppressed culture. He couldn’t be a racist he’s Hispanic (whatever that means, ask some of your Latin, Spanish, Mexican friends what it means to them), however, he can also claim “hey white people, I’m one of you, after all, it was our shit I was protecting.”
Which brings me to my underlying point which is the system will never change from within. It doesn’t matter who the Judge is, the system is bigger than any Judge (SCOTUS included . . . If I have to break down what SCOTUS is, you should go back to reading Zane novels and watching Tyler Perry movies and let the grown folks talk), its bigger than who we elect and its definitely bigger than a few “no justice, no peace” signs and concurrent “marches” for this or that. Don’t believe it, ask the Occupy movement (if you don’t know who they were and what happened to them, than you really need to read more)
I think I have the answer or at least a starting point. Want to know what it is, keep up with my blog. Save it, ask to be notified when I post a new one. Like it on FB, Twitter, Google+, Flipboard, Reddit or whatever your thing is. If you really know me, call me I’ll tell you. If you have a group that you head or are a part of, progressive or conservative, invite me to speak. In the meantime, shake it off; the system will give you something else to be hot as fish grease about in a few days/weeks/months.
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