Posted on 04/17/2012 11:27:43 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Trayvon Martin’s shooter has a new lawyer. Mansfield Frazier hopes he’s advising his client to take a plea, since a protracted murder trial is the last thing we need.
As George Zimmerman faces murder charges for shooting Trayvon Martin, it’s worth asking if America is in danger of facing Rodney King, Part II?
That’s what I see down the tracks: If this case goes all the way to trial, it’s a train wreck waiting to happen. The time is now for strong hands to take the helm and steady the ship of state—not to mention our national racial, political and legal discourse. The paramount concern has to be to avert a large-scale racial calamity.
As Touré recently wrote, if sane adults are not careful, deliberate and measured in the handling of the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman affair, a dark time could descend upon America.
Look what’s already festering on the streets of Sanford, Florida. On the one hand we’ve got the three stooges of the New Black Panther Party running around Sanford, spouting off crazy ideas and becoming a total embarrassment to more thoughtful and reasoning blacks who simply want justice. On the other we’ve got the equally clownish neo-Nazis, goose-stepping around on their self-appointed mission to protect the white race. In this environment it wouldn’t take much to ignite the racial power keg we’re sitting on. One false or ill-conceived move in this case could allow the loony inmates—not Zimmerman’s current neighbors, but those who are imprisoned by their long-simmering racial hatreds—to fan the incendiary flames of bigotry into full-blown conflagrations of violence across the land.
As someone who watched the King riots unfold from a Los Angeles motel window (and sometimes from the balcony, when we weren’t too afraid to venture out), I’m here to tell you it was a nightmarish time. Thick, acrid black smoke from hundreds of fires hung over the L.A. basin for days as young, armed blacks and Hispanics roared around in open convertibles and jeeps, wearing bandannas and brandishing all sorts of weaponry. We could hear gunfire both in the distance and nearby. Stores that hadn’t been set on fire the first day were looted by the second, and by the third day TV stations were warning of an impending food shortage. A body lay in the gutter on Crenshaw Boulevard for the better part of two days before National Guard troops removed it.
We don’t want to go back there. Fortunately Zimmerman’s new attorney, Mark O’Mara, appears to comprehend the broader implications and potential danger of the situation, and seems well qualified to negotiate a fair outcome for his client, and indeed for the rest of us. He has the calm demeanor of a law professor, and speaks in measured, but not calculating, terms. His first comments seemed designed not to convince anyone of his client’s innocence, but rather to take the heated rhetoric down a few notches. He cautioned that everyone should allow the justice system to work.
So what would a fair outcome look like? To my mind, the government offers Zimmerman a plea deal that has him back on the street within this decade, and he accepts it quietly. That seems like a conclusion most reasonable Americans could live with. Of course, no matter how long or short any sentence may be, there will be those who disagree, some vehemently.
If O’Mara were successful in brokering such a resolution, he should be viewed as nothing less than a savior. A protracted murder trial of George Zimmerman is the last thing this country needs right now. America can only dodge so many racial bullets, and a not-guilty verdict in this case could very easily turn the racial cold war into a very hot one.
Of course, for such a plea scenario to work, Zimmerman will need to listen more to O’Mara than to any of the other voices clamoring for a piece of him. He’s in isolation right now, presumably for his own safety, but a side benefit is that it keeps the more rabid right-wingers from getting inside his head and convincing him to take the case to trial, based on the belief that no matter what the evidence shows, in Florida at least one juror will never vote to convict. Unfortunately, this reasoning is not crazy. The South, after all, is still the South.
But after a few weeks of isolation and the counsel of O’Mara, Zimmerman may decide going to trial isn’t in his best interest. If O’Mara is as savvy as he seems, he will probably inform his client of the stark legal facts: The state overcharged him with murder 2 for two reasons: it’s a bargaining chip to force him to accept a lesser charge, and a means to keep him locked up pretrial. The way the legal system is designed, it’s difficult for someone being held in custody to win acquittal. Even if he went to trial and managed to get a hung jury, the state would surely retry him (multiple times, if necessary), until they get a conviction or he’s spent more time in the county lockup than he would have spent in prison if he’d just pleaded guilty in the first place. And even if he were acquitted, let’s not forget the specter of a federal indictment being handed down.
In all of this, the upcoming bail hearing is key: If the judge doesn’t grant bail, Zimmerman had better start listening real intently to his lawyer.
The wild card is his father, Robert, who has so far sounded like a knee-jerk far-right ideologue. In an interview he said, "I never foresaw so much hate coming from the president, the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP," and this was before Obama said anything about the case! It will be virtually impossible to keep Robert Zimmerman away from his son, which means he’ll have ample opportunity to whisper Stand Your Ground rhetoric into his ear, possibly ginning up Zimmerman’s courage and convincing him to go to trial in spite of the danger of being convicted.
We all need to pray that Mark O’Mara is successful in bringing about a fair outcome for his client, for justice, and, more important, for America.
The response to the Rodney King riots was way too weak. Should have put the fear of God into those rioters with the appropriate response.
how does that saying go?
“You don’t realize that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.”
Incorrect application, though.
Federal troops in LA:
The Los Angeles (LA) riots were the most destructive civil disturbance in US history, causing the deaths of at least 54 people and more than $800 million in property damage throughout LA County.[6] More than 10,000 troops from the California National Guard (CANG), 2000 active component soldiers, and 1500 Marines were deployed to the area at the height of operations:
The 1992 Los Angeles Riots
Lessons in Command and Control from the Los Angeles Riots
Lieutenant Colonel Christopher M. Schnaubelt
1st Battalion, 185th Armor Regiment
“Police officers responded to a domestic dispute, accompanied by marines. They had just gone up to the door when two shotgun birdshot rounds were fired through the door, hitting the officers. One yelled `cover me!’ to the marines, who then laid down a heavy base of fire. . . . The police officer had not meant `shoot’ when he yelled `cover me’ to the marines. [He] meant . . . point your weapons and be prepared to respond if necessary. However, the marines responded instantly in the precise way they had been trained, where `cover me’ means provide me with cover using firepower. . . . over two hundred bullets [were] fired into that house.”
http://www.militarymuseum.org/LARiots1.html
Threats of riots should not determine anyone’s fate.
The response depends upon the race of the rioters.
FU Mansfield Frazier. And go to hell while you’re at it.
How ‘bout allowing justice to be served. And if he’s found not guilty and there are those who want to break the law and riot, take the appropriate action.
I wonder what this guy would say if a black guy killed a klansman and everyone thinks that if he’s not found guilty the klansmen will start hanging people. Would he say “Let’s cut a deal and “allow” the black guy serve less than ten years.”
I was in the Compton Courthouse when the King verdicts were rendered. I personally witnessed courageous Koreans protecting their stores; I have a pictue of the LA riots on my wall.
That was a seminal moment in the life of me and my family.
I say, bring it on MF’ers.
Oh, it’s not going to be anything like Rodney King’s outcome. You see, us white people have a sense of ultimate justice. Where a totally innocent man, such as Reginald Denny is pulled out of his cab, and almost beaten to death by your brothers.
The Korean Shop-holders had it right, bitch.
Sacrfice Zimmerman to appease the mob. How pragmatic.
Excuse me while I vomit.
“So what would a fair outcome look like? To my mind, the government offers Zimmerman a plea deal that has him back on the street within this decade, and he accepts it quietly.”
Words of yet another Black extortionist.
Zimmerman’s only guilty of self-defense, not a crime anywhere.
He should (and must) go to trial and win his exoneration and freedom.
What you have in this article is a Democrat (no matter what he says he is) playing the O'Reilly "Fair and Balanced" mind game.
Can't this stupid SOB see that Zimmerman (no matter what the hell he did ... he wasn't charged) has been politically railroaded? His solution is to put Zimmerman away for a few years to appease the New Black Panther Party. That's justice in America? There's a pre-trial hearing owed Zimmerman, not to mention a trial. If Zimmerman proves self-defense pre-trial ... he walks. That's the law. (This case has NOTHING to do with "Stand Your Ground," which is merely a scary name for the Castle Doctrine guaranteed us by the Magna Carta)
Can't this stupid SOB see that the racial conflagration is the desired outcome of Team Obama? They think Chaos and Confusion spell victory for their ideology.
Can't this stupid SOB see that Holder, by not prosecuting the Black Panthers for their death threats and their earlier voter intimidation, has taken their side?
*Mind? This stupid SOB has no mind. He is letting his melanin think for him.
“So what would a fair outcome look like? To my mind, the government offers Zimmerman a plea deal that has him back on the street within this decade, and he accepts it quietly.”
Projection from a slave mentality.
of course that’s what 00failure is hoping for
then again, the people of florida realized this... which is why the trial was pushed into next year
QQ moar 00failure, ya racist tard
Agreed on all counts.
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