Justice’ is a fair trial - not your personally-preferred verdict

This piece originally ran this morning at The Detroit News. Unless further news warrants it, I'm done writing about the Zimmerman trial. It's an ugly story, made uglier by professional race-baiters and a "riot-desperate" national media. Still, a few of you have suggested I post this here, so I have.

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Most of the time, professional race-baiters like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson languish in irrelevance. Relics of a bygone political era, they’re usually huddled together in the relative obscurity of the MSNBC studios, swapping stories about the good old days. Every now and then, though, they find an exploitable story to get themselves back in the spotlight. Since the Zimmerman verdict, they’ve been working overtime demanding “Justice for Trayvon.” The thing is, justice has already been done. “Justice” is about the trial, not about the outcome. Zimmerman was accused, jailed, and tried. The defense presented a compelling self-defense case, the prosecution couldn’t make their charges stick, and he was acquitted. Setting aside the fact that Martin was pounding Zimmerman’s head into the pavement at the time of the shooting, “justice” was served by the fact that Zimmerman sat before a jury of his peers and was found “not guilty.”

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If there had been some sort of courtroom corruption that tilted the tables in Zimmerman’s favor, perhaps a case could be made that justice hadn’t been served. However, that didn’t happen, and no one is claiming it did. Contrary to what others have written, there is no need to “prove” someone’s innocence. In the United States, you’re innocent until proven otherwise. Since there was an acquittal, Zimmerman retains his innocence. End of story. You don’t have to like the outcome, and you’re free to disagree with it, but to suggest that there was no “justice” is patently false. Those who are now screaming “Justice for Trayvon” are ignoring not only the facts of the case, but the reality of the jury system. “Justice” is not a guarantee of your personally preferred verdict. It is a promise that a fair trial will take place. That’s it. As Sharpton and Jackson begin to march around the country demanding their version of justice, what they’re really doing is calling for an uprising to subvert the legal system. They don’t like the outcome, so they’ve magically decided it’s invalid. Frankly, they probably don’t care a whit for the Martin family – or for the trial in question – but they see a way to expand their livelihoods by inserting themselves into the story. So, they’ve decided to stir up discord, ramp up national tension, and place further lives in danger as their followers take to the streets. If violence should occur, who cares? They can exploit that too. As their rallies begin to take place, those who are considering attending would do well to remember that what they’re demanding isn’t justice. Justice took place in the Florida court system. What the race-baiters are really calling for is chaos and vengeance. It has nothing to with justice and everything to do with mob rule. Don’t play into their self-serving hands.

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