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" So Attorney General Eric Holder went before the National Action Network&amp;#039;s annual convention today and talked at length for the first time about the killing of Trayvon Martin, who was shot to death for the crime of carrying snack food in a neighborhood where the local wannabe cop thought Martin didn&amp;#039;t belong, and about what the response of the Department of Justice might be: &amp;quot;I know that many of you are greatly \u2014 and rightly \u2014 concerned about the recent shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a young man whose future has been lost to the ages.... If we find evidence of a potential federal criminal civil rights crime, we will take appropriate action.... I also can make you another promise: that at every level of today&amp;#039;s Justice Department \u2014 preventing and combating youth violence and victimization is, and will continue to be, a top priority.&amp;quot; And now it begins. So you won&amp;#039;t have to listen to it, here&amp;#039;s a precis of the poo that will be flung in response: 1) Rush to judgment. (It&amp;#039;s not like George Zimmerman is a Muslim or anything.) 2) Innocent until proven guilty. (See above.) 3) Al Sharpton, Tawana Brawley, Crown Heights, Tawana Brawley, Al Sharpton. 4) Also, Jesse Jackson, Hymietown, Jesse Jackson. 5) What about Fast And Furious? 6) New Black Panthers! Aieeeee! And so on. This is a very big moment for Holder, and it&amp;#039;s looking more and more like it&amp;#039;s one he can&amp;#039;t dodge. The entire local criminal justice system in Florida has tied itself in such a knot over this that it may never untangle itself. (Angela Corey, the special prosecutor appointed by Governor Rick Scott, has promised a decision on whether or not to prosecute Zimmerman within the next couple of days.) The Sanford P.D., for reasons we may never understand, made a horrible botch of the original events. The authors of the &amp;quot;Stand Your Ground&amp;quot; law may have been so diabolical in their ineptitude that it&amp;#039;s impossible to prosecute Zimmerman for anything at all. The shooter himself is on the run and on the web, and he apparently only speaks to cable television talk-show hosts. The logical mind cries out for someone to come in here and be a disinterested arbiter of fact and the law. The Fed are the only ones left untainted by the original banjaxing of the case. However, having the Feds come in on the back end, particularly if Corey declines to prosecute it, would turn the politics of the case up well past 11, and in the middle of an election year, besides. Neither side will be capable of keeping the case, and the issues arising out of it, separate from the presidential race, let alone what should be a hot U.S. Senate campaign in Florida. The Republicans are holding their national convention 120 miles from downtown Sanford. I suspect there will be some talk about the shooting on the sidewalks around the hall. Holder \u2014 and his boss \u2014 are going to have to stand for a lot of guff if they decide to commit the DOJ to its own independent examination of the shooting, and even more of it if they decide to go forward with a federal civil-rights prosecution in the absence of a Florida indictment and trial. Once local law-enforcement gives up the ghost and the Feds get involved, there is no middle ground politically any more. There is no &amp;quot;centrist&amp;quot; position left to take. The shooting of Trayvon Martin becomes about Barack Obama, and Willard Romney, and about a hundred other issues far distant from the spot where he died. UPDATE -- There are now reports that Angela Corey could file charges against George Zimmerman as early as tomorrow. The construct of his martyrdom narrative should begin on Fox News within 15 minutes, I&amp;#039;m thinking. CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE AND ONGOING COVERAGE OF THE TRAYVON MARTIN CASE &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a13582/eric-holder-trayvon-martin-case-8011712/>