NJ Paper Editorial Board Contradicts Itself In Shrill Outcry Over FL Shooting

Opinion

Manasquan, NJ –-(Ammoland.com)- Although this article will necessarily deal with many of the circumstances surrounding the shooting death of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in Florida last month, this article is not in any way intended to be about the specific facts surrounding that case, but as an examination of the ludicrous claims made by many in the media about it, specifically the deliberately deceitful and hypocritical way the NJ Star-Ledger Editorial Board has seen fit to comment in recent days.

The shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in Florida last month has predictably brought out the worst in ignorant, hysterical rhetoric passed off as “news ” by the media, and sadly, but as equally predictable, the NJ Star-Ledger and its Editorial Board have gleefully jumped on the bandwagon.

An editorial in today’s edition of the Star-Ledger is rife with glaring mischaracterizations and blatantly false inflammatory rhetoric regarding Stand Your Ground Laws in Florida and other states that have them. Todays Editorial makes outrageous and frankly libelous claims against the Florida Law, stating at its outset that

“if you’d like to kill somebody and you’d prefer to do it legally. No problem — it’s easy. Move to somewhere like Florida. Hunt your target down and make sure there are no witnesses. Shoot that person dead. Then say you feared for your life.”

This is patently absurd and reveals a stunning lack of understanding of the facts and what the Florida Law, and what others like it do and do not permit. I speak to this from the personal experience of having taught the laws of Self Defense as an Instructor when I lived in Florida both prior to and after the passage of “Stand Your Ground” in 2005. Even prior to the laws passage, Florida law at the time stated quite clearly that a person was only required to retreat in the face of an attacker if they could do so in complete safety and a reasonable person would or should have been aware that an avenue to do so was available to them at the time of the confrontation.

“Stand Your Ground” laws were passed in Florida ( and other States ) NOT to make it easier to kill another person with impunity, as so many in the media and the various Gun Control Groups insist or would like people to believe, but rather in response to a litany of cases from across the country where there were overzealous Police arrests.  Followed by Prosecutor’s who brought charges against Citizens who legitimately used deadly force to defend themselves from an attacker and then had to face the overwhelming machinations of the so-called “Justice System”, populated by lawyers who far more often then not are more interested in notching another win in their belt than they are in objectively reviewing the evidence before pursuing a case.

Why should a potentially innocent person have to face certain financial ruin, loss of their job, possibly their family and irreparable harm to their reputation because a Police Officer, Chief or Prosecutor see’s an opportunity to make a name for him or herself? Or does innocent until proven guilty no longer apply?

The Star-Ledger Editorial Board continues with this gem

“The shooter, 28-year-old George Zimmerman, is now claiming self-defense, even though Trayvon Martin, 17, was unarmed.”

Apparently either completely ignorant or more likely intentionally ignoring the undisputed fact that literally tens of thousands of people are killed by attackers who are unarmed. In fact, just last Summer, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey publicly commented on the likelihood that an innocent person would eventually be killed by the unarmed teen flash mobs that were striking regularly and without warning.

In an amazing twist, the very same Editorial Board that today is shrilling so loudly against a law they clearly know absolutely nothing about, just two short days ago, in Wednesdays Edition, the very same Editorial Board opined that

“The man who shot Martin, George Zimmerman, 28, is claiming self-defense and has not been arrested. And because investigators are only beginning their work, we can’t assess that claim. To conclude that Zimmerman — who police say is white; his family says he’s Hispanic — is guilty would be to heap injustice on top of tragedy.”

First, the Star-Ledger claims that it would be unfair and an injustice to Zimmerman to pass judgment on his claim without all the facts, then a scant 48 hours later in today’s edition, they snark about Zimmerman “crying” Self Defense. This is the level of arrogance and contempt for the intelligence of the people of New Jersey the Star-Ledger Editorial Board displays on a regular basis. Completely contradict yourself a mere two days apart, without an iota of explanation of why you have seemingly performed a complete 180 in your opinion, and hope no one notices your hypocrisy.

I offer an open challenge to the Editorial Board of the Star-Ledger to produce credible, verifiable cases from Florida, other than the current Martin/Zimmerman one, to prove their outrageous contention that Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law allows someone to “hunt down and kill someone” and escape Prosecution by claiming Self Defense.  As that is what they claim at the beginning of today’s editorial piece that they pass off as “opinion ” but in reality is one of the more egregious pieces of “yellow journalism” seen in some time.

Clearly the Editorial Board of the Star Ledger fully supports the NJ Motto “State Mandated Victimhood and You, Perfect Together!”

The Editors of the Star-Ledger should be ashamed of themselves. In their overzealous love affair with anything having to do with promoting gun control while damning a person’s legitimate right to self-defense, they are an embarrassment to the State of NJ.

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About Dan Roberts

More articles, commentary, and information by D. Roberts are available at ThatEveryManBeArmed.com