Letter to the Editor: Has answers
BY Randi Eldevik, Stillwater
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
5/23/12 at 3:00 AM
I have answers for the questions asked in the two April 27 letters about Trayvon Martin.
Mike McFadden ("Where are the vigils," April 27) asked why there has not been a similar outcry in response to the killings of Carissa Horton and Ethan Nichols last year and Nancy Strait earlier this year. The answer is simple: After the murder of Strait, a suspect was arrested quickly. After the double-murder last year of Horton and Nichols, two suspects also were arrested and are in custody awaiting trial. In both instances, the criminal justice system just needs to take its course.
In connection with Martin's killing, the criminal justice system wouldn't have even begun to take action if not for the public outcry. Local authorities in Sanford, Fla., had no intention of charging George Zimmerman with a crime, and it took weeks of protests for anything to be done and for him finally to be charged.
In this case, the protests and vigils accomplished something. What would protests have accomplished in Tulsa, last month or last year, with suspects already under arrest and bound over for trial?
As for Chris Rush's question ("In another's shoes," April 27) about what choice a person in Zimmerman's shoes might have made, my answer is that I would have made the choice not to harass and frighten an unarmed 17-year-old who was doing nothing wrong and was only walking home from a convenience store with some purchases.
Columnist Patrick Buchanan asserts the Trayvon Martin case has polarized America racially. I disagree; what I love is justice, not my own skin color.
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