"Mr. Zimmerman reacted very differently, taking out his handgun and shooting the youth in cold blood."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/opinion/the-gated-community-mentality.html
Without re-hashing the facts that are not in evidence, which I have already done, suffice to say that it has not been established that George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin in cold blood. By all appearances, it appears that the shot was fired during a violent struggle. It may turn out that the shooting was not justified, but that is a far cry from shooting one "in cold blood." That statement is so irresponsible that any responsible editor should have caught it.
While the rest of Mr Benjamin's op-ed is worthy of discussion, he seems to have left out or neglected a few items. I guess we'll have to buy his book to determine if he encountered hostility while staying in those gated communities. The op-ed does not indicate either way. Benjamin appeared on Bill O'Reilly's show on Fox tonight. He does not come across as a threatening person. Indeed, he appears to be the victim of stunted growth and looks quite child-like. He is quite gentlemanly in his demeanor.
The problem is that there is a reason we have so many gated communities. We have a lot of crime-violent crimes, murders, rapes, break-ins, home invasions and burglaries.
Benjamin also mentions that the Zimmerman gated community sits in a racially-mixed suburb of area of Orlando. Maybe he meant to say that the gated community itself was not racially-mixed, but we know that Trayvon's father lived in that gated community-or at least his fiance did. The point is that gated communities are still open to all races if they can afford the home.
At any rate, the glaring sin in this article is jumping to the conclusion that Zimmerman shot Martin "in cold blood". Given the already volatile situation that exists, that statement is irresponsible-but hardly surprising given the once-great New York Times.
No comments:
Post a Comment