After taking a week long break, The Paramount Network aired episode four of Rest in Power.

I managed to make it though half of the episode before I needed a break.

The episode dove right into the trial.  The very first thing covered was the judge ruing the term “racial profiling” could not be used at trial.

Because Zimmerman was charged with second degree murder, the court had to prove that Zimmerman acted with enmity towards the victim.  That by taking out racial profiling the prosecution couldn’t prove enmity.

So by the logic of the episode:

George was guilty of second degree murder because he hated Trayvon.  He hated Trayvon because Trayvon was black.  No evidence was presented at trial that Zimmerman was a racist but we are presented with the idea that when a white man shoots a black man, the motivation is ALWAYS racism.

Therefore: George Zimmerman is guilty because he shot Trayvon and that in-and-of itself is proof of racism.

That’s circular reasoning and is not evidence sufficient for proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

In regards to getting “racial profiling” excluded from the trial, Joy Ann Reid said “this shows you just how far Zimmerman’s lawyers were willing to go to defend him.”

WHAT!?!

That is the whole job of the defense.  The phrase used is “zealous representation.”  Watching this, you get the opinion that what Reid and others wanted was for Zimmerman’s lawyers to say “for the sake of social justice, we’re not going to defend George Zimmerman because he’s a bad guy.”

If the attorneys for the defense don’t do their best for their client, that is statutorily a mistrial.  I know Reid is not a lawyer, but I hope they still teach that in law school.  God help our judicial system if defense attorneys get bit by the social justice bug and decide that they won’t defend their clients.

The next attack on the case was that the prosecution was off their game.  Particularly in calling Detective Chris Serino to the stand.  One of the big issues what that Serino had amended his charges six times.  Serino also hired himself a lawyer, which made it appear as though he only interested in covering his own ass.

The show glossed over that Serino claimed that he was pressured from both the mayor and the chief of police to alter his charges and statements to get an indictment for second degree murder.  He thought at best the state could get a conviction for manslaughter.

The prosecution had to tap dance around the issue that they pressured the detective to up the charges.

It never occurred to the pro-Trayvon side, including the writers of this show, that the problem with the trial was all their fault.  They needed to prove to a jury, beyond a reasonable doubt, that George Zimmerman acted with a depraved mind and enmity towards Trayvon Martin and killed him.

There just wasn’t enough evidence for that.  They could probably have gotten a conviction for manslaughter because George got out of his car and followed Trayvon in defiance of the dispatcher’s request.

Rather than try Zimmerman for what they could prove, they turned the Zimmerman trial into a shit show.  It’s wasn’t just about Zimmerman and Trayvon.  It was every white man who ever shot a black man.

the show admitted that.  One person interviewed said “it’s impossible to convict a cop, but we thought we could get [Zimmerman] because he was a civilian.”  Proving it was little to do about the actual shooting and everything to do with big picture social justice.

It was a polar reversal of the OJ Simpson trial – which the show compares it to – in that what the media and activists wanted was “every white person vs. every black person for all the crimes of American history” and not the facts of this particular case.

This case was a tragedy of Shakespearean or perhaps Greek Epic proportion.  The loss of the trial by the prosecution was entirely due to the hubris of the pro-Trayvon side.

At this point I have up at a commercial break.  The next part of the episode will cover Trayvon’s character wittiness.  I can’t wait to see how they will cover that.

If you want an idea of just how biased all of this is, this is the Rotten Tomatoes score.

Look at that ratio of processional critics to watchers.  If that doesn’t prove how out of touch it is, nothing will.