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As anyone with any connection to social media (or hell, media in general) are aware of the killing of Trayvon Martin was one of the biggest and most divisive news stories in a while. For some reason, the following and shooting of an unarmed teen became political (much like everything nowadays); and of course there’s been plenty of conservatives howling over the “race card”.
I always sarcastically chuckle every time I hear someone who complains about the “race card”, and as an effect, try to use it to get across their point. Its always an accusation that black people use the “race card” but then white people turn around and use a reverse one.
But a picture going around Facebook that has really caught my attention lately is this one:
This picture also occasionally follows with the caption “You tell me…what is the difference?”.
Now the murder of Marley Lion is one of the more despicable and heinous things you will read. Lion, 17, was murdered in a parking lot and after a six week investigation, arrests were made in connection with the murder of the unarmed teen. The accusation that picture makes is that the media unfairly handpicked a case to make a black person seem innocent and white people to seem murderous. One of the top comments is from a white male who claims that he’s “not a racist” but “black people playing the race card is really getting old”.
There is a stark difference between these two unspeakable tragedies however and that’s not to diminish the murder of Marley Lion. Lion’s murder is no more or less important/sad/heinous than the death of Trayvon Martin. But ready for the key difference?
The police pursued the men who murdered Lion and slowly figured out who they were and arrested them in a prompt manner. In Martin’s case? The killer was questioned immediately after the shooting and was let go, free to be able to do whatever he needed until public outcry led to a new investigation and subsequent trial.
We didn’t know the murderers in the Lion case until a police investigation nailed down the suspects and immediately charged them with murder. In the Martin case, we knew exactly who killed who and that person was freed immediately as opposed to being charged.
This has nothing to do with black or white crime, as Facebook and a few others would love for you to believe. The biggest cases are the ones where a suspect is found immediately and then we wait for their day to come in court. OJ, Scott Peterson, Drew Peterson, Jodi Arias, Casey Anthony, George Zimmerman; a mixture of white, black, hispanic males and females were some of the biggest court cases in the past two decades.
The only people who want to turn this into a racial divide are the ones who claim they are sick of racial division.
posted on 17 July at 19:33
The issues are different. Four punks just popped rounds into a young man who was in his car doing nothing. Had he been black, the media would have blown that case up but as it is most of America is just now discovering it. Martin was killed in an altercation that had an element of defensive action that the police investigated and knew they could never get a conviction on in a legal setting. They didn't just turn him loose. The people I feel for are the parents of both these boys. They are now reminded at every turn about their horrible loss. What is personal for them has been hijacked and used for political and monetary gain by national mouthpieces. Evil is evil it is not white or black