Because they could

Let us take our comfort as it comes. Six jurors seem to have based their verdict on evidence and refused to bow to racial politics. Legally, George Zimmerman is a free man.

Of course he will never be truly free throughout the course of his life. Death threats will be an almost daily routine. The mob still wants vengeance. Maybe the federal Department of Justice will put him in unconstitutional and immoral double jeopardy by ginning up some kind of "civil rights violation" charges, as they did to the cops who had been cleared in the case of Rodney King.

That will be Zimmerman's cross to bear. We -- all of us Americans -- have our own. We've been carrying it since the day the perverted charge against Zimmerman and farce of a trial began.

Commentator after commentator (including even some generally sympathetic to black racism) have noted the lack of a serious case for Zimmerman to answer. Their op-eds and newspaper columns and blogs have wondered, one way and another: how could the Florida legal system have perpetrated this gross violation of justice and decency?

Explanations come in various sizes, shapes, and (especially) colors, but it's ultimately pretty simple. The state persecuted Zimmerman, with the backing of Eric ("I am the law") Holder, on behalf of an ethnic group because they could.

It remains to be seen what the fallout will be, but The Powers had every reason to believe that unless Zimmerman paid an unconscionable price, the racial grievance industry would endanger lives and property. So they had to be bought off with a man's life.

The Powers also knew that if a stitch-up put Zimmerman away for decades, no one would be an activist for him. Most whites not permanently brain damaged by pathological liberalism, and probably some blacks (although they've been pretty damn quiet about it), believed he acted in defense of his life. Had the jury members sacrificed him the whites and others on his side would have grumbled for a few days, then flopped on the couch, picked up the remote, and tuned in to ESPN or Dancing With the Stars.

The DOJ's and state's legal paramilitary knew that even if their absurd charges and fumbling courtroom antics didn't draw blood this time, they would be seen to have shown "good faith." In the bigger picture, they won. They showed what can happen to any of us if we defend ourselves, families, or friends against an attack by a member of one of the protected classes (i.e., non-whites). They will watch and wait for their next chance. It probably won't be long.