‘The Wire’ creator weighs in on Zimmerman verdict, says Florida lawmakers have ‘blood on their hands’

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Best known for writing and producing The Wire and Treme, David Simon took to his personal webpage following the reading of the George Zimmerman verdict to voice his displeasure.

“You can stand your ground if you’re white, and you can use a gun to do it,” Simon said. “But if you stand your ground with your fists and you’re black, you’re dead.”

George Zimmerman was charged with the second-degree murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and plead not guilty. Zimmerman argued that he shot Martin in self-defense and was acquitted of all charges by a Florida jury on Saturday night.

In a post dated July 13, Simon wrote:

You can stand your ground if you’re white, and you can use a gun to do it. But if you stand your ground with your fists and you’re black, you’re dead.

In the state of Florida, the season on African-Americans now runs year round. Come one, come all.  And bring a handgun. The legislators are fine with this blood on their hands. The governor, too. One man accosted another and when it became a fist fight, one man — and one man only — had a firearm. The rest is racial rationalization and dishonorable commentary.

If I were a person of color in Florida, I would pick up a brick and start walking toward that courthouse in Sanford. Those that do not, those that hold the pain and betrayal inside and somehow manage to resist violence — these citizens are testament to a stoic tolerance that is more than the rest of us deserve.  I confess, their patience and patriotism is well beyond my own.

Behold, the lewd, pornographic embrace of two great American pathologies:  Race and guns, both of which have conspired not only to take the life of a teenager, but to make that killing entirely permissible.  I can’t look an African-American parent in the eye for thinking about what they must tell their sons about what can happen to them on the streets of their country.  Tonight, anyone who truly understands what justice is and what it requires of a society is ashamed to call himself an American.

Follow Carrie Healey on Twitter @CarrieHeals.