George Zimmerman arrest reveals deep racial divide

BY MICHAEL HAYNE

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

COMMENTARY

A new chapter in the Trayvon Martin shooting saga opened up earlier today when it was reported that George Zimmerman was going to in fact be charged in the wake of the Trayvon Martin killing. We were told that Special Prosecutor Angela Corey would hold a press conference stating the charges being held against George Zimmerman. A few hours later, we learned that George Zimmerman was in fact taken into custody in Florida, but Special Prosecutor Corey refused to release the whereabouts.

Prosecutor Corey took to the podium around 6pm and remained as patient and candid as she could.

Here are some key statements made by Special Prosecutor Angela Corey during the MSNBC live televised News Conference held at the state attorney’s office in Jacksonville, Florida:

“The team with me has worked tirelessly to find answers to Trayvon Martin’s death.” Adding, “We prosecute on facts and we will continue to seek the truth.”

“Today, we charged George Zimmerman with Second Degree Murder.“

It seems a second-degree murder charge in Florida carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, and it’s ordinarily charged when there is a fight or other altercation that results in death and where there is no premeditated plan to kill someone.

“Mr. Zimmerman is indeed in custody, and I will not tell you where."

“We do not discuss the information involved in a case.”

“Mr. Zimmerman turned himself in and was subsequently arrested on the capias that was issued.”

On the issue of it being a whopping 45 days before an arrest was made.

“I can tell you that the investigation was in full mode, and that the governor appointed us less than three weeks ago, and we had to make sure we had everything proper in place in order to prosecute,” said Corey.

One constant theme was why an arrest took so long and the state appeared to be deliberately dilatory in doing so: Mrs. Corey perpetually said that “we have many homicides in Florida and it takes us time to investigate them all.”

In sum, after all the media outcry, all the protests, and all the rabid racism that seems to have a permanent home a Fox Nation’s blog (or at least a timeshare with Stormfront), it appears that Trayvon Martin’s friends and family can finally take solace in the fact that they are finally getting justice for the murder of their 17-year old teenage boy.

But don’t think for one moment that this case is over or that its coverage will suddenly find itself buried in the blogs and back pages, as the latest Washington Post poll on the Trayvon Martin case revealed a woefully deep racial divide on the case. It’s gotten to the point where the Trayvon Martin case is the bizzaro O.J. Simpson Case with regards to race; that is, you have a white (somewhat hispanic) individual who committed a heinous crime and where all the facts thus far point to him being ridiculously guilty, yet you have people of the same race as the murderer either supporting him or undecided. Conversely, the same Washington Post poll showed that 80 percent of blacks said the shooting was unjustified.

Michael Hayne is a comedian/VO artist/Columnist extraordinaire. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook