Looming Zimmerman Verdict a Crossroads For Us All

Well, I'm back.  After a self-imposed exile over the last couple months, I just had to fire up the SACSTW presses again as we all await a verdict in the George Zimmerman trial.  Obviously this trial has dominated the news in the last couple weeks, and I've heard a lot of griping about that from some folks.  "Why should I care about that, it doesn't have anything to do with me?" is the common lament of the poorly informed.

You should care about this trial and the verdict to come if any of these are true....

1. You legally carry a concealed weapon on your person
2. You are willing to defend yourself and your loved ones against a violent attack with whatever means are available to you
3. You would like to continue to believe that the courts are impartial,  the last resort of the innocent, and are above the influence of political correctness.

All of my life, I have been told that every man gets his day in court.  That when you find yourself embroiled in a dispute, victimized by a criminal, or perhaps even charged with a crime yourself, you will be treated fairly and impartially by the American justice system.  Anything less than a complete acquittal of George Zimmerman means that all we have learned about our system no longer applies.

A conviction of this man not only means he will spend decades in prison for a crime he did not commit, it means that all of us are mere pawns to be moved around the board by the main-stream media, race baiters such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and liberal statists like Barack "if I had a son he would look like Trayvon" Obama. 

Much is riding on the shoulders of the 6 jurors as they deliberate today.  Not just the fate of George Zimmerman, but the confidence and trust we all SHOULD be able to have in the American system of justice. There's nothing any of us can do now but wait. 

Monday Musings With The Crew

• Judges, court staff, and attorneys involved in the U.S. Ninth District Court of Appeals are planning a hootenanny this summer on Maui, and you and I are expected to foot the bill.  Looks like taxpayers will be on the hook for about a cool million according to Big Government.  At first I was steamed, as I usually am when government elitists take another hit of OPM (Other People's Money).  Then I reconsidered.  Anything that we can do to keep the judges of the Ninth out of the courtroom is money well spent.  Party on Judge!

• Remember Abdel Baset al-Megrahi?  Convicted of the Pan Am Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, al-Megrahi received a life sentence in the Scottish court system.  Unbelievably, the Scots released him in 2009 after he served only 8 years on humanitarian issues.  You see, the killer had prostate cancer, and had only a few days to weeks left to live when he was released August 20, 2009.  He returned to a hero's welcome in Libya, and went on to live in a villa in Tripoli.  Well, the monster who had only weeks to live in the summer of 2009, died yesterday, May 20, 2012.  This terrorist enjoyed 33 months of life and freedom that he didn't deserve.  What a great world!

• The whole "Trayvon Martin as a beatific cherub" narrative is slowly crumbling down around the ears of the race-baiters.  George Zimmerman's broken nose, his lacerated scalp, his 14 cries for help recorded on a 911 call, witness statements that indicated "the guy in the hoodie was beating the other guy MMA style", illegal drugs in Martin's system, would suggest to all but the most dogged of race-baiters that George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin in self-defense.  There, I said it.  

• Ladies and Gentlemen......The BeeGee!   Sadly, the brothers Gibb are down to one with the death of Robin Gibb over the weekend at age 62.  Coupled with the death of disco queen Donna Summer last week, it has been a very bad few days for pop icons of the '70s.  The BeeGees and Summer were both monumental talents who produced the teen soundtrack for many of our lives.  They will be sorely missed.

Hey, Sahib and I have that same jacket!

Need more Sahib and Crew?  Follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook!

When did "I Have a Dream" become "I Have a Hoodie"?

The Death of the Civil Rights Movement

Martin Luther King Jr.:  I have a Dream!

Miami Heat basketball team:  I have a Hoodie!

When did the civil right movement go off the rails? Why is there not a single current civil rights leader for children to look up to?  Most importantly, has anyone let Bill Belichick know that he is the new face of civil rights?
I don't know the answers to any of those questions, but I have heard the obvious death rattle of one of the most important movements in American history.

Fashion Trend-setter or Civil Rights Leader?

I do not know the cause, but I can give you the symptoms. The movement that began with such visionaries as Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, and Martin Luther King Jr. has been entrusted to the self-serving and corrupt hands of those like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.  People who are more interested in the sounds of their own voices and lining their pockets than the welfare of those they claim to represent.




Perhaps it is a result of the success of the early luminaries.   What did all founding civil rights leaders have in common? Sacrifice and risk.  They all sacrificed and exposed themselves to incredible risks.  Obviously, some even to the point of death.

What risks do today's civil rights "leaders" face?  Fire hoses, lynch mobs, National Guardsmen, assassination?  I have heard that Al Sharpton faces the possibility of a stern talking-to from the empty suits at MSNBC.  The horror!  Spike Lee faces criticism for posting the INCORRECT address of George Zimmerman for justice seekers (vigilantes) to exploit.  (I hope the poor woman whose address it is sues his ass off!)  I'm sure he did it so that the justice seekers (vigilantes) would know where to deliver their petition entreating Mr. Zimmerman to confess to murdering Trayvon Martin in cold-blood.  And of course, the fearless Lebron James and the Miami Heat basketball team.  Those brave souls really went to the mat for their dangerous political stance.  They took a team picture in *gasp!* hoodies!

There is very little common ground between George Clooney and myself politically, but he has my complete respect concerning his work to help stop the true Holocaust that is happening in the Sudan and Dafur.  This is a tragedy on an unimaginable scale and his work is to be greatly commended.  Unfortunately, there is little monetary or political captial to be gained fighting for this cause, so Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Spike Lee are unsurprisingly unmotivated to take up its banner.

Such is the sad state of affairs for the once shining civil rights movement.  But maybe this is a good thing. Perhaps the necessity of a separate civil rights movement for blacks no longer exists.  Of course racism still exists.  In some form, it will always exist.  But maybe, just maybe, America has matured to the point where, the majority of the time, we only have to worry about people's rights.  And you know, I think that would be a very good thing.

Culturally Influenced is NOT Racially Motivated!

*Editor's question:  Does anyone with three active brain cells actually believe that no one in the Sanford, Florida police department or district attorney's office has any sense of self-preservation?  As I state later in this post, I do not know what happened between Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman.  A nation-wide campaign of hysteria is demanding the arrest of George Zimmerman and yet he has not been arrested.  The question is, why?  The pressure on the law enforcement agencies of Sanford, Florida must be immense.  The president is comparing Trayvon Martin to his much-beloved fictitious son for goodness sake!  So again, we need to ask, why?  I bet Sanford officials would LOVE to arrest George Zimmerman and throw him in shackles immediately.  Unless they are willingly sacrificing themselves for George Zimmerman, I would think the evidence corroborating his story  would have to be compelling.  We shall see. And now on with the show!

Prejudice and stereotypes are GOOD!  They save lives every day.  Before we get started, lets take a look at the definitions of prejudice and stereotype:

Prejudice (noun)

1. opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge 

Stereotype (noun)

1. A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image. 

With the PC Liberal propaganda campaign, these terms have come to have extraordinarily negative meanings. However, without prejudice specifically and stereotypes in general, we would struggle to make it through the day.


Let's start with an example of how prejudice and stereotyping keeps us safe.  You are travelling down a 4-lane interstate.  You anticipate passing, on the left, a slower vehicle going the same direction as you travelling in the right lane.   The vehicle in the right lane turns on its left turn signal indicator.  You slow down and do not attempt to pass the vehicle in the right lane.  Why?  Because you "pre-judge" that the car in the right-hand lane is going to move in front of you and obstruct your ability to safely pass them. From previous experience, you have "stereotyped" cars that have on their turn-signal indicators.  Does this mean that the car is actually going to move into your lane?  Of course not.  But your experience has taught you that this is the most likely scenario.  

Does this make you a bad person?  Are you unfairly judging the car in the right-hand lane?  I mean, just because 95% of cars with their turn-signals on actually turn, doesn't mean that ALL cars with their turn-signals on will turn.


Here is a more specific scenario.  You are walking down a city street late at night.  You are following a black man in a three-piece suit carrying a briefcase.  He turns to face you, sets his briefcase down, says "excuse me", and reaches in his jacket pocket.  Are you frightened or alarmed?  I wouldn't be.  Why?  Because I have "prejudged" and "stereotyped" people in suits, with briefcases, and that say "excuse me" to not be threats.


Now say that same black man is wearing a hoodie, baggy jeans, and is carrying a paper bag.  He turns to face you, drops the bag, says "Yo!", and reaches into the pocket of his hoodie.  Are you frightened or alarmed now?  I would be.


Was my reaction based on race?  No, it was base on cultural prejudice and stereotypes.  Was it even right?  Perhaps not.  Maybe the black man in the suit was Barack Obama planning to tell me he was raising my taxes, shipping guns to Mexican drug cartels, and generally ignoring the parts of the constitution he finds inconvenient.  Conversely,  perhaps the black man in the hoodie was pulling out a piece of paper with an address and asking for directions.  The human brain uses past experiences and knowledge to evaluate the most likely outcome and responds to that evaluation.


Now lets say that the man in the hoodie was going to ask for directions.  However, based on my prejudice and stereotypes, I make the horrible mistake of pulling out a gun and shooting him due to fear.  Was that a racially motivated "hate-crime"?   Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and probably Barack Obama would say yes!  I would submit to you, devoted readers, that it would have been a culturally influenced terrible mistake.  A mistake for which I should be punished, but should not be classified as a racially motivated "hate-crime".


Now I do not know what transpired between Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman.  Only George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin were privy to that information.  Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and other civil rights "activists" portray Trayvon as an innocent upstanding young man who was just going home, and portray George Zimmerman as a racist who hunted him down and murdered him in cold blood. Some news outlets are telling a completely different story.  Regardless of what happened, it was a tragic event.  


What adds to the tragedy is that some people are using Trayvon Martin's family's, and George Zimmerman's, pain and suffering to bolster their reputations and forward their political agendas.  Al Sharpton has done this before.  Need a reminder?  Google Tawana Brawley.


Regardless of the specific events, it's definitely comforting that bastions of peace, love, and good will, the New Black Panthers, are handling the situation with decorum and restraint.  Their call for patience and understanding can be found here:  NewBlackPanther.com

Fearful reactions based on cultural influence ARE NOT equivalent to racially motivated hate-crimes.