This evening a jury of 6 women, 5 white, 1 black, decided correctly, by the rule of law, in the Trayvon Martin case.
George Zimmerman will pay no legal penalty for killing an innocent 17 year old teen.
While this is most likely the correct LEGAL verdict due to Florida's idiotic "Stand Your Ground" law, its a horrific moral lapse and sets a disturbing precedent.
Apparently, it is legal in Florida to instigate trouble and then, if you are losing an ensuing fight, to kill your "assailant" even if you started things by doing something as say, following him on a dark night as he's walking down the sidewalk doing nothing suspicious at all.
This is a bad thing. A bad precedent and bad for Florida and America. It means murder, or at least manslaughter, is ok as long as you are the one left alive to tell the tale in states with laws like Florida.
Part of me wonders if Trayvon would have been found innocent if it were Zimmerman who wound up dying on the sidewalk, his head bleeding out from being pounding into the sidewalk.
Another part of me wonders how any sane individual believes it makes us safer as a society to allow regular citizens to carry guns, because I'm sorry, Zimmerman would most likely have not started a confrontation if he wasn't armed.
I'd love to believe that Trayvon's death will end up meaning something. That it will spark a wave of protest that will do what even the murder of 26 innocents at a grade school in Connecticut couldn't do, push for sane gun laws.
But sadly, it won't. There will be short term outrage but nothing will change. The NRA has bought too many votes in too many places. Logic will go out the window in favor of stupidity.
We'll continue to have problems will gun violence because there will be a steady stream of guns flowing into public hands.
But oh well, its just one kid right? I mean, what's that really matter in the face of individual liberty? *rolls eyes*
My heart goes out to Trayvon's family. May you find peace.
And to George Zimmerman, I pray you can find peace as well since you killed an innocent teen who was doing nothing more than walking home until you harassed him.
