Hardly any feeling is more humiliating than to learn you have been scammed, especially by someone you ostensibly trusted.
Trayvon Martin.
For the last 15 months, no two words in America have ignited inflamed passions faster.
Not Casey Anthony. Not Barack Obama. Not Dr. King.
For months last year, compassionate Americans wept with Sybrina and Tracy, the divorced parents of the murdered 17-year-old Mr. Martin by a scary-sounding predator, after dark, in an obscure gated community.
The victim was an angel. His wings merely were invisible, we were told. Daily, journalists who could not spell shoe and who did not know if Trayvon was a young man or a plant, solemnly swore to their readers and viewers that Trayvon Martin was one of the showcase 17-year-olds on the planet.
Along comes 42-year-old Florida defense attorney Benny Crump, and you may bet your inheritance that Mr. Martin’s family received shrewd advice when he was recommended.
Not a Victim? I Will Create One
Mr. Crump specializes in victims – I am tempted to say professional victims. You know the type.
Here is how he and his partner advertise:
The Parks & Crump Law Firm is founded upon the motto that we help you fight Goliath and win. It’s our guiding philosophy as we handle our cases. In most personal injury cases, there’s a victim who is suffering in some way and facing a personal Goliath – whether it’s a large corporation, a government agency or an insurance company. That’s when Parks & Crump can help you. We will fight for what is right. We will fight for what is fair. We will fight for justice… against your Goliath.
The Extra Mile is what separates Parks & Crump from all other law firms in the country. Most firms do not take cases to the extremes like our law firm does. We don’t leave details to chance. We don’t allow injustice to hide in the halls of corporate offices, cold hospital rooms or desolate morgues. That’s because when injustice happens, it affects more than just the victims and their families. Injustice like we’ve seen and corrected affects the entire public… and hurts the entire public. That’s why it’s important to fight for your rights, and it’s sometimes important for the public to know when injustice is happening.
At Parks & Crump, going the extra mile can mean calling public attention to incredible injustice or keeping our client’s identity and information completely private and the case quiet. We do whatever we can to help give our clients peace of mind and final justice.
At an emotional glance, neighborhood watchdog George Zimmerman’s shooting of the shrouded, hooded Mr. Martin felt like the most uneven matchup since the leering Booth tiptoed from behind to kill Mr. Lincoln in his upper level seat at Ford’s Theatre. Mr. Zimmerman, said fair-minded Americans, should be tortured, shot and only then allowed to stand trial, Moscow-style.
Words to Live by…Maybe
President (I Hardly Ever Rush to Judgment) Obama, who testifies at his press conferences that he does not know, and therefore is not responsible, for what goes on in Washington, said by garsh, if he had been lucky enough to have a son, by garsh, he would look like Trayvon, by garsh.
America, by garsh, cheered Mr. Obama’s words while silently weeping with the victim’s family.
Within hours of the first sensational stories last March, Trayvon Martin was elevated to unscrutinized sainthood, with the sly aid of Mr. Crump. Trayvon Martin became not only the two most famous words in American English but an anthem, through the slick maneuverings of Mr. Crump.
(Only much, much later, sotte voce, n-o-t in the mainstream media, did we learn that Mr. Martin’s mud-clotted personal life had been whitewashed because, you see, Mr Martin was black, and therefore sinless for drama carefully staged drama purposes, and surely Mr. Zimmerman must have been white – mustn’t he? – because how can we have a race-based Good Guy-Bad Guy scenario otherwise? Hmmm?)
Turns out that the ugly black vs. white scenario is courtesy of budding playwright Benjamin Crump. His baby.
One of his first bonanza acts after being employed by Mr. Martin’s family was to execute the shrewdest, most underhanded act Mr. Crump could pull off – with the compliance of the lapdog liberal media.
He hired a high-powered public relations firm to write the script, to turn up the heat on the story every day – black victim, “white” killer – until Americans would scream “Enough.” But they never did.
And that is why Mr. Crump is winning – from here to Kansas City _ even before the first syllable of testimony.
In this week that the long-awaited trial of Mr. Zimmerman begins an anticipated two-month run, morally speaking, there is a great deal to ponder.
