I was in the green room on the 12th floor of Fox News building in New York on Friday when I heard the soundbite the first time, "If I had a son he'd look like Trayvon..."
That simple statement had been preceded by nearly two minutes of stating deep and profound "outrage" and "seriousness" in the need to "insure" that "this matter would be investigated to the fullest."
I asked commentator Cal Thomas who was sitting on one of the sofas in the room, "How many child murders have taken place since he took office?"
Calshrugged his shoulders as if to say, "I have no idea."
"And how many press ops did the president use to comment on a single one of them before now?" I continued.
"Ah yes, but it is an election year," replied Thomas.
Admittedly the Trayvon Martin case had not soaked up a ton of my conscious awareness prior to this week's "1,000,000" er "1,000 hoodie march." But the danger this case poses--I fear--is that it makes a mockery of a good law (Stand Your Ground), serves to foist a false fear on the American people (that suddenly armed citizens will be blowing away innocent teenagers), and is an utterly disgusting display of political hypocrisy. President Obama, Rev. Al Sharpton, and whatever pool of otherwise non-productive citizens can be rallied to chant, scream, and even get a police chief to resign, but none of that makes their cause just, much less necessary.
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From the beginning of the Trayvon Martin case it appears as though there is an outrage over the police response to the teen's killing. A police department--it should be pointed out--that employs numbers of African Americans in their ranks.
There is no argument here for police brutality, so Sharpton and the race hustlers must gin up outrage based on timelines, and hearsay based on evidence that may or may not be reflected in the official findings once the full story is known. That's why it's being investigated...
President Obama was right, Trayvon's death is a tragedy. All his bluster Friday in the Rose Garden, ending with the campaign pander of the century--that Trayvon would look just like "my son"--was more or less a side show. All he said, was all the police in Florida, and reasonable pundits in the press have said, "We need to investigate what happened here."
I've lost a child to death, and let me be the first to say that no one can empathize exactly with the family of Trayvon because it's hard to know how to walk a mile in their shoes. We can wish them all the best, but none of it matters when you no longer have your son's smile greeting you as he saunters through the door.
But one thing that is distinctly unhelpful to the Martin family is to claim the investigation, the findings, the evidence, or the process is rigged, prior to the answers being released from the multiple investigations that are still currently in process.
But another thought also strikes me...
Trayvon was shot on February 26. But the son of Melissa Coon was set on fire by two assailants in their late teens on his way home on March 4. The woman's son was only two blocks from his home when two assailants ran him down, doused him in gasoline, and lit him on fire.
The two assailants are thought to be classmates of the boy in the local high school.
The boy's future may hold an outlook that is rather dismal, and filled with pain. It appears he may in fact yet survive and pull through, but to what quality of life?
Everyone is questioning the motive of the shooter in the Trayvon Martin case, he had opportunity, he had access, and he was a lawful owner of a concealed carry weapon.
He also did clearly disobey the police dispatch directly, and probably on that charge alone should be in jail. But if that is the case, the investigation will show that to be the case. The shooter also may have purely shot the boy because he merely hated the color of his skin, and if so--I believe he would be eligible for the death penalty. (A sentence Rev. Al Sharpton regularly campaigns against.)
And though that is a possible theory, there is no evidence of bias or malice towards race uncovered yet.
Eight days later, in the case of the child who was burned, the victim was white, the assailants black, the media silent, and the President indifferent.
But the assailants repeatedly told the victim, "You deserve to die. You get what you deserve white boy."
Even though the victim had made it to the porch of his own home, the black youths rushed him, and burned his face in a huge fireball from the gasoline, fumes, and a pocket lighter. Will the lighter control activist groups take up this hate crime in earnest?
Unlike President Obama I actually am the father of both an African-American and a Caucasian son, if either of these crimes had been perpetrated against either of them, my outrage would've been the same--even equal.
But President Obama's selective outrage seems to follow the television cameras--and in this instance--the trail of rent-a-mobs that accompany Rev. Sharpton.
And as my new friend Cal said, "Ah yes, but it is an election year!"
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