A BRIDGE TOO FAR
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 13, 1865. John Wilkes Booth, the assassin, was shot and killed on April 26, 1984. On May 1, 1865 President Andrew Johnson ordered the Lincoln assassination conspirators tried by a military commission. The trial began on May 12. On June 30 the Military Commission determined its verdict and issued sentences. David E. Herold, Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell and George Atzerodt were sentenced to be hanged. Three other people, Samual Mudd, Michael O’Laughlen and Samuel Arnold were sentenced to life terms and Edmund Spangler was sentenced to six years.
On July 7, 1985, Surrat, Herold, Powell and Atzerodt were hanged.
But John Surrat got away. He was allegedly in Elmira, New York on a spying mission for General Edwin Lee. He fled to Canada after Lincoln was assassinated. In September 1865 he went to England and later Italy. In late 1866 he was captured in Alexandria, Egypt and brought back to the U.S. for trial in civilian court.
The trial began on June 10, 1867 and ended on August 10, 1867 with a hung jury. The delay resulted in the statute of limitations expiring on everything but a charge of murder. All charges against him were dropped and he was released from custody in the summer of 1868. Incredibly Surratt tried to make money on a lecture tour where he admitted his involvement in the plot to kidnap Lincoln, but denied knowledge of the assassination plot. It was not well received. He died in 1916.
There is no doubt that if John Surratt had been captured in the spring of 1865 he would have been convicted of something. He certainly had more involvement than some of the other “conspirators.”
In this case, it would appear that the real miscarriage of justice was with regard to John Surratt. It is very hard to believe that he was not heavily involved in the Lincoln Assassination. It is impossible to justify hanging his mother and sparing him. But the point is that a fair trial is nearly impossible with this level of public outcry. At least in the case of Lincoln, a U.S. President had been assassinated and the outrage was legitimate.
In the case of George Zimmerman the outrage was based on false and misleading information in the main stream media. There are still people in the main stream media openly rooting for a conviction. When it became obvious that Second Degree Murder was more than a reach, they pleaded for at least manslaughter.
Now we learn that the DOJ participated in fanning the flames of outrage. Judicial watch has documents proving that the DOJ sent people to help protest against George Zimmerman.
- March 25 – 27, 2012, CRS spent $674.14 upon being “deployed to Sanford, FL, to work marches, demonstrations, and rallies related to the shooting and death of an African-American teen by a neighborhood watch captain.”
- March 25 – 28, 2012, CRS spent $1,142.84 “in Sanford, FL to work marches, demonstrations, and rallies related to the shooting and death of an African-American teen by a neighborhood watch captain.
- March 30 – April 1, 2012, CRS spent $892.55 in Sanford, FL “to provide support for protest deployment in Florida.”
- March 30 – April 1, 2012, CRS spent an additional $751.60 in Sanford, FL “to provide technical assistance to the City of Sanford, event organizers, and law enforcement agencies for the march and rally on March 31.”
- April 3 – 12, 2012, CRS spent $1,307.40 in Sanford, FL “to provide technical assistance, conciliation, and onsite mediation during demonstrations planned in Sanford.”
- April 11 – 12, 2012, CRS spent $552.35 in Sanford, FL “to provide technical assistance for the preparation of possible marches and rallies related to the fatal shooting of a 17 year old African American male.”]
The following e-mail from Miami-Dade County Community Relations Board Program Officer Amy Carswel explains this very well:
“Congratulations to our partners, Thomas Battles, Regional Director, and Mildred De Robles, Miami-Dade Coordinator and their co-workers at the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service for their outstanding and ongoing efforts to reduce tensions and build bridges of understanding and respect in Sanford, Florida” following a news article in the Orlando Sentinel about the secretive “peacekeepers.”
This is clear evidence that the DOJ was helping to stir up public sentiment against George Zimmerman. They set up a meeting with the NAACP and elected officials demanding the resignation of the police chief. Sadly, this was successfull:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/20/bill-lee-sanford-police-c_n_1614018.html
Bill Lee was fired as police chief. The City Manager based that decision on the “escalating divisiveness that has taken hold of the city.”
The reality was that Police Chief Lee was fired for failing to immediately arrest George Zimmerman.
The initial lack of an arrest following the death of Martin, an unarmed black teenager, by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in February led to protests across the nation and spurred a debate about race and the laws of self-defense. Zimmerman’s father is white and his mother is from Peru
Note that Zimmerman is described as having a white father and a mother from Peru. By this measure, Barack Obama could be described as having a white mother with a father from Kenya. They did create a bridge, but it was a far cry from a bridge to undertanding and respect. Instead it fanned the flames of discontent. There was a time when brave law enforcement professionals protected people from any angry mob, even when the suspect was obviously guilty. Now the DOJ is the angry man at the back of the mob egging them on.
The DOJ wanted to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in civilian court in New York because everyone, no matter how despicable, deserves a fair trial. Perhaps they were hoping for another John Surratt outcome. But with George Zimmerman, they had zero interest in a fair trial; they were only interested in convicting him of something. When our DOJ sends in people to fan the flames of outrage, it is quite simply a bridge too far.
TDM