By now, most of you have been made aware of the outcome of one of the most anticpated trials in recent years, the trial of George Zimmerman.

On the evening of February 26th, Zimmerman, a 28 year old multi-racial neighborhood watch coordinator, was driving through the Twin Lakes Housing community in Sanford, Florida on a personal errand when he witnessed 17 year old Trayvon Martin, who was African American, walking in the gated community he was patrolling. Zimmerman deemed Martin “suspicious” and as a result called the Sanford police non-emergency number to report what he considered as a suspicious person. Zimmerman stated,

”We’ve had some break-ins in my neighborhood, and there’s a real suspicious guy.”

Zimmerman described an unknown male “just walking around looking about” in the rain and said,

“This guy looks like he is up to no good or he is on drugs or something.”

Zimmerman reported that the person had his hand in his waistband and was walking around looking at homes. On the recording, Zimmerman is heard saying,

“these assholes, they always get away.”

About two minutes into the call, Zimmerman said, “he’s running.” The dispatcher asked, “He’s running? Which way is he running?”The sound of a car door chime is heard, indicating Zimmerman opened his car door.Zimmerman followed Martin, eventually losing sight of him.The dispatcher asked Zimmerman if he was following him. When Zimmerman answered, “yeah,” the dispatcher said, “We don’t need you to do that.” Zimmerman responded, “Okay.” Zimmerman asked that police call him upon their arrival so he could provide his location. Zimmerman ended the call at 7:15 p.m.

After Zimmerman ended his call with police, a violent encounter took place between Martin and Zimmerman, which ended when Zimmerman fatally shot Martin 70 yards from the rear door of the townhouse where Martin was staying. Martin was unarmed and at the time of his death only had a bag of skittles and a Arizona Iced Tea in his possession.

Zimmerman was eventually charged with second degree murder, and this past Saturday, July 13th, a jury of his peers, found Zimmerman not guilty on all charges.

To say that I am surprised Zimmerman was acquitted would be a complete lie. In fact, the way that the case had been developing, I pretty much expected it. The fact that it took so long for Zimmerman to be charged in the first place was the first red flag. The second came once an argument was made that maybe Zimmerman had no choice but to kill young Trayvon. Really? No choice? You pursue an unarmed teenager, engage him even though the police told you not to, leave your vehicle even though the police told you not to, kill him, and yet the argument can be made that you had no choice? Really? And America wants its citizens to believe in the justice system? A justice system that allows a man to blatantly defy the law and rob an young unarmed man of his life? All because he “looked” suspicious? This is what America wants us to believe in? Yeah….okay…

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love my country and what it SHOULD stand for, but yesterday evening, when that jury came back with its verdict, I have to admit that for that brief moment in time, I was ashamed of my country. Ashamed that our poweful judicial system that was created to protect the innocent, and prosecute the wicked, did the exact opposite. They rewarded a murderer with precious freedom and denied an innocent family their much deserved justice.

Shame on you America….

Thoughts??