General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: ZIMMERMAN TRIAL: Day 4, Thursday, June 27. [View all]BronxBoy
(2,286 posts)Ms Jeantel has obviously been thrust into a time and place that she didn't want and was not prepared to be. Can you imagine if a run of the mill phone call landed you in a situation like this?: A good friend dead and you a thrust into a media shitstorm. How would you react? Would you be coherent? Would you be a good witness? Who knows? I don't know if she has hurt or helped the case....No one really knows except for the folks sitting on that jury. I can only hope that they would see what I would want them to see but that is the case for folks on both sides of this case.
What I find interesting and saddening is that so many people are tearing this young girl apart for her testimony while ignoring an extremely ironic fact. Ms. Jeantel did not want to be here. She probably will always remember that phone call for the rest of her life. She is not "media pretty" or "articulate" as a lot of folks would choose to define it. And unfortunately, "it is what it is" in our system of jurisprudence whether we like it or not.
I just find it sad that the people willing to tear down this young lady, to mock her speech and in some cases to call her stupid will not discuss one salient fact before passing judgement on her: that the man who pulled the trigger on that fateful night that Trayvon Martin lost his life will probably not subject himself to the same public scrutiny that MS Jeantel has undergone. George Zimmerman will probably not take the stand. He will not have to explain under the glare and scrutiny of the public and media why he did what he did. He will probably not have to have his testimony parsed ad infiniteum about what he meant or about inconsistencies in what he said then versus what he is saying now. He will not have his intelligence questioned or asked about racial inferences in his statements.
And under our legal system, he has that right. I get it. But if Mr. Zimmerman felt that he had the absolute justification to take that young man's life then he should be able to go before the microscope of public scrutiny and say why he had the justification. And if we are going to castigate Ms Jeantel for not performing appropriately (at least according to some quarters) under the harsh spotlight of a major media trial, then we damn should ask why Mr. Zimmerman doesn't do the same.
Until then, in my book at least and whether she has been a good witness or not, she has a hell of a lot more courage that Mr. Zimmerman or his family has ever displayed.