fisharmor
07-16-2013, 12:57 PM
Because of Fatty Arbuckle.
********
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/07/william-l-anderson/the-sorry-politics-of-race/
There will be no shortfall of commentary on the verdict and the outlandish media coverage (which declared Zimmerman to be a “white Hispanic” in hopes that the racial angle in the case could be most fully exploited), I would like to deal with another perspective with which I am more familiar, that being the prosecutorial abuse that helped drive this case. The politics of race, while front-and-center, did drive the push for criminal charges, but so did electoral politics, and specifically electoral politics that have defined the recent career of Special Prosecutor Angela Corey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Corey).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Arbuckle
The prosecutor, San Francisco District Attorney Matthew Brady (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Brady_%28district_attorney%29), an intensely ambitious man who planned to run for governor, made public pronouncements of Arbuckle’s guilt and pressured witnesses to make false statements.
*********
At this point, let me say that even after the trial has ended, I am not sure what happened, but it also was clear that the State of Florida did not meet the legal burden of proof needed for a conviction.
The jury statement as read by the jury foreman stated:
"Acquittal is not enough for Roscoe Arbuckle. We feel that a great injustice has been done to him... there was not the slightest proof adduced to connect him in any way with the commission of a crime. He was manly throughout the case and told a straightforward story which we all believe. We wish him success and hope that the American people will take the judgement of fourteen men and women that Roscoe Arbuckle is entirely innocent and free from all blame."That was after the third trial.
*********
President Obama, Al Sharpton, and any number of commentators openly are declaring that when there is a high-profile action involving race and a trial, the law should be bypassed and mob rule installed. Make no mistake; Obama, Sharpton, and the New York Times were declaring (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/opinion/trayvon-martins-legacy.html?ref=opinion) their belief that the jury should have ignored legal standards of proof in exchange for a verdict that the NYT declared would have been an “emotional catharsis.”
Morality groups called for Arbuckle to be sentenced to death (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_penalty), and studio executives ordered Arbuckle's industry friends and fellow actors (whose careers they controlled) not to publicly speak up for him.
*********
The NYT and most news outlets had refused to note that the gated community where Zimmerman lived had been hit hard with numerous burglaries (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/28/zimmerman-s-twin-lakes-community-was-on-edge-before-trayvon-shooting.html), thefts, and break-ins in recent months. While the NAACP already has publicly declared Zimmerman a racist because he had made a number of calls before when on neighborhood watch, both blacks and whites who lived there were adamant in their statements (http://the-american-journal.com/zimmerman-neighbors-fear-black-youth/) about the problems of crime:
One black neighbor of George Zimmerman said the neighborhood’s recent history should be taken into account.
“Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. I’m black, OK?” the woman said, declining to be identified because she anticipated backlash due to her race. She leaned in to look a reporter directly in the eyes. “There were black boys robbing houses in this neighborhood,” she said. “That’s why George was suspicious of Trayvon Martin.”
At the hospital, Rappe's companion at the party, Bambina Maude Delmont, told Rappe's doctor that Arbuckle had raped (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape) her friend. The doctor examined Rappe but found no evidence. Rappe died one day after her hospitalization of peritonitis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peritonitis), caused by a ruptured bladder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bladder). Delmont then told police that Arbuckle raped Rappe, and the police concluded that the impact Arbuckle's overweight body had on Rappe eventually caused her bladder to rupture.[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Arbuckle#cite_note-trutv1-1) Rappe's manager Al Semnacker (at a later press conference) accused Arbuckle of using a piece of ice to simulate sex with her, which led to the injuries.[17] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Arbuckle#cite_note-17) By the time the story was reported in newspapers, the object had evolved into being a Coca-Cola (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola) or champagne (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champagne_%28wine%29) bottle, instead of a piece of ice. In fact, witnesses testified that Arbuckle rubbed the ice on Rappe's stomach to ease her abdominal pain.
....
In fact, Virginia Rappe was already an ill woman. She suffered from chronic cystitis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cystitis),[14] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Arbuckle#cite_note-14) a condition that flared up dramatically whenever she drank. Her heavy drinking habits and the poor quality of the era's bootleg alcohol could leave her in severe physical distress. She developed a reputation for over-imbibing at parties, then drunkenly tearing at her clothes from the resulting physical pain. But by the time of the St. Francis Hotel party, her reproductive health was a greater concern. She had undergone several abortions in the space of a few years, the quality of care she received for such procedures was probably substandard, and she was preparing to undergo another (or, more likely, had recently done so) as a result of being impregnated by her boyfriend, director Henry Lehrman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lehrman).
*********
Perhaps the lowest point of what was a very low standard for media coverage came when NBC News literally spliced together quotes from Zimmerman on a 911 call in order to make it look as though Zimmerman was racially profiling Martin.
...
However, the mainstream journalists hardly were finished completing their self-appointed tasks of trying to railroad Zimmerman to prison. About the time NBC News was busy splicing together Zimmerman’s comments, CNN solemnly broadcast that Zimmerman had called Martin a “f*cking coon.” The left-wing Daily Kos picked it up, as did other news outlets. Two weeks later, CNN finally admitted that he was saying, “f*cking cold,” but not before legal analysts all over the country were declaring that the statement “proved” Zimmerman was targeting and intending to kill black people.
Not to be outdone by its competitors, ABC News declared to its viewers that Zimmerman had “no injuries” from his encounter with Martin.
Arbuckle's trial was a major media event; exaggerated and sensationalized stories in William Randolph Hearst (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Randolph_Hearst)'s nationwide newspaper chain damaged his career. The story was fueled by yellow journalism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism), with the newspapers portraying him as a gross lecher who used his weight to overpower innocent girls. In reality, Arbuckle was a good-natured man who was so shy with women that he was regarded by those who knew him as, "the most chaste man in pictures".[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Arbuckle#cite_note-Ellis-2) Hearst was gratified by the Arbuckle scandal, and later said that it had "sold more newspapers than any event since the sinking of the RMS Lusitania."
*********
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/07/thomas-sowell/is-this-still-america/
There are no winners in the trial of George Zimmerman. The only question is whether the damage that has been done has been transient or irreparable.
Legally speaking, Zimmerman has won his freedom. But he can still be sued in a civil case, and he will probably never be safe to live his life in peace, as he could have before this case made him the focus of national attention and orchestrated hate.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/07/paul-huebl/government-and-prosecutorial-tyranny/
Zimmerman will forever be a marked man and a curiosity. He will be virtually unemployable and if he has any success it will be in some business unrelated to security, law enforcement or private investigation.
At the time of his acquittal, Arbuckle owed over $700,000 (around $9,444,583 adjusted for inflation in 2012) in legal fees to his attorneys for the three criminal trials,[25] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Arbuckle#cite_note-trutv3-25) and he was forced to sell his house and all of his cars to pay off some of the debt.
...
The principal effect of the trial was an immediate shunning by Hollywood and a cessation of all acting roles. A secondary effect, sadly for archive history, was the purposeful destruction of copies of films starring Arbuckle.
...Arbuckle tried returning to filmmaking, but industry resistance to distributing his pictures continued to linger after his acquittal. He retreated into alcoholism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholism). In the words of his first wife, "Roscoe only seemed to find solace and comfort in a bottle".
The Roscoe Arbuckle scandal was 92 years ago.
Tom Sowell asks "Is This Still America?"
Yes, Thomas, yes it still is.
********
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/07/william-l-anderson/the-sorry-politics-of-race/
There will be no shortfall of commentary on the verdict and the outlandish media coverage (which declared Zimmerman to be a “white Hispanic” in hopes that the racial angle in the case could be most fully exploited), I would like to deal with another perspective with which I am more familiar, that being the prosecutorial abuse that helped drive this case. The politics of race, while front-and-center, did drive the push for criminal charges, but so did electoral politics, and specifically electoral politics that have defined the recent career of Special Prosecutor Angela Corey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Corey).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Arbuckle
The prosecutor, San Francisco District Attorney Matthew Brady (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Brady_%28district_attorney%29), an intensely ambitious man who planned to run for governor, made public pronouncements of Arbuckle’s guilt and pressured witnesses to make false statements.
*********
At this point, let me say that even after the trial has ended, I am not sure what happened, but it also was clear that the State of Florida did not meet the legal burden of proof needed for a conviction.
The jury statement as read by the jury foreman stated:
"Acquittal is not enough for Roscoe Arbuckle. We feel that a great injustice has been done to him... there was not the slightest proof adduced to connect him in any way with the commission of a crime. He was manly throughout the case and told a straightforward story which we all believe. We wish him success and hope that the American people will take the judgement of fourteen men and women that Roscoe Arbuckle is entirely innocent and free from all blame."That was after the third trial.
*********
President Obama, Al Sharpton, and any number of commentators openly are declaring that when there is a high-profile action involving race and a trial, the law should be bypassed and mob rule installed. Make no mistake; Obama, Sharpton, and the New York Times were declaring (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/opinion/trayvon-martins-legacy.html?ref=opinion) their belief that the jury should have ignored legal standards of proof in exchange for a verdict that the NYT declared would have been an “emotional catharsis.”
Morality groups called for Arbuckle to be sentenced to death (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_penalty), and studio executives ordered Arbuckle's industry friends and fellow actors (whose careers they controlled) not to publicly speak up for him.
*********
The NYT and most news outlets had refused to note that the gated community where Zimmerman lived had been hit hard with numerous burglaries (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/28/zimmerman-s-twin-lakes-community-was-on-edge-before-trayvon-shooting.html), thefts, and break-ins in recent months. While the NAACP already has publicly declared Zimmerman a racist because he had made a number of calls before when on neighborhood watch, both blacks and whites who lived there were adamant in their statements (http://the-american-journal.com/zimmerman-neighbors-fear-black-youth/) about the problems of crime:
One black neighbor of George Zimmerman said the neighborhood’s recent history should be taken into account.
“Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. I’m black, OK?” the woman said, declining to be identified because she anticipated backlash due to her race. She leaned in to look a reporter directly in the eyes. “There were black boys robbing houses in this neighborhood,” she said. “That’s why George was suspicious of Trayvon Martin.”
At the hospital, Rappe's companion at the party, Bambina Maude Delmont, told Rappe's doctor that Arbuckle had raped (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape) her friend. The doctor examined Rappe but found no evidence. Rappe died one day after her hospitalization of peritonitis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peritonitis), caused by a ruptured bladder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bladder). Delmont then told police that Arbuckle raped Rappe, and the police concluded that the impact Arbuckle's overweight body had on Rappe eventually caused her bladder to rupture.[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Arbuckle#cite_note-trutv1-1) Rappe's manager Al Semnacker (at a later press conference) accused Arbuckle of using a piece of ice to simulate sex with her, which led to the injuries.[17] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Arbuckle#cite_note-17) By the time the story was reported in newspapers, the object had evolved into being a Coca-Cola (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola) or champagne (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champagne_%28wine%29) bottle, instead of a piece of ice. In fact, witnesses testified that Arbuckle rubbed the ice on Rappe's stomach to ease her abdominal pain.
....
In fact, Virginia Rappe was already an ill woman. She suffered from chronic cystitis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cystitis),[14] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Arbuckle#cite_note-14) a condition that flared up dramatically whenever she drank. Her heavy drinking habits and the poor quality of the era's bootleg alcohol could leave her in severe physical distress. She developed a reputation for over-imbibing at parties, then drunkenly tearing at her clothes from the resulting physical pain. But by the time of the St. Francis Hotel party, her reproductive health was a greater concern. She had undergone several abortions in the space of a few years, the quality of care she received for such procedures was probably substandard, and she was preparing to undergo another (or, more likely, had recently done so) as a result of being impregnated by her boyfriend, director Henry Lehrman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lehrman).
*********
Perhaps the lowest point of what was a very low standard for media coverage came when NBC News literally spliced together quotes from Zimmerman on a 911 call in order to make it look as though Zimmerman was racially profiling Martin.
...
However, the mainstream journalists hardly were finished completing their self-appointed tasks of trying to railroad Zimmerman to prison. About the time NBC News was busy splicing together Zimmerman’s comments, CNN solemnly broadcast that Zimmerman had called Martin a “f*cking coon.” The left-wing Daily Kos picked it up, as did other news outlets. Two weeks later, CNN finally admitted that he was saying, “f*cking cold,” but not before legal analysts all over the country were declaring that the statement “proved” Zimmerman was targeting and intending to kill black people.
Not to be outdone by its competitors, ABC News declared to its viewers that Zimmerman had “no injuries” from his encounter with Martin.
Arbuckle's trial was a major media event; exaggerated and sensationalized stories in William Randolph Hearst (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Randolph_Hearst)'s nationwide newspaper chain damaged his career. The story was fueled by yellow journalism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism), with the newspapers portraying him as a gross lecher who used his weight to overpower innocent girls. In reality, Arbuckle was a good-natured man who was so shy with women that he was regarded by those who knew him as, "the most chaste man in pictures".[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Arbuckle#cite_note-Ellis-2) Hearst was gratified by the Arbuckle scandal, and later said that it had "sold more newspapers than any event since the sinking of the RMS Lusitania."
*********
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/07/thomas-sowell/is-this-still-america/
There are no winners in the trial of George Zimmerman. The only question is whether the damage that has been done has been transient or irreparable.
Legally speaking, Zimmerman has won his freedom. But he can still be sued in a civil case, and he will probably never be safe to live his life in peace, as he could have before this case made him the focus of national attention and orchestrated hate.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/07/paul-huebl/government-and-prosecutorial-tyranny/
Zimmerman will forever be a marked man and a curiosity. He will be virtually unemployable and if he has any success it will be in some business unrelated to security, law enforcement or private investigation.
At the time of his acquittal, Arbuckle owed over $700,000 (around $9,444,583 adjusted for inflation in 2012) in legal fees to his attorneys for the three criminal trials,[25] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Arbuckle#cite_note-trutv3-25) and he was forced to sell his house and all of his cars to pay off some of the debt.
...
The principal effect of the trial was an immediate shunning by Hollywood and a cessation of all acting roles. A secondary effect, sadly for archive history, was the purposeful destruction of copies of films starring Arbuckle.
...Arbuckle tried returning to filmmaking, but industry resistance to distributing his pictures continued to linger after his acquittal. He retreated into alcoholism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholism). In the words of his first wife, "Roscoe only seemed to find solace and comfort in a bottle".
The Roscoe Arbuckle scandal was 92 years ago.
Tom Sowell asks "Is This Still America?"
Yes, Thomas, yes it still is.