What? You don't remember Mike Nifong? Too long ago?
OK, how about Dharum Ravi? Hell, his case went to the jury only last week.
Give up?
Mike Nifong was the Durham County, SC prosecutor who charged a group of Duke lacrosse players with forcible rape (is there another kind?) without bothering to determine if the alleged victims were telling the truth. The result was a national rush to judgement that, while not ruining three lives, at least put a turd in the graduation punchbowl. We were all ready to believe that a bunch of spoiled rich kids hired a couple of black dancers for a party and raped them. Were it not for DNA testing and an ATM camera, those kids might be making new friends at the Allendale Correctional Institution. Score one for law enforcement.
Dharum Ravi is the Rutgers student who has been found guilty of anti-gay intimidation (a hate crime in New Jersey) for watching on the web as his gay roommate got it on with another man. Ravi's roommate, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide by jumping from the George Washington Bridge. Ravi has been accused of "outing" his roommate, which he didn't, and broadcasting a sex video on the internet which he also did not. Ravi's case is the classic coincidence vs causation. To assume that Clementi's suicide was a direct result of Ravi's actions is a bigger leap than the one that killed Clementi. Paging Jack McCoy?
All of this is by way of reminding my fellow travelers of the danger of mailing in your guilty verdict before all the facts are in. Attend the tale of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. In case you have been travelling with Rick Santorum and therefore never hear anything about the real world, Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by Mr. Zimmerman on Feb 26 in the little town of Sanford FL. The only facts in evidence are that Martin was unarmed and he was on the phone with his girlfriend when the incident occurred. After that it starts to get cloudy. Zimmerman claims that he was attacked and that he was defending himself. Maybe.
The situation is complicated by a nifty little law that was passed in Florida and 22 other states. As the result of an unholy alliance between the Republicans and the NRA, Florida has a law nicknamed Stand Your Ground. The short version is that if you perceive yourself in fear of death or "great bodily harm" you have Florida's permission to blast away. The threat need not be real or provable just as long as you "perceive" it to be so. These laws stem from a decision by the Supreme Court in 1895 (Beard v U.S.) that spoke to a person's right to use deadly force "in his home" when a threat was imminent. Florida, and other states, have expanded the concept to include any place that a person has a lawful right to be. If I'm in a park and you assault me with a knife I have no obligation to flee. I am well within my rights to perforate you with as many 9mm holes as my little Glock will fire. (That'll teach you to bring a knife to a gun fight.)These Castle Laws have only been codified recently in states with newly minted Republican majorities.
Considering that Castle laws have been part of the common law environment for a hundred years, one can only wonder why the sudden urge to write legislation to expand the protection. Perhaps the NRA was mindful of all the new guns purchased in the U.S. since a black man won the White House and they wanted to give people someone to shoot. In any event, because this law is on the books in Florida and only George Zimmerman is around to tell his story, no arrest was made.
That was before the media got involved...and Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson, and the President of the United States...and Fox News. The lack of actual information as to what happened has not stopped the news cyclists from covering this tragedy non-stop. George Zimmerman's life has been dissected like a frog in second period biology. Whether he was justified in shooting Trayvon Martin or not, his life will be decidedly different from here on. Trayvon's parents have given innumerable interviews and made several impassioned speeches. Everyone with a microphone and an audience is screaming for justice; justice being mostly defined as an indictment of Mr. Zimmerman. However this is resolved, no one will like the outcome.
Sanford, Fl is microcosmic of the country at large: 45% non Hispanic white, 30% black. Prior to the Trayvon Martin shooting Sanford was mostly remembered (if remembered is the proper term) as the town that ran Jackie Robinson out when he tried to take the field during a 1946 spring training game. The Dodgers were forced to move to Daytona Beach. People have been taking to the streets in Sanford and about everywhere else demanding an investigation. The Feds are now involved as is the State of Florida, the county of Seminole and about everyone else short of the Warren Commission. Justice will be done...well done...burned to a cinder.
Sadly, the trigger-happy asshats of the Florida legislature will, as always, escape unharmed and unrepentant. The people who put the gun in George Zimmerman's hand and gave him permission to use it will never have to answer for their actions. The NRA will remind people that, while tragedies happen, the sale, ownership and use of a gun is a wonderful and God-given right. After all, "Stand your Ground" isn't just the law, it's the American Way. With the saddest of hearts I'm sorry to say they are probably right.
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