The Rush Is On...

  The allegations are out!  Now George Zimmerman has gone from racist murderer to sexual abuser.  "I always wanted to keep it quiet..."

  Let's suppose what GZ's cousin is saying is wholly true, every sordid bit of it.  Why now?  Piling on, they call it in football.  It's illegal in football and should be in life as a whole.  If the young lady wanted to keep it private then she should have done so.  No public accusations until there is a news level she never dreamed of in her life.  Why would you do it?  Bring yourself under the scrutiny of the world press in a matter that is of no relation.  Is it her fifteen minutes of fame?  Some would say it must be true or she wouldn't have made herself a public figure and expose herself to the probably unending attention of anyone and everyone who has already made up their mind about the guilt of GZ.

  But, that willingness to come forward may carry some credibility with it when you do it for the purely simple purpose of exposing an abuser.  Once that person achieves some level of fame or infamy your reasons are now questionable.  I have told many people that if you dreamed something as a ten year old and told your best friend there are prosecutors out there who will try to indict you for a conspiracy.  Watch the reaction now!  Is this a prior bad act that will subject GZ to impeachment if he testifies?  There is already talk about this showing his true character.  Balderdash!  There is no talk out there in the community of him being an abuser.  No one else has said this openly.  But watch what happens, the fruitcakes will be espousing every imaginable accusation about him.  The bugs will be coming out from the woodwork because they can.

  Look at it for GZ.  How does one disprove a negative?  No one has said anything about this in his entire adult life.  He has gone about life, married, enrolled in school got jobs all without this issue ever raising its ugly head.  Now, out of nowhere he is blindsided by a hit and run driver who he can not defend himself against.  If he stands up and calls her out the reaction is "methinks thou dost protest too much!"  If GZ sits by in hopes that it dies a quiet death "he knows its true or he'd do something about it" is the argument.  A true Catch 22!

  This is a case that should be decided on the facts alone.  Nothing else!  Not all the talking head lawyers who offer their opinions on a situation of which they have little or no inside knowledge.  Not the lawyers for the dead young man's family - they have a monied interest in this matter - they are advocates and their position has a slant to it that they are pursuing for their clients.  Not the rabble rousers who have come in seeking their few minutes of fame on the back of the deceased young man's corpse - both sides by the way.  Not the idiots that post on all the newspaper websites with their racist views, illogical rants and half baked legal theories unsupported by the law - again both sides.

  Criminal trial as sport has risen to a level of distaste that impacts the finest criminal justice system known to humanity.  OJ made it a daily drama and it has now sunk to new lows.  Cases that would have suffered the fate of all non-celebrity matters are pushed to the forefront of each news cycle.  Why?  Simple answer - green American dollars!  Hype sells.  Sordid hype sells big!

  The NFL in its earliest days had professional football players who held second jobs during the off season.  Who can forget Bart Starr and his Cadillac dealership.  There were many others also.  Now, criminal trial lawyers - defense and prosecution - will be attending acting classes along with marketing 101 and hiring clothing consultants and getting the $400 John Edwards haircuts.  Book agents and ghost writers will be next!  We were once a simple group, close when necessary, solitary ships most of the time.  Like the NFL of old, we were regular Joes and Janes going about our life, unrecognized by most of society.  Not any more!

  Did anyone learn from the Casey Anthony trial?  The world was convinced she would be found guilty and die in jail.  Her peers decided otherwise and there was an uproar because the rush to judgment had been ignored by jurors who didn't do what the people wanted.  I guess what it amounts to is a modern high tech, instantaneous information lynch mob.  We've made up our mind now find a way to justify it.

  That isn't justice and it isn't the American Way.  Let justice be done!  Everyone shut up, sit back and let the criminal justice system funnel this case through the process.  Like sausage being made it may not be pretty, but what comes out is pretty darn tasty most of the time.