Expect Zimmerman to be found guilty of manslaughter and receive substantial jail time. After he shot the unarmed, 17 year old Trayvon Martin, the cops told him to go home and forget it. Massive demonstrations subsequently swept the nation. And so he was charged with homicide and the police chief lost his job. Were Zimmerman to walk or just get a slap on the wrist, the trial would be seen as having been a charade. That would be a massive wake up call for Black America. It would stir from its slumber and begin a protracted period of activist campaigns and questioning of the criminal justice and political systems. The establishment does not want that.
Note that the judge is not a white man. A white male judge would be expected to be partial to Zimmerman no matter how he ruled. Neither is the judge a Black man or a Black woman, they would be viewed as favoring Trayvon, and so a white woman was selected. As for the jury, there are five white women and a Latina. The prosecutors and the defense attorneys are all white men. So essentially whites are handling the case, so whatever verdict they reach will be palatable to the white community. The only verdict Black America will accept is guilty of some sort of homicide, manslaughter would suffice. As for the Latinos, his name is not Spanish, he is only “half Latino” and there is a Latina on the jury, and so they are not likely to complain.
Zimmerman would have had a better chance of acquittal if there had been a change of venue. It is a local jury. His town and his county have been vilified. All they want is get the whole mess behind them. What do you think an acquittal will do for them? And if they acquit him, the jurors will try to remain hidden from the public. No book deals. No TV appearances. Only opprobrium from the nation, not to mention how they will be treated by their friends and neighbors after having brought scorn upon them all.
Keep in mind these women, most if not all of them mothers, one with eight children, above all want peace and quiet and justice to prevail. Zimmerman profiled the innocent Trayvon Martin, chased him, and caught him, all without ever announcing that he was part of any neighborhood watch, and then he shot him to death. He cannot cry self-defense. The police told him not to pursue Trayvon. And Trayvon’s right of self-defense trumps his since Trayvon was obeying the law and minding his own business when he was pursued and then confronted by an angry stranger with a gun. Things will basically shape up like they did in the last two elections when white women overwhelmingly chose the reasonable Black male over the angry, bitter, reactionary white male. Mark my words.
(by Arthur Lewin, www.AfricaUnlimited.com )
He is not a cop.
