End of Obama?

As the world now knows, only a matter of day's ago and George Zimmerman was set free by a jury of his peers as he was cleared of any wrong doing in the murder trial. This alone has managed to cause massive tention through the world helped even more by social media.

It has also drawn people into the case who didn't know what was happening, so have a read of how wikipedia explains it all....

"The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman took place on the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States. Martin was a 17-year-old African American high school student. George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old mixed-race Hispanic American, was the neighborhood watch coordinator for the gated community where Martin was temporarily staying and where the shooting took place. Following an earlier call from Zimmerman, police arrived within two minutes of a gunshot during a scuffle. Zimmerman was taken into custody, treated for head injuries, then questioned for five hours, but eventually released under the supposition the shooting was in self-defense. However, six weeks later, amidst a "media circus" atmosphere involving accusations of racism, Zimmerman was charged with murder by a new prosecutor.
Zimmerman's trial began on June 10, 2013, in Sanford, Florida. On Saturday, July 13, 2013, the jury found Zimmerman not guilty of second-degree murder and of manslaughter. The six women in the jury delivered their verdict after more than 16 hours of deliberations.
Statements given by Zimmerman have indicated that on the night of the shooting Zimmerman was in his vehicle on a personal errand when he noticed Martin walking beyond the gated fence inside the community. Statements read that Zimmerman then called the Sanford Police Department to report Martin's actions as suspicious, saying "This guy looks like he's up to no good, or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about" and "looking at all the houses", although according to a police report, there was "no indication that Trayvon Martin was involved in any criminal activity at the time of the encounter". While still on the phone with the police dispatcher, Zimmerman exited his vehicle, and after concluding his telephone call with police, was involved in a violent encounter with Martin. The encounter ended with Zimmerman fatally shooting Martin with one shot to the chest.
When police arrived on the scene, Zimmerman stated that Martin had attacked him and that he had shot Martin in self-defense using a weapon Zimmerman had on him. Zimmerman was bleeding from the nose and from two vertical lacerations on the back of his head. EMTs treated Zimmerman at the scene, after which he was taken to the Sanford Police Department. Zimmerman was detained and questioned for approximately five hours. He was then released without being charged. At the time, police said they found no evidence to contradict Zimmerman's claim of self-defense.
The circumstances of Martin's death, including the fact that he was unarmed, and the initial decision not to charge Zimmerman received national and international attention and scrutiny. Allegations of racist motivation for both the shooting and police conduct, along with intense media reporting, contributed to public demands for Zimmerman's arrest. Questions were also raised about Florida's stand-your-ground law. On March 22, 2012, a Special Prosecutor, Angela Corey, was appointed to take over the investigation. On April 11, 2012, the Special Prosecutor filed a charge of murder in the second-degree against Zimmerman, who then turned himself in and was placed in custody. The prosecution's account of what they allege happened on the night of the shooting is largely contained in the probable cause affidavit.^"

Now for me this case does reffer to race, heavily. In my opinion, zimmerman saw a black kid hanging around an area and he didn't like it, he was afraid of robbery, violence etc, so took matters into his own hand. As i've explained on my blog's before, i don't believe america should have guns readily available, i think their laws should be as ours are in the uk, but thats a seperate debate right there.

So why don't i agree with what the jury's decision was. Even though we are in the 21st century and we have gained some sort of equality for black people, we're not quite there. There's still large parts of area's world over, where people are still racist. Florida is no exeption to this (Ok, maybe the bits owned by disney are an exeption, but still...). It is possible that the jury were racist.

As sad as it is to say, it's possible that the jury wasn't quite his peers.... But how does this come to have an affect on Obama?

Obama has already called for calm over america, understanding that tension's are running slighty high on this one. He's not exactly put his opinion out... but in my opinion, he should have. As much as some of us may not wish to admit it, alot of his peformance is being judged by others on his skin colour. In my eyes, he needs to do a speech and call for more action to be taken on this, get the people who are out at these protests on his side.... but i don't see that happening.

Infact, i'll be honest here. I'm shocked by the way some people are over this. When news first broke of this i was already on twitter, so of course i made a tweet about the case which got a few retweets etc, but generated a response.

One response was from a black girl who lives in florida who said.... "‏@DanielleOsemene

@BevLive It has nothing to do with race it's 2013 get the fuck over it" to which i'm left completely dumbfounded.

 

Firstly, there's more reason's to say that this was racially motivated, than there is against. A majority of people out of the court systems are shocked by this result, on the understanding of the case and because it's 2013 were to think that this can't be down to race? Racism is still a big deal, it still happens.

 

So... what is next in this case?

 

Ok, this is where i get abit confused because the american justice system is a little different to that of the UK, but, i do believe that this case, despite the verdict, can be passed onto another court. Now i could be wrong here, but if that is an option that can be taken by Trayvon's family, then i do believe it's an option they should consider.

 

As far as racial equality goes, what does this mean?

 

Racial equality still has a long way to go, this case in my eyes, shows how far we are to come yet.

 

And Obama?

 

He's a black president who faces the challange of people being pissed off over possibly a racism case. If he does to little over this, he will be seen to not care about racism issues, he will lose votes. If he does too much, he will be accused of not doing enough for other cases where skin colour could be a factor and will lose votes. It's a risky time for him, but it's time for us to see what he does.