The deification of Trayvon Martin, with comparisons to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Emmitt Till, is just part of the false narrative of the prosecution of George Zimmerman.
We are seeing a mythology grow and become embedded on campuses which misrepresents the factual and legal nature of the case. Long ago it was the false hoodie and racial narratives which feverishly were embraced on campuses, and now it is the “hunting season / stand your ground” narrative.
The latest is an email circulated by a University of Maryland official School official tells students Trayvon Martin case proved it is ‘legal to hunt’ children:
An email sent to students by a University of Maryland official that cites the Trayvon Martin shooting as evidence “it is legal to hunt down and kill American children in Florida” is being blasted as the latest evidence of a left-wing bias on campus.
The email, from William Dorland, director of the school’s Honors College, starts by welcoming students back to campus, but then quickly veers into politics.
“This year, we learned that it is legal to hunt down and kill American children in Florida,” it reads, in a reference to the trial of George Zimmerman, who was cleared of all charges in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The email went out to all students in the Honors College.
The political language continued:
“This year, the most activist Supreme Court in the history of the United States and radical factions of gun owners, gun manufacturers, and marijuana users are challenging the very fabric of the nation…”
Dorland then invites students to attend a lecture by former NAACP chairman Julian Bond.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The truth is that Trayvon Martin, someone who bragged about fighting and sucker punching people in the nose (evidence the jury never heard), was shot as he was on top of Zimmerman pounding him Mixed-Martial Arts “ground and pound” style, as described by an eyewitness backed up by the physical evidence of injury and ballistics.
This is how politicized mythology grows, and comes to be accepted as truth, as in the Matthew Shepard case.
For a clear explanation of why these narratives are false (racial motivation, “hoodie” targeting, stand your ground, etc.), watch the presentation Andrew Branca and I gave at Cornell Law School, Did the Jury get it right in The Zimmerman Trial?
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Comments
Victor Davis Hanson had this excellent piece up, which deals with this and other mythology in our culture.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/359316/our-truest-lies-victor-davis-hanson
great article. Thanks for the link.
As I said before, it is offensive to the American republic system to have doubt in jury verdicts. A jury is the direct diametrically opposed concept to a king/god/emperor. As such, we should be revering it at all times and from all angles, while furiously defending from those who question its lofty place in our scheme.
It’s no different than questioning the notion of civilian control of the military via a commander-in-chief.
Even sitting down with our fundamental enemies grants them credibility and emboldens them. People like this evil idiot in Maryland need to be called out for what they are — America-hating traitors. They should not be granted the honor of a seat at the table, such an honor being reserved for worthy alternative viewpoints within our constitutional republic theory.
Aren’t juries supposed to try the law as well as the defendant? If the defendant is guilty but the law is wrong, isn’t the jury supposed to nullify?
The only other purpose I can see is a “share the guilt for wrongful punishment of someone who should not have been punished because the law sux” ploy.
I’ll be blunt … is Dorland black?
Nope, pink.
“Pink”? Please.
I prefer “Person of Pallor.”
It is amazing how the Trayvon propaganda is so deeply entrenched. I followed the case closely thanks to this blog and Mr Branca. But so many highly educated people (who are now part of the low info crowd) choose to believe utter falsehoods about the case. I correct people and direct them to good case resources, and it just does not matter. The belief system is fixed and while a perception about a fact or two might change in these minds, the basic belief about Trayvon as tragic hero remains. If one item of propagandistic support fails (is corrected) their minds simply replace that now inconvenient fact with another chunk of propaganda
And all that, sadly, plays out on our very best (?) college campuses every day.
Propganda = Power. And so it goes
It is not so surprising, and you correctly note the reason in your last paragraph. It is the power of Propaganda. The Big Lie. Joseph Goebbels was a piker compared to the Democratic Party Press.
Most people do not question the media. That is their greatest power. This is a function of the failure of McCarthyism in the 50s. We should have had mass executions.
The important thing is to be critical: being right isn’t just boring, it’s limiting. But being critical without worrying about truth, that lets your spirit fly!
A bit off-topic, but sort of related to this, the case of Marissa Alexander, which the Trayvonistas were calling “a reverse Trayvon Martin case” (which it wasn’t), has come up again. The same “Justice 4 Trayvon” types have been pressing a “Justice 4 Marissa” case, and I guess the public pressure has been heard.
As I just wrote on Mr Branca’s blog, “Since you covered the Marissa Alexander case at Legal Insurrection back in July (https://legalinsurrection.com/2013/07/the-marissa-alexander-case-wasnt-about-stand-your-ground-either/ ) I thought you might be interested in a heads-up that a Florida appeals court has just granted her a new trial “because the trial judge handling her case did not properly instruct the jury regarding what is needed to prove self-defense.” There really was a lot of pressure put by the anti-Zimmerman crowd, claiming that if a white guy could “get away with murder” by claiming Stand Your Ground (which, as we know, he isn’t, he didn’t, and he didn’t, but it’s The Narrative That Will Not Die), it would be racist not to let this black woman (who turned down a three-year plea deal and got socked with 20 under our admittedly ridiculous Mandatory Sentencing system) go… even though the circumstances were completely different.”
Link: http://www.news4jax.com/news/appeals-court-orders-new-trial-for-marissa-alexander/-/475880/22131486/-/16ux9s/-/index.html
And here’s a link to the actual appeals court ruling: http://opinions.1dca.org/written/opinions2013/09-26-2013/12-2469.pdf
I doubt that the verdict will be much different in the Marisa Alexander case. With the granting of a new trial because yet again the judge failed to instruct, perhaps this time Alexander will take a plea bargain for reckless endangerment of the children.
Yes, Mr. Branca posted on this just a little while ago:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2013/09/marissa-alexander-wins-a-do-over-in-florida-self-defense-case/
“In hindsight of the conviction, Alexander might well have wondered whether it would have been more prudent for her to accept the three-year plea deal offered her rather than proceed to the trial that resulted in her 20-year sentence. It remains to be seen whether the State, facing the prospect of a re-trial and the political pressures now certain to accompany such a trial, will be able or willing to re-engage Alexander in a plea agreement she may now be more likely to view favorably.”
The Hagiography of “St. Trayvon” should be placed on the bookshelf right next to the Hagiography of “St. Shepard”
Here in Charlotte, a police officer responding to a break in call recently shot an unarmed man 10 times. The Chief of Police IMMEDIATELY took the officer down town and charged him with voluntary homicide. Then, begged the State Bureau of Investigation to take over the case.
Maybe the Officer is guilty. Maybe there are extenuating circumstances. Regardless, the new policy will always be to ‘err on the side of color.’
Um, thats one way to tell the story… you left quite a few things out.
The Martin case should be held up as a tragic example…
…to the youth of America that you should not try to jump a man because he annoyed you and you think you are stronger then he is.
I’d be interested to see, by the way, if the rash of burglaries in Zimmerman’s neighborhood ended about the time of Martin’s failed assault…
Very few people here are going to read the full article to gain more insight. Here are a few bits:
“”I think it’s stirring the pot,” Dorland said about his email. “I think, factually, the sentence — it may be strained and polemic or something — but it is roughly at least what many people would say was the outcome of the verdict [of the Trayvon Martin case]. I’m not going to avow or disavow the position because it doesn’t really matter what I think.””
“”In my job here I’m pretty apolitical,” he added. “You can ask the students. I will take the side of Pope Benedict on an argument, and the next day take the side of a new Pope. You know, the intellectual position in the world is to engage people and get them to talk about what they believe in,” he said.”
So basically, big deal! He admits that he used provocative language to stir up the students’ interest.
So basically, big deal! He admits that he
used provocative languagelies to stir up the students’ interest.There. Fixed it for ya.
Looks like he’s taking a page straight out of Gloomy Glenn Beck’s book!
Here’s a director of the school’s Honors College who doesn’t even know the meaning of the word “apolitical”. It doesn’t mean being able to argue either side of a political issue. It seems like Dorland and his ilk have no conception of why they shouldn’t be leveraging their position and their university’s stature to promote their personally favored political hobby horse. The value of these institutions to their students depends on their remaining independent of contentious social and political issues, but people like Dorland will happily squander the good will and prestige that independent intellectual advancement has accumulated in order to gain a short-term political advantage, and think themselves admirable people for doing so.
Very well worded reply, thanks. I just looked at the article again and he is just all over the board with the issues he selects, I believe that is intentional, just as he said. Here, take a look:
“This year, 1) the most activist Supreme Court in the history of the United States and 2) radical factions of gun owners, 3) gun manufacturers, and 4) marijuana users are challenging the very fabric of the nation…”
In that sentence he is slamming marijuana users and the Supreme Court on one hand, and then going after gun manufacturers and owners. It appears that both the left and the right are fair game to him. So I believe him.
Anyway, I gotta go see my psychiatrist now! 😉
Anyway, I gotta go see my psychiatrist now
what a shock to us that is…….
Marijuana usage isn’t a left/right issue.
“University of Maryland official that cites the Trayvon Martin shooting as evidence “it is legal to hunt down and kill American children in Florida” …The email, from William Dorland, director of the school’s Honors College, starts by welcoming students back to campus, but then quickly veers into politics.”
Watch out Oberlin. You have competition.
These people should be charged with hate crime.
Off topic but current: Brian Holloway has decided he really does not want to HelpMeSave300.com Teens anymore, now he wants them all in jail. The “15 minutes of fame” clock was ticking away too fast for him! Oh, and he wants “the wallstreet banks” to pay off his mortgage and for him and then donate the property to some charity after they do:
http://helpmesave300.com/
“He said Thursday he would leave it to the authorities to decide on proper charges, but he expects “waves” of arrests in the coming months.” “Everyone that broke the law, I’m pressing charges against,” Woohoo! Most of the 300 (now 400) kids simply went to a party and had no knowledge that it was at a home that was not owned by a fellow student. So I don’t know what “wave of arrests” could possible occur.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/09/26/ex-nfl-player-brian-holloway-charge-teens-who-trashed-my-ny-home/
DriveBy taking the side of lawbreaking teenagers – ho hum.
“False narrative of Trayvon Martin shooting embeds on campuses”
Speaking of “embedding” and higher education and dealing with false narratives about America …
… how about tying financial aid for college to a two-year stint in the military?
Some nice grants/scholarships/low-rate loans for a short two-year period of service which would attack so many problems and false narratives in the minds of our young.
Do you really want members of the pampered, whiny, entitled class defending this country?
I tend to agree. We already have the National Call To Service initiative. If even that’s too much of a commitment for a young person to make, in exchange for all the benefits they’ll receive, I don’t know whether the military really wants or needs them.
Next they’ll want a fully-funded #OccupyMilitary program where they spend a long weekend camping out at Pensacola watching a Blue Angels training session and they score a full-ride scholarship to the university of their choice out of it.
“Do you really want members of the pampered, whiny, entitled class defending this country?”
—No, I want the military to keep them from being pampered and whiny.
“I don’t know whether the military really wants or needs them.”
—And hopefully they’d learn that America needs its military and that the American military is not this big monster causing many of the world’s problems.
It’s the US Military. It’s not a crèche.
conscription has always led to a weaker and non-thinking military.
saw it in germany personally, the conscripts were basically unmotivated emotionless robots that needed a lot of babysitting.
I’m really at a loss as to whether these Leftist professors are so stupid that they actually believe this stuff or if they think the rest of us are stupid enough to believe it.
It fits their narrative, so, of course “everyone of importance” is going to believe it.
Our lack of importance is proven by our disbelief.
Indeed. It is remarkable how mythology can grow, propogate and become thoroughly embedded in a movement with little or no reflection of the actual truth or facts of the matter. This country’s Tea Party does this about as well as any other. Between the birthers, those who think Obama is a Muslim, those who think that Obama is a terrorist, those who think Obama is a socialist, a traitor and, if you listen to Mr. Cray himself, Glenn Beck, the anti-Christ. All of this seething hatred and fear created and propagated in spite of facts and evidence to the contrary. Indeed, mythology can sprout out of nowhere and distort, contort and misrepresent reality.
Just when I thought the stupid was heavy with DriveBy…
Just a troll trying to change the subject from the uninformed accusations by this so-called educator to something else. Typical troll behavior.
No troll, iconotastic. Just someone here to offer a contrasting view to the typical glad-handing and atta boy commentary offered by the regulars around here whose thinking often seems overly unified and lacking in differentiation from one another. Especially when things seem blatantly absurd. Who’s the outlier amongst you all anyway?
“Edumacatin’ the ignernt high skul dropouts”?
Yeah, this place is just full of them. No doubt at all that you are going to serve a valuable function.
(Where’s the popcorn?)
Dragging in wildly irrelevant topics in a deliberately inflammatory manner is the soul of trolling. Calling this a contrasting view is merely low sophistry.
You’re out, liar.
Gee, that went well, gadfly. Flummoxed by your obviously insurmountable intellect and moral superiority, they all realized their shame and backed right down. Things are really going to change now, huh?
He needs a little “hope” to promise along with that “change”
Funny how diversity of opinion in this e-topian manner you opine about is not rewarded on motherjones or moveon.org.
Looks like I’ve already made some friends. @Phillep Harding – Just hangin out with y’all and offering my take on things. @iconotastic – I thought my point rather apropos considering Jacobson’s assertion of leftie mythology building. @Henry Hawkins – Hopefully, no mind is too decided about things to let a different thought or consideration breathe for a bit. I include myself in this. @healthguyfsu – I completely agree with you about the monopolization of left/liberal opining and whatnot at Mother Jones, Move On, MSNBC and a host of other outlets. They would do well to allow thoughtful, reasonable right-leaning commentary into the mix. Just kind of hard to find these days. And yes, I know it’s always worthy of ridicule, but I would love me some more hope and change, please. God knows we need it.
But you’re above it all, right? Except that your asinine comment has little or no reflection of the actual truth or facts of the matter.
Ummm… Pardon me, but perhaps this is politically incorrect to even think about… Perhaps it would be a good thing to ‘actively’ hunt down thugs and criminals – the top predators of our society, eh? I have no problem with little Trayvon eating a wholesome diet of lead – wholesome for out society, lethal for him.
Our government is instituting a government health plan where a person can leech legally off of Mommy & Daddy’s health insurance until the age of 26. Meanwhile, around the world, teenagers are picking up firearms and overthrowing social order. If these teens are big enough to fight, then they’re big enough to receive the consequences – in Trayvons case it was death, rightly deserved.
Such beautifully crafted, hateful prose, David Yotham. At least you’re not parading about as a Christian or anything. After all, Jesus went about forgiving the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the thieves and even those who put him down. Stand proud and loud with your crazed hatred and vigilante spew!
Physician, heal thyself.
Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.
Did you study self-righteous pomposity at school or are you self-taught?
I thought it was “pompassity”, with the middle syllable being the root word.
Hmmm. Works better that way, IMO.
It hardly seems like pomposity to reproach David Yotham for his call to preemptively kill thugs across the nation (who would determine that anyway? You? Tea Party? Not big govt!). This sort of rhetoric (Perhaps it would be a good thing to ‘actively’ hunt down thugs and criminals – the top predators of our society, eh? I have no problem with little Trayvon eating a wholesome diet of lead – wholesome for out society, lethal for him.) is indefensible if you claim to roll with JC. If you think otherwise, please provide a Christ-based justification for Yotham’s calls for death.
The author of this scurrilous trash is as dishonest as one might expect of a campus liberal. “..just wanted to stir the pot..” and “not very political” are outright lies.
Another example of why much of what is labeled as education in the USA is just simple-minded propaganda.
Damn right, iconotastic! We gotta get those kids off those leftist college campuses and put them in schools like Liberty University, Patrick Henry College or Oral Roberts University where they can get a proper, unbiased edurcation.
You’ve put your finger on it – the real problem in American education is the overwhelming conservative bias.
Funny how he counters with a select few private universities while we are talking about state-funded entities.
Mark O’Mara went to Zimmerman’s home, when his soon to be ex-wife created her “media epic.” And, O’Mara did something “odd.” He said he was no longer Zimmerman’s attorney.
But he did tell Zimmerman to get the heck out of the father-in-law’s place THAT NIGHT! Which Zimmerman did.
Now, according to Shellie Zimmerman’s “lawyer,” George Zimmerman can’t be found for her to serve her divorce papers onto. AND? Well you can’t serve them on Mark O’Mara, because Mark O’Mara is NOT George’s lawyer, anymore.
Signs of genius!
Mark O’Mara figured out the best road to travel. (He’s now part of CNN’s legal analysis members. And, there’s more money in that, than there is in a small practice.)
As to the Trayvon story, I’d be very, very surprised if people haven’t already made up their minds.
And, I’d add, in black neighborhoods, their “yoots” in “hoodies” are not harmless pets. They carry guns. Kill. And, steal. And, beat up others whom they deem “not as strong.”
Journalists? You haven’t learned all they do all day is propaganda?
Ask Stalin how believable propaganda really is. (Since slime really resides on Stalin’s reputation. Sure. When he was alive he was feared.)
How will Shellie do in her “quest” for money for her short marriage? No kids. And, I doubt any judge will order George to pay for a life insurance policy where Shellie’s the beneficiary.
Learn anything? Well, I did. Mark O’Mara is a top notch attorney.
So, the consensus is that Zimmerman should not have acted in self-defense. Apparently, there are times when the consensus favors the strong and will enthusiastically sacrifice the weak. The consensus is an opportunistic lot.
[…] Myths for our time. Although recalling our Knucklehead in chief offering that if he had a son he’d be like Mr Martin, you know a kind of kid willing to “grind and pound” complete strangers and brag about fighting and sucker punching. Our history has some Presidential low points, and that was another. […]