Last night the jury in the Trayvon Martin case issued a verdict of "not guilty" for George Zimmerman. This is in Florida, the same state where, in this past year, a black woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing warning shots from her legally registered gun to avoid a beating from her estranged husband against whom she had a protection order (PPO). His attacks against her are documented. She did not kill or injure him in any way.
I don't feel, in any way, qualified to write about this travesty of justice. Instead, I have posted a few comments from Facebook friends that really hit home to me.
"How far have we come since Emmett Till? Since Oscar Grant? I tried to avoid the TV coverage of the trial because it was so painful, but each glance revealed the terrible moves by the prosecution and the demagoguery of the defense, and I felt the verdict to acquit was inevitable because of incompetence, because of America's history. Just imagine if it were a black man accosting a young white man what the verdict would be. Strange fruit, indeed." ~Hilton Obenzinger
"I have a 17 year old Aquarius black son who carries a 3.7 GPA and loves hoodies, Skittles and Arizona ice tea. If you know my son, you know these facts about him.
Every single time he has left the house, for at least 7 years, I have had the speech with him about taking his hands out of his pockets in the store, unzipping his jacket, pulling his hoodie off of his head, making eye contact, but not staring... He never understood why I was so protective and why he had to be drilled so much.
Unfortunately, today he understands." ~Tawana Petty
"Only in America can a dead black boy go on trial for his own murder." ~Syreeta McFadden
The grief is Trayvon's family's. The collective shame as a country is ours.
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