[Trayvon Martin] Why the verdict goes so deep, and so very far beyond race

[debg]

I was out until very late last night. When I got home (at around half past one in the morning), the first thing I saw when I opened my email was the Martin trial verdict.

This morning, I did what I generally do when something major has happened: I read http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_End_Of_The_Daily_Trayvon?src=soc_fcb Charles Pierce's

Comments

[chicating]

I have a half-brother, whiteboy, about the same age as Trayvon. He's been going through a real knucklehead phase, ditching school and smoking pot and all that, and he's no master criminal...he's been talked to by the police about three times I think. But the cops decide he's a "good"(read: suburban white) kid and he gets to go home unscathed. Which pissed me off last year, because I don't get a lot of breaks and all I ever try to do is toe the line, more or less.
But now, it just makes me sad.

[debg]

And that's the core. There's nothing to actually regulate who gets to drive around with a piece in his pants, looking for someone to hassle and shoot. If you end up not getting a break from one of these Zimmermans out there and you object, you could wind up dead and the prosecutor wouldn't even bother. One more Different gone.

Right now, it depends on where you live. You'd be hosed. Arizona has a Stand Your Ground law.

[chicating]

And about eleven million(probably not literally but they are legion!) tiny-dicked and dissatisfied thereby "Militia" wanna-Zimmermans.
Picking on me might actually bite them in the butt, though, paternalism being what it is and all, but winning the optics would be poor consolation as they added insult to injury.

[debg]

Seriously. You wouldn't be alive to watch the media circus.

I weep for this country, or would, if I had either tears or patience to cry over it left.

[chicating]

Oh, well, at the time nobody thought I'd live this long, probably. Not that I've done very many of the things I wanted to, but still.
I suppose I'd rather go down fighting than begging the government one more time.