Zimmerman Release Called 'Absolute Mockery'

Zimmerman was released on $150,000 on April 23. He is required to wear a GPS monitoring device and to check in with courts if he goes to another state. That result is insufficient to many who think the process has been a joke.

“This whole Trayvon case has been so confusing from the start. I don’t understand how someone who admittedly killed someone gets to stay out of jail for weeks before he’s even charged and then, knowing how emotional and violatile the case is, for a judge to grant him bail and set it at such a low rate for second degree murder just doesn’t seem appropriate to me,” said Jackie Jones, a journalism instructor at Howard University.

“I tell my students to not just report what happened but why it happened so people aren’t confused about what’s going on and aren’t making snap judgments. This is such an emotional case you can’t help but have a point of view. You should just give people facts, but a lot are missing in this case.”

She was not alone in her thinking.

“This is an absolute mockery of the judicial system,” said 30-year-old Largo, Md. resident Dalmus Robinson.

Robinson then cited a recent episode of the A&E reality crime show, “First 48” and the Stand Your Ground law was used in the episode he watched.

“I just watched ‘First 48’ and a Black dude shot a man he claimed was in front of his house – saying dude verbally threatened that he was going to kill him. He tried that Stand Your Ground Rule, but was immediately held and questioned, and then locked up within 48 hours.”

Upper Marlboro resident Weldon Brown, 36, implied that Zimmerman’s race played a definite part in him being released on bond and asks that the same treatment be given to African Americans awaiting trial for murder.

“This is only fair if they start letting us out on bond while facing a murder charge,” Brown said before admitting that no one should be allowed to go free when charged with something so serious.

Meanwhile, 29-year-old Herndon, Va. native Danilo Ulloa questions whether the criminal justice system in Florida is slow in prosecuting cases in which African Americans are victims as he compared Martin’s murder with the murder of former Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor. Taylor was murdered in his home on Nov. 27, 2007 and there still has been no justice for his family.

“All this reminds me of is that four guys went and killed Sean Taylor, one snitched and those dudes are still not on trial or anything,” Ulloa said. “What especially makes this case more relevant is race.”

Ulloa continued saying that he believes this case will fade to the background over time saying that it would be “another one of the cases where as time goes it will be forgotten.”

The racial aspect has not been something that everyone has agreed on though, including some Black people. Christopher Cheatham, a 31-year-old Lanham, Md.-resident, says Zimmerman profiled Martin, but doesn’t believe he is racist.

“He didn't wake up and say ‘I’m a kill me a Black person today,’” Cheatham said.

“What he did was disobey an order from law enforcement, got into an altercation, got scared and now someone is dead. Everyone’s beef should not be with him, it should be with the police's handling of this situation. He was a guy with a gun that called himself making a difference but did nothing but cause a larger problem."