Exactly. It can't be stressed enough...
Race is not the only issue here. Race is the reason there's a trial at all, but what's on trial is reasonable self-defense and reasonable carrying of a weapon and the right to investigate a suspicious person in one's neighborhood. The whole 'wannabe cop' and 'he should've stayed in his truck' nonsense is truly depressing. Nothing that Zimmerman did breaks any Florida law, unless there was more to the case that the prosecution was going to reveal at trial. They did not. They are trying to convict a man of any charges that a group of six women will fall for based on emotional appeals. Sickening.
About a decade ago, I was visiting my parents for a Sunday dinner. My mother went to let their cat out and yelled for my father - there was a man just outside the door who ducked into the bushes when she spotted him. My father and I went outside and canvassed the area with flashlights and weapons. We spotted the guy running into the woods and called off pursuit. It never occurred to us to call the police... I think about that night all the time in light of the Zimmerman trial. The man was black, and if he'd engaged us we would have shot him. And we probably would've ended up screwed for life.
The State does not like citizens who believe in self-reliance and self-defense, particularly when they are white. (Or can be called 'white'.)
“Race is not the only issue here”
Couldn’t agree more. Symbolic.
And as repulsive as race-baiting is, I still say that if the defense had insisted Mr. Zimmerman’s first name be pronounced the hispanic way (”Hore-hay”), he wouldn’t have even been charged. They went out of their way to always call him a “white Hispanic” and because he is “George” and viewed as “a cracker”...he’s on trial for self defense while being white.