Friday, July 19, 2013

Zimmerman Verdict Blog 3

           According to an article written by Edward Garris, published on the burnt orange report, Jackson Lee React to Zimmerman Verdict, the NBA (National Bar Association) is talking about the injustice of the decision the judge took on the verdict of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin. The NBA is the nation’s oldest and largest association of African American Lawyers and Judges. Due to the majority of them being African American, they are not content with Zimmerman’s verdict of not guilty. They are trying to quote it back to the great Martin Luther King Jr. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” They think that because they are judges and lawyers, they are qualified to make people believe the verdict was wrong.

            If Zimmerman where to be full blooded Hispanic, this case would not be a big deal, no one would of taken this case seriously and made it go viral. The worst thing is that if Trayvon Martin were white nobody would even care. Almost at the same time that Martin died there was a young white kid, his name was Marley Lions, he was shot five times by a black male while unarmed. The news about Marley Lions, barely made the local news and now we are making a big deal when its clearly stated that Martin made the first move. Zimmerman was trialed under the Stand Your Ground Law, which states that if you fear for your life you can take action to defend yourself.
The author of this article is targeting a majority of African American communities, especially lawyers and judges, as he is using the reactions of the NBA to help and gather these people to collectively address the affront to and devaluing of civil rights of everyone regardless of race who have been unfairly served by the justice system. Due to the fact that the NBA is composed of lawyers and judges, they use valid arguments and good points, like if Zimmerman would not have been carrying a gun, he would not have followed and attacked Martin.

            This article is well written, as it only uses credible information from one side of the coin, and the author also connects the case to the injustice that used to happen decades ago strengthening it further. However, if you know what is happening on the other side of the coin, you understand the case differently. I don’t agree with this argument and I believe that the jury’s verdict was right.

1 comment:

Jamilia's Government Blog said...

Honestly, I do not like to bring up racial issues, even though I know they exist, but I would rather like to tackle a different aspect to the issue that my fellow classmate whose blog is called, Texas Politics of "Today and Tomorrow" had brought to my attention and maybe to many others, without discussing the issue of race. What I do want to bring to other people’s attention is that lives are taken away every day and being taken away at gunpoint while the other is unarmed is not right. I want to acknowledge the fact that things happen and when they do, they should be punished accordingly and fairly. One thing my classmate’s blog had discussed was a young teenaged boy named Marley Lions. He had expressed that Marley Lions was killed, just like Treyvon Martin, but was given no media attention or coverage, like his supposed somewhat same case counterpart, Martin. These teenagers are alike because they were both the same age and were gunned down, while being unarmed. Unlike Lions, whom again, I had never heard of before my classmate had mentioned him, had died at the hands of a grown man, but had no media coverage. I wanted to point out my opinion; my opinion is that I hope that Lions receives the justice he deserves, because at the end of the day, he was a young man with so much to live for. And, just like Martin, I believe he had a life to live, many may disagree but as the saying goes by Oscar Wilde, “every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” Although, my classmate has a different outlook on the verdict of the Treyvon Martin case than I do, I hope that with Marley Lions’ case, his case and family will receive the justice that it deserves. Because things like this should never happen to any child whether it receives the wrong or right kind of media attention or not.

Overall, I loved my classmate’s blog, it was very informative and I loved the fact they questioned why Martin had so much media coverage and the other victim did not. I believe the reason for this is to stir up things in our society, and stirring up things, it did. On a lighter and happier note, I also believe this case brought a lot more people being aware of our political system and even more wanting to get involved with the political system trying to understand our laws, such as the stand your ground law, and many others, in the hopes that situations like these do not happen again!