Trayvon Martin murder: Rev. Jesse Jackson told the Sanford City Commission yesterday, “the whole world is watching Sanford.” “The whole world is watching Florida today,” in his demand that they city commissioners do their part to ensure shooter George Zimmerman is arrested. Then a line of speakers, including U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), echoed his sentiments. Sheila Jackson-Lee has zero credibility in my opinion, on so many levels, so I take whatever she says with a grain of salt. It should be noted that a CNN poll released Monday, 73 percent of Americans think police should arrest George Zimmerman.

Last Sunday, speaking at a church in Eatonville, Rev. Jesse Jackson called Trayvon Martin a “martyr” and compared his death to that of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., even suggesting that it could start a new round in the so-called war for civil rights. Really? Trayvon Martin’s death is comparable to that of Dr. King’s? He is just as crazy as the New Black Panther group that has placed a $10,000 bounty on the head of George Zimmerman and Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera for saying a “hoodie” was responsible for the teen’s death. This is why Rev. Jesse Jackson is considered by many as a race hustler. Why bring Dr. King into this? He was fighting for a cause, Trayvon Martin was killed by an overzealous wannabe cop. There’s no martyrdom here.

Rev. Al Sharpton delivered a petition to the city commissioners Monday, saying he had two million signatures on it demanding Zimmerman’s arrest, the Orlando Sentinel reports. He told Sanford leaders, “You are risking going down as the Birmingham and Selma of the 21st century,” the newspaper reports. In other words, the city of Sanford will go down in history as having a “reputation for trampling the civil rights of black people if it doesn’t take action.”

This is where they are beginning to lose me — a special prosecutor has been brought in and Gov. Scott has requested the grand jury convene on April 10th. The Department of Justice and the FBI are also investigating the matter. I know that George Zimmerman should be behind bars as we speak, but the Sanford Police Department bungled the case from the start. That has to be undone and guess what, that takes time.

The irresponsible rhetoric coming from people like Rev. Jesse Jackson and Sheila Jackson-Lee, among others, have resulted in people taking their eyes off the crucial issues in the case — why the police department simply took George Zimmerman’s statement about what happened and why the officers didn’t call for an ambulance since he allegedly suffered a broken nose and had a gash in the back of his head. We all know head wounds bleed profusely.

Further, where are the bloody clothes George Zimmerman was wearing and why wasn’t a background check done on him, as well as why did Trayvon Martin’s body lie in a morgue, even though he had a cell phone in his pocket, for a day before his parents were contacted. Additionally, there is a problem with how the police department interpreted the “stand-down law,” which quite clearly didn’t apply in this case, but they didn’t bother to get to the truth. These are the questions Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson should be demanding answers for, not to be foaming at the mouth as they threaten another Selma march. Above all, why is MSNBC allowing Rev. Al Sharpton to cover himself at these rallies? Isn’t there a disconnect between journalism and pushing one’s cause? How could I forget, Rev. Al Sharpton isn’t a journalist.

Now there are some on the right trying to make Trayvon Martin out to be a hoodlum. Enter right wing blogger and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin via her new website Twitchy, who posted a picture purportedly showing an older, stronger and tougher Trayvon Martin. In essence, one who could beat up George Zimmerman. The photograph showed a shirtless teen with his pants sagging, his boxer exposed  and making an obscene gesture. In other words, Michelle Malkin & Co. were trying to portray the teen as a hoodlum who was really up to no good the night he was murdered. The site later published a correction saying the photo wasn’t of Trayvon Martin and apologized to the teen’s family. This is in the same vein as the character assassination of former black USDA director Shirley Sherrod, when Andrew Breitbart, now deceased, published an edited video taking her comments about helping a white farmer out of context. All hell broke loose until the USDA realized the tape was edited.

The Drudge Report is also on a quest to criminalize Trayvon Martin, with the gold grill in his mouth and all, by playing up the fact he was suspended for having an empty bag, purported to have contained marijuana, showing a picture of him wearing a hoodie, talking about his mother, Sabrina Fulton, applying to trademark his name, multiple suspensions from school and for saying “you ain’t tell me you swung on a bus driver,” and the new details emerge caption, are being used to criminalize this teen. None of those things can explain why George Zimmerman took it upon himself to kill an unarmed teen.

Enter the Wagist, saying Trayvon Martin may have gang characteristics and asking if he was a drug dealer and that the “innocent appearance the mainstream media is trying to portray isn’t accurate.”The site also references Trayvon Martin’s tattoos, saying “even though Trayvon was only 17, he already was sporting gold teeth, and several large tattoos. This one was on his wrist, apparently of his girlfriend’s mother’s name.” Um, does that mean he deserved to have been shot by George Zimmerman, a man who has had some brushes with the law?

We don’t need all this dreck clogging up this tragedy and creating a circus over a very serious situation. Trayvon Martin deserves better than this. The same holds true for John Sanderson and Nolan Ryan Henderson III, two college students who were killed last weekend. The families deserve answers, not a media circus with everyone jockeying to have the loudest voice.

Let this case make its way through the legal system and if they decide not to file charges against George Zimmerman, then hell will break loose. There  are holes in his self-defense claim and there are a lot of unanswered questions. We won’t get those unless we allow a thorough investigation to be conducted on several fronts. In the final analysis, Geraldo Rivera’s ridiculous assertion about hoodies, Rev. Jesse Jackson’s comment that the world is watching and Rev. Al Sharpton threatening a march of the proportions of Selma, are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. The investigation must focus on facts and nothing will happen until those facts are scrutinized one by one. It’s time to dial back on the inflammatory rhetoric and allow cooler heads to prevail. Do it for Trayvon Martin, not for ratings or for site traffic. While we are at it, it’s time to repeal the “stand your ground” laws in force in many states across the country.

Cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette