Atlanta Falcons star wide receiver Roddy White made some disgraceful tweets Saturday in response to the George Zimmerman verdict.
On Sunday, Fox News's Greta Van Susteren smacked White down writing, "Do You Think He Watched the Entire Trial? Or Did He Just Take Sides?":
Fucking Zimmerman got away with murder today wow what kind of world do we live in
— Roddy White (@roddywhiteTV) July 14, 2013
All them jurors should go home tonight and kill themselves for letting a grown man get away with killing a kid
— Roddy White (@roddywhiteTV) July 14, 2013
Van Susteren countered:
These tweets are what role models do when they don't think first.
These tweets are not simply tweets disagreeing with a verdict for a trial he never watched in full -- this is more. It is full of hate and hate of the jury who was drafted by both sides after both sides agreed the jury could be fair.
Roddy White needs to know that trials and justice are not sporting events where you just pick sides. Justice requires evidence and the weighing of facts. And you have to actually SEE the ENTIRE trial.
As Van Susteren correctly observed, White would find it offensive if someone commented on his performance in a football game he or she didn't watch. Such a person would be a fool.
But that's what White and so many Martin-supporting Americans are doing in response to this verdict.
What they don't realize is that this is how our justice system works. We err on the side of the defendant because we feel more comfortable with guilty people walking free than innocent people being wrongly incarcerated.
This isn't to say that Zimmerman is guilty. Instead, the prosecution couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was, and he therefore was acquitted. Same for O.J. Simpson almost two decades ago.
What's sad is America's media have done a terrible job of explaining this. If they had, maybe folks such as White wouldn't be filled with so much hatred.
As for White's comment about what kind of a world we live in, Van Susteren answered, "[O]ne where professional athletes who did NOT sit in the courtroom watching the ENTIRE trial trashes a jury with vulgar language and suggests they commit suicide."
Indeed.
