New York Post—part of the lynch mob

Last Friday, the day after George Zimmerman was arrested and appeared in court for the first time, I was having lunch in a diner on Broadway with a friend who is an avid reader of the New York Post (which I haven’t bought since January 2011, but I’ll look at it if it’s around), and she showed me a headline in that day’s issue:

Damning case vs. Trayvon slayer

I said, “That looks serious. Are there facts against Zimmerman we don’t know about?”

Before we got to reading the story, however, we saw that the lead editorial referred to it. Speaking of the previous day’s court session in the Zimmerman case, the editorial said that “some of the details made public late yesterday look damning indeed.”

So the news article spoke of a “damning case” against Zimmerman, and the editorial went even further, saying there were “damning details.” What could they be?

Then I read the news article. There were ZERO new facts in it, ZERO new details. The “information” it conveyed, coming from prosecutor Angela Corey’s Affidavit of Probable Cause, consisted of nothing but a fact-free rehash of the fact-free “official story” that the lying media and the black leaders have been promoting since the beginning of this affair: that Zimmerman “profiled” Martin, then followed him, confronted him, and murdered him.

This was what the editorial page editors of the “conservative” New York Post called “damning details.” It was as if, in reporting a Stalinist Show Trial in the late 1930s, the Post had said that the State prosecutors had brought forth “damning details” against the defendants.

And that wasn’t all. After having virtually declared Zimmerman guilty on the basis of nothing, the same editorial piously declared that

the focus [should be kept] on the facts and the law—and away from a vengeance-driven proceeding….

In fact, racial- and political-advantage seekers—aided by an often deceitful media—have already poisoned the well.

Indeed, it won’t be easy even to find a jurisdiction anywhere—let alone in the state of Florida—where Zimmerman can be guaranteed a fair trial.

And what happens if Zimmerman is acquitted—or even convicted on lesser charges? Just think back to the aftermath of the Rodney King case….

So it is time to tone down the rhetoric—to let justice be done.

This is like a lynch mob saying, “Let’s follow the facts and the law,” as they tighten the noose around their victim’s neck.

This is like a rioting mob setting a city on fire and then saying, “Let’s not fan the flames.”

I was so angry about this I was unable to write about it at the time, and have waited until today to do so.

Here is the editorial, followed by the news article:

And so to court

With accused killer George Zimmerman’s brief and strictly procedural appearance yesterday before a county judge, the adjudication phase of the Trayvon Martin tragedy has formally begun.

Whether the story will come to a decorous and just conclusion in a courtroom is another matter altogether.

That’s because much of what has gone on since Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder suggests that this case could rapidly devolve into another O.J. Simpson or Casey Anthony circus—notwithstanding the insistence of special prosecutor Angela Corey that “we do not prosecute by public pressure or by petition.”

The fact is, this case has been all about racially charged public pressure—reaching all the way up to the White House—almost from the first moment.

That was underscored by prosecutor Corey’s disclosure that the first thing she did after being assigned the case by Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott was to “pray” with Trayvon’s “sweet parents.”

Bringing murder charges may well be justified—as Corey said, only prosecutors know the full range of the evidence. And some of the details made public late yesterday look damning indeed.

Still, anything less than murder charges almost certainly would have prompted even more angry demands for “justice.”

Moreover, notwithstanding Corey’s quite correct assertion that the 17-year-old’s parents are “constitutional victims” under Florida state law, the prosecutor’s primary responsibility is not to assuage their all-too-understandable grief.

That’s why the case officially is titled “State of Florida v. Zimmerman.”

And that’s why it will go before a jury in the name of the people of the state of Florida—because while families are always aggrieved parties in such crimes, the American jurisprudential tradition holds society at large to be the ultimate victim.

That keeps the focus on the facts and the law—and away from a vengeance-driven proceeding.

That’s the theory, anyway.

In fact, racial- and political-advantage seekers—aided by an often deceitful media—have already poisoned the well.

Indeed, it won’t be easy even to find a jurisdiction anywhere—let alone in the state of Florida—where Zimmerman can be guaranteed a fair trial.

And what happens if Zimmerman is acquitted—or even convicted on lesser charges? Just think back to the aftermath of the Rodney King case.

A charge of second-degree murder, after all, gives prosecutors a certain amount of tactical leeway—but also sets a very high bar in proving their case.

Nothing is certain, in other words.

So it is time to tone down the rhetoric—to let justice be done.

If true justice is the ultimate goal, that is.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/and_so_to_court_ze31xri1oWCzIgRNnKjkjN#ixzz1sEOYlJ2P

_____

Damning case vs. Trayvon slayer
By DOUGLAS MONTERO in Sanford, Fla., and DAN MANGAN in New York

He “profiled,” “falsely assumed,” “disregarded,” “followed” and “confronted”—then he killed.

Florida prosecutors, in damning new court documents released yesterday, charge that George Zimmerman was an obsessive aggressor who targeted innocent, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin as a “criminal” from the start—and then relentlessly hunted him down, sparking the struggle that wound up with the teen being fatally shot.

Scoffing at Zimmerman’s tale of killing Martin in self-defense, the prosecutors said it’s now clear that the burly cop wannabe didn’t back off when a 911 operator told him to stop following Martin and instead continued to trail and harass him.

“These a—holes, they always get away. These f—king punks,” Zimmerman muttered in the 911 call, according to the probable-cause affidavit written by investigators.

During the ensuing fight, Martin was heard in the background of witnesses’ subsequent 911 calls “crying for help,” the document says, adding that the teen’s mother identified his voice.

UNDER FLORIDA’S ‘STAND YOUR GROUND’ LAW, ZIMMERMAN CAN SEEK DISMISSAL OF MURDER CHARGE

OPINION: CASE COULD DEVOLVE INTO O.J. SIMPSON OR CASEY ANTHONY CIRCUS

After reviewing the documents, a magistrate judge yesterday agreed to let stand the second-degree-murder rap against Zimmerman.

Looking haggard and blinking nervously, Zimmerman, 28, was ordered held without bond after his brief appearance before the judge. He is being held without bail in the Sanford, Fla., jail, and faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison—and a maximum of life—if convicted.

The unemployed Zimmerman, who surrendered Wednesday amid a national clamor for him to be charged, spent part of his first night in prison weeping in a protective-custody cell, according to a jail source quoted by ABC News.

“He’s frightened,” said his lawyer, Mark O’Mara, adding that he has not yet requested that bail be set for Zimmerman because the attorney does not know where the accused murderer, of white and Hispanic descent, can live safely if he’s released.

While behind bars, Zimmerman has already begun using his commissary account—spending $79.84 on junk food like Tostitos, Jolly Ranchers and root beer, among other items, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

According to the affidavit, Zimmerman flubbed in every way the night of Feb. 26 after spotting Martin, wearing a hooded sweat shirt, in his gated community.

“That evening, Martin walked to a nearby 7-Eleven store, where he purchased a can of iced tea and a bag of Skittles,” investigators wrote in their affidavit.

“Martin then walked back to and entered the gated community and was on his way back to the town house where he was living [with his father] when he was profiled by George Zimmerman.

“Martin was unarmed and not committing a crime.

“Zimmerman … observed Martin and assumed Martin was a criminal,” investigators wrote.

“Zimmerman felt Martin did not belong in the gated community.

“The police dispatcher informed Zimmerman that an officer was on the way and to wait for the officer.

“During the recorded call, Zimmerman made reference to people he felt had committed and gotten away with break-ins in his neighborhood.”

Zimmerman was not initially arrested, apparently because of a belief that the killing was justified under Florida’s “stand your ground” law, which allows violence to be used to repel an assault likely to kill or seriously injure a victim.

Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, yesterday said on NBC’s “Today” show, “I believe it was an accident. I believe that it just got out of control, and he [Zimmerman] couldn’t turn the clock back.”

Fulton later clarified, saying “their meeting was the accident … not the actual act of him shooting him. That was murder.”

dan.mangan@nypost.com

- end of initial entry -

If you want to tell the Post’s editors what you think of their endorsement of the left’s lynch mob version of the event, you can send an e-mail to Bob McManus, editorial page editor, and Adam Brodsky, deputy editorial page editor.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 16, 2012 04:52 PM | Send