BY JOSEPH STURGEON
George Zimmerman should be behind bars for the 2012 murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Unfortunately though, he isn’t, and is instead reportedly suing Martin’s family and their attorney, accusing them of “malicious prosecution” and witness fraud.
This fact alone is appalling, but what accentuates the hideousness of this situation is the fact that the lawsuit isn’t the only act that seeks to justify the actions of Zimmerman. The aforementioned lawsuit follows the release of a documentary by right-wing conspiracy theorist Joel Gilbert, entitled “The Trayvon Martin Hoax: Unmasking the Witness Fraud that Divided America.” Gilbert and Zimmerman had scheduled for the film to be screened at Coral Gables Art Museum, accompanied by a press conference, but the event was canceled by the venue on December 4 after receiving backlash online.
In doing all of this, George Zimmerman, nearly eight years after murdering a teenage boy in cold blood, is attempting to construct a narrative that makes himself the victim, despite being acquitted. In an essay entitled “We Are All George Zimmerman Now,” published on conservative daily blog American Thinker, he makes the case for his innocence, misspells the name of Freddie Gray and compares himself to the likeness of Brett Kavanaugh, a man who was never proven innocent.
This entire debacle is tiring.
Trayvon Martin didn’t just die on that night, as Zimmerman states— on that night, Trayvon Martin was deliberately murdered. Zimmerman’s failure to acknowledge this already diminishes his essay of any credibility, which every word of is asinine.
George Zimmerman is clearly a man that cannot be described as stable. Since the murder of Trayvon Martin, he has been accused of domestic abuse on two separate instances and expressed interest in participating in celebrity boxing. Nearly the last eight years of his life have been defined by the night that he, in a racist act, profiled a teenage boy, followed and shot him to his death.
In all of his fatuous uproar, one gets the feeling that Zimmerman knows that what he did on that night in February 2012 wasn’t justified, but is in denial. In his own mind, Zimmerman is a good, non-discriminatory human being and Trayvon Martin deserves to be dead for walking home from a convenience store.
This is essentially the premise of Zimmerman’s American Thinker essay. In it, he writes, “Most people know my name, George Zimmerman, largely due to negative stereotypes propagated by the media as a result of the 2012 incident in Sanford, Florida, in which Trayvon Martin died,” and continues, “Unfortunately, most people don’t recall the fact that I was exonerated of any wrongdoing after a thorough investigation by the Sanford Police Department in March 2012.”
These statements only form the first two paragraphs of the essay, but already, Zimmerman fails to acknowledge that what happened in that 2012 incident was the result of his own actions. Trayvon Martin didn’t just die on that night, as Zimmerman states— on that night, Trayvon Martin was deliberately murdered. Zimmerman’s failure to acknowledge this already diminishes his essay of any credibility, which every word of is asinine. In his essay, Zimmerman presents a multitude of flawed arguments and statements.
Martin’s murder was an example of a divide that already existed in the United States, one that has not eased since his death, and is sustained with every death of a human being at the hands of a senseless bigot.
He says that it is impossible for him to be bigoted because he is Hispanic. He says that his actions were taken in self-defense. He says that the officers who killed Freddie Gray were falsely accused. He says that both himself and Trayvon Martin were used to divide America for a political agenda.
None of these statements hold any merit, although Zimmerman is not the first to say these things. Being Hispanic does not absolve anyone of bigotry, and Freddie Gray’s assailants were not falsely accused. Trayvon Martin was the person defending himself in 2012, not Zimmerman, and he and Zimmerman were not used to divide America for a political agenda— Martin’s murder was an example of a divide that already existed in the United States, one that has not eased since his death, and is sustained with every death of a human being at the hands of a senseless bigot.
That is what Zimmerman is, what he will always be, and what the world will continue to see him as.
Photo courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times
