Yet Another Media Injustice...

THIS YOUNG MAN NEED NOT HAVE DIED.

Let me emphatically repeat the statement so that there can be no ambiguity: "THIS YOUNG MAN NEED NOT HAVE DIED."

Take note that I didn't say, "This young BLACK man, or African-American young man, or "boy." I said, deliberately, "young man."

Unless the readers of this opinion have been sequestered under a pile of rocks for the past week, the national media has elevated the story of the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin into round-the-clock, opinionated coverage. Thus the nation's conscience has become inflamed by this senseless tragedy, even though a full accounting of the "facts" of the incident have yet to be fully vetted. Unless one's blood boils with the bile of vigilantism, there are truisms in this case, as it is true of all disputable incidences, that must be analyzed fully in order to arrive at irrevocable evidence to support or refute the contention of the individual who discharged his personal weapon, as he is allegedly proclaiming, in self-defence.

What is at the crux of the widespread outrage that has quickly evolved into racial disharmony is the fact that the counterpart to this tragedy, a Mr. George Zimmerman, was not immediately arrested at the time of the incident by the Sanford, Florida Police Department. This cited failure to act expeditiously by the local authorities is being perceived principally by the nation's black community as a deliberate attempt to thwart the principle of equal justice under the law because the victim is "black" and the perpetrator is "white." It is at this precise flash point where the very idea of "equal justice under the law" gets tossed unceremoniously under the bus.

Article after article in the print media and news story after news story in the televised news media makes the deliberate and totally unnecessary declaration that Mr. Zimmerman is a "white" Hispanic. Such a distinction is not only pointedly inflammatory, but it is purposefully inaccurate. Why make such a distinction at all other than to knowingly further propagate an escalation in the simmering cauldron of racial discord. Why not just report the verified facts as know at any juncture in time and refrain from pointed headline editorializing so that the wheels of jurisprudence can be re-railed and an unvarnished verdict of guilt or innocence can be ultimately obtained?

Such employment of blatant prejudicial reporting can only serve to embolden the more radical social justice personalities who will invariably utilize incidences such as young Martin's death as a bully pulpit from which to garner yet further much prized camera face time and notoriety. Whereas we are a nation of laws instituted to protect and serve all citizens regardless of race, color or creed, such biased and sensationalized reporting invites an open door through which the self-important publicity pimps such as Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Lewis Farrakan interject themselves into a racially charged environment that initiates additional escalating threats of violence as exampled by the New Black Panthers placement of a $10,000 bounty "for the capture of Mr. Zimmerman." I would hope and pray that the good people of Sanford do not want, do not need and do not welcome this type outside lawless agitation in order to bring focus and justice to the fore in this matter.

What the media of all stripe should be tirelessly championing is an adherence to the laws of civil discourse, that societal calm should prevail as Florida Governor Scott, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the F.B.I. conduct a full and unbiased investigation into the death of Trayvon, and that no stone be left unturned in determining if the Police Department of Sanford is indeed operating under the unlawful assumption that crimes involving its black citizens warrant no credence in the equal employment of their departmental resources. Given these circumstances under which the wheels of justice will be permitted to slowly grind to an ultimate judgement, it seems highly improbable that Mr. Zimmerman will long avoid the stark reality that the death of Trayvon by his hand will escape punitive retribution.

The people of Sanford are rightfully demanding no less, as well should all law abiding citizens of this country. What we citizens of America do not need and should be demanding is the immediate curtailment of a Fifth Estate that has given itself free rein to manipulatively shape the news rather then merely reporting unbiased and noninflammatory fact. Being the guardians of freedom is not a carte blanche license to sell newspapers or bolster ratings if truth be the sacrificial lamb on the alter of corporate profit. The American people are not lemmings. Treat us thusly at your own peril.