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On his Thursday radio broadcast, Glenn Beck delved into an incident that has ignited a whirlwind of controversy -- one that has raised pulses of people from all walks, but all for different reasons. His radio segment with a caller concerned over the fallout follows below, but first The Blaze provides some background:
By now, many are probably familiar with the disturbing story of Trayvon Martin -- a 17-year-old black teen gunned down by a Florida gated community's self-appointed neighborhood watchman. Much of the current evidence indicates the shooting was a hate crime, as the unarmed boy, who was said to have been seeking shelter from the rain, was carrying nothing more than a packet of Skittels at the time of the incident. Adding to this theory, police indicate the shooter may have uttered a racial epithet -- "f--king coon" -- prior to opening fire on the Florida youth.
The shooter, a Hispanic by the name of George Zimmerman, claims he was acting in self defense and as such, has yet to be arrested. He maintains he was attacked by the teen, but a statement by the deceased's girlfriend -- who was allegedly on the phone with Trayvon at the time of the shooting -- suggests it was in fact Zimmerman who assailed Martin.
Although Zimmerman is attempting to shield himself behind a 2005 Florida "Stand Your Ground" law giving citizens the right to defend themselves when threatened, it is clear this was not a case of meeting force with equal force.
According to reports, public records reveal that in 2005 Zimmerman was arrested in Orange County for resisting arrest with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer. Residents of the Sanford gated community also allege the shooter had been overly-aggressive during his watch-shifts in the past.
It is possible then that Zimmerman may simply be a deeply disturbed, paranoid individual with a propensity for violence towards just about anyone.
In any case, few if any believe Zimmerman should not be arrested.
Even Stand Your Ground's sponsors are calling for his arrest and do not believe the gunman deserves immunity under their law.
Former state Sen. Durell Peaden and current state Rep. Dennis Baxley said the law was specifically engineered to protect people who are clearly in danger of suffering bodily harm.
“They got the goods on him [Zimmerman]. They need to prosecute whoever shot the kid,” said Peaden. “He has no protection under my law.”
Section 3 of the statute reads:
A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.
Self-defense laws in other states say a victim must at least make an attempt to flee before using force, unless they are at home, under the broader "castle doctrine."
Now, the Congressional Black Caucus and other left-leaning lawmakers are rallying for hearings to revise Stand Your Ground -- even though the language of the bill and its provisions fall within the framework of most would consider right and just.
And Van Jones' Color of Change, Change.org, Al Sharpton, NAACP, CAIR and others are hopping on the bandwagon -- both with regards to Stand Your Ground and the alleged misconduct of the Sanford Police.
Beck said the law "doesn't apply" in this case and that "you can't just go follow somebody down the street and claim the stand your ground law."
"You have to have a right to stand your ground...and say 'this is my property, you are in violation.' Not just to be able to shoot people, but to protect yourself and that doesn't include going down the street and following the guy down a block. That's not what you do."
Yet, "the left is saying that you don't have a right to stand your ground."
Beck's co-host, Stu Burguiere, noted that the left will oftentimes uses tragic events such as these to overturn a commonsense law that everyone "knows is the right thing," but that they could not justify overturning otherwise.
"Again, we don't know all the facts of this case yet, but it seems as if this guy... was calling him [Trayvon] racist names and following him, then shot him in cold blood. It has nothing to do with this law."
Glenn said that "by any stretch of the imagination," it does not appear Trayvon was the aggressor in this case and that justice needs to be served, but also expressed concern that the left is using this tragedy to push their political agendas.
He also suggested that anyone who really understands the Civil Rights Movement would hardly push to eliminate a law that protects people from allowing thugs to assault them.
But if calls to change a law most would argue is reasonable and had naught to do with the boy's death were not enough, now this neighborhood vigilante's head is being called for by...other vigilantes.
The Blaze reported that The Black Liberation Militia and now, Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan, has vowed vengeance and to take the law into their own hands by hunting down Zimmerman wherever he may be and conducting a citizen's arrest -- a measure of which Martin's own father disapproves.The Black Liberation Militia"
Beck responded: "We have this extremist African-American militia group that says they're just going to come in and handle it. You're got Al Sharpton winding everybody up. You've got Color For Change winding everybody up."
He also noted that Zimmerman will likely become a poster child for police brutality and racism even though the police were not the ones who committed the crime, and thus far, only stand accused of conducting a sloppy investigation. To that end, Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee ended up stepping down -- at least temporarily -- over the incident late Thursday afternoon.
At the end of the day, Beck believes that it is not for Change.org, or Al Sharpton, or a rogue militia in the spirit of the Blank Panthers to deliver retribution for the child and his family, and that the goal in all this is clear: Seek justice not an agenda.
Yet that will likely not stop the allegations or calls for vigilantism from flying, even though something is being done -- it just may not be the "something" some people may want:
Initially, most of the calls for action were prompted by progressive website Change.org, which has been circulating a petition calling for Zimmerman's arrest already garnering nearly 817,000 signatures to date -- and has clearly accomplished what it set out to do. The Department of Justice has taken notice of the case and, just hours after the FBI announced it was launching a probe into the murder, Florida state Attorney Norm Wolfinger announced his call that a Grand Jury be convened. His full statement follows [emphasis added]:
"I share in the desire of the family and the community to accurately collect and evaluate all the facts surrounding the tragic death of Trayvon Martin. That is why I directed the expeditious review of the investigation which was delivered by the Sanford Police Department one week ago today; areas for further investigation have been identified; and, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has agreed to assist and has been working hard with my office since Friday March 16th."I will also be utilizing the investigative resources of the Seminole County Grand Jury which will be called to session on Tuesday, April 10, 2012.
"I respectfully request that the public remain patient as this process continues forward. We are a country based upon law, and as the State Attorney for the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit I am sworn to uphold those laws. As I have previously stated, the public is entitled to no less than a thorough, deliberate, and just review of the facts. We intend to honor that commitment."
Yet rogues and political activists do not seem as vocal in their praise of Wolfinger and others who have vowed to deliver justice as they have been in their scorn of the Sanford police department and a Stand Your Ground law.
While allegations have been made citing the Sanford police's "checkered past," such claims have yet to be substantiated, and the fact that many news outlets are reporting Zimmerman as "white," when he is Hispanic (his father referred to him as a "Spanish-speaking minority with many black family members"), isn't helping matters.
"He's not white," Beck said. "So, who's the bad guy -- he's the stereotypical bad guy? You [the left] don't want to demonize the Hispanic because he's part of the oppressed." He added that this sort of "radical thinking" is the kind one sees within the Occupy movement, where facts are disregarded entirely. "I mean, did Al Sharpton ever care about the facts?"
Of course, people of all races, creeds and religions can be racist, but it seems to only fuel the fire when agitators paint Zimmerman as a white racist hiding under the "protection" of a "flawed" Stand Your Ground law and a largely white, "racist" police force. In fact, this narrative seems eerily in lock-step with the "enforcing negative stereotypes" component of "Political System X."
Beck ceded that the man who shot Trayvon could indeed be a racist, but that many of his detractors are driven by a racial agenda too, and thus are everything they claim to stand against.
Regardless of Zimmerman's motives, a child is dead. And it does a horrible diservice to this boy's legacy and memory when those with ulterior motives exploit his death to further their own agenda.
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