IS THERE JUSTICE FOR EVERYONE?

The not guilty verdict passed on 29-year-old Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator George Zimmerman, who shot a 17-year-old black man, Trayvon Martin, during a fight a year ago, has made Americans start thinking about racism once again, about the fairness of the law, the problems of black youth and the right to carry arms.

You may well ask how such a thing can happen. For, in spite of its shortcomings, the US judicial apparatus always presents a model worthy of imitation. From the film about the famous lawyer Perry Mason to the actual crimes featured by the mass media, we know that American lawyers are highly professional, the judges are exacting and honest, and the juries particularly unbiased. Naturally, any system has its dark sides, but ultimately the committed and noble servants of the judicial system, like Arthur Kirkland, the character played by Al Pacino in the well known film "…And Justice for All", win the case. Moreover, what problems can there be involving young people in a country where the entire nation cherishes the American dream. Finally, what has racism got to do with it, when the US head of state, voted in for a second term, is a black man and where political correctness is punctiliously adhered to when it comes to racism, sex, sexual orientation and so forth?

But things are not that simple. Even President Barack Obama admitted that when he touched on the subject of racism for the first time in a long while. The head of the White House stated that this phenomenon has not yet been eradicated from his country. The president also noted that many Afro-Americans had been disappointed by the US judicial system, and that the authorities ought to revise the legislation on self-defence.

Referring to the death of the 17-year-old as a tragedy, Barack Obama admitted that, if he had had a son, he might look like Trayvon… that he himself could have been Trayvon Martin 35 years ago.

The tragedy occurred in the town of Sanford, Florida, in February 2012. A voluntary policeman (Neighbourhood Watch patrollers guard the area against petty crimes like vandalism, hooliganism and theft), George Zimmerman, was patrolling his area where  burglaries were becoming increasingly frequent. Espying an unidentified individual wearing a hooded jacket  (this was 17-year-old Trayvon Martin), who looked suspicious, the voluntary policeman rang the police. The police advised Zimmerman  not to tackle the suspicious individual and promised to send a patrol car. Zimmerman, however, ignored this advice and continued to follow him. The voluntary policeman said that, after he had lost sight of Martin for a short time, the teenager suddenly came up to him and got into a fight with him. Zimmerman received a blow on the nose, and then Martin threw him to the ground and began to beat his head against the pavement. The patroller managed to grab his pistol and shot Martin in the chest.

Zimmerman was accused

of second-degree murder

by the state of Florida

But, in spite of comprehensive coverage by the mass media, many details remained unexplained. Why the young man, who had gone to the shop for tea and sweets appeared so suspicious to Zimmerman that he decided to take the risk of acting on his own without waiting for the police to turn up? How did Zimmerman, who was pressed to the ground, manage to pull out his pistol? How did the 17-year-old succeed in knocking over his opponent so easily, who was older than him and physically much bigger?

All these elements have brought to the fore talk about the controversial law on self-defence. In actual fact, the use of a firearm again an unarmed individual looks rather dubious in any case. If Zimmerman were to react to Martin in a like manner, he would have hit him in the face, thrown him down onto the asphalt and so forth; the two men would simply have had a fight, there would not probably have been any fatalities. But the law in Florida, as in another 22 states, incidentally, permits the use of a weapon against an attacker, no matter whether he has fruit-drops and sparkling water or a gun in his pocket. So, it turns out that any voluntary policeman like Zimmerman can get into an argument with anyone he thinks is suspicious, provoke a fight and then simply shoot him and he has the backing of the law.

It should be noted that a similar incident involving a firearm occurred in the state of Florida at approximately the same time. In the town of Jacksonville a 31-year-old Afro-American, Marissa Alexander, who had tried to defend herself against her drunken husband, was sentenced the 20 years in prison… just for firing one warning shot in the air. The investigation was an extremely short one - Marissa was sentenced to 20 years in prison, although she said that she had fired the gun in self-defence and there was plenty of evidence that she had been subjected to domestic violence. Thirty-six-year-old Gray had previously been arrested twice for beating up his Marissa.

We can see how strangely the justice system works. The voluntary policeman who shot dead the 17-year-old unarmed teenager during a fistfight has been released. The woman, the mother of a newborn baby, who constantly had to suffer beatings from her husband, has been sent to prison for 20 years for simply firing a warning shot in the air…

It is no wonder that the case of Marissa Alexander, like that of Trayvon Martin, obviously smacks of racism. And this is in spite of the fact that even the lawyer Daryl D. Parks, who was representing the interests of the Martin family, stated in an interview to the Washington Post that there was nothing in Zimmerman's actions that pointed to a hatred of Afro-Americans. But all the same, in the opinion of some commentators, in similar cases involving the use of firearms, blacks receive much more severe sentences than whites.

There was a huge public reaction to Zimmerman's "not guilty" verdict. Many-thousand-strong rallies took place across the country. Irritated inhabitants of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego and other cities came out onto the streets. Many of the protesters shouted out slogans like "racism is not dead", "there's no peace without justice", many wearing hooded jackets, the clothing that Zimmerman thought was suspicious. They were also wearing T-shirts with the slogan "Shoot me, I'm black". Protesting against Zimmerman, who had walked free, Stevie Wonder decided to boycott the American state of Florida. According to the American media, Madonna, Rod Stewart, Asher, Justin Timberlake, Rihanna and Jay-Z are prepared to join Wonder. The well known public figure and civil rights activist, Jessie Jackson, demanded of the Attorney General Eric Holder, who was also an Afro-American, that he should intervene in the legal proceedings and initiate a new investigation of the case. According to Jackson "Zimmerman's not guilty verdict was a slap in the face for America".  Similar protests are expected on the 50th anniversary of the famous "March on Washington", a peaceful protest action which led to the adoption of the Civil Rights Act and Federal Voting Rights Law; the latter extended the juridical and social rights of black Americans, for example, by banning segregation in public places and establishing equal voting rights.

What is more, journalists recalled other black teenagers who had lost their lives in similar circumstances. Jacksonville.com writes that, according to data from the Center for Disease Control, the highest mortality rate is recorded among black teenagers and the cause is death by assault. The publication cites the views of black citizens who think they "do not enjoy the same level of protection as whites do" and that the level  of comfort, privilege and power still depends on skin colour".

It is precisely here that the problem can be seen on a different level. So, according to data from a number of studies, unemployment among young blacks is approximately twice that of unemployment among young whites. In his 17 years, Trayvon Martin, who was shot dead, is said to have been taken into custody for robbery, being in possession of narcotics and, to all appearances, the youth had plenty of experience in street fighting.

Some white activists believe that their dark-skinned fellow-countrymen do themselves try to separate themselves from whites and try not to mix with them, i.e. racism from another angle. Or, the National Review writes, the idea of "racial tension" is a false premise invented and brought to life by the left.

No matter what, it is strange to hear of these problems in a country where people can be sacked, sent to prison and branded intolerant just for using the word "negro" (which does not have any kind of negative connotations in other countries). But, if even Barack Obama admits that racism has not been eradicated in the USA, does this mean that political correctness itself is just being touched up, but is by no means solving the existing problems in society?