Apparent "hate crime" in Seminole County, Florida

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Danzig

but is race brought into that particular discussion to say that the arrest hasn't happened due to the race of the victim, when in fact the arrest hasn't happened because of the way a law is written? this is the first time i've seen anyone say that race is why there was no arrest. i thought race was mentioned as why zimmerman reacted as he did? in no way have i seen that the martin case is evidence of poor police work-instead, everything i've seen is a result of the police feeling they couldn't make an arrest because of the stand your ground law. and as i've said before, i don't know that if they did arrest there would be a conviction. i'd suggest that they compile all the evidence and put it in front of a grand jury to decide if there should be a move forward...and i'd also think that the law might need to be tinkered with for in future.

That's why it's important to spread a wide net when you're reading about a story- various media outlets will shape the facts to fit the narrative they want to tell, whether it's NBC editing audio, or Fox doing softball interviews of a professional "friend" of Zimmerman.

The Sanford PD has had at least two instances of delaying arrest of a white attacker of a black victim, until the public furor got too great, and in those cases, one, caught on video sucker punching a homeless man, got off with a light sentence of one year probation, and the other two, who shot and killed an unarmed man, were cleared. Now, one could also argue that both instances, the corruption was due to the attackers having connections to the PD, but either way, it's still not right, and I can see why black residents would see it as whites covering up for their own, not just police covering up for their own.

And in this case, the police didn't do a drug and alcohol test on Zimmerman, though they did on Martin. Even though they had Martin ID'd and his phone number, did NOT ATTEMPT TO REACH HIS FAMILY. In fact, they sent him to the morgue as a John Doe and it wasn't until his father was able to file a missing person report, which, as we all know, you can't do until 24 hours have elapsed, that Trayvon's family was informed their child was dead. They were not given any chance to see him until he'd already been cleaned up for the funeral, and the police won't let them see the autopsy report.

Now, this might all turn out to be because the Sanford police are buddy-buddy with Zimmerman, and trying to protect their buddy. Just as corrupt, but not racially motivated. BUT- it was poor police work on behalf of the PD, and, especially in the listing of the already-identified Trayvon as a John Doe, it's hard for me to believe that they would have behaved the same about a white victim.