If you kill
someone, sell or use illegal drugs, steal property or money, cause a car
accident, or illegally possess or use a firearm, then you should expect to eventually
be caught, charged, and convicted. This is the judicial process. But this is
always not the case in the United States. There have been and continues to be
circumstances where the crimes committed have not always come with arrests and
convictions. Is it because of lack of evidence, police involvement, or the
person who committed the crime? When race comes into play, it may be said that
a black man was convicted because of the type of crime he committed but the
same crime committed by a white man went unpunished or not even considered as a
crime.
The most current and polarizing case involved a mixed race man of White
and Hispanic parents who killed an unarmed black teenage boy in Florida. You
may have heard of the Trayvon Martin murder case. This case consisted of a male who shot and
killed an unarmed teenage African-American boy because said man feared for his
life. Never mind the fact that the grown man initiated the contact between the
two or that this man possessed a firearm and used that firearm to commit a
crime. Keyword being used is CRIME! It was proven and Zimmerman admitted that
he did in fact take a person’s life. Today George Zimmerman is a free man after
committing a crime.
Another case that involved a firearm and the discharge of a
firearm involved a woman in Florida named Marissa Alexander. She was being abused,
and her life was in imminent danger by her husband who had verbally and
physically threatened her. She fired a warning shot and escaped from her home, according
to CNN.com. This woman was charged and found guilty of aggravated assault and
sentenced to 20 years in prison. According to Florida Law, this woman
unlawfully threatened her abusive husband by firing a gun in an attempt to stop
him from abusing her. Besides a life being taken, the difference between these
two cases, are race. The woman who was sentenced to 20 years in prison was a
Black woman. In addition it took 12 minutes of jury deliberation to find her
guilty, even while using the same “Stand your Ground” defense that let
Zimmerman walk free. A law that says if a person feels their life is in
imminent danger or threat; they have the right to defend said life.
Is crime
any different, when committed by a black person or a white person? No! A crime
is still a crime. But arrests and convictions of these crimes are different
when race is involved. The eyes of justice, as much as many may think is blind,
are wide open and viewed through the eyes of society. Race will always have a significant
part in crime and conviction. God forbid that a Black Zimmerman would have been
let free if he would have killed a white Trayvon.
(The Florida woman who was sentenced to 20 years for firing a warning shot was granted a new trial.)
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