The Murder of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman: Greatest Crime in Human History

I may be exaggerating when I say it is the greatest crime in human history. Because human history has experienced events such as; the Holocaust, La Violencia, Slavery, and much much more, I can only say Zimmerman’s crime is among the greatest crimes in human history. Firstly, I should say that I am not advocating that Zimmerman, the person, is innocent/guilty or good/bad. The topic is solely the act [when Zimmerman decides to pull the trigger and shoot a teenager] and that act was bad. To justify a claim that Zimmerman’s act is one of the greatest crimes in human history I will have to break down my argument:

A) George Zimmerman violated the ideology of freedom: A person is allowed to walk freely as long it is not trespassing. It is called the freedom of movement which states a citizen is allowed to travel anywhere in the state within the respect for the liberty of others. As of now, the facts show that Trayvon was not trespassing and was walking on public road [i.e.; sidewalks or streets]. For whatever reason, Mr. Zimmerman believed that Trayvon shouldn’t have been there, in that neighborhood, walking there, supposedly along the sidewalk.  When Zimmerman confronted Trayvon, he decided to revoke the teen’s freedom of movement and life. I find this the most offensive part of my argument because Zimmerman’s freedom to bear arms as been immensely respected in the state of Florida yet he disrespects the fundamental freedom of movement in such a vile manner.


B) Apparently the State chose Zimmerman’s side: This is a shorter segment of my argument but probably the most absurd. The State Attorney chose to defend Zimmerman by not issuing an arrest. If you are not asking yourself why, then go pray. Now, it seems the State automatically thought Zimmerman was the victim thus chose to defend him rather than the teenage boy [this mostly will end in unemployment for a lot of people in the State Attorney's office]. I think, rather than discuss about Zimmerman’s racial views we should discuss Florida’s racial views. 


C) Stand your ground statue: In Florida, you are allowed to shoot and ask questions later--you are allowed to meet force with force. However, Zimmerman’s phone call to the police revealed that he was following Trayvon which meant it was he who instigated the conflict and it was Trayvon employing the “Stand your ground” statue. If Zimmerman started the conflict and Trayvon started to beat him up badly, Zimmerman could still not use the shooting as self defense [i.e.; Zimmerman bit off more than he can chew]. When Zimmerman saw that he could not win his battle, whatever that may be, he become Trayvon’s creator and removed him from this Earth. 

All of this amounts to stand as one of the greatest crimes in history. It might not be clear to you now but I will help you by multiply the magnitude of each one of these sub-arguments by a common coefficient (being human history).

The violation of the freedom of movement as grave consequences. Examples include but not limited to: the Armenian genocide, Russian Pogroms, the Syrian uprising, Palestinian conflict, on and on. Just think of any horrible event and the violation of freedom of movement is there.

Next is the racial bias and I think we all know where that goes...

Finally, “stand your ground” statue. The so called claim of self defense with deadly force has done wonders in human history. This reason has been used in the crusades, witch trials [that killed 1000’s of women], Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. But, I cannot tell you that I would like to remove self defense. Self defense has saved the “innocents” from the “wicked.” However, I would like to remind protesters and defenders of self defense to think before defending Mr. Zimmerman’s acts because the side you pick may be on the wrong side of history. Maybe it was Trayvon who was defending himself from an attacker, an attacker who clearly had a larger arsenal. 

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The Kandahar Rampage shows Our Injustice

When a rogue US soldier [staff sergeant] murdered sixteen people in Afghanistan on Sunday, the first thought that popped into my head was; I wonder how outraged the American people will be? How long will this story trend on Twitter? Will the news outlets run this story insufferably? The Kandahar Rampage [as it is being called] is not an extraordinary event. In fact, it is quite usual. US Soldiers have been known to inexplicably kill civilians. But, this is war--it is expected to have a few loose canons or accidents.  

So, what do we say? The staff sergeant must have had a mental condition and slipped through the psych evaluations. And maybe no other fellow soldiers observed any oddities. But what would be an oddity is this case? We expect a soldier’s vocabulary to include kill and towel head. The incident itself will experience retaliations and more of our soldiers will die [Recently, six US soldiers died in Afghanistan after the burning of the Quran] and the people of Afghanistan will view the United States as evil occupiers more than liberators. This is typical; this is expected, and this is not concerning.

What concerns me is not the actual incident but the response. In general, the American people were not outraged [I figure most did not even hear of the story]. The news outlets did not run the story on a continuous loop. On the contrary, the news outlets barely played the story past Sunday morning. Finally, the story did not trend on twitter compared to the impressive three days or so trend of Joseph Kony [#stopkony].  Which gets me thinking; What if the masses paid attention to Joseph Kony when he was relevant a decade or two ago? There’s evil in the world and most people recognize it. However, sometimes we don’t give a story enough attention because we feel helpless. When there’s an opportunity to make a “difference” we see an outpour of people [look how Joseph Kony blazed through the web]. But when there is not an opportunity or an opportunity that requires a sacrifice, people are mute. 

The Kandahar Rampage will eventually become lost in history. Eventually, a book compiled on the atrocities of the Afghan war may include the incident. The next war will certainly have similar incidents. As we continue to be mute, injustice will continue and the unprincipled will rule. 

This article is not only about making military warfare cleaner. 

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Kony Island

I'm really glad that there is growing awareness for Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. No doubt has there been atrocities in Uganda over the past three decades, especially involving children. The Invisible Children organization has been around for about 10 years raising awareness for this issue and they continue that campaign today with a video that celebrates Kony [not to praise his feats but to shame them and make him popular amongst the masses]. Now, this initiative [Kony2012] is trending all over the web and, inevitably, it will become a hype. Although I applaud the intent of the thousands [maybe millions] that will join this trend to spread the word through social media, there is one thing that concerns me.

I hope that people are not joining the awareness for the reason that it is a hype. The millions of children that have died in Africa are not meant to be represented by a hashtag. I hope people are not making decisions based off of emotions gathered from a video but rather from knowledge and fact finding. Emotions are a great motivation but it is only temporary (i.e.; most people have moved past Tibet, Somalia, Libya, etc). That is, people tend to forget after the emotional high.

The problem with Uganda and the children on Uganda is not just Joseph Kony but it is a good place to start. There are hundreds of Joseph Konys around the world and in the era we live in now, we can actually target them; shine a light on them via social media. However, it doesn't have to be a person we target but a behavior as well. Rather then attack Kony, we should learn and attack the environment, the surrounding, and the influence that made him who he is.

Nevertheless, for the first time, people can dictate change in the world in a relatively simple way because the web connects us across the globe. I'm glad that people are utilizing these tools to advocate justice but don't get stuck in the moment. Use this moment to launch your campaign against injustice.

You have a voice.

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