George
Zimmerman proved again that he was never the victim in the killing of Trayvon
Martin. The proof this time was his being briefly detained for allegedly threatening
his now estranged wife along with a report that he had a gun. But even though
Zimmerman wasn't charged, the picture painted of him by his legion of admirers
and defenders, and that includes many who cheered him shamelessly from the
moment they slapped the cuffs on him in the murder of Martin, was nothing more
than a self-serving sham.
Zimmerman is a violent man and his history in
the years before he gunned down Martin served ample notice of that. The long
train of arrests, altercations, and complaints against him included: an arrest
for resisting an officer, a restraining order against him by a former fiancà ©e,
a charge of molesting a relative, his firing from a job securing illegal house
parties, an attack during a counseling session, an altercation with a motorist,
complaints from neighbors that he was overly aggressive, and more complaints
about his aggressiveness from homeowners in the complex where he served as a
neighborhood watchman. The trademark theme in this long and sordid checklist of
Zimmerman's antics was violence; both his resort to violence and the threat of
violence. Yet in the weeks before his trial for killing Martin, there were
endless leaks from the police, and Zimmerman's defense attorneys, about
Martin's alleged unsavory character. The aim was to tar Martin as a violence-prone,
drugged out, black thug. This was more than enough to convince Zimmerman's
ardent fans that Martin was indeed what Zimmerman, and his defense attorneys,
sold them on, and that was that Martin, not Zimmerman, was the perpetrator of
the violence that got him killed.
During
the entire time that the barrage of slander was dumped on Martin, Zimmerman's
violent history was well-known and well-documented. Yet, other than a passing
mention here and there in scattered newspaper columns, it was largely ignored,
dismissed as irrelevant, or apologized for. At no point was it taken seriously
enough to become a major factor in explaining why Martin was dead, and
Zimmerman was the trigger man in the killing. His violence was neutered and
rendered moot.
The
reasons weren't hard to find. Start with the victim, Martin, a young
African-American, who conjured up the litany of racial stereotypes, and
negative characterizations in the minds of many of young black males--gangs,
drugs and violence, and lawlessness. Another was the swelling chorus of those
who sought to make Zimmerman their poster boy of innocence in their ceaseless
and unrelenting opposition and contempt for the civil rights leaders who went
to bat for Martin and his family. Another reason still was that Zimmerman
served a ready-made breathing symbol to tout the rash of stand your ground
laws, and as a sort of reborn Charles Bronson, Death Wish, symbol of a guy who
was not afraid to stand up to criminals. That first and foremost meant
resorting to gun play to take one of them out. And yet another reason was that
Zimmerman was a cash cow that brought in bushels of dollars and along the way his
alleged victimhood boosted ratings for a gaggle of right wing TV and radio talk
show gabbers.
Zimmerman's
violent prone proclivities meant nothing to them. In fact, it got in the way of
their fraudulent image of him as a noble defender of person and property
against the lawless black hordes. But the truth about Zimmerman was always
there to see. If it had been seen, the likelihood is that Zimmerman would never
have been engaged by homeowners or anyone else to act as their protector. The
likelihood is that Sanford Police and local prosecutors would never have shirked
their duty and let Zimmerman initially waltz away scot free on that fateful
night he killed Martin. The likelihood is good that it would not have taken
mass protests by civil rights leaders and the relentless persistence of
Martin's family and their attorneys to get the state to bring murder charges
against him. The Likelihood is good that prosecutors would have mounted an
all-out, full throated effort to make his violent history a compelling issue in
court to underscore why Zimmerman was perfectly capable, even willing, to
commit murder during a violent encounter.
If
at any point the violent Zimmerman, not the put upon Zimmerman that was
cynically crafted by his defenders and many in the media, had been put on full
display to the world, the outcome of the Martin tragedy might have been far
different. In fact, there's the good possibility that Martin might still be
alive. One thing is almost certain, that given the violence that has figured in
just about everything that Zimmerman has touched, his latest arrest for
violence won't be the last. And each time it happ ens , it will proof once again that Zimmerman was
never the victim he and his defenders conned the world into believing he was.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He
is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America
Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio
Network. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM Radio
Los Angeles and KPFK-Radio and the Pacifica Network. His latest ebook '47 Percent Negro': A Chronicle of the
Wackiest Racial Assaults on President Obama is now available (Amazon).
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson