The goal is justice for Trayvon, not vengeance

Over the past few years, the handful of idiots calling themselves “the New Black Panther Party” have hit upon a mutually symbiotic relationship with Fox News and its allies on the right. The NBP clowns pretend to pose a serious radical danger to white people, playing to Fox’s need to scare its audience and validate their fears, and in return Fox gives the NBP a level of visibility that they in no way deserve given their tiny numbers and almost total lack of support in the black community.

That said, the alleged $10,000 bounty that members of the NBP have announced on the head of George Zimmerman, the gunman in the Trayvon Martin case, is absolutely unacceptable. If possible, criminal charges ought to be pursued against those who made that announcement. If criminal charges aren’t possible — if offering a financial reward for the murder of another person isn’t already a felony — then the law ought to be changed that oversight.

The goal is not vengeance for Trayvon Martin; the goal is justice for Trayvon Martin. From the beginning, the goal has been to ensure a full and honest investigation — the type of investigation that did not occur initially — to determine the truth about what happened that night.

After that investigation, it may very well turn out that the evidence against Zimmerman is not sufficient to convict or even charge him. That conclusion — should it come — may prove hard for some to accept given the emotions that this case has generated. But you cannot rail against the perceived excesses of a vigilante and then embrace the ethos of a vigilante.

– Jay Bookman