Rachel Jeantel, etc.

Belatedly sharing my view of just part of the killing of Trayvon Martin trial. First, the prosecution, in my opinion screwed things up royally. Why hang so much of your case on whose voice is doing what in the background of the bystander 911 calls, or who the bystanders think was on top at any given time in the rainy dark, when they dared to catch a split-second glimpse? These are questions no one knows the answer to for sure. And they have nothing to do with who was in the wrong in instigating this whole, immensely avoidable, senseless and tragic killing. As I said on FB back on July 9: "I don't know or care who was on top, or who was screaming, and I don't know what the law is, but I Know this: if my teenage child gets caught in a rainstorm while walking and takes cover under a mail kiosk, and some armed stranger with no law enforcement authority starts eying and then following her or him, first in a vehicle, then stalking her or him on foot with a concealed gun, I want the law to say that stranger is committing a felony and recklessly endangering the safety of my child, and that my child is warranted (though not wise, perhaps) in confronting that stranger and kicking his a** if she or he so chooses. My prayers for Trayvon's loved ones who are about to get the shaft, I fear. God help us." The public, too, (as well, of course, the defense) was blatantly unfair in their opinions of and treatment of key witness Rachel Jeantel. I posted on response to FB friend Shawn Braxton's insightful comments on the exasperating trial: "Just watched cross-exam so far of Ms. Jeantel. She's been in poor quality Dade Co. schools all her life, parents aren't native English speakers, and defense strategy is to rattle her and discredit her by making her read, questioning her black dialect way of talking, by interrupting her, by keeping her up there forever, by confusing her, and by a complete lack of care for the emotion and nerves she is going through. Disgusting." I would add that it also came out (I would have realized it had I been a more astute observer) that much of what made her speech halting and harder to comprehend was the underbite that she suffers from and has appliances in place to correct.