[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]It's All About Race Now[/FONT]
[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]by Patrick J. Buchanan[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]If it had been a white teenager who was shot, and a 28-year-old black guy who shot him, the black guy would have been arrested.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]So assert those demanding the arrest of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed Trayvon Martin. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]And they may be right. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Yet if Trayvon had been shot dead by a black neighborhood watch volunteer, Jesse Jackson would not have been in a pulpit in Sanford, Fla., howling that he had been "murdered and martyred." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Maxine Waters would not be screaming "hate crime." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Rep. Hank Johnson would not be raging that Trayvon had been "executed." And ex-Black Panther Bobby Rush would not have been wearing a hoodie in the well of the House.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Which tells you what this whipped-up hysteria is all about.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]It is not about finding the truth about what happened that night in Sanford when Zimmerman followed Trayvon in his SUV, and the two wound up in a fight, with Trayvon dead.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]It is about the exacerbation of and the exploitation of racial conflict. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]And it is about an irreconcilable conflict of visions about what the real America is in the year 2012.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Zimmerman "profiled" Trayvon, we are told. And perhaps he did. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]But why? What did George Zimmerman, self-styled protector of his gated community, see that night from the wheel of his SUV?[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]He saw a male. And males are 90 percent of prison inmates. He saw a stranger over 6 feet tall. And he saw a black man or youth with a hood over his head. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Why would this raise Zimmerman's antennae?[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Perhaps because black males between 16 and 36, though only 2 to 3 percent of the population, are responsible for a third of all our crimes.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]In some cities, 40 percent of all black males are in jail or prison, on probation or parole, or have criminal records. This is not a product of white racism but of prosecutions and convictions of criminal acts.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Had Zimmerman seen a black woman or older man in his neighborhood, he likely would never have tensed up or called in. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]For all the abuse he has received, Geraldo Rivera had a point. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Whenever cable TV runs hidden-camera footage of a liquor or convenience store being held up and someone behind the counter being shot, the perp is often a black male wearing a hoodie.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Listening to the heated rhetoric coming from demonstrations around the country, from the Black Caucus and TV talkers ? about how America is a terrifying place for young black males to grow up in because of the constant danger from white vigilantes ? one wonders what country of the mind these people are living in.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The real America is a country where the black crime rate is seven times as high as the white rate. It is a country where white criminals choose black victims in 3 percent of their crimes, but black criminals choose white victims in 45 percent of their crimes.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Black journalists point to the racism manifest even in progressive cities, where cabs deliberately pass them by to pick up white folks down the block. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]That this happens is undeniable. But, again, what is behind it?[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]As Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute has written, from January to June 2008 in New York City, 83 percent of all identified gun assailants were black and 15 percent were Hispanics.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Together, blacks and Hispanics accounted for 98 percent of gun assaults.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Translated: If a cabdriver is going to be mugged or murdered in New York City by a fare, 49 times out of 50 his assailant or killer will be black or Hispanic.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Fernando Mateo of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers has told his drivers, "Profile your passengers" for your own protection. "The God's honest truth is that 99 percent of the people that are robbing, stealing, killing these guys are blacks and Hispanics."[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Fernando Mateo is himself black and Hispanic.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]To much of America's black leadership and its media auxiliaries, what happened in Sanford was, as Jesse put it, that an innocent kid was "shot down in cold blood by a vigilante." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Yet, from police reports, witness statements, and the father and friends of Zimmerman, another picture emerges.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Zimmerman followed Trayvon, confronted him, and was punched in the nose, knocked flat on his back and jumped on, getting his head pounded, when he pulled his gun and fired. That Trayvon's body was found face down, not face up, would tend to support this. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]But, to Florida Congresswoman Federica Wilson, "this sweet young boy ... was hunted down like a dog, shot on the street, and his killer is still at large."[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Some Sanford police believed Zimmerman; others did not. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]But now that it is being investigated by a special prosecutor, the FBI, the Justice Department and a coming grand jury, what is the purpose of this venomous portrayal of George Zimmerman?[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]As yet convicted of no crime, he is being crucified in the arena of public opinion as a hate-crime monster and murderer. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Is this our idea of justice? [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]No. But if the purpose here is to turn this into a national black-white face-off, instead of a mutual search for truth and justice, it is succeeding marvelously well. [/FONT]
