This will be a very short diary with a very pointed question. Does anyone else see what I see and is anyone else as alarmed as I am?
First of all, I want to assure everyone that I have nothing but empathy for Trayvon Martin's family and friends and this diary in no way minimizes the horror and pain that they have been sentenced to for the rest of their lives. The media attention that has finally been given this case may be somewhat instrumental in bringing them some measure of justice, but it can't diminish the sentence.
But as I watched the coverage tonight and in particular the video of Mr. Zimmerman's arrival at the police station just 45 minutes after the police were called, my brain started hearing little alarm bells. All of the reporters and anchors did a great job pointing out all the important frames. And yes, it certainly raises a lot of legal questions.
But I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else terribly wrong. Follow below the squiggle and see if you aren't as frightened as I am.
While my brain has been running multiple videos concurrently on several screens in my head, I don't have the computer skills or the access to put together a montage for the rest of the country. I just hope there is someone out there who will.
How often here, have fellow Kossacks written about the militarization of our local police forces?
How often have we read first hand accounts of the brutal arrests of OWS demonstrators with their stories of restraints put on so tight they caused injury?
How often have we seen videos of peaceful demonstrators being thrown to the ground then dragged away with their heads smashed and bloody?
How often have we seen police in riot gear, armed with batons and pepper spray confront protestors standing in a public place and speaking their mind?
How often have we seen policemen level a pepper spray canister and spray directly into the face of a peaceful citizen speaking her mind?
How many peaceful citizens have sustained injuries serious enough to land them in the ER at the hands of the police for the crime of not dispersing fast enough?
And yet here, we have a well connected suspect, someone who by his own account just killed a person, arriving at the police station, allowed to get out of the car on his own and walk in with not so much as a finger of even one officer on his person.
What is wrong with this picture?
And what does it say about our country?