BOORTZ: The race-baiters aren’t done with Zimmerman yet

Not that my opinions here mean anything more than anyone else’s, but I did want to put as many of my thoughts on the George Zimmerman trial down on paper (so to speak) before we all get caught up in the next controversy.

So here goes.

First, I want to share the perspective I bring to this. We each have a unique story, but you may find mine a bit unusual.

I grew up in a military family; Marine brat. Right up until my junior year in high school I lived on a Marine Corps air station, or in military housing right outside the gate. This means I grew up in a completely integrated neighborhood and went to integrated schools. Our neighbors were often black Marine officers and their families. The kids I played with at Wherry Park, El Toro, Cherry Point, Schofield Barracks, Oceana NAS and elsewhere were white and black. This was my normality. I had no reason to suspect that this wasn’t the way all children were growing up.

My awakening came when my Dad was transferred to the CNATRA Staff at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. He decided that for the first time we were not going to live on or near the base. He wanted us to enjoy a little of the beach life, so for the first summer there we rented a home on Pensacola Beach. I soon started hanging around a boy my age (16) named Don. We were on the beach one afternoon when I noticed a commotion brewing a few hundred yards away, right in front of what was called the Casino at the main public beach. Don suggested we start walking the other way. I asked why, and what the commotion was all about, and he told me that some negroes (the accepted term at that time) were trying to get on the white’s only beach.

I was dumfounded. Don couldn’t believe it when I asked him just what in the hell was wrong with negroes being on the beach. I told him that my previous beach experiences had been in Southern California, and that I had been a lifeguard in Laguna. Negroes on the beach were just as much a fact of life as whites. Don told me that we were in the South now and that’s just not the way things were there. I later learned that that wasn’t the way it was on beaches in Massachusetts either, but that’s beside the point.

When I started attending Pensacola High School in the fall of 1961 there was not a black face in the place. I couldn’t believe they had their own school they had to go to. Later that year the first black student was enrolled and there were the TV cameras on the street in front of the school. What the hell? I had always had black schoolmates before! This was all a new and somewhat frightening landscape for me. I longed for base housing again.

Because of this background I’ve managed to approach issues of race on the air with a somewhat different perspective than perhaps many of my listeners. Fact is, I’ve managed to infuriate both sides, and that’s suited me just fine.

Now, to the Zimmerman Trial.

FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY

Note that I use the word “black,” not “African American.” No disrespect is meant here. As was the case with Teddy Roosevelt, I do not believe in hyphenated-Americanism and will not participate in that charade. “African American” is a statement of origin, not a racial identification. So, moving on.

I know that there are some who at this point will scream that I have no business whatsoever trying to comment on this situation “from the perspective of the black community.” Fair enough. Just read what I have to say and see if you remain outraged.

For decades whites have been far more exercised about black-on-white crime than crime of the black-on-black variety. If you’re white you know this to be true, and if you’re black you damned well know this to be true. We have had a recent example of this just in the past two weeks. In Mableton, Georgia a few weeks ago four young blacks encountered a young white male at a service station. Nothing good, as you know, happens after midnight; and nothing good happened here. Some sort of a confrontation ensued and the four blacks pounded and kicked the white male into unconsciousness. They left him in (or threw him into) the street where he was struck and killed by a car. The black gang members have been arrested and charged with murder. Five lives shot to hell. Now if you’re on Twitter or other social media you’ve seen hundreds of references to this incident with demands by whites for action and questions as to why it hasn’t been a bigger news story.

Meanwhile – in Chicago – young black males are mowing down other young black males like a cheap amusement park shooting gallery. From where I sit the white community isn’t exactly screaming for action here. Oh sure, the whites like to use the high level of violence in Chicago to excoriate Obama and his former Chief of Staff, but beyond that there’s no real organized demand for action. You can’t blame the black community for perceiving – no, recognizing – the air of indifference among whites to the Chicago carnage.

Wait, there’s more. Now this may be uncomfortable for you, but you know it to be true. Let someone kidnap, rape, or murder a cute, blonde little white girl and all hell breaks loose. If the suspect is a black male, the outrage increases exponentially. Trust me – I’ve been in the media (or was) for 45 years – it is much harder to get traction with the media for a story about a young black girl kidnapped, raped, or murdered than it is if the victim is white. You may take vague notice of this, but the black community sees the stark reality here and it truly makes them feel like they’re being treated as a second-class community – second class citizens.

Now we’ll get to how this particular death became a white-on-black crime in a few minutes. At this point suffice it to say that the black community accepted it as such, and it became a huge news story.

Finally, a white-on-black killing was a major news story. Facts were in short supply – no eyewitnesses to be found. Only two people knew the whole story, and one, the black teenager, was dead. Can you name the last time this happened? And it’s easy to understand why the black community was glued to this case and hoping for a conviction of Zimmerman.

FROM THE WHITE PERSPECTIVE

Whatever friends I’ve made by trying to explain the perspective, as I see it, of the black community in this case, I’m about to lose.

No, I can’t speak for all whites, I know that. And my opinions here are not necessarily shared by anyone else. I know that too. But I think you’ll find widespread agreement with what I’m about to say.

Bluntly stated, whites are simply fed up with the high level of violence brought to many cities by young black males. Whites seem to intuitively know that when they hear of a robbery, a car jacking or a murder, chances are the person committing the crime is going to be black. Then, when the arrest is made and the picture shows up in the paper or on TV, their suspicions are vindicated.

White women are tired of being called racists because they instinctively lock their car doors when they see a young black male approaching their car in a parking lot. You get the point.

Whites have heard the statistics – they know that although black males make up only a shade over six percent of our population, 42 percent of murder victims are black. Homicide rates for blacks are seven times that for whites. If a white person is robbed it will be by a black 47 percent of the time. The robber will be another white 37 percent of the time. (Here’s your link).

Even though whites realize that the bulk of violent crimes are committed by blacks, they perceive the media as trying to cover this statistic up. They watch TV commercials for home alarm companies where the burglars, intruders, home invaders – whatever – are always white. The see the absurdity of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution printing mug shots of wanted black criminals, and in order to avoid suggesting that the suspect has a prior criminal history (what a surprise that would be!) they caption the picture as So-and-So “posing for a photo.” They see TV anchors reading the description of a criminal suspect, but pointedly leaving out the suspect’s race. In the end this is all seen as an absurd politically correct attempt to protect the black community from a widespread recognition of the culture of violence and puts so many young black males into graves or prisons.

Then whites become aware of the “no snitching” rule in some black communities. Here they are, committing all those crimes, and they won’t even report the criminals and gang bangers to the police so that they can be arrested and taken off the streets.

Then there’s the absurd “profiling” thing. People profile! There isn’t an adult in this country living in close proximity to other people who doesn’t, on a daily basis, engage in some sort of profiling. If you’re walking down the street and you need to ask directions you are far more likely to approach a businessman in a suit, or a woman in sports clothes than you are some hoodie-wearing black teenager with his pants buckled around his ass and six inches of his pants dragging the ground. If you’re trying to find the shoe section of a department store you are going to look for someone wearing a nametag. That’s profiling! Profiling is a tool of daily survival. Whites perceive this whole “profiling is bad” argument as an attempt by the black community to shield themselves from the public consequences of the high level of criminal activity occurring in their neighborhoods. Whites are hearing “Yeah … we know where the crime is coming from, but don’t you dare act on that knowledge. That would be profiling!”

SUDDENLY ZIMMERMAN BECOMES WHITE!

A young black male – an innocent young black male – has been killed. The media has taken some notice. Finally! A white-on-black crime is going to get some attention! But wait! There’s a problem! George Zimmerman is Hispanic. Well – half Hispanic anyway, on his mother’s side. Barack Obama is half-white, but he chooses to identify himself as black. What’s good for Obama should certainly be good for Zimmerman, but the media wasn’t going to go along. After all, if this had been a black teen shooting a black teen it probably wouldn’t have made it to the front page. But the shooter was Hispanic, there seemed to be profiling involved, the victim was simply trying to walk home – and the race warlord Al Sharpton saw this as an opportunity to increase his stock, and the media saw a racial grievance story they could milk for months, so suddenly became a “white Hispanic.” Bear in mind, please, that Obama has never been referred to as a “white black” nor has the media said that Obama “identifies as black.” But you certainly saw references to Zimmerman, who “identifies himself as Hispanic,” as if it were some kind of a fraud.

So here we are: The media has a man-bites-dog story to run with, not to mention an agenda to push. Obama gets into the middle of it with his “If I had a son he would look like Trayvon Martin comment, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are re-establishing their race warlord credentials, blacks see an innocent teenager murdered “just walking down the street” because he was profiled by a white man; whites see a lynch mob coming after someone who was just trying to protect his community; and we have a trial.

POLITICAL PROSECUTION?

I believe – and I certainly hope – there will be a lot more to this part of the story in the weeks to come. We’re learning, for instance, that Eric Holder’s Department of Justice actually spent taxpayer money to support and promote rallies in Florida calling for the arrest and prosecution of George Zimmerman. This is the same attorney general who gave the New Black Panther Party a pass in Philadelphia after their obvious program of voter intimidation during 0bama’s first election. New Black Panthers (of which there are around 15 or so) get a pass, Zimmerman must be prosecuted.

Then we have Florida State Attorney Angela Corey who not only insists on this absurd 2nd degree murder charge, but also hides evidence from the judge in the process. Then she fires the staffer who disclosed her dishonesty. I truly hope the story on Angela Corey isn’t over.

KNOWING THINGS THAT AIN’T SO

At this point – and knowing that you’re tired of reading my Bolshoi anyway – let’s just cut to some common beliefs about the confrontation between Zimmerman and Trayvon that, though widely believed, just ain’t true. I’ll approach this by repeating some of the things we’ve heard from protestors and read in social media, and addressing them with the facts from the trial – or with a dose of common sense.

THE POLICE TOLD ZIMMERMAN TO STOP FOLLOWING TRAYVON

Sorry, but that’s not true. That discussion was with a 911 dispatcher who was not a police officer. The conversation went like this:

Dispatcher: Are you following him?

Zimmerman: Yeah.

Dispatcher: OK, we don’t need you to do that.

Zimmerman: OK.

At no time did a police officer order Zimmerman to stop following Trayvon Martin. In fact, nobody ordered him to stop following Martin, Zimmerman was just told that he didn’t “need” to follow him.

So, did Zimmerman continuing following Trayvon at this point? There was no evidence presented at trial that he did. Zimmerman’s testimony was that he headed back to his car.

ZIMMERMAN SHOT AN UNARMED TEEN WHO WAS JUST WALKING DOWN THE STREET.

I must have seen this particular charge Tweeted over 100 times in the last week or so. Again, not only is it not true, it is absurdly wrong. The evidence shows that at the time Trayvon was shot he was sitting astride Zimmerman and beating his head into the ground. The testimony of the expert witness on this was not only compelling but was uncontested. Sitting on someone’s chest and pounding on them is not “just walking down the street.”

ZIMMERMAN SHOT SOMEONE WHO HAD A BAG OF SKITTLES AND SOME ICE TEA

Really? This is supposed to be a meaningful point? Is there something magical about Skittles to the effect that if you happen to be in possession of these colorful candies you are unable to harm another human being?

FINALLY: WAS IT SELF DEFENSE?

There’s one oddity, or curiosity, if you will, about this case that I haven’t seen addressed anywhere else. It involves Florida’s Stand Your Ground law.

At one point in this saga Zimmerman was following Trayvon Martin. If, at that point, Trayvon had felt threatened and a confrontation with Zimmerman ensued, and if that confrontation ended with the death of Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin could seek protection under the Stand Your Ground Law. But the testimony was that at some point Zimmerman stopped following Trayvon and headed back to his car. At this point, according to testimony, Trayvon started following Zimmerman. Zimmerman testified that Trayvon approached him and asked him if he had a problem. Zimmerman says he said “no” and Trayvon responded “now you have a problem” and slugged Zimmerman. We all know what happened next.

Now bear in mind – though the jury didn’t know this – there is ample evidence from Trayvon’s phone of text messages between Trayvon and his pals about initiating and participating in fights. There was also evidence that Trayvon was trying to purchase a gun. These are hardly the actions of an angelic kid with Skittles and an Arizona iced tea.

WHAT THE JURY HAD TO DECIDE

Well, first of all the 2nd degree murder charge was out the window. The state attorney over-charged on this and she knew it. Then came Angela Corey’s asinine attempt to have Zimmerman charged with child abuse. That went nowhere.

The jury had one thing – and only one thing – to decide. Was it reasonable for George Zimmerman to believe that he was about to suffer great bodily harm or imminent death? He already thought his nose was broken. His head had been bounced off the concrete several times. He knew that his attacker was taller and in better shape than he. Zimmerman knew that he wasn’t much of a fighter (based on testimony from his martial arts instructor). So did Zimmerman feel that he needed to use deadly force to avoid severe injuries or death? That was the jury’s only question, and they decided that Zimmerman could have reasonably felt he was about to be hurt badly or killed.

ARE THE RACE PIMPS THROUGH WITH ZIMMERMAN YET?

Apparently not. Obama has made it clear that he is going to use this case to further his attempts to disarm law-abiding citizens. Eric Holder has said that the Justice Department will, as Al Sharpton has instructed, investigate Zimmerman for violating Trayvon Martin’s civil rights. Never mind that the prosecutors and the Sanford Police have said that race had nothing to do with this – when the race pimps are on a scent they’re hard to stop.

Neal Boortz is a nationally-syndicated radio host, best-selling author, and libertarian political commentator. 

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