What were you doing on the day the jury handed down the verdict? What did you feel? How did the verdict make you feel about the judicial system and the state of our country, as a whole?
After deliberating for a little over 16 hours, the verdict was read in a Florida court room: George Zimmerman was found not guilty of the murder and manslaughter of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by a jury of six women, one Hispanic and the other five white.
This was a case marked by violence, racial inequality, and blatant incompetence by police and prosecutors. Many unfair circumstances led to the murder of Martin and acquittal of Zimmerman, like the racial stereotyping and profiling of Martin, Zimmerman’s use of deadly force on an unarmed teenager, and that outlandish “Stand Your Ground” law in Florida.
Zimmerman was tried in a court of law, but was it a fair trial? Did the prosecution put forth the best case possible for the Martin family? Or was the fix in?
We are all American citizens and worthy of the freedoms, liberties and opportunities afforded by this country. We all deserve to be treated equally as human beings.
And even though I want to believe in that concept with all my heart and soul, I don’t know if it is possible in a country where dogs are treated better and with more respect than those who, for the most part, built this country from the ground up.
The same people who slaved and toiled for this country, stimulating and strengthening its soil with their very own blood, sweat and tears. The very same people who risked life and limb to fight, on the front lines, for those very rights they are so vehemently denied.
As the 1968 Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, also known as the Kerner Report, forewarned, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white – separate and unequal.” President Lyndon B. Johnson – who commissioned the report amidst urban riots – ignored it and rejected its recommendations to create new jobs, construct new housing and dismantle segregation in order to wipe out the detrimental ghetto environment.
A month after the report’s release, the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sparked another wave of urban riots in over 100 American cities.
This country’s history of racial violence and miscarriage of justice continuously repeats itself, nearly rendering the Constitution null and void. If this mighty nation does not learn from its mistakes and begin that long walk down the road to redemption, it may implode again.
Devese Ursery is a St. Louis Community College student and St. Louis American intern.
