Not Only Is Trayvon My Son, I COULD Have Been Trayvon

Back in March of 2012, President Obama leaped into the Zimmerman case proclaiming that if he had a son he would look like Trayvon.  Today, less than a week after George Zimmerman was found not-guilty Obama announced that he could actually could have been Trayvon 35-years ago.

You will find the text of Obama's speech below:

President Obama:  I wanted to come out here, first of all to tell you that Jay is prepared for all of your questions and is very much looking forward to the session.  The second thing is I wanted to let you know that over the next couple of weeks, there's going to obviously be a whole range of issues-immigration,economics, et cetera--we'll try to arrange a fuller press conference to address your questions.

The reason I actually wanted to come out today is not to take questions, bt to speak to an issue that obviously has gotten a lot of attention over the course of the last wee--the issue of the Trayvon Martin ruling.  I gave a preliminary statement right after the rule on Sunday.  But watching the debate over the course of last week, I thought it might be useful for me to expand on my thoughts a little bit.

First of all I want to make sure that, once again, I send my thoughts and prayers as well as michelle's to the family of Trayvon Martin, and to remark on the incredible grace and dignity with which they've dealt withthe entire situation.  I can only imagine what they're going through and it's rearkaable how they've handled it.

The second thing I want to say is to reiterate what I said on Sunday, which is there's going to be a lot of arguments about the legal issues in the case--I'll let all the legal analysts and talking heads address those issues.  The judge conduced the trial in a professional manner.  The prosecution and the defense made their arguments.  The juries were properly instructed that in a case such as this reasonable doubt was relevant, and they rendered a verdict.  And once the jury has spoken, that's how our system works.  But I did want to just talk a little bit about context and how people have responded to it and how people are feeling.

You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot i said that this could have been my son.  Another wy of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.  And when you think about why, in the African American community at least, there's a lot of pain around what happened here.  I think its important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and history that doesn't go away.

There are very view African American men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store.  That includes me.  There are very few African American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars.  That happens to me--at least before I was a senator.  There are very few African Americans who haven't had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she has a chance to get off.  That happens often.

And I don't want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the African American community interprets what happens one night in Florida.  And it's inescapable for those people to bring those experiences to bear.  The African American community is also knowledgeable that there is a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws--everything from the death penalty to enforcement of our drug laws.  And tat ends up having an impact in terms of how people interpret the case.

Now this isn't to say that the African American community is naive about the fact that African American young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system ; that they're disproportionately both victims and perpetrators of violence.  It's not to make excuses for that fact--although black folks do interpret the reasons for that in a historical context.  They understand that some of the violence that takes place in poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of a very violent past in tis country and that the poverty and dysfunction that we see in those communities can be traced to a very difficult history.

And so the fact that sometimes that's unacknowledged adds to the frustration.  And the fact that a lot of African American boys are painted with a broad brush and the excuse is given well, there are these statistics out there that show that African American boys are more violent--using that as an excuse to see sons treated differently causes pain.

I think the African American community is also not naive in understanding that statistically somebody like Trayvon Martin was statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else.  So folks understand the challenges that exist for African American boys.  But they get frustrated, I think they feel that there's no context for it and that context is being denied.  And that all contributes I think to a sense that if a white male was involved in the same kind of scenario, that from top to bottom both the outcome and the aftermath might have been different.

Now the question for me at least, and I think for a lot of folks, is where do we take this?  How do we learn some lessons from this and move in a positive direction?  I think it's understandable that there have been demonstrations and vigils and protests, and some of that stuff is going to have to work its way through, as long as it remains nonviolent.  if I see any violence, the I will remind folks that that dishonors what happened to Trayvon Martin and his family.  But beyond protests or vigils, the question is are there some concrete things that we might be able to do.

I know Eric Holder is reviewing what happened down there, but I think it's important for people to have some clear expectations here.  Traditionally, these are issues of state and local government, the criminal code.  And law enforcement is traditionally done at the state and local levels, not at the federal levels.

That doesn't mean though that as a nation we can't do some things that I think would be productive.  So let me just give a couple of specifics that I'm still bouncing around with my staff, so we're not rolling out some five-point plan, but some areas where I think all of us could potentially focus.

Number one, precisely because law enforcement is often determined at the state and local level, I think it would be productive for the Justice Department, governors, mayors to work with law enforcement about training at the state and local level in order to reduce the kind of mistrust in the system that sometimes currently exists.

When i was in Illionois, I passed racial profiling legislation, and it actually did just two simple things.  One, it collected data on traffic stops and the race of the person who was stopped.  But the other thing was it resourced us training police departments across the state on how to think about potential racial bias and ways to further professionalize what they were doing.

And initially, the police departments across the state were resistant, but actually they came to recognize that if it was done in a fair, straightforward way that it would allow them to do their jobs better and the communities would have more confidence in them and, in turn be more helpful in applying the law.  And obviously law enforcement has a got a very tough job.

So that's one area where I think there are a lot of resources and best practices that could be brought to bear if state and local governments are receptive.  And I think a lot of them would be.  And let's figure out are there ways for us to push out that kind of training.

Along the same lines, I think it would be useful for us to examine some state and local laws to see if it--if they are designed in such a way that they may encourage the kinds of altercations and confrontations and tragedies that we saw in the Florida case, rather than diffuse potential altercations.

I know that there's been a commentary about the fact that the "stand your ground" laws in Florida were not used as a defense in the case.  On te other hand, if we're sending a message as a society in our communities that someone who is armed potentially has the right to use those firearms even if there's a way for them to exit from a situation, is that really going to be contributing to the kind of peace an security and order that we'd like to see?

And for those who resist that idea that were would think about something like these "stand your ground"  laws.  I'd just ask people to consider, if Trayvon martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk?  And do we actually think he would have bee justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman who had followed him in a car because he felt threatened?  And if the answer to the question is at least ambiguous, then it seem to me that we might want to examine those kinds of laws.

Number three--and this a long-term project--we need to spend some time in thinking about how do we bolster and reinforce our African American boys.  and this is something that Michelle and I talk about.  There are a lot of kids out there who need help who are getting a lot of negative reinforcement.  And is there more that we can do to give them the sense that their country cares about them and values them and is willing to invest in them?

I'm not naive about the prospects of some grand, new federal program.  I'm not sure that that's what we're talking about here.  But I do recognize that as President, I've got some convening power, and there are a lot of programs hat are being done across the country on this front.  And for us to be able to gather together business leaders and local elected officials and clergy and celebrities and athletes and figure out how are we doing a better job helping young African American men feel that they're a full part of this society and that they've got pathways and avenues to succeed--I think that would be a pretty good outcome from what was obliviously a tragic situation.  And we're going to spend some time working on that and thinking about that.

And then finally, I think it's going to be important for all of us to do some soul-search.  There has been talk about should we convene a conversation on race.  I haven't seen that be particularly productive when politicians try to organize conversations.  They end up being stilted and politicized, and folks are locked into the positions they already have.  On the other hand, in families and churches and workplaces, there's the possibility that people are a little bit more honest and at least you ask yourself your own questions about, am I  wringing as much bias out of myself as I can?  Am I judging people as much as I can, based not on the color of their skin but the content of their character?  That would, I think be an appropriate exercise in the wake of this tragedy.

I Believe Trayvon Hit (Zimmerman) First - Rachel Jeantel

Rachel Jeantel, star witness for the prosecution, said that Trayvon threw the first punch when Zimmerman and he met face-to-face.

There was much debate as to who initiated the fight that lead to Trayvon's death and whether Zimmerman shot Trayvon in self-defense but it is interesting to learn now that Jeantel believes that Martin struck the first blow.

Remember the media has continuously fed the masses the story that Zimmerman attacked Martin when in fact the opposite is true.  In the end Trayvon paid the ultimate price for his decision to go "whoop ass" on George Zimmerman.

Despite the aggressive push to paint Zimmerman as a card-carrying-KKK-racist, this case was NEVER about the color of Martin's skin.  Even the Martin family's attorneys announced that this case was NEVER about race.

In other news, Gabe Finger, a high school intern, asked Jay Carney a very relevant question considering the multiple death threats that have been made against George Zimmerman in the wake of the not guilty verdict.

Finger asked, "Because of the death threats received by George Zimmerman and his parents, is the president going to take any action for THEIR security or are they on their own."  Good question Gabe considering the fact that the DOJ has recently begun soliciting email tips in the Zimmerman civil rights probe.

Jimmy Carter & I Agree On Something - UNPRECEDENTED!!!!

Probably no one is more surprised at this moment than I am to learn that Jimmy Carter & I are actually in agreement about ANYTHING.

After the George Zimmerman trial it seemed that politicians and celebrities were quick to announce their disappointment in the verdict of Not Guilty in the Zimmerman trial.

Hillary Clinton said that told an African-American sorority about her "deep heartache after hearing the Zimmerman verdict." Alec Baldwin (yeah the one who said he'd never tweet again) tweeted "Florida is a parallel universe. A (expletive) one" Liberal talk show host, Tom Heartmann announced that "Zimmerman was on slave patrol and he got away with it..."

I suppose that's why I was shocked to learn that former President Jimmy Carter actually acknowledged that the jury's decision to acquit Zimmerman was correct.

Carter said, "I think the jury made the right decision based on the evidence presented because the prosecution inadvertently set the standard so high that the jury had be be convinced that it was a deliberate act by Zimmerman and that he was not defending himself and so forth."

Carter also explained that the the jury listens to the evidence presented and then they come to a verdict that answers a legal question rather than a moral question.

When asked if he race was a factor in the Zimmerman case, Carter said that this was not necessarily true.  He pointed out that the prosecution did NOT bring up any alleged racial motivation during the trial.

I absolutely believe that this trial was politically motivated, fraudulent, and warrants a special investigation.   The case was clearly one of self-defense.

Bill Lee, ex-Sanford Sheriff, admitted that the investigation into the Zimmerman case was high-jacked in a number of ways.  Lee admits that he felt pressured from city officials to arrest Zimmerman in order to placate the public rather than as a matter of justice.

As a matter of fact, the case against George Zimmerman was so weak that the local Sanford District Attorney REFUSED to bring charges against Zimmerman. This is why, on the orders of Governor Rick Scott, an outside District Attorney, Angela Corey, had to be brought in to handle the case.

 Just as frightening, there is evidence that the State withheld material evidence that supported Zimmerman's self-defense claims.  This includes withholding photographs of Zimmerman's injuries.

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Charge Of Child Abuse Against George Zimmerman A Leap Too Far?

In another watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat moment, the prosecution in the George Zimmerman case tried to add a lesser charge of of Aggravated Child Abuse to the jury instructions.

The state argued that since Trayvon was seventeen at the time of the shooting.  In such cases the fact that the perpetrator did not know the victim's age is not considered a defense.

According to Don West, the defense was not notified until 7:30 a.m. this morning.  I'm sure there were many who viewed this as a Hail Mary pass to get a conviction, any conviction, at any cost.  Frankly after learning of this charge I wondered why the state didn't toss in a parking violation or a charge of jay walking.

Thankfully these charges were tossed by the judge.

In yet another WTF moment in the trial sideshow, Bejamin Crump, the lawyer for the Martin family lets us know that 'who" screamed doesn't matter when asked about the state's concession that Trayvon Martin was probably on top of George Zimmerman during the struggle.

Then again this is the SAME Benjamin Crump who said that this case was never about racism despite repeatedly stating publicly that this case was absolutely about racism.

We only need to look as far as the former police chief, Bill Lee who testified Monday in this case to see that the arrest of George Zimmerman was indeed racially motivated.

Lee admitted to CNN's George Howell in an exclusive interview that he was pressured by city officials to arrest Zimmerman to placate the public rather than a matter of justice.

He claims that "It was (relayed) to me that they just wanted an arrest.  They didn't care if it got dismissed later.

Raise Your Voice! And Not Your Hands

The "twitter-verse" is rife with threats of riots looting, and racial violence if George Zimmerman is acquitted.  As a matter of fact, the New Black Panthers have promised to oversee a "rebellion" if Zimmerman is acquitted.

Around noon, dozens of Miami Police officers lined up for riot training.  Police were armed with batons and horses and ran through various formations preparing for the worst.  The fact that this "training" happened at a time when the jury will soon be deliberating the fate of George Zimmerman is purely coincidental we are told.

In Broward County the sheriff’s has released a series of public service announcements to preempt any possible violence.  In one video a group of teens are lined up in front of the camera.  Two teenagers shout out lines such “Raise your voice!  And not your hands.  We need to stand together as one, no cuss, no guns.  Let’s give violence a rest because we can easily end up arrested.”

Sheriff Scott Israel then comes in behind the teenagers and wraps up the video with the line, “I’m Sheriff Scott Israel and law enforcement does have your back.”

Sheriff Israel is quick to reassure citizens that they have no concrete reason to believe that a specific violent incident will happen if Zimmerman walks free.  He does argue that it's better safe than sorry and encourages everyone to keep any protest peaceful.

I Cannot Remember Anything On The Day Of Autopsy

In viewing the testimony of Dr. Shiping Bao I'm having a Sergeant Schultz. moment.  For those not familiar with Hogan's Heroes, I'm referencing the bumbling who would often claim that he "Saw nothing!"

In this case, Dr. Bao could remember nothing much of the time.  He couldn't even remember the conversation he had with the lead prosecutor the day before he testified.

One of the more what the hey moments was when we notice that Dr. Bao actually was actually reading his answers off personal notes during his testimony.  When the defense requested copies Dr. Bao's notes he appeared to be very frustrated and told West that he'd rather not.

Judge Nelson then instructed him that attorneys on both sides were entitled to view his notes.

Here is an example of Dr. Bao's testimony:

 Bao:  "No one knows the autopsy better than me."

Don West: "And you don't remember anything about the autopsy, correct?"

Bao:  "Correct."

In my opinion Dr. Bao was ultimately a disaster of a witness for the state.

Did Selene Bahdoor Hurt The Prosecution's Case?

Sanford police Sgt. Anthony Raimondo, one of the first officers to arrive testified that when he arrived at the scene he saw Zimmerman in handcuffs, and another officer standing over Trayvon who was face down in the grass at the scene after the shooting described arriving at the scene

A particularly emotional part of the trial was when the photos of Trayvon's body were shown in court while Sgt Raimondo was on the stand.  Trayvon's father, Tracy left the room.  One photo was a close-up image of the bullet hole in Trayvon's chest.

Witness #9, Selene Bahadoor, lived in the complex where Trayvon was shot.  She heard screaming that sounded like "no."

O'Mara asked Selene Bahadoor why she has a post on her FB page that says "prosecute the killer of our son".  She confirms that was on her page after O'Mara shows her but doesn't recall signing the petition.  She says she feels sympathy for both families 

if she liked the Justice for Trayvon Martin Facebook page. She did. When asked if she ever liked the Justice for #Zimmerman page she said that she did not.

George Zimmerman Case UPDATE - The Frye Decision

A decision has been reached in the George Zimmerman case regarding the admissibility of scientific evidence regarding the screaming in the infamous 911 call.

An FBI official who had been called by the defense had said that the recording was too short and didn't meet the standards needed to be evaluated.  Another defense exert said you couldn't identify a voice that is screaming no matter how long the recording.

On Friday, Judge Nelson told the prosecutor to "stay away" from using the term "racial profiling.:  She made the decision after saying case law suggest the phrase "racial profiling" should not be used in court.

George Zimmerman's second-degree murder trial for the death of Trayvon Martin is scheduled to get underway on Monday.