The legal system can force open doors and sometimes even knock down walls. But it cannot build bridges. That job belongs to you and me."
--Justice Thurgood Marshall United State Supreme Court
Note: In order to give you the total flavor of the book of essays, I'm dividing the Essays into three days of excerpts, giving the title, some of the beginning and/or points of particular interest...
Opening Statement
Before throwing down the race card, get through the essay where the prospective juror in one of my trials asked a courthouse deputy: "What do you think about that Nigger lawyer from Atlanta?"
Additionally, as you read these essays, if the proverbial racist shoes do not fit, then do not attempt to wear them. If they fit your neighbors, why not have a frank and honest discussion with them. After all, we are trying to get to a better place.
Now that the issue of race is out front and center, we begin these essays on the american jury system with one titled "They always get away."
For the purposes of this essay we are paraphrasing what George Zimmerman told the 911 dispatch operator when the dispatcher told him not to follow Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman actually said: "Those a--holes always get away..."
At long last, this solemn volume owes no duty to political correctness. Its fidelity is to the truth as witnessed by the writer. Let us hope that out of the seemingly unjust verdicts in the Zimmerman and Dunn trials, there comes a new sense of justice for all.--March 15, 2014
~~~
"The only thing that white people have that black people should need or want is power and no oone holds power forever." --James Baldwin, "The Fire Next Time"
"They always get away"
A lot has happened in four years. The first African American elected President of the United States was sworn into office. Immediately, it became an act of racism for anyone to disclose they had voted for him. Those bold enough to do so were met with the refrain, "You only voted for him because he was black," the politics of the reverse race card was now being played by many white Americans. Non of whom bothered to think that in the age before Obama, black voters voted in mass for white presidential contenders simply because only white men were ever nominated for the office. Black people have never had a problem with voting for white candidates. In fact, more black people have voted for white candidates than there are white people who have voted for a black candidate.
Almost as soon as President Barack Obama commenced his service, he was rejected, vilified and blocked at every turn to carry out the duties of his office, by a group, which cannot in all honesty be described as the loyal opposition...
I am not so sure that today's black people have a clear manifestation of their destiny. I am almost certain, that blacks have lost their identity. The melting pot continues to blend colors as it always has. Yet the game has changed, or at least the rules governing the games are changing.
The far right political spjere jas turned the rules of engagement on their head by adopting the language of dissent from the civil right movement. They have made it appear that there is an assault on the rights and privileges of the majority; just as the majority is quickly becoming the minority...
"Fiat justitia ruat caelum - Let justice be done though the heavens falls." --Seneca, "Piso's justice"
Zimmerman Not Guilty
George Zimmerman, the 29-year-old neighborhood watch coordinator who killed unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, has been found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter by a jury of six women...
The gunshot played over and over for the jury at the Zimmerman trial muted the cries for help of either Zimmerman or Martin. Witnesses battled over whose voice they heard crying out. The jury verdict settled that issue. It was George Zimmerman.
There was not a peep out of the jury for the first 13 hours after retiring to deliberate the fate of Zimmerman. Then, Judge Debra Nelson received a note from the jury asking for more clarification on the jury instruction on manslaughter. Judge Nelson wrote back that if they had a specific question she would answer it, but that the law prohibited her from responding to questions about the instructions in general...
~~~
Meet Michael as he talks about his first book!
Harold Michael Harvey is the author of the legal thriller Paper Puzzle. He writes on legal and political issues at haroldmichaelharvey.com. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in political science from Tuskegee University and a Juris Doctorate from Atlanta Law School. He is winner of the "Outstanding Work in Newspaper Journalism Award" from the National Newspaper Publishers Association and has won two semi-monthly Political Pundits Prizes from Allvoices.com. A former practicing lawyer, Harvey now spends his days reading and writing. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia and writes wherever the muse takes him.
No comments:
Post a Comment