Dr. Walter Palmer Vindicated in Cecil the Lion Witch Hunt

Dr. Walter Palmer, who was the subject of a witch hunt by Social Justice Warriors because of the shooting of a lion, in Zimbabwe, Africa, has been vindicated.   The only legitimate reason to fault the good doctor was if he had broken Zimbabwe's arcane hunting laws.   At the time, I argued that a hunter traveling to Africa had to rely on his guides to follow the complex and obscure African Hunting laws.  That is exactly what Dr. Palmer did.  The Zimbabwe officials have now vindicated him.  From cbslocal.com:

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Officials in Zimbabwe say Dr. Walter Palmer did not break the country’s hunting laws.

This means top government officials are no longer pressing for the Twin Cities dentist to be extradited to Zimbabwe for killing Cecil the lion. Leaders in Zimbabwe say Palmer is welcome to come back as a tourist, but not as a hunter.

(snip)

Then on Monday morning, authorities cleared Palmer of all wrongdoing, saying he came to Zimbabwe because all of his papers were in order.

The headline writer at CBS could not resist a last minute smear. The headline reads:

Dentist Won’t Be Charged In Zimbabwe Over Cecil The Lion’s Death

That is a far cry from saying, as the article does, that Dr. Palmer did not break any Zimbabwe laws. The headline implies that Dr. Palmer broke laws, but will not be charged. It is very close to libel. I do not expect the good doctor to sue; he has become something of a public figure, and the headline is immediately corrected in the first sentence of the article. But many people only read the headline. This is slimy journalism for all to see.

It was obvious from the start that the attack on Dr. Palmer was a Social Justice Warrior witch hunt. There was no real evidence to go on; there was an emotion laden rant full of fantasy; and it offered a jucy target for Social Justice Warriors (SJWs) to attack; hunting, and in particular, trophy hunting in Africa.

As is usual with SJWs, facts and logic were the first victims. The fact that their attacks on trophy hunting did much to endanger lions and other big game animals in Africa did not matter.  It is trophy hunting, more than anything else, that provides incentive to keep wild populations of these animals viable in Africa.

The experience and opinion of Africans in Zimbabwe did not matter. The expert opinion of game managers and hunting guides did not matter. The SJWs emoted that they liked their Disney image of lions, and did not want them to die, ever, in any manner.

It is the stupid, irrational, and emotive attacks of SJWs that are so hard to counter. They are not moved by logic, by facts, by anything. They have made up their minds, and want blood. Many actually called for Dr. Palmer to be killed. This is a retreat toward savagery and emotive blood lust that most people thought Western Civilization had left behind in the 19th century.

It will not be the last attack on innocent people by SJWs. The headlines across the old media echo the talking point of this one. They do not say that Dr. Palmer was found not to have violated any Zimbabwe laws. They go with the talking point that Zimbabwe Officials decided not to charge him. It is a large and significant difference, and those who promote that headline deserve contempt and shame.

It is nice to see that Dr. Palmer seems to have weathered the SJW storm and his practice is now returning to normal.  It validates the observation that these emotional tantrums thrown by the uninformed are relatively short lived affairs.  From the article:

“Right away in the beginning there were just like a ton of protestors there and then died down for a while. And then the last couple of weeks we would get people coming through once a week,” Heidi Nephew, who lives near Palmer’s Bloomington dentist office, said.

She says the media storm and protests caused a nuisance for everyone in the area.

I wish Dr. Palmer the best.  No one should be put through the grinder, as he was, based on ignorance and emotion.


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