Showing posts with label Rodney King. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rodney King. Show all posts

Sunday, 14 July 2013

Trayvon Martin

I must confess that I did not follow the whole court case. However there are some things in this case that really stand  out to me. 

Firstly, I believe that the prosecution over reached itself. As I do not believe it was murder case but more like manslaughter and if the prosecution had gone with the  manslaughter charge maybe they would have secured a conviction.

Secondly now that George Zimmerman has been found not guilty he is now apparently allowed to get his gun back. Now if this is really the case then rest assured as soon as the dust as settled on this case George Zimmerman will try his luck  again and claim self defence.

Thirdly Trayvon Martin did not come from the "perfect family" I.e. married parents and 2.3 children and he may not have been the perfect teenager. But he should be afforded the same rights as every other human being in the US.

I remember the 1990s was not good for race relations in the US it was the Rodney King case  and the UK it was the Stephen Lawrence case. 

I for one do not want to go back to those days where the legal system was seen as biased against people of colour.

I was hoping that both the UK and the US had moved on but it is cases like Trayvon Martin case that make me realise that we have not really moved on.

However I continue to be cautiously optimistic that as awful as the verdict sounds for people of colour. We have  to continue to believe that legal system works for us well. If people of colour stop believing in the legal system it would not help our cause.

Lastly George Zimmerman maybe legally free but in his mind he will never be free as ultimately it was his gun that ended Trayvon Martin's life.