Sunday, July 14, 2013

THE STATE OF FLORIDA VS. GEORGE ZIMMERMAN - GARY STREHL - 7/14/2013



THE STATE OF FLORIDA 
VS. 
GEORGE ZIMMERMAN
Written by: Gary Strehl
Date posted: 7/14/2013

This is my take on the whole situation with George Zimmerman vs. the State of Florida. Now I really think that Sanford police, from the onset should have kept better communication with the family of Trayvon Martin, but again once the media got their claws into this situation, it worsened to get the truth. In fact, some media outlets tried to lie and tell those out there that this was some travesty of justice that an unarmed little boy was shot and killed for only wearing a hoodie.

The fact is that George Zimmerman did what he shouldn't have done and that was being a concerned citizen who ignored what the dispatcher said to him and not follow Trayvon. I am sure that George Zimmerman regrets that to this day. The facts are pretty simple from the testimony. Trayvon, while on the cell phone with his girl friend was determined to challenge the "Crazy Cracker" and did, a rash decision that is not necessarily unexpected for some of our youth in America today. 


If Trayvon had just told Zimmerman to leave him alone,
GEORGE ZIMMERMAN
I believe Trayvon would have walked away. Again pointing to the decision to engage Zimmerman, Trayvon once he started, wasn't about to stop and literally beat a man for no apparent reason other than the guy was following him around. The shame here is that it is very apparent that there was a breakdown in communication between Trayvon and his parents. I get that there are those out there that hate based on color. This goes both ways, whites hating blacks, and blacks hating whites. It is stupid and when will this society put a stop to it? Probably never.

Now Trayvon was beating a man to the point where this man feels in fear of his life. Well, only George knows whether or not it was to that extent, but George retorts when he could and shoots and kills the young man. From that point the tragedy escalated. Yes, the tragedy is that the two could have talked to one another. When challenged, Trayvon could have just said I am on my way home. I live over there and that would have been it, but alas that didn't happen. 


Profiling? Gee, I guess when you have people in your neighborhood described the way Trayvon was dressed, a normal person would have a reason to believe that there was a possibility that that someone was possibly getting ready to break into a home within that community. In our society today, one  would not think twice, and that is a shame, as we need to come together and stop this tweeking minor BS and work together rather than apart to keep this stuff from happening at all.

I have been in security and law enforcement for well over thirty years and we actually think that profiling is a bad thing? If anyone reading this believes they don't profile someone, your lying to yourselves. We all do it. If someone looks out of place or not quite to your liking, you think ill  of that individual. We all do this from time to time, but we don't always respond like George or Trayvon did. We need to get a grasp on reality. We need to know that as a community, we can share and get through differences, stop the hatred, and stop it now. We as Americans are better than any other country in the world when it comes to observing cultural differences and respecting each other's right to exist in the world. 

 Trayvon Martin
Zimmerman was tried and found not guilty. First of all, throughout this entire case I saw one thing from day one and that was that Zimmerman did not intend to kill Trayvon Martin.  I am not saying this situation could not have been avoided. On the contrary, I think I have pointed out where both George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin could have and should have avoided this from happening, but there aren't any laws against being stupid in public.

As a former law enforcement officer, I was taught to de-escalate, not escalate, but that if it had to be, you did with certainty within the confines of the law for deadly force. Compelled with this, I find that there are areas that we as individuals must revisit to make sure that something like this never happens again. We must respect one another as individuals. We must understand cultures and history, both of which are not being taught properly within our schools at this time. I believe that this didn't have to happen. There are those out there that need to fess up to their culpability, though in the end each of these two people had choices. They made the wrong ones and it caused a death.

Prayers to both families, and hopes and prayers to my country that we begin a journey of personal responsibility for our actions. I firmly believe that had that been done in this case, there would have been a different outcome.

Gary Strehl
HMW

1 comment:

Whopp said...

I get ur illustration on this matter. U make a honest point about profiling. However, why didn't Zimmerman go to the hospital after his life was in such a threat? Why wasn't there any blood on the surface allegedly Zimmerman's got his head beat against repeatedly? Why wasn't Trayvon's phone not ever answered after all of this took place? Why did the police department has such botchy investigation? I could go on with the questioning, but really my whole thing is that prosecution failed. There is no way ur gonna tell me that if the prosecution came with their A Game in this trial. U mentioned understanding cultures, which would be great if we we're able 2. However, this something that will not happen. When the laws of the land are not enforced the same with every culture, u can't expect change! U also mention history. History is funny to me! When black history isn't an elective in schools and instead added in it's entirety into the core requirement of American history, then we as Americans maybe can talk about our history and hopefully have great level of respect 4 it! Yes, the media has there way of shaping up news and turning it into controversy to make u the person 2 feel some type of way. But, had the media would not have pounded the rock on this situation, this case wouldn't receive the publicity it deserved. Yes, the publicity was deserve, because justice wasn't taken into account when the crime scene was not properly investigated. Where there some holes in this case of case? Of course they were, but for prosecution to let the defense do a better job with things in this case that did stick 2 wall, that was the injustice here!