Someone mentioned that the photo of George Zimmerman– the only one shown in the news, doesn’t look like a portrait or candid shot. It looks like a mug shot. Perhaps from some prior brush with the law?
Lots of weird stuff on the net. George Zimmerman shot a teenager dead and his friends and neighbors are saying he’s not a racist. As if human nature is predictable and rational.
Mr. Green brings up the case of Cornell Young– shot and killed by his fellow Providence Police. There’s our rational selves, and under that, our non-rational selves. We act from unclear motives and rationalize after the fact.
I think it’s probable that George Zimmerman was in his non-rational space, when he pursued and murdered Trayvon Martin. He never should have been running around with a gun. That the police failed to even check if he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs is beyond negligence.
But I won’t be surprised if Zimmerman sincerely pleads his innocence. He acted like a man afraid of his own shadow, and he won’t own up to that shadow now.
That does not excuse the crime. He deserves to serve a long sentence for robbing Trayvon Martin of his life and leaving his family bereaved.
Kmareka.com 
The Cornell Young case was one of many “friendly fire”deaths and shootings of law enforcement officers.
Race was not a factor in a few cases I recall.My agency actually had a shootout between a tactical squad and plainclothes officers on bandit stakeout in Chula Vista-fortunately the officers shot survived,but I know of two cases- one in Chicago,and one in the Bronx,NY where a White officer was killed by another White officer-in the Chicago case,no crime had occured and the officer fired at a silhouetted figure in a window-it turned out to be his partner-in the Bronx case a Black suspect who had been wounded in a shootout with a White Transit cop in plain clothes ran up to a White NYPD officer and said a crazy guy with a gun was chasing him -that officer shot and killed the Transit officer-how did race figure in there?
In Chicago I was held at gunpoint twice by Chicago PD when I was working in plainclothes-I reacted the way i was trained to and am here to write about it.Race was no factor at all in those instances.It’s not a fuzzy,warm, feeling-I can tell you that.
BTW-who knows if Zimmerman harbored racial animosity?What he did stands on its own-he disobeyed police instructions and initiated a confrontation with someone who wasn’t even committing an offense.Whatever followed was the result of his actions.Trayvon Martin may have been in fear for his life being approached by a man in civilian clothes with no police ID and possibly(?)brandishing a firearm.
The Sanford PD can’t dance their way out of their incredible lack of professional responsibility in this case.
I totally agree with you on that. The concept of ‘hate crime’ is valid when you are dealing with a burning cross on a lawn, vs a burning pile of wood, but when the crime is murder it should not be necessary to look at motivation vs action.
One wonders how so much “expertise” and knowledge of situations where there is nothing but “reports” in the media allows folks to throw out basic rights such as trial by jury and presumed innocent until proven guilty. Amazing how those crystal balls get around.
I wonder at the negligence of the police, who made no effort to investigate when one party was shot dead and unable to testify. Trayvon Martin was tried, sentenced and executed by a self-appointed vigilante, and the police too Zimmerman at his word and said they could do no more.
Donald-without assessing gulit or innocence,it is indisputable that the Sanford PD didn’t conduct a proper investigation.It makes reaching a just conclusion that much more difficult.
The blogger here runs on emotion rather than analysis in many instances,but it’s her blog and a free country.