Richard Cohen: George Zimmerman Was Right To Assume Trayvon Martin Was A Criminal

Columnist Richard Cohen has stirred up controversy after writing that George Zimmerman was justified in believing Trayvon Martin was a criminal simply because of the color of his skin.

The column, published in Tuesday’s Washington Post, cites statistics showing that black males are more likely to commit crimes in urban areas. He also justifies the controversial “stop and frisk” program in New York City that targets mostly black citizens for random searches.

“In New York City, blacks make up a quarter of the population, yet they represent 78 percent of all shooting suspects—almost all of them young men,” Cohen wrote. “We know them from the nightly news.”

The column has brought plenty of controversy and calls of racism against Richard Cohen. He preemptively strikes out against these critics, insisting that his argument is not borne out of racism.

Cohen wrote:

“I don’t like what George Zimmerman did, and I hate that Trayvon Martin is dead. But I also can understand why Zimmerman was suspicious and why he thought Martin was wearing a uniform we all recognize. I don’t know whether Zimmerman is a racist. But I’m tired of politicians and others who have donned hoodies in solidarity with Martin and who essentially suggest that, for recognizing the reality of urban crime in the United States, I am a racist. The hoodie blinds them as much as it did Zimmerman.”

But Richard Cohen has an already spotty history with statements related to race. In 1986, he wrote a column saying store owners should be able to ban black men as customers, leading to protests against the newspaper by groups that burned copies of the paper. It also led to an apology from the Washington Post.

Cohen’s words join a widescale national debate in the wake of the George Zimmerman verdict. Many demonstrations have popped up against the verdict and demanding justice for Trayvon Martin, some of them turning violent.

There is another problem with the argument Richard Cohen uses, The Atlantic Wire points out. While he tries to posit that blacks are much more likely of committing crimes in urban areas, George Zimmerman did not kill Trayvon Martin on a city street but rather in the confines of a suburban gated community.