Trayvon's Burden of Proof

The State has the burden of proof. George Zimmerman need not prove he acted in self-defense, though that is his defense team’s narrative. It’s ironic how Narrative has replaced “Zimmerman’s story”, but as each day goes on, what passes for a fact in this case becomes more and more distorted. So perhaps it is only natural that the basics of a defendant’s story, is replaced by the more Orwellian word “narrative”. The state must prove that Zimmerman murdered Trayvon. So far prosecution witnesses have done a great deal to support the defense narrative that a fight ensued in which Zimmerman felt threatened. So he shot the kid.

When the dispatcher said "We don't need you to do that", many of us felt Zimmerman was being advised to stay away, yet he still followed Trayvon out of some misplaced sense of justice or heroism or self-importance. A fight ensued.  What confuses people, I think, is that most of us feel the fight should have never taken place. If Zimmerman had just stayed in his car and waited for the police none of this would have happened. It looks increasingly clear that is not a legal fact which will impact the eventual acquittal or conviction of Zimmerman.  

The clarity of the dispatcher's “we don’t need you to do that” statement is in dispute now. That Zimmerman ignored that instruction, or took other questions to mean it was OK to follow Trayvon, the entirety of the conversation Zimmerman had with the dispatcher, leaves in my mind reasonable doubt as to what the dispatcher expected him to do.  

But the bottom line is that Zimmerman did follow, and serving as a judge, jury and executioner of one he initiated the death penalty against a boy whom he believed was committing a property crime. While I despise Zimmerman I have little doubt the law allows for that. A confrontation took place. It's pretty clear that Zimmerman took some blows. The laws in Florida are such that even if you initiate a fight for no good reason, if you are getting your ass whipped, you can shoot your opponent. 

Of course Trayvon had the right to defend himself also. But Zimmerman did not die, Trayvon did. When one considers race in this case we can only wonder what would have happened to Trayvon if Zimmerman died at his hand. We are expected to believe that the state is a neutral observer of the fight with its only role being to determine whether the person that died responded with the framework of self-defense. Just to make things more opaque, the silenced Trayvon has the burden of proof as to what happened.

I am reminded of that old George Carlin joke, "I ran the kid over in the driveway, God's will." The State of Florida though its laws would have us believe that the events that led to this fight including  one of the participants was armed while the other was carrying an iced tea and a bag  of candy are all ancillary facts. Bottom line there was a fight and the outcome? God’s will.

It is a f***ed up law, but it is similar to other laws across the country. Race, and to be more specific, racial bias, is a contributing factor in the creation and application of the laws. Race amplifies the debate on food stamps, drug tests for welfare recipients, voter ID Laws, and America’s drug policies.  These policies are designed to create and/ or act on the impression that sinister darkies are getting away with something or out to do harm to civilized white people.

In these past years we have seen both how far we have come and how far we need to go. The election of the first African American President did not disprove the hateful legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, far from it. The Supreme Court seemed to take up one side of that logic of this week when it ruled that the Voting Rights battle was decided. Show’s over, you can all go home now…

The press did a horrible job of reporting the facts of the case.  Media coverage has shown the limits of the liberal critique. A more radical analysis might have drawn into question the foundation of Stand Your Ground and Conceal Carry Laws, but whatever the final verdict, those laws will not be altered. This entire saga took place against the backdrop of Newtown and the ensuing failure to move any federal gun legislation. The results in Washington and increasingly it appears in this trial will clearly indicate the political balance of power is to maintain the status quo.

There was a media storm to show Zimmerman’s guilt within the guidelines of the laws and the power structure in Florida. When the Police refused to move initially, thousands took to the streets to seek justice. Demonstrations were animated by the fact that we were told that Zimmerman called Trayvon a “coon” and that other malicious slurs were invoked.  Not true. The dispatcher’s phone call was edited in a way to suggest that Zimmerman was emphasizing that Trayvon was black, rather than responding to a question about his race.  The facts of the fight and Zimmerman’s injuries were either missed or distorted in the press coverage. I was swept up in it. Almost every new revelation led to my sense of outrage.

I wrote three pieces back then. The first based on the very initial press reports and Charles M. Blow’s first New York Times column was factually accurate and appropriately outraged. The second repeated many of the distorted media reports that led many of us to convict Zimmerman and led to the outraged demonstrations.  The third addressed Geraldo Rivera’s heartbreaking suggestions that young men of color should not wear hoodies. As I look back now I am OK with the first piece and embarrassed by the second. But the third piece is maybe the most important.

Many of the elements of the story were distorted through the funhouse mirror of so called liberal media bias.  Some of what we heard was true, some was not, but none of it, including what I believe will be Zimmerman’s eventual acquittal will challenge the status quo for the essentially liberal power structure. We liberals are too often satisfied with platitudes about progress. We long to be reassured that the better angels of our spirit are alive and active, even if the reality is they are dancing on the head of a pin.

Stand Your Ground, Conceal Carry, are not under any threat, but a young man wearing a hoodie through a mixed race neighborhood on a rainy night, he better watch out. I guess I always knew that finding justice for Trayvon would be tough. Like many I hoped that a conviction would be at least a symbolic victory, which while important is no substitute for real justice. We seek justice for Trayvon, but real justice will come when laws, amplified by racial bias, like Stand Your Ground and Conceal Carry in Florida and elsewhere are overturned. Because of these laws Zimmerman had his power and he used it. If acquitted he may want to live elsewhere, but the sad truth is that his bias will have been actualized and his right to carry a gun into a church, or a movie theatre will probably be reinstated.

We may have elected our first black President but we have so, so far to go.