Atkins: At least Trayvon deserves president to step up

WASHINGTON ? A young man is dead. A jury has rendered a verdict of not guilty on the killer, and that under our law is the final word.

That should be the end of the story. But it cannot.

If Trayvon Martin were not black, this would not have happened. George Zimmerman wouldn?t have seen him as suspect. And because Zimmerman was in Florida, he was easily armed, and shielded by the state?s ?Stand Your Ground? law. Those facts led to tragedy.

President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder both weighed in early on, Holder to press for criminal prosecution, and Obama famously to state: ?If I had a son he would look like Trayvon.?

There are still actions both men can take now. One is the hard, and possibly ineffective road of further prosecution. The other is the even harder road of moral leadership.

There are calls for federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman. While another bite of the apple may briefly satisfy those demanding justice, it comes with a great risk of political fallout ? placing the nation?s first black president and its first black U.S. attorney general in a no-win situation. The gut sense many people have of what motivated Zimmerman will be difficult to prove in court. Yesterday, Justice Department officials seemed to be lowering expectations, citing ?limited federal criminal civil rights statutes within our jurisdiction.?

And it?s a political minefield. If Holder doesn?t bring civil rights charges, Trayvon?s backers will call it a second miscarriage of justice. But charges will bring accusations of appeasing protesters. Zimmerman, if acquitted, will be the poster child of an activist administration run amok. If he?s convicted, the administration will be blasted for substituting its own judgment for the Florida jury?s.

The decision of whether to prosecute Zimmerman again must be based on the facts and the law. That?s Holder?s hard choice to make. But it cannot be made in a vacuum in a case that encompasses some of the most incendiary issues in American society: guns, violence, racial profiling and the perceived lack of fairness in the criminal justice system.

This is where Obama needs to show moral leadership and also act. He has to do more than he did yesterday, when he told us to ?ask ourselves if we are doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion ... (and) stem the tide of gun violence.? He needs to ask himself if he is doing all he can. Gun control reforms are dead in the water. Five years into the first black presidency, race relations should not be this strained.

At the risk of straining them further in the process, the president needs to challenge Congress and the nation to finally address the deep racial divide and the gun culture that so clearly remain a plague. ?He has to lead the way.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bostonherald/news/opinion/columnists/~3/uZEgxOi0kbM/atkins_at_least_trayvon_deserves_president_to_step_up

google goggles one tree hill projectglass stock act new york auto show khalid sheikh mohammed masters par 3