Ever since the fatal shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, racial tension have been rising around the country. The new black panther party has placed a bounty on the head of the shooter George Zimmerman and most media outlets have already convicted Zimmerman of killing Trayvon in cold blood, implying a racial factor that may or may not even exist. What hasn't happened is top justice department officials or law enforcement professionals diffusing the situation. No one has come out and expressed faith in the system, no one has put a stop to the solicitation of violence by the new black panther party, no one has come out and exploited the irresponsible reporting of news media agencies like NBC, ABC, and CNN to name a few, who have only make things worse by using outdated pictures of both the shooter and the victim. The pictures that most media outlets have been using are of Trayvon from 4 to 5 years ago (indicating he was much younger than he was when the shooting occurred) and a mug shot from 6 years ago of George Zimmerman with an orange jail jump suit on. To someone who didn't know you would have thought a convict killed a 10 year old (going only off the pictures).Not to mention that these media outlets have come out with outdated pictures only to portray speculation as fact, days after the shooting. Every day that goes by we are getting more and more eye witness testimony and forensic facts that are indicating that George Zimmerman may have acted in self defense, which according the Florida law makes him innocent of any crime here. I do believe that if he did shoot Trayvon in cold blood or for some racially fueled reason, he needs to be arrested and convicted. But the problem is we do not know what happened, because of the biased media coverage and the failure to act by justice department officials, this man has already been convicted and is now hiding for his life. We all have the right to a speedy and fair trial before you can be convicted. The way that these people have portrayed the situation has interfered with Zimmerman's right to a fair trial.
There have been all kinds of stories that have developed from this situation that are a direct result of the media misinforming the public. Spike Lee tweeted the address of what he thought was the house of George Zimmerman, it turned out to be a 70 year old couple living in Florida, who has now had to flee their home because of people showing up there with violent intentions. Its just plain irresponsible on the part of the media and on the part of people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton who are going around convicting Zimmerman and presenting speculation as fact to anyone who will listen. Can't we follow the laws, let an investigation ensue, and let the legal system run its course? The way the new black panther party has been talking, it would appear a race war and riots in major cities throughout the country are inevitable.
It would also appear that the media wants this to become an issue of black vs white. Because the first day this happened, NBC came out and said that George Zimmerman was a "White Hispanic." Now lets get real here there is no such thing as a white hispanic as those are two different ethnicities. George Zimmerman is 75-80% hispanic and the sad part is, it shouldn't matter at all what race the man is. There are kids dying in the inner cities everyday from gang violence and black on black crime. But you won't hear anyone talking about that and its really sad. It truly is a tragedy that the media and these political groups ignore the death of a teenager or a child when it comes from gang violence or inner race violence, but as soon as someone who LOOKS like he is Caucasian commits a possible crime the media twists and turns things around to make it out to be a white vs black issue.
The sad part about all of this is, a teenager died here and instead of giving both sides the due process and respect they deserve to straighten things out and bring the facts to light, it gets distorted and turned into a race war. Someone needs to come out and express faith in the system and calm things down before there is an explosion of violence. We need to discover the facts and straighten things out in court, not in the streets. And if after the facts come out we find that George Zimmerman was in the wrong, then we can convict him and sentence him to the appropriate punishment.
This is a great post however you have been clearly misinformed. I agree that that media has done their fair share of turning this case into a black vs white war. Anyone who has any knowledge of this case can attest to that. I agree that the Zimmerman deserves a fair trial and that these threats on his life are in moral. Lets face it though, if it was portrayed as a race war then of course threats will arouse. That is just how some people think and react.
ReplyDeleteNow for you to say that the media doesn't acknowledge kids dying from gang violence, you are wrong. The media always broadcast news about kids dying from inner city gang violence. In addition to this musicians talk about this all the time. This is the only flawed statement you have unless you are not paying attention to the media that much. Other than than this incident will and shall not go unnoticed. Zimmerman may have not acted on racial content but he did kill a child. That is inescapable and he deserves a long sentence behind bars.
First of all I would like to start off by saying THANK YOU!!! Thank you for ACTUALLY posting what is going on. Clearly, anyone that disagrees with your posting hasn't paid ENOUGH attention to the media. As you said, the fact of the matter is NO ONE knows what happened that day. The media protrayed it the way they wanted to, instead of reporting the facts. The 911 call that most people hear was doctored and isn't in fact the true 911 call. The more and more facts that have come out the more it seems that Zimmerman did act in self defense. The story that he followed him after being told not to, is also being disputed. We don't know the true story. What I find to be completely insane, is that if Zimmerman had in fact seemed to be guilty, don't you think at least one police officer would stand up to arrest him? There's even reports that he was never detained, which is just insane, because it's what most people hear. The truly sad thing about this is that because of political pressures over the media blowing this completely out of proportion, Zimmerman is now going to have to go to trial. Congratulations U.S. media. 10 years down the line Zimmerman is probably going to be part of the Innocence Project. Unbelieveable.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Darius. I was happy to hear that yesterday Zimmerman is going to trial to determine whether or not he is guilty of second degree murder. I think in the case of Zimmerman vs Martin it is racially biased just because of the cell phone conversations that others heard before he was shot and also Zimmerman making phones calls to police regarding young black males over the last few weeks prior. I hope that the Martin family gets justice and that Zimmerman does recieve a fair trial, because like we know some people can be found to be guilty but actually turn out to be innocent.
ReplyDeleteI like this post because it is telling the truth- we do not know what happened, but the media is putting ideas in everyones heads. It is sad that the media has that power, especially when we all know what they are capable of, but we allow them to affect our perceptions and beliefs. This case has definitely gotten out of hand, but once race becomes a factor that is what is expected, sadly. Hopefully justice is served and hopefully it does not take months and years to bring justice to both parties.
ReplyDeleteThis is a serious problem with today's media and I am glad you hit on that. The truth is, none of us were there, and the media also does not have all the facts. the media needs to sell news now days and controversy sells news.Zimmerman was charged and will have his day in court to tell his side of the story. As for the Blank Panther Party, grow up. This country has enough racial issues in the past to stir up bitter feelings. I hope those who put out the price on Zimmerman's head knew all the facts before they jumped to that conclusion.
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