Musings: Failure of Justice

With every crime, there exists an opportunity to better society. Unfortunately, within the Trayvon Martin / George Zimmerman case, we received the exact opposite. And it’s important to see why and then remedy it.As a society, we need to ask what we can learn from such experiences as the one involving a 17-year-old black boy Martin who was shot by neighborhood off-duty patrol person Zimmerman in what would be ruled as “self-defense.” We need to make certain that our laws are there to protect and bring us closer together as a society. Final verdicts like the one in the case divide us and exasperate an already broken and unresolved race relationship.In my opinion if we pride ourselves to live in a civil society, it is critical that when a crime is committed – no matter the final verdict – we do all that is in our power to learn from it and make sure that it does not happen again. Crime happens in the context of community and it’s there that resolution can also take place. Borrowing from the tenets of “restorative justice” (whose origin is from the aboriginal people of Australia and New Zealand) we only have “true justice” achieved when these three conditions are met:(A)   The victim is made whole.
(B)   The offender is returned to society as a functioning and contributing member.
(C)   The community is healed.

There was so much opportunity in this case to achieve all of the above outcomes and in doing so unite the community rather than create a larger division, which is tantamount to pouring gasoline on the fire. Let us look at how we could have achieved better results:

(A)   The victim is made whole.

Every victim’s needs are different. For a victim to be made whole again, he or she must find an answer. This goes for both, believe it or not, Zimmerman and Trayvon’s family. It’s up to the Zimmerman family, Trayvon’s family and the community to answer.

In my case, working for the past 18 years with the grandfather of my son’s killer and working with Tony, who killed my son, brings meaning to me and my family as well as our community. For through the work we see that less children in our community are ending up in prison like Tony and less young souls are ending up dead like Tariq. That is meaningful.

As a result of my tragedy I realized that revenge or hanging Tony from the highest tree would not better society; whereas, working with him and his family to avert such senseless tragedies would, in fact, better society. Clearly in the case of Trayvon, his family are victims and it is important for the community to engage in meaningful dialogue as to how they can be healed and made whole. Obviously you cannot return Trayvon to his family – as I must accept in excruciating pain that Tariq is gone forever. So the family and the community must manifest a way to honor Trayvon and to create a better community.

(B)   The offender is returned to society as a functioning and contributing member.

It is not absolutely clear that George Zimmerman acted in self-defense, but I believe he made erroneous judgments along the way and could be considered an “offender” for our line of discussion. Wearing a hoodie is not against the law, and being black does not mean necessarily that one is suspicious or dangerous. This sort of stereotyping is seriously hurting our society and is at the core of keeping us divided. This is not the spirit of the United States. We are all immigrants (except our Native American sisters and brothers) and being the most diverse society on the planet, we have an immense opportunity to come together as one people and showcase that to the rest of the world.

I don’t get this obsession with racism. I grew up in Africa, was educated in England and have lived half my life in the United States. I have black friends, white friends, brown friends and other friends that complete the rainbow. I don’t see skin color as much as I see souls. We need to get – REALLY REALLY GET – that we are one human race! If we do not get that, how are we ever going to get to peace? I believe there is potential in guiding George into making amends and becoming a passionate advocate against racial profiling.

If I were George I would want to do something to redeem myself – whether I acted in self-defense or not. Living with the knowledge that I killed an innocent and unarmed human being would gnaw at my conscience 7/24. His choice to not only walk free, but to still redeem himself would be, I believe, a healing for him.

(C)   The community is healed.

Obviously the laws of the State of Florida are flawed for this decision to be rendered in the way it was. There is NOTHING unifying in this decision or having such a justice system that claims, with the wave of the jurors’ verdict, a person is innocent or guilty … end of story. Restorative justice would have us all claim responsibility in healing the victims, the killer and the community.

I believe this is an excellent opportunity for the Florida judicial system to challenge the “stand your ground” law and amend it. In fact going beyond this one law, we should ensure that all future laws in our country should not divide us but make us more united, helping us all to contribute to a civil society. There is a ton of legislation that divides us. Perhaps an oversight non-governmental body should look at each law that is being promulgated and give it a “SANITY TEST,” determining WILL THIS UNITE US OR DIVIDE US?

By creating saner laws which focus more on restoration rather than punishment … by including the community at large in the process will bring healing and unity. I can imagine all races involved in some sort of town-hall meeting or discussion group to devise a different or amended law that would help preclude this type of tragedy.

There was a lot of opportunity in this case to unite our society rather than deepening the chasm that already exists. We need to get that these practices are creating a more violent and non-civil society. When will we ever learn? The opportunity is now.