HATE, HYPOCRISY AND MOB JUSTICE IN FLORIDA
April 24, 2012 By Joseph J. Honick “But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.” I was there as a very young man when Martin Luther King spoke these words before the Lincoln Memorial and looking toward the Washington Monument. I don’t have to advertise my revulsion to bigotry. I’ve seen it, experienced it and demonstrated against it first hand. I am also repulsed by hypocrisy that defends mob justice, as has been the case in the tragic death of a young man in Sanford, Florida. George Zimmerman, the person charged in Trayvon Martin’s killing may well be the worst person ever to walk the planet. Fact is, I don’t know that to be the case, nor do all the other screaming accusers, including Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the United Nations et al, who were not present when the tragedy occurred …. but they all knew and know what took place. We have accorded more justice and care to Nazis accused of torturing and murdering concentration camp prisoners during WWII. Our U.S. Chamber of Commerce one time even named a former Waffen SS Colonel to be a “Great Living American” because of his work on space matters. That was Werner von Braun. We are today doing the same for scores of prisoners held as terrorists. But, by golly, courtesy of media hype, celebrity pressure and the United Nations, the world is persuaded of events not witnessed by anyone but the victim and Mr Zimmerman. And, now, for some additional hypocrisy that none of the same people have cared to consider: the hate crime committed by about seven black teens upon a 15-year old Hispanic student on his way home from school in Palmdale, CA. Not content with pummeling the young man to the ground, the group continued the assault while screaming racial and hate taunts ... much of which were recorded on video, thereby providing more witness evidence than the event in Florida for which Zimmerman is now charged and virtually convicted by the process of mob justice. Perhaps if the young Hispanic victim had died, the media, celebrities and the United Nations might also have folded in the event as evidence of multi-racial bigotry … simply because it was. It is noteworthy that the teen gang who beat up on the young Hispanic teen are being prosecuted for a hate crime, but with little media or other reactions of any kind, and certainly not from the UN, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton … and even more mutedly from the very media who joined the mob calling for punishment of Zimmerman. Now to the reality of mob justice and Zimmerman….the kind of behavior that may well impact his trial. The shock of Martin’s death by gunshot was more than understandable. But from that point, the mob assuredness of Zimmerman’s guilt demonstrated the whole sad affair had gotten out of control. In America, the worst among us, as noted earlier, are assumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. However justified in terms of family grief and public shock, reverse hatred is no better. And for those arguing their concerns about racial matters, studies show that assaults against Hispanics are on the rise. In the end, if there ever is an acceptable one, hatred and hypocrisy know no racial, religious or ethnic boundaries, and mob justice is never justice at all. * * * Joseph J. Honick is president of GMA International in Bainbridge Island,an international consulting firm. He writes for many publications and can be reached at joehonick@gmail.com |
