Due Process Delayed

My commentary on this protracted presidential campaign season was ready for editing when I stopped in my tracks: I want to continue waxing, if not eloquently, then coherently, about justice served and at times deferred/denied in the Trayvon Martin matter. So my series picks up with: I watched and listened to TV and radio commentators in the 72 hours prior to the April 12 arrest of George Zimmerman, the citizen�s patroller who gunned down 17-year-old Trayvon on February 26. The Special Prosecutor, Angela Corey, appointed two months later by Florida Governor Rick Scott, finally arrested the shooter.

Corey�s statement that Zimmerman�s arrest came, not because of �the public outcry, but because it�s the law,� is an insult. You see, �the law,� should always be followed when crimes are committed, let alone alleged. Response, investigation, arrest and all subsequent steps in the criminal justice pursuit constitute due process. The several government entities that now expect the Black community and justice advocates worldwide (i.e., We the People) to be satisfied that due process was rendered, better think twice. I contend that we must not be satisfied, pacified, or mollified into this guise of justice delivered.

I had a recent conversation with a Black Southern Baptist Minister who argued that the Fifth Amendment�s Due Process clause of the US Constitution was denied to George Zimmerman after he fatally shot Trayvon Martin. In arguing Zimmerman�s �deprivation of liberty,� the minister felt that the �lynch mob mentality� infecting the analyses deprived Zimmerman of his privacy and the equal rights enjoyed by all Americans. My response must have conveyed how stunned I was. �What?� was all I could say. I had to re-group my senses.

I find the minister�s argument borderline insanity! The deprived party in this fatal shooting is the dead person. As a young person my generation and I, were taught to �fight to live another day.� Guns are good for nothing, except depriving humans of their liberties! I fear that as a minister (over 60, I might add), he�ll lead thousands of Blacks off the cliff of justice.

When the vagueness of statutes, ordinances, laws – and Constitutions are exploited, humans suffer. Only the authors benefit. Lawmakers write laws and work against our interests, in favor of their own (money talks). Let us recognize truth and the reality: We live in a country – the USA – that tries at every turn to downplay or downright cover-up its racist legacy. Our leadership has continually perpetuated unreasonable interpretations or what is contemporarily referred to as revisionist history – i.e., lies – to justify perverse explanations for denying to its every citizen the fundamental and inalienable rights of protection afforded by our US Constitution. As US citizens for justice, stand your ground and don�t allow misinterpretations to delay due process.