There is a strong argument to be made that if Trayvon Martin had been white, the vigilant Mr. Zimmerman would not even have noticed him. I have absolutely no doubt that Trayvon Martin is dead because he was black. He is also dead because the American legal system in a substantial number of states recognises the “stand your ground” defence. Because Mr. Zimmerman was able to say that he felt threatened by Mr. Martin, he was able to justify the use of lethal self defence to protect himself and kill his supposed assailant.
Something similar happened in Ireland a few years ago when an Irish Traveller was discovered on land belonging to a farmer, Padraig Nally. The farmer suspected him of carrying out previous burglaries and he calmly went away, took up his legally held weapon and shot the Traveller dead.
Another similarity is that the two juries involved decided that they were both innocent.
Another similarity in my mind is that if Trayvon Martin was white or if John Ward was not a Traveller, they would probably both be alive right now.
There is however one big difference. In the United States, the not guilty verdict has provoked outrage. In Ireland Mr. Nally was regarded by many as a public hero and the not guilty verdict provoked the government of the day to say that it intended to introduce laws to allow home owners to use lethal self defence if necessary to protect the sanctity of their family home against possible burglars.
So I hope to God I don’t hear any Irish politician hypocritically criticising the racism that exists in America because this Irish pot is an awful lot blacker than the American kettle!
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