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" (Optional Musical Accompaniment To This Post) Besides race, which it was not about because nothing is ever about race, the verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman was not about guns, either. Specifically, it was not about the propaganda of the gun culture by which we are all one small step away from being devoured as a society by criminal (coughblackcough) hordes and the only thing standing between society and the abyss is an armed citizenry. Specifically, it was not about the propaganda of the gun culture that sends a George Zimmerman, a pathetic, trigger-happy wannabe cop, out there in public, free to choose to make sidewalk judgments about who belongs where and why, and to back those judgments up with lethal force if it turns out he made a mistake. Specifically, it is not about the propaganda of the gun culture that trafficks in fear and that presents as its only solution deadly weaponry. No, of course, it was not about that, either. We live now in a vigilante culture. Our police forces are militarized and increasingly prone to rogue operations in which innocent people get killed. (Radley Balko has written an extremely important book about this phenomenon, which shows no signs of slowing down. Why in hell does the Fargo P.D. need a fking tank, anyway? Are the prairie dogs getting bigger these days?) They are being encouraged to employ what can only be called vigilante tactics under the color of official authority. You want to push the definition of the word, and there&amp;#039;s a helluva lot to our foreign policy that edges on vigilantism, too. The national legislature has broken down utterly because of the polite vigilantism of a political minority in the Senate -- The debt ceiling was &amp;quot;a hostage worth taking,&amp;quot; said Mitch McConnell, and meant it -- and because of the legislative vigilantism of an obdurate House Of Representatives. On the streets, we are being trained paradoxically to both submit to the authority of the police, and to take the law into our own hands, if necessary, because the police cannot possibly protect us from every danger. Stand Your Ground, though it played no role in the Zimmerman trial per se, is vigilantism hallowed by legislation. That&amp;#039;s all it is. This does nothing but produce a national schizophrenia about crime and fear and weaponry that we inevitably act out. If there really were a national background check for mental stability before you could buy a gun, I&amp;#039;m not sure American Society could pass one. And now, there will be marches and demonstrations in reaction to the verdict. One already has taken place in L.A. Over 100 LAPD officers fired &amp;quot;less-than-lethal&amp;quot; rounds to clear what authorities described as an unlawful assembly of about 80 people, according to the Times. The protesters condemned the acquittal of Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin, carrying signs reading &amp;quot;We are All Trayvon Martin&amp;quot; and chanting &amp;quot;No Justice, No Peace.&amp;quot;  I&amp;#039;m sure every rubber bullet was justified. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a23912/vigilante-nation/>