The Trayvon Insanity

I don't get it.

In any other jurisdiction, in any other state or city -- Zimmerman would've been arrested and formally charged.

Why?

 Because that's what our system has become. It seems like those that are rushing to Zimmerman's side are the same ones that wanted to throw the switch on Troy Davis. There's a blindness when it comes to certain artifacts on our society. A willful ignorance to a prejudice that a lot of people just outright deny.

So it's not surprising that the Trayvon matter has become a divisive racial issue - except for those that still maintain that race has nothing to do with it because both parties were minorities. Just because they're both minority - that means race can't become an issue?

It's a tragic event that continues to grow and fester with each day Zimmerman remains free. It's interesting hearing and reading the reaction to the story. It's equally troubling in some respects just how much a title like: "neighborhood watch security guard" somehow elevates that person to some sort of exalted status.

It's troubling because Zimmerman has documented incidents involving a domestic violence case against his wife and incidents involving altercations with law enforcement. All it appears Trayvon was guilty of was an empty bag with residue that got him kicked out of school. Drugs didn't play a part into Trayvon's behavior despite law enforcement's tactic of tainting the victim as some sort of drug addict to gain sympathy.

The Trayvon incident underscores the importance of impartiality. Society becomes skewed the moment a law enforcement officer states something - because there's an implied trust with that. Dredging out Trayvon's completely unrelated "drug case" is how the law enforcement side of things likes to taint the case. To paint Trayvon in a particular light. That public trust that goes into the likes of law enforcement becomes an instrument of manipulation and subsequent hand-picking of information that is being disseminated. It happens everyday and yet - there are those that are privately (or publicly) satisfied with blindly following that trust.

It's a convenient marker in a day where media scrambles to get better ratings, more hits and sell more papers. The more sensational and intriguing it becomes, the more they sell in kind. The Trayvon case underscores incredibly GLARING problems with the system - from the way law enforcement reacted, to the prosecution's bizarre rationale for not prosecuting the case, to the press that has covered the case, to the society that has reacted to it.

It is a classic fishbowl of what's wrong with the process ... and yet most Americans really don't care because I don't think they want to know how bad it is. It's better to dream than it is to live your life in reality.