Only one man broke the law that night

Talkleft discusses President Obama's "impromptu" appearance before the WH press corps yesterday:

The most objectionable part of his comments: Not once did he express any empathy for George Zimmerman, the man who was acquitted who spent the past 16 months under the cloud of criminal charges, and who continues to have a target on his back. 

Obama said if Martin had been white the result would probably have been different. Not once did he acknowledge that if Trayvon Martin had not attacked George Zimmerman, the outcome might have been different. 

As a former Constitutional law professor, I would expect our President to acknowledge that the purpose of a criminal trial is not to send messages to the American public. It is merely to test the Government's evidence: Did the state prove guilt and disprove self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt. 

By the President comparing himself to Martin 35 years ago, is he saying he would have responded as Martin did, and physically attacked someone for following him?

What happened that night in Sanford is awful. Martin's death was tragic even though his slayer, George Zimmerman, was found to have acted in justifiable self defense according to Florida law.

But only one man broke the law that night, and it was not George Zimmerman. I have written that much, if not all of the moral culpability for Martin's death rests upon Zimmerman, but moral culpability and legal transgression are not the same thing.

As they say, everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. And the inconvenient fact of the night that Barack Obama ignored, along with all the others on the Left working feverishly to make Martin a national cause, is that Trayvon Martin committed a felony immediately before he died.

Zimmerman never attacked Martin. It was Martin who committed felony assault and battery when he violently attacked Zimmerman, pinned him to the ground and began pounding his head into the sidewalk.

Had the police, who were already en route, arrived literally only one minute earlier, that is the scene they would have found and Martin would have been the only one taken away in handcuffs. It is hard to imagine how he would have avoided conviction since not even Florida's self-defense law allows pre-emptive attack on someone who has not actually threatened you.

I can only mitigate Martin's culpability on his own death by remembering that he was, after all, not yet an adult. But before a statue of Trayvon Martin is erected on the White House lawn, it would be responsible to remember that only Martin broke the law that night.

Update - The Anchoress:

I know that questioning the motivation for Obama’s speech today is cynical. And I know that cynicism is one of my besetting sins; I’m not proud of it. It’s something I struggle with, every day. I wish I were not just now wondering if Obama made this speech today because the Duchess of Cambridge had not delivered her baby in time to make all the bad headlines disappear, and keep them from being discussed on the Sunday talk shows.

As someone once said, "I try to get more cynical every day, but I just can't keep up."