Crime and Consequence

As much as I love it, America is a land of so many contradictions.

Some years ago, Michael Vick, professional NFL quarterback, who happens to be Black, was convicted and sent to jail for running a dogfighting ring and participating in the killing of some of his dogs.

Plaxico Burress, professional NFL wide receiver, who ALSO happens to be Black, accidentally shot HIMSELF in the leg in a New York City nightclub. He was sentenced to two years for this transgression.

Ben Roethlisberger, professional NFL quarterback, who happens to be white, had allegations of rape leveled at him, but he was NOT convicted of a crime and sent to jail. He endured some embarrassment, to be sure. But he stayed free.

Ten years ago, here in Columbus, there was a young Black man named Kenny Walker. A husband and father. College educated and career professional. He was out for an evening on the town with some of his friends. While they were out, they stopped at an apartment complex, where they apparently or allegedly got high on cocaine before heading home. It just so happened that at the same time, in the same apartment complex, a major drug transaction was taking place. The police drug task force had the apartment under surveillance, and they saw an SUV that reportedly had the major drug dealers inside. The thing is, that SUV looked just like the one that Kenny Walker and his friends were in. Other than that similarity, the only other thing these two vehicles had in common was that the occupants of both vehicles were Black.

So when the SUVs left the apartment complex, the drug task force swooped in for the arrest. But instead of targeting the SUV that had the drug dealers, they went after the one that held Kenny Walker and his friends. They stopped them in the middle of the highway, pulled them over, and dragged everyone out of the vehicle, guns drawn. One sheriff's deputy, who was White, and who (it was discovered later) didn't even have any business being with the task force that night, aimed his gun at Kenny's head while he was laying prostrate on the ground. The safety was off. Kenny shifted his weight, the deputy tripped, and two bullets tore through Kenny's skull. The deputy lost his job, some time later, but never had to do any jail time. And Kenny Walker's little girl has to grow up without her father, his wife without her companion.

A few years after the Kenny Walker incident (murder), also here in Columbus, there was a young White man named Zachary Allen. He was a firefighter. Out on the job one day, he crashed the fire truck he was driving into two cars. A woman and her little girl were injured as a result. Subsequent toxicology tests indicated that Mr. Allen, whose father was a current city councilman at the time, had cocaine in his system at the time of the wreck. Young Mr. Allen tried to claim that the brakes on the truck failed. Upon further examination, it was determined that nothing was wrong with the brakes on that fire truck at all. Mr. Allen was allowed to resign from his position as a firefighter. He was never charged with a crime for what happened. The woman's lawsuit was settled out of court.

Down in Florida, a young Black mother named Marissa Alexander was going through what so many families go through nowadays, the breakup of the family. Her husband was abusive, and she felt threatened by him. One day, during a particularly nasty fight, he got physical. She managed to get away from him, found a gun, and fired warning shots as he was approaching her. He stopped his advance, turned and left. She was arrested and charged with aggravated assault. She feared for her life, and cited the Stand Your Ground law as her defense. No one was harmed at all when she fired her weapon. But she was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison, where she sits to this day.

Down in Florida, a young White mother named Casey Anthony killed her little girl. The circumstances of the child's death made national headlines, as did the trial. But Casey Anthony was ultimately acquitted. She lives her life now as a pariah. But she didn't go to jail.

And tonight, a jury of six women, none of whom were Black, acquitted George Zimmerman of 2nd Degree Murder in the death of Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman pleaded not guilty and claimed self-defense. Unlike the young Black mother, someone DID die this time. A young, unarmed, 17-year old Black male. But Zimmerman, who profiled Trayvon because he looked suspicious, who followed him, who got out of his vehicle to track him, who ignored the police dispatcher's directives to stop following the young man, who failed to identify himself as a neighborhood watchman, who failed to fulfill his sole responsibility as a neighborhood watchman, which is to observe and report ONLY, fired the gun he had on him and then claimed he feared for his life. He's now in a safe place with his family.

Trayvon is still dead.

People want to claim in America that we live in a post-racial society, since we elected our nation's first Black President. But his election didn't assuage or eliminate racial tension in this country. In fact, it inflamed it. Not due to any particular actions on his part. Most of the time, the resistance to the President's policies have had at their root somewhere a particular distaste for his race. Most of the people I deal with will tell me that they are not racists, and they get offended that expressing their opposition to the president carries with it the likelihood that they will get unfairly tagged as such. And for the most part I believe them.

On the other hand, however, there are certain facts that are clear and have been supported by both research and experience. Statistics have shown that when a jury is composed the way this one was, and the victim of the crime is Black, but the defendant is White, that the result is either an acquittal, as happened tonight, or a much lighter sentence. Alternately, statistics have shown that if and when the defendant is Black and has to stand in front of a jury composed similar to the one who acquitted Zimmerman, the result is more often not only a conviction, but the harshest sentence possible. The trial of George Zimmerman sparked heated debate on both sides of the issue. People made valid points (at least in their minds) both ways, but the fact remains that Black Michael Vick had to go to jail for killing dogs and Hispanic/White George Zimmerman got to go home after he killed a Black boy.

So is the life of a Black man less valuable than that of a dog?

Now, while I'm definitely disappointed in the outcome of this trial, and in the message it is apparently conveying to the nation, I'm also thinking of some of the things we do that could possibly be contributory. Black-on-Black crime is at an all-time high, especially in my hometown of Chicago, where last weekend, the 4th of July weekend, 72 people were shot as a result of this tragic phenomenon. Our people have celebrated for some time a culture that tends to give credence to thuggin, to drinkin, to clubbin, to fightin, to sexin, to being uncouth and rowdy, and to settle conflicts with violence. As a result, one out of every three Black men in this country will go to prison in their lifetimes, and one in four Black males between the ages of 18 and 34 is either in jail, on probation, or dead, the victim of the crime we apparently think is inherent in our DNA.

But the flip side of that coin is just as glaring. The system is set up to create the very conditions we deplore. White neighborhoods don't have many liquor stores in them. Black neighborhoods are rife with them. It has long been contended that there was government collusion years ago in creating this particular piece of the environment.

There is still an emphasis on education in many White families. A lot of young Blacks think it's cool to NOT do well in school. I have to fight against that mindset all the time, and thankfully, I make a lot more progress among my children than failure. There are still kids who fall through the cracks though, and Black students are still getting suspended out of school more than White ones, even here at home.

There is a media bias that has gone on for years when it comes to Blacks and Whites. When the three young White and Hispanic ladies were discovered in Cleveland, having been kidnapped and held against their will for decades, the national buzz lasted for days. There are young Black women who have disappeared for just as long a time, but there is no coverage of their plight. When those three women were discovered and rescued, their first rescuer was a Black man named Charles Ramsey. But when the ladies made their first public statements expressing their gratitude at being free, none of them took the time to thank Mr. Ramsey. They didn't even mention his name. Back during Hurricane Katrina, the images of the police, firefighters and other first responders were overwhelmingly White, even though there were plenty of Black officers, firefighters, paramedics, and soldiers on the ground in New Orleans as well. When the cameras fell on the Black faces, however, the images were of the looters, the drunkards, the rowdy masses in the Superdome who gave into despair and manifested it by engaging in some of the worst possible behavior.

Many of our young Black children like to listen to musical artists who constantly feed them songs and images of partying, drinking, clubbing, and fighting, and they eat it up. And the executives in the music industry encourage the artists to make such songs. Then our kids turn around and act out what they see and hear. But the artists themselves see no need to change the paradigm, stating instead that their songs have validity because they're "keeping it real". I've taught students in the past who had difficulty remembering their basic multiplication facts, but could recite every word to 50 Cent's "In The Club."

But even though all of this was going on, and has gone on for years, it is no justification whatsoever for what happened tonight. I said it earlier: Michael Vick served time for killing dogs. At a minimum, George Zimmerman should have served some time for killing Trayvon Martin. Yes, as a parent, I would probably have an issue with my son going to the store by himself that late at night, even if he was 17. Yes, as a parent, I probably would have driven him in my car if he needed some candy that badly. Yes, he probably looked suspicious as he was walking home trying to stay as dry as possible in the rain. Or maybe he was trying to evade the man he knew was following him, following him simply because he "looked like" a suspect.

But George Zimmerman is an adult. He's supposed to act like one. He had a choice to do his job correctly, to observe and report and let the police handle it. But he didn't make that choice. "These a****les, they always get away..." were his words. So he followed him. He got out of his car to track him while he was on the phone with the police. The transcript is clear: "Are you following him right now?" "Yes". "Yeah, we're gonna need you not to do that..." Even the police knew that incidents like this threaten the safety of everyone involved.

George Zimmerman wasn't the only one afraid that night. Trayvon was too. But fear has a tendency to evoke more than one response: fight or flight. Many have said that if Trayvon was scared, he should have just kept on walking home and called the police from his house. But Trayvon apparently decided to confront the object of his fear, with tragic consequences. And George Zimmerman's lawyers, shrewdly arguing his claim of self-defense, and having the dual advantage of just having to introduce doubt into the prosecution's case and doing so in a system that works for the majority and against minorities, gave more credence to George Zimmerman's fear than it did to Trayvon's. So we live in a country where the life of a dog is more valuable than the life of an African American male. Or so it seems.

This crime has consequence. Even though it looks like it doesn't, it does. Trayvon is gone. His parents now have to go the rest of their lives without him. But George Zimmerman's life is over as well. He will never see his dream of becoming a police officer realized. He will have a very hard time finding a job now. His felt that his life was in danger a year and a half ago. Now his life is in constant danger, or it will be for the short term, at least. Even if and when the outrage passes, and the need for vengeance and justice abates, George Zimmerman will live out the rest of his days with the mark of Cain on him, the mark of having killed a boy for what many (including myself) do not feel was justified or necessary. Not every prison is made of steel and concrete and iron bars. George Zimmerman is in a prison of another sort, one of his own making.

And what can we do? Pray for the family of Trayvon Martin, AND for that of George Zimmerman. Both are now bereft of their sons. Pray for the people of this country, that we don't give in to despair and hopelessness and manifest our frustrations in rioting and other unseemly behavior. Pray for our elected officials, that they will pass laws that benefit and protect ALL people, not just a privileged few. And that they will have the courage to amend, adjust, or if need be, strike down laws which do not grant "liberty and justice for all". Pray for your own families to stay together and support each other through this life while we are on this dying planet and in this sin-sick world. And after you get off your knees, get to work. Teach your children, especially if they are minorities, how to conduct themselves in the presence of law enforcement officials. Teach them how to function as members of society and still retain their uniqueness. Keep instilling in them that while there is a lot that is wrong down here, there still exists in each of us the potential to do a lot of right, and that we can still reach our dreams if we work hard enough and do what's right and not just what's convenient. And after you've talked to your kids, get on the phone, on the internet and on social media. Talk to your elected officials and insist that they work to remove or adjust unbalanced laws such as Stand Your Ground. Insist that they work for ALL people, not just to win the next election. And if they won't do that, then find a qualified candidate who WILL work for the people who elect him or her, and vote out the ones who will not. Trayvon's death, which was indeed a crime, will not have been in vain if all of us, together, can create something positive from it, if nothing else as a tribute to his legacy. That would be the sweetest tribute and most effective consequence we can give.