Columnist urges George Zimmerman to take one for the team

This is rich.  A columnist named Mansfield Frazier, who writes for the Daily Beast would like to see George Zimmerman spare the nation the messiness of an actual trial by copping a plea.  Why, you may ask?  Well, to avert any possible riots that may occur in the event of an acquittal:

As George Zimmerman faces murder charges for shooting Trayvon Martin, it’s worth asking if America is in danger of facing Rodney King, Part II?
That’s what I see down the tracks: If this case goes all the way to trial, it’s a train wreck waiting to happen. The time is now for strong hands to take the helm and steady the ship of state—not to mention our national racial, political and legal discourse. The paramount concern has to be to avert a large-scale racial calamity...

Uh, no - the paramount concern should be the same one that applies to any criminal trial, and that is to see that justice is done.  And if justice decides that Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin in self-defense, then so be it.

For good measure, the column spouts out the now-debunked story that neo-Nazis were patrolling the streets of Sanford, Florida, and the column also features a photo of Rodney King juxtaposed with the outdated photo of cute little 12 year-old Trayvon Martin before he became the menacing 17 year-old No_Limit_Nigga with the gold teeth and the middle finger attached to a tatted-up arm raised in the air.  Somehow, those photos never seem to get used.

Once the outcome of trials are decided not on the facts and evidence, but on the prospect of violence committed by people who are unhappy with the trial's outcome, then justice is dead, and so is our country.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be."  -Thomas Jefferson