I wasn't going to do anything with this, but now I am

A friend of mine recently emailed me what amounted to a meme, an internet thing that started on Facebook. The essence of the meme is questioning why so many people were agitating for "Justice for Travon," referring to Travon Martin, of course, while no one seems to be upset about the shooting death of Antonio West (or Antonio Santiago, a confusion that apparently stems from the different last names of his parents, which may or may not indicate that they are not married. Dunno.) First, here is the text of the email sent to me:

Hello. Don’t recognize me? That’s OK; I understand.

 My name was Antonio West. I was the 13-month old child who was shot in the face at point blank range by two black teens, who were attempting to rob my mother, who was also shot. I think my murder and my mommy’s wounding made the news for maybe a day, and then disappeared. A Grand Jury of my mommy's peers from Brunswick, Georgia ruled the black teens who murdered me will not face the death penalty... too bad it was me who got the death sentence from my killers instead, because Mommy didn’t have the money they demanded. See, my family made the mistake of being white in a 73% non-white neighborhood, but my murder wasn’t ruled a ‘hate crime’. Oh, and President Obama didn’t take a single moment to acknowledge my murder. He couldn’t have any children who could possibly look like me - so why should he care?I’m one of the youngest murder victims in our great Nation's history, but the media didn’t care to cover the story of my being killed in cold blood.There isn’t a white equivalent of Al Sharpton, because if there was he would be branded a ‘racist’. So no one’s rushing to Brunswick, Georgia to demonstrate and demand ‘justice’ for me. There’s no ‘White Panther’ party, either, to put a bounty on the lives of the two black teens who murdered me. I have no voice, I have no representation, and unlike those who shot me in the face while I sat innocently in my stroller - I no longer have my life.

The email included this photo, from Facebook:

Of course you include that picture. He's a cute kid. Or was. I assume a bullet to the face detracted from his cuteness.

In any event, I was not going to pass along this meme. After all, arrests were made, and somebody is likely to be punished for the crime. Case closed.

Then I saw this. I don't know what the rest of the site looks like, how it leans philosophically or anything else about it. I only know that the person who wrote the linked article is a moron. His/her main point seems to be this:

However, the material difference in the cases is significant — while George Zimmerman was known the night of the shooting to be Martin’s killer, he was not arrested. In the Antonio West case, the arrest of two black teens was immediate, and the boys were charged in the murder of West-Santiago right away. The protests at first over Trayvon Martin were due to a lack of arrest, and then again when Zimmerman was not convicted.

The flawed logic here is awesome. Does this pinhead think that this case will suddenly garner more attention if the shooters are not convicted? It won't. Does this pinhead believe that shooting a guy who is sitting on top of you and pounding away on you, telling you that "you're going to die tonight" is the same as shooting a 13-month -old toddler in a stroller?  Zimmerman was not arrested immediately because the police believed -- and a jury confirmed -- that it appeared he killed Trayvon in self-defense. Any chance the turds who shot Antonio West acted in self-defense?

Like it or not, the meme going around points out that that Trayvon Martin's shooting got publicity because it suited a political cause, not because it was outrageous. Weeks passed before "outrage" developed over the lack of an arrest in the Martin shooting, even though police knew who pulled the trigger. That's because it was that long before race hucksters like Al Sharpton heard about the story and decided to make hay out of it. Please stop telling me that Trayvon is the new Emmett Till.

And if you want to be outraged, please note that 700 or so people were killed in Chicago between the time George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin and when he was acquitted of second-degree murder in that shooting. A little more than a year, 700 homicides in a single city. Outrage, anyone?, And, BTW, most were shooting deaths, in a city where guns are illegally illegal. Hmmmmm.