self-defense. let me remind your viewers this was not a case about the stand your ground law. this was a case about the application of self-defense laws in the state of florida. but the president even underscored the message that there be in this case there became a link between racial profiling and the stand your ground law that inspired george zimmerman to get out of his car in the first place. well, what i would say with all due respect to the president, i don t think the president knows this case better than the prosecution, knows this case better than juror number 37, and they ve all said this was not a case about race. do you agree with the strategy or were there elements of the strategy conveyed by the prosecution or even the defense that you were on board with? do you think both sides argued their cases as best they could? it s easy to be a monday morning quarterback. i m not going to second guess the decisions by the prosecution team. i mean, they had access to all t
to prove in a court of law. standards of evidence that will have to be met, and so i don t know whether or not that standard can be met here. before i let you go, was there a message or a moment from the president s address that really did resonate with you or you think americans as a whole can learn from? well, about being profiled. i m a hispanic. george zimmerman is a hispanic, and so we understand that there is still discrimination and profiling that occurs in this country, and i think it is appropriate to have a discussion about race. i think that is perfectly appropriate. but, again, i don t know whether or not this case should be connected to the racial profiling because, again, you ve got the prosecution saying it wasn t about racial profiling, juror 37 saying it wasn t about racial profiling. again, i think it is appropriate for the president to falk abota race as a national dialogue. we ve made significant progress but there s more that can be
statistics about whether or not stand your ground laws in these various states actually encourage violence. i would like to see that. if the numbers bear that out, i think they should be shared with state legislatures around the country, and there should be a debate within these states as to whether or not this represents good policy. i don t blame the attorney general for coming out and speaking about this issue. he is, in fact, the chief law enforcement officer of this country, and i think he has an obligation to speak about law enforcement policy. so i have no problem with that, and in the end i understand that president obama coming out and speaking. he is the first african-american president in this country, and within the african-american community there s a great deal of dissatisfaction with this outcome, and i think it was appropriate for him to come out and speak about this, but as i look at the case, i don t view the case as one based on race. it was a case of, one, based upo
smoking gun of racial animus. precedence does exist to move forward. that s a very important point. it s a critically important point. precedence matters. my point, if we telescope out and take a broader frame, at the end of the day we have got to reform our laws so that we re not because right now the attack is on all evidentiary standards and any race case. not just this one. the right is taking on what we call disparate impact which is whether or not we can look at the impacts of our decision-making on a whole group of people. and, in fact, the voting rights action, section 5, section 4 was essentially i mean, not on the same legal logic but the historic understanding of, because racial bias, because it no longer announces itself facially as racial bias has left the playing field. we re trying to out it to make sure let me say this and go to you, melissa. i also think it s really
that beyond the law, let s have an open, honest engagement with the context that melissa is speaking about, because we re talking about implicit assumptions. we re talking about explicit assumption, the jumble of stereotypes. this is implicated in a range of practices that have to be acknowledged and addressed. congressman? we have had several incidents where there have been high-profile cases that have failed, in the beating of rodney king, acquittal, all-white jury, simi valley. subsequent federal prosecution. with videotape. with videotape. not necessarily a smoking gun in terms of racial animus. right. same situation with the choking death of anthony baez by police officer francis lavoty. acquittal in the bronx. subsequent prosecution by manhattan federal prosecutors that was successful. and in an instance where an african-american stabbed an orthodox jewish man, rosenbaum, in new york, was acquitted by a brooklyn jury and subsequently prosecuted for a hate crime violat