The Local (German Edition) July 13, 2012

Neo-Nazi Acquitted After Driving Into Leftists

A German neo-Nazi who drove into a group of leftists, leaving one with a brain injury, has been acquitted of attempted manslaughter. The judge found he was acting in self-defense.

The 29-year-old accused was sitting in his car in a car park when he was approached by a group of left-wing extremists, who had their faces covered. The neo-Nazi reacted by starting the ignition and driving into them at speed, hitting a 22-year-old.

The young man suffered a severe head injury and haemorrhaging, and continues to suffer from a speech impediment and motor dysfunctions.

But a Freiburg court acquitted the neo-Nazi of all charges, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Friday. The judge ruled that he had acted in self-defence while trying to escape, and that the prosecution had failed to prove that he was deliberately trying to harm anyone.

"Justice is not biased," the judge said in her closing statements, adding that the trial had not been about political views, but whether a crime had been committed. She argued that the principle of "innocent until proven guilty" also applied to neo-Nazis.

Hhhmmm..."Justice is not biased," And that is true. Even those who hate have the right of self-defense. You don't give up your right to self-defense when you join the Nazi Party, the Klan, or have impolite opinions of blacks.

And that brings us to George Zimmerman. The FBI has been furiously searching for evidence of a Zimmerman thought crime. But even if Zimmerman had expressed racist opinions to others, what would that matter? Absolutely nothing.

The Supreme Court has ruled in Graham v. Conner that in a use-of-force case(this case was a law enforcement use of force but the principles apply to any lawful use of force) only objective facts immediately surrounding the incident are relevant. Not, as in this case, Zimmerman's supposed intent, to profile or "hunt down" black children.

That means regardless of Zimmerman's alleged racist beliefs about Trayvon, any profiling, any rude comments, only the facts of the actual shooting are relevant.

In this case the important facts are not any thought-crimes Zimmerman may have committed—but the fact that Zimmerman was on the ground having his face pummeled, his head bashed on the concrete sidewalk, and Trayvon was going for Zimmerman's gun, are relevant.

Just as Neo-Nazis have the right not to be killed by communist thugs, neighborhood watch captains, including racist neighborhood watch captains, have that same right.

It appears though that the FBI has not absorbed the lessons of Graham—not a good idea for them to challenge, since Graham was a decision about law enforcement use of force. The FBI could find that that will come back to bite them in the ass—since the same standards will be applied to FBI decisions.

But then this case was never about the facts: it was about imposing "Black Run America" even on half-white Hispanics.