Last night, George Zimmerman was found not guilty of all charges in the killing of Trayvon Martin. There were loud and passionate protests as far away as San Francisco, but so far there has been no violence. Many people expressed violent outrage on Twitter. Notably, Victor Cruz of the NY Giants wrote, “Zimmerman doesn’t last a year til the hood catches up to him,” although that tweet was promptly deleted. Roddy White of the Atlanta Falcons tweeted: “All them jurors should go home tonight and kill themselves for letting a grown man get away with killing a kid.”
I went to bed fearing that there would be rioting. I thought I would wake up this morning to news of violence and chaos. Instead, there are tens of thousands of blog posts, tweets and Facebook postings, but no violence. And I’m relieved. Who knows? Maybe having a public outlet for outrage is actually healthy for the American population. Mike Patterson posted this on my Facebook page: “I wonder if the prevalence of social media is proving to do double duty as a societal pressure valve! I thought sure this would be an ugly day. I too am happy to find it is not! Guess we needed Twitter more than we would’ve guessed during the Rodney King days!”
In fact, many celebrities, public leaders and athletes were urging calm in the wake of the verdict. This PSA from Miami Heat player James Jones says, “Raise your voice, not your hands.”
I know that many people feel Trayvon Martin didn’t get the justice he deserved. As a journalist, I don’t have an opinion on that. But I can say that Martin did get justice. The legal system of Florida worked exactly as it was intended, even if you disagree with the outcome. While legal reform isn’t a sexy topic and doesn’t get a lot of airtime on our major networks, it’s important. This case demonstrates how vitally important it is.
Trayvon Martin is the not the only person who’s been killed legally under “Stand Your Ground” laws. 16 states have some form of this law on their books and in many cases, citizens of those states haven’t paid much attention. Personally, I think the Trayvon Martin case, whether you agree with the verdict or not, is a perfect argument for increased citizen involvement in our political process.
Do you know what laws your state legislators are enacting, or are you too distracted by the endless GOP vs. Obama arguments on TV news? I’m not blaming the so-called “mainstream media” (for what it’s worth, there’s no such entity), since Zimmerman may never have been tried in a court of law if the media hadn’t called attention to Martin’s death.
In fact, I don’t blame anyone. As I said, the justice system worked in this case. If you’re unhappy, it’s time to change the system. In his piece for The Nation, Dave Zirin writes: “Perhaps the final word should go to what has been the most tweeted athlete comment, at least in my circles. It was Oklahoma City Thunder center Kendrick Perkins who tweeted simply, “America justice system is a joke.” It is a joke…It’s marching time, people. No justice, no peace.“
I think we can objectively say that our justice system is not blind to color. While fewer than 1% of Americans are currently in jail, one out of every four young black men are incarcerated. A young African-American male is more like to be incarcerated than get married. While I don’t question the jurors’ decision in the Zimmerman case, I’d like to point out a 2007 case in which a black man was convicted of manslaughter after shooting an unarmed white teenager who was on his property.
Again, this is not about blame. This is about paying attention to what lawmakers are doing, becoming active citizens and fighting for the democracy and the justice we want as Americans. If the Zimmerman-Martin case has moved you at all, I hope it’s moved you to raise your voice in the future. Don’t let justice happen to you, make it work for you.
After all, it’s just a system. And any system can be changed.