The People's Court

Last I checked, the US is not a third-world country. One of the first things to go on the road to serfdom is our ability to uphold the rule of law, which now teeters perilously over the abyss of mob rule in the Trayvon Martin tragedy.

It’s time for George Zimmerman to clear his name.

Yes, you heard me.  After many weeks observing the aftermath of the shooting in Sanford, Fla., I believe the only way to learn the truth of what happened on Feb. 26 is for Mr. Zimmerman to be charged with manslaughter and defend himself vigorously in a court of law.

That police authorities took Mr. Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense at face-value and chose not to charge him with a crime is what lays at the heart of protest marches and public calls for “justice.”  Until either the police or Mr. Zimmerman is challenged to appear in a court of law, the mobs will grow on both sides, leading exactly to nowhere.

For Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, putting the police on trial is far better than learning what really happened.  As far as they are concerned, they’ll stand on young Trayvon Martin’s corpse shaking their fists for as long as possible and deep-down do not want the truth of what occurred to ruin their political moment.

Had Mr. Zimmerman been arrested the night of the incident, the odds are quite good that he would have been cleared by our system of jurisprudence of wrongdoing a month ago and Messrs. Sharpton and Jackson would not be on our televisions baiting the mob to hang Mr. Zimmerman in the court of public opinion.

Inasmuch as this sad event has grown out of proportion and become a national media feeding frenzy, saying that Mr. Zimmerman should face charges now would seem to be giving into the mob.  Many people who support the police and their decision to not charge Mr. Zimmerman have grown so rigid in the public opinion battle that they appear to not trust that the court system would render a fair verdict, either—that is, no more than Messrs. Sharpton and Jackson.

With passions this pitched, the two opposite sides have become indistinguishable.  Both are attempting to conduct the trial of Zimmerman v. Martin in the public square.  But that's what the courts are for.  And if, as I have heard from Florida, the courts cannot be trusted with Mr. Zimmerman's fate, perhaps we have no system left at all.  Once a society as large and diverse as ours no longer abides by community norms such as the right to trial under the rule of law, it has few steps left to go before it careens into the abyss where civil unrest turns to civic collapse.

Under our system, the only way to end this spectacle and get all the combatants back on the same page of the US Constitution is the trial of Mr. Zimmerman.  If Mr. Zimmerman’s eventual acquittal on self-defense grounds results in putting the police (or various statutes) involved on trial, too, so be it.  At least the venue for ascertaining the truth will be one established to do so, not based on heresay and public opinion polls.

What every citizen should want is that justice be served, not wrestled for by mobs in the town square.  That Mr. Zimmerman must face charges and defend himself in court in order for society to repair itself is a small sacrifice, but nonetheless befitting a man who so proudly has served his fellow citizens as the captain of his neighborhood watch.