I was sickened by recent omissions by conservatives about the George Zimmerman trial, or should I say, the Trayvon Martin trial. I was appalled at how defense attorneys tried the dead boy to get the 28-year-old man acquitted. Zimmerman bested Martin by about 50 pounds, despite the fact that Trayvon was taller. Zimmerman has a history of violence, which of course couldn’t be brought up in trial. Zimmerman has been accused or charged with domestic assault, accused of assaulting a police officer in a bar dispute and accused of pedophilia of his cousin, all of which were either he said/she said or pleaded out.

But the defense had no problem bringing in previous childish bad behavior of the young dead boy. Trayvon was accused of, among other things, getting suspended from school, where he had a 3.87 GPA and had been accepted to a college, for marijuana residue in his backpack. Marijuana, really? More states are joining a chorus of states that have either legalized small amounts or medical marijuana. Who among us can step forward to say that they never committed any foolish acts as a teen or young adult? Adulthood by law is 18, but the brain isn’t fully formed until 21; that makes George Zimmerman, age 28, far more capable of using good judgment in an escalating situation. Trayvon was visiting his father. Zimmerman lived in the complex and told police he was looking for an address which was on a post behind him. No bushes were where Zimmerman said Trayvon jumped out of at him.

George Zimmerman was the aggressor; he was in his car, spotted Trayvon and called 911, at which time he was heard referring to those “punks getting away” with very creepy descriptions. When the 911 dispatcher asked where he was, Zimmerman answered that he was following Trayvon, at which point the dispatcher told him not to. Zimmerman then followed Trayvon to where they got into a fight and Zimmerman reached to his back hip, pulled out gun hidden by two layers of shirt/jacket, and fired and killed Trayvon. In most cases, that would be considered manslaughter if not murder. Florida, however, has Stand Your Ground laws that legalize the killing of human beings by other human beings who have malice in their hearts. When Minnesota Republicans were in power, they tried to pass SYG laws but Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed it. Thank you, Gov. Dayton.

We do not need a wild, wild, West in America. Too many guns in a civilized society can only exacerbate the kinds of events that occurred in Sanford, Fla., Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., and many other places. The victims in these places were innocents who were gunned down by people who had no concern for human life. If they had, all those victims would be alive today to carry out their lives, whether it be getting married and having children, going to college or whatever. Stop the scourge of too many guns and not enough responsible gun owners.

 

Patti Kimble

Emmons