What Everyone Should Know About Trayvon Martin (1995-2012)

[thoughtone]

source: Think Progress

On February 26, 2012, a 17-year-old African-American named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida. The shooter was George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old white man. Zimmerman admits killing Martin, but claims he was acting in self-defense. Three weeks after Martin’s death, no arrests have been made and Zimmerman remains free.

Here is what everyone should know about the case:

1. Zimmerman called the police to report Martin’s “suspicious” behavior, which he described as “just walking around looking about.” Zimmerman was in his car when he saw Martin walking on the street. He called the police and said: “There’s a real suspicious guy. This guy looks like he’s up to no good, on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around looking about… These a**holes always get away” [Orlando Sentinel]

2. Zimmerman pursued Martin against the explicit instructions of the police dispatcher:

Dispatcher: “Are you following him?”
Zimmerman: “Yeah”
Dispatcher: “OK, we don’t need you to do that.”

[Orlando Sentinel]

3. Prior to the release of the 911 tapes, Zimmerman’s father released a statement claiming “[a]t no time did George follow or confront Mr. Martin.” [Sun Sentinel]

4. Zimmerman was carrying a a 9 millimeter handgun. Martin was carrying a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea. [ABC News]

5. Martin weighed 140 pounds. Zimmerman weighs 250 pounds. [Orlando Sentinel; WDBO]

6. Martin’s English teacher described him as “as an A and B student who majored in cheerfulness.” [Orlando Sentinel]

7. Martin had no criminal record. [New York Times]

8. Zimmerman “was charged in July 2005 with resisting arrest with violence and battery on an officer. The charges appear to have been dropped.” [Huffington Post]

9. Zimmerman called the police 46 times since Jan. 1, 2011. [Miami Herald]

10. According to neighbors, Zimmerman was “fixated on crime and focused on young, black males.” [Miami Herald]

11. Zimmerman “had been the subject of complaints by neighbors in his gated community for aggressive tactics” [Huffington Post]

12. A police officer “corrected” a key witness. “The officer told the witness, a long-time teacher, it was Zimmerman who cried for help, said the witness. ABC News has spoken to the teacher and she confirmed that the officer corrected her when she said she heard the teenager shout for help.” [ABC News]

13. Three witnesses say they heard a boy cry for help before a shot was fired. “Three witnesses contacted by The Miami Herald say they saw or heard the moments before and after the Miami Gardens teenager’s killing. All three said they heard the last howl for help from a despondent boy.” [Miami Herald]

14. The officer in charge of the crime scene also received criticism in 2010 when he initially failed to arrest a lieutenant’s son who was videotaped attacking a homeless black man. [New York Times]

15. The police did not test Zimmerman for drugs or alcohol. A law enforcement expert told ABC that Zimmerman sounds intoxicated on the 911 tapes. Drug and alcohol testing is “standard procedure in most homicide investigations.” [ABC News]
​

The Martin case had been turned over to the Seminole County State Attorney’s Office. Martin’s family has asked for the FBI to investigate.

 

[nittie]

This is a tragedy it's hard to believe the police dept could conclude it's investigation so quick and callously. The case also raises the question of what will white extremist do as their world shrinks and they can't adapt to being a minority in a multicultural society. We will probably see more vigilantism and terrorism.

 

[QueEx]

source: Think Progress

On February 26, 2012, a 17-year-old African-American named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida. The shooter was George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old white man. Zimmerman admits killing Martin, but claims he was acting in self-defense. Three weeks after Martin’s death, no arrests have been made and Zimmerman remains free.

Here is what everyone should know about the case:

1. Zimmerman called the police to report Martin’s “suspicious” behavior, which he described as “just walking around looking about.” Zimmerman was in his car when he saw Martin walking on the street. He called the police and said: “There’s a real suspicious guy. This guy looks like he’s up to no good, on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around looking about… These a**holes always get away” [Orlando Sentinel]

2. Zimmerman pursued Martin against the explicit instructions of the police dispatcher:

Dispatcher: “Are you following him?”
Zimmerman: “Yeah”
Dispatcher: “OK, we don’t need you to do that.”

[Orlando Sentinel]

3. Prior to the release of the 911 tapes, Zimmerman’s father released a statement claiming “[a]t no time did George follow or confront Mr. Martin.” [Sun Sentinel]

4. Zimmerman was carrying a a 9 millimeter handgun. Martin was carrying a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea. [ABC News]

5. Martin weighed 140 pounds. Zimmerman weighs 250 pounds. [Orlando Sentinel; WDBO]

6. Martin’s English teacher described him as “as an A and B student who majored in cheerfulness.” [Orlando Sentinel]

7. Martin had no criminal record. [New York Times]

8. Zimmerman “was charged in July 2005 with resisting arrest with violence and battery on an officer. The charges appear to have been dropped.” [Huffington Post]

9. Zimmerman called the police 46 times since Jan. 1, 2011. [Miami Herald]

10. According to neighbors, Zimmerman was “fixated on crime and focused on young, black males.” [Miami Herald]

11. Zimmerman “had been the subject of complaints by neighbors in his gated community for aggressive tactics” [Huffington Post]

12. A police officer “corrected” a key witness. “The officer told the witness, a long-time teacher, it was Zimmerman who cried for help, said the witness. ABC News has spoken to the teacher and she confirmed that the officer corrected her when she said she heard the teenager shout for help.” [ABC News]

13. Three witnesses say they heard a boy cry for help before a shot was fired. “Three witnesses contacted by The Miami Herald say they saw or heard the moments before and after the Miami Gardens teenager’s killing. All three said they heard the last howl for help from a despondent boy.” [Miami Herald]

14. The officer in charge of the crime scene also received criticism in 2010 when he initially failed to arrest a lieutenant’s son who was videotaped attacking a homeless black man. [New York Times]

15. The police did not test Zimmerman for drugs or alcohol. A law enforcement expert told ABC that Zimmerman sounds intoxicated on the 911 tapes. Drug and alcohol testing is “standard procedure in most homicide investigations.” [ABC News]
​

The Martin case had been turned over to the Seminole County State Attorney’s Office. Martin’s family has asked for the FBI to investigate.

Good job; thanks for taking the time for this compilation, now and as the facts roll out.

From the preliminaries, some of the evidence points to a possible cover-up with the local police department; and there is some evidence above which at least raises a question as to how much the people in that community may have known about Mr. Zimmerman's propensity to act as it appears he may have.

This guy was licensed to carry -- but if it develops that the community had knowledge that he was carrying a weapon in connection with his activities as a community watch - it may be that his actions could become -> their actions -- which might expose some/all of them to civil liability for wrongful death. Of course, no state of the facts could now revive an innocent Mr. Martin but at this point, unfortunately, we're at the point of assessing blame - criminal and civil.

 

[pookie]

AFTER WATCHING THAT VIDEO OF THAT DUDE THAT ATTACKED THAT BLACK HOMELESS MAN AND WENT AND ATTACKED SOMEONE ELSE AND WAS NOT ARRESTED. SEEM LIKE THEY ARE TRYING TO OPEN UP ****** SEASON, FOR TIMES WHEN THEY CAN GO AND HUNT ******S. MAYBE I SHOULD NOT HAVE SAID THAT. BUT THERE HAS GOT TO BE A REASON FOR THEM PROTECTING ZIMMERMAN. AND IT SEEMS LIKE THEY ARE WORKING VERY HARD TO GET THIS PULLED THRU IN ZIMMERMAN FAVOR. NO STATEMENT OF SAYING I AM SORRY FOR WHAT HAPPENED OR ANYTHING. THEY ARE WORKING HARD RIGHT NOW TO COVER UP ZIMMERMAN'S FUCK UP AND KEEP HIM FROM FUCKING IT UP WORSE.

http://blacknation.vpweb.com/

 

[QueEx]

AFTER WATCHING THAT VIDEO OF THAT DUDE THAT ATTACKED THAT BLACK HOMELESS MAN AND WENT AND ATTACKED SOMEONE ELSE AND WAS NOT ARRESTED. SEEM LIKE THEY ARE TRYING TO OPEN UP ****** SEASON, FOR TIMES WHEN THEY CAN GO AND HUNT ******S. MAYBE I SHOULD NOT HAVE SAID THAT. BUT THERE HAS GOT TO BE A REASON FOR THEM PROTECTING ZIMMERMAN. AND IT SEEMS LIKE THEY ARE WORKING VERY HARD TO GET THIS PULLED THRU IN ZIMMERMAN FAVOR. NO STATEMENT OF SAYING I AM SORRY FOR WHAT HAPPENED OR ANYTHING. THEY ARE WORKING HARD RIGHT NOW TO COVER UP ZIMMERMAN'S FUCK UP AND KEEP HIM FROM FUCKING IT UP WORSE.

There are enough questions being raised right now that those more remote from the facts (the District Attorney, et al.) will want to be sure that if there is something afoul with the local police, it won't get smeared on them. Hence, look for the district attorney of that county to present the facts of this case at a coming session of the Grand Jury.

Its well known that an artful district attorney can obtain an indictment of a ham sandwich, if he/she wants to. On the other hand, depending on how the evidence is presented, it is equally possible to present a case to the grand jury such that it returns a no bill (failure to indict).

Either way, moving this case through the grand jury is, in my opinion, the most likely scenario. That way, the D. A., can say: if it the grand jury indicted, the people decided; or, if it fails to indict, the people decided.

 

[QueEx]

U.S. Department of Justice, FBI and FDLE to probe Trayvon Martin killing

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the FBI will investigate the killing of Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch volunteer, the department announced late Monday.

The announcement coincided with a statement from Florida Gov. Rick Scott asking the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to offer “appropriate resources” in the case.

The federal and state agencies are intervening in what attorneys call a botched investigation into the killing of the Michael Krop Senior High School student, who was killed Feb. 26 in Sanford, a town of 55,000 just north of Orlando. Trayvon, 17, on suspension from school, was staying at his father’s girlfriend’s house when he walked to a nearby a 7-Eleven store to buy candy and iced tea.

 

[thoughtone]

source: Huffington Post

Trayvon Martin Final Moments Captured During Phone Call With Teenage Girl


<!-- Photos -->Just moments before Trayvon Martin was shot and killed, he was on his cellphone talking with a 16-year-old girl. For the first time, the girl is speaking out about the last, horrifying moments of Martin's life.

He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man," the girl told ABC News. "I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run but he said he was not going to run."

According to accounts gleaned from 911 audio recordings made the night of the killing and the teenage girl's statements, Martin eventually did run. But Zimmerman wasn't far behind, and soon the two would be face to face. Zimmerman, the self-appointed captain of the neighborhood watch, was armed with a 9mm pistol. Trayvon had little more than a bag of candy in his pocket.

"Trayvon said, 'What are you following me for?' and the man said, 'What are you doing here?' Next thing I hear is somebody pushing, and somebody pushed Trayvon because the headset just fell. I called him again and he didn't answer the phone."

The line went dead, according to the girl's account.

"He knew he was being followed and tried to get away from the guy, and the guy still caught up with him," Tracey Martin, Trayvon's father, told ABC. "And that's the most disturbing part: He thought he had got away from the guy, and the guy back-tracked for him."

Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Martin's family, said the 16-year-old girl's statement of what happened moments before Martin was killed, "connects the dots."

Crump tells HuffPost that Martin's phone records show that he spent much of the day talking on his cellphone with the teenage girl, whose parents asked that her name not be used. Crump said that the two teenagers talked upward of 400 minutes throughout the day, and that Martin spoke with the young lady as he headed to a nearby convenience store and again while he headed back the half-mile or so back to his father's home.

The last call took place at 7:12 p.m., Crump said, at about the time that the girl says Martin noticed that he was being followed and took off running. At 7:17 p.m., according to a police report, the first officers arrived on the scene -- a patch of grass between a row of townhomes at the Retreat at Twin Lakes, the gated community in the Orlando suburb of Sanford, where Trayvon, 17, was visiting his father -- to find the teen dead from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

In a call to 911 prior to the confrontation, Zimmerman said Martin looked high and suspicious, walking around slowly and looking at the homes. Crumps says the phone records show he was doing nothing more than talking on the phone with a young lady he was fond of.

The Sanford police questioned Zimmerman, 28, who told them that he killed Martin in self-defense. Zimmerman was soon released without being charged.

The police say they do not have enough evidence to counter Zimmerman's claims; despite the fact that as early as March 8, Sanford Police chief Bill Lee told HuffPost that Zimmerman disregarded a 911 dispatcher who told him to stand down and wait for the police to arrive. And that at some point Martin realized that Zimmerman, a stranger on a cellphone, was following him.

Lee's description of the events just before Zimmerman shot Martin also seem to corroborate the girl's account.

According to Lee, Zimmerman told investigators that Martin noticed that he was being followed and asked, "What's your problem?"

"He obviously knows Zimmerman is following him," Lee said. "So that's where this physical confrontation takes place."

With the national media spotlight shining more brightly, hundreds of thousands across the country have joined outraged calls to action, signing petitions calling for Zimmerman's arrest or are joining rallies and protests in support of Martin.

The pieces of the puzzle surrounding Martin's killing on Feb. 26 are slowly coming together, as more witnesses come forward to correct the record about what they saw and heard that night. Meanwhile, more scrutiny is being put on how local law enforcement has handled the case, as state and federal authorities have stepped in to investigate the killing further.

The Sanford police handed the case over to the State Attorney's Office last week, and yesterday the Justice Department and the FBI announced that they would be joining the probe into Martin's killing.

The Justice Department has promised to "conduct a thorough and independent review of all evidence and take appropriate action at the conclusion of the investigation," according to a statement late Monday. And Seminole County State Attorney Norm Wolfinger announced Tuesday morning that he plans to convene a grand jury to determine if Zimmerman should be charged in Martin’s death.

The girl's statements -- in conjunction with those of other witnesses and audio recordings of 911 calls made the night of the killing -- offer a clearer picture of what happened that night.

While Martin was on the phone with the girl, Zimmerman was on the line with a 911 dispatcher, reporting Martin as a "suspicious person."

Zimmerman's Call To 911

"This guy looks like he's up to no good, or he's on drugs or something," Zimmerman tells the 911 operator. "He's just staring, looking at all the houses. Now he's coming toward me. He's got his hand in his waistband. Something's wrong with him."

Zimmerman described Martin as wearing a hoodie and sweatpants or jeans.

Zimmerman continues: "He's coming to check me out. He's got something in his hands. I don't know what his deal is. Can we get an officer over here?"

"These assholes always get away," he says later to the operator. Zimmerman is then heard giving directions to the dispatcher.

"Shit, he's running," Zimmerman says.

"Are you following him?" the dispatcher asks.

"Yes," Zimmerman responds.

"We don't need you to do that," the dispatcher says.

Zimmerman continued to pursue Martin, and moments later other calls started coming in to 911. Neighbors reported hearing screams, cries for help and then gunfire. Some sobbed as they talked about a dead boy and a man standing over him. In one recording, the sounds of wailing and what seem to be pleas for help and "No! No!" can be heard.

According to the Miami Herald, Zimmerman told the police that he had stepped out of his SUV to check the name of the street he was on, and that Trayvon sprang out of nowhere to attack him from behind as he was walking back to his truck. He said he feared for his life and shot Martin in self-defense. That account doesn't easily fit into the narrative cobbled together from what evidence had been made public.

"I think the [girl's account] is just more corroborative evidence that Trayvon was not the aggressor and that he was being actively pursued by George Zimmerman," said Jasmine Rand, one of the Martin family's attorneys.

Rand said the girl, a friend from Miami where Trayvon lived with his mother, "probably heard the moments closest to the end of his life, and she says that Zimmerman was pursuing him and that he pushed him or was physically aggressive with him."

That account, and corroboration from other witnesses who dispute that Zimmerman was acting in self-defense, she said, could be key in determining if Zimmerman acted legally that night.

"What we have now is several witnesses saying the same thing: that Zimmerman was the aggressor, that he followed him and pursued him and at some point was on top of him," Rand said. "If you're trying to use a claim of self-defense, you can't be the one chasing, you can't be chasing the person that you say is being aggressive against you."

In the days after the shooting, witnesses have said they had trouble reaching the police to give their statements. Others would say that investigators twisted their testimony to fit a self-defense theory, asked leading questions during questioning and that, on the night of the killing, investigators peppered Zimmerman with questions before he could tell his story.

"It was self-defense," one witness said an investigator mouthed at the scene.

 

[muckraker10021]

Former Homicide Detective:
Illegal to Kill Dogs but Not Black Kids in Florida


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March 20, 2012

A former homicide detective says that with the state's "Stand Your Ground" law, Florida has made it legal to kill black kids like Trayvon Martin but not dogs.

Former Washington, D.C. Police Department homicide investigator Rod Wheeler, now a Fox News contributor, explained on Tuesday that the "Stand Your Ground" law was really the "Make My Day" law, referring to a scene where Dirty Harry -- played by Clint Eastwood -- threatens to kill a man robbing a diner instead of retreating.

"The police department in [Sanford, Florida] oppose that law," Wheeler told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade. "What that law is saying in the state of Florida -- and look at the case law -- you can actually shoot a dog. It happens all the time. You can shoot a kill a dog and get arrested and put in jail, but if you kill a kid -- and especially a black kid in Florida -- you can walk away. That's what that law means."

As head of neighborhood watch for The Retreat at Twin Lakes, George Zimmerman had called police in February to report 17-year-old Martin as a suspicious person, but by the time the officers arrived, the young man was already dead.

According to reports, police said Martin had been returning from a local store with Skittles and an iced tea.

Zimmerman claimed he had been forced to use his 9mm handgun shoot Martin in self-defense.

Tapes from 911 dispatchers later revealed that Zimmerman had been told not to pursue Martin. While the teen did not have a criminal record, Zimmerman had been charged in 2005 with “resisting arrest with violence and battery on an officer.” Those charges were later reduced to simple battery, and a plea deal allowed him to carry a concealed weapon.

A profile by The Miami Herald described Zimmerman as someone who was “fixated on crime and focused on young, black males.” He had called police at least 46 times since January 1, 2011.

For his defense, Zimmerman is relying on the so-called "Stand Your Ground" law, which Florida became the first state to pass in 2005, expanding self-defense zones to most public places. As The Christian Science Monitor noted, the law does away with the English Law concept of a “duty to retreat.”

"Welcome to the Sunshine State," Florida criminal defense attorney Eric Schwartzreich told Fox News on Tuesday. "The heat we're packing here, it's not sunshine, it's firearms. We call this the 'Shoot First and Ask Questions Later' law. Someone has a right to defend themselves and stand their ground."

On Monday, Sabrina Fulton told NBC’s Matt Lauer that Martin, her son, was only shot and killed by Zimmerman because he was an African American.

“He was reacting to the color of his skin,” Fulton explained. “[Martin] committed no crime. My son wasn’t doing anything but walking on the sidewalk."

Attorney Ben Crump also told Lauer that although Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law” makes it legal to use deadly force without first retreating, “Zimmerman has no legal recourse” in this case.

"Zimmerman got out of his car, did not listen to the police and chased this kid," Crump said. "You can’t chase somebody and then claim self defense. Trayvon Martin had a bag of Skittles, Matt. [Zimmerman] had a 9mm gun. He was almost 80 pounds more weight than Trayvon Martin.”

“Everybody in America is asking, ‘When are they going to arrest Zimmerman for killing this kid in cold blood?’” he added.

In a statement released on Monday night, the U.S. Department of Justice announced they were opening an investigation into the case.

"The department will conduct a thorough and independent review of all of the evidence and take appropriate action at the conclusion of the investigation," Justice Department spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said in the press advisory.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/fmr-homicide-detective-illegal-kill-dogs-not



<hr noshade color="#0000ff" size="8"></hr>

 

[joneblaze]

Thanks for posting this and still no arrest!!!!

 

[QueEx]

Thanks for posting this and still no arrest!!!!

Without a doubt, its coming. The process has been underway for a few days now.

 

[thoughtone]

Right wing gun nuts have been silent on this. Curious to find out how they are going to demonize Trayvon.

 

[thoughtone]

source: Reddingnewsreview

Joe Madison uncovers racial slur in Florida shooting​

ATLANTA, March 20,<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /><O> 2012, 12:30 p.m. - </O>Sirius XM radio talk host Joe Madison today announced that he discovered audio of George Zimmerman referring to Trayvon Martin as a “f**king coon” under his breath moments before he shot the teenager to death.

“A listener reached out to me yesterday asking that I listen to the tape carefully," Madison said. "This morning when we got in, I had our engineer clean up the tape and sure enough, there it was,”


[URL="http://madisonblackeagle.podbean.com/mf/play/nbpj6x/GEORGEZIMMERMAN-911TAPE.mp3"]Click here[/URL] to listen to the tape - (quote at :16).


<O></O>

 

[QueEx]

Right wing gun nuts have been silent on this. Curious to find out how they are going to demonize Trayvon.

Its so, so unfortunate what happened to Trayvon, but one thing that might come out of this is a new and even more critical look at the ill conceived stand your ground (SYG) laws adopted by Florida and several other states -- which turn on one party's "reasonable belief" that he was threatened -- in order to use deadly force to repel that threat. Of course, one MAJOR problem with disputing what "the shooter believed was reasonable" is the one most able to shed light on the situation is the one the shooter just killed. Some of us recall the NRA pushing hard for SYG type of legislation, even when many police departments (imagine that, huh) were against it. Personally, I thought SYG type legislation was wrong when Florida adopted -- and wrong now.

If anything good can come from Trayvon's death, perhaps, repealing or striking down SYG legislation, is one of them. In my opinion, most SYG legislation leaves way too much to what the shooter "Subjectively" believes is reasonable - - as opposed to what the "Objective facts" may show or reveal.

 

[thoughtone]

source: Sun Sentinel


Trayvon Martin death: How did Stand Your Ground pass Senate 39-0?


Thirty-nine yeas, zero nays.

Hard to believe that such a bad bill could have been approved unanimously, but it was.

When the so-called Stand Your Ground bill went to a vote in the Florida Senate on March 25, 2005, the final tally was 39-0.

The bill was passed by the House 92-20 a few weeks later, then signed by then-Gov. Jeb Bush in late April 2005. On Oct. 1, 2005, it became law.

And now that law is at the heart of a national debate, and international outrage, after the shooting death of Miami teen Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Sanford last month.

The law dramatically expanded self-defense and lethal force boundaries in Florida, stipulating that citizens had "no duty to retreat" and could meet "force with force" if they got into confrontations in places they were legally entitled to be. If someone "reasonably believed" they were in "imminent danger" of death or serious injury, they could use deadly force and be immune from criminal prosecution or civil liability.

Before Stand Your Ground, citizens had to try to avoid using deadly force unless they were in their homes.

Nearly South Florida senator at the time, including liberal Democrats like Nan Rich, Ron Klein (who went on to Congress) and Steve Geller, voted yes.

The only senator who didn't vote for it: Mandy Dawson, who missed the vote. The troubled Dawson missed a lot of votes back then due to physical and prescription drug abuse problems; she'll soon be sentenced in connection with a federal corruption case.

Democrat Walter "Skip" Campbell not only voted for it, he was a co-sponsor, a fact that surprised and dismayed him when I spoke to him this week.

He said the bill "was sold" to senators as a way to expand self-defense rights to include places like cars, hotel rooms and campgrounds against "intruders and attackers." The bill's chief supporter: the powerful National Rifle Association, which made it their top priority that year. Campbell, an attorney, said the intent has been subverted.

"It's being abused, I know that," Campbell said.

But at the time, many people -- including prosecutors, law enforcement agencies and gun-control groups -- said the law would open up a can of worms, leading to "Wild West" situations where people who get into fights can shoot each other and claim self-defense.

After the Senate passed the bill 39-0, it received more negative publicity. By the time the House voted on it, most South Florida Democrats lined up against it.

Now there will be an effort to undo -- or at least tweak -- stand your ground. Sen. Chris Smith (D-Fort Lauderdale) and state Rep. Perry Thurston (D-Fort Lauderdale) are already drafting new legislation so that Stand Your Ground can not apply to people who are deemed aggressors and who provoke a confrontation.

Zimmerman hasn't been charged because he has claimed self-defense.

Martin's lawyer and relatives say it was a "cold-blooded" killing and that Zimmerman is a "loose cannon" who needs to be arrested immediately.

"Self-defense is a legal argument that you make in a courtroom to a judge and jury, not on the side of the road to police," Benjamin Crump, the Martin family attorney, said at a news conference on Tuesday.

But under Stand Your Ground, that's not the way it works.

With Trayvon Martin's blood on their hands, the Legislature needs to change it.

 

[thoughtone]

source: The Daily Beast

Fox News Coverage of the Trayvon Martin Case Criticized

As the Florida shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin makes national headlines, Fox News’s handling of the story is drawing scrutiny. Nick Summers on the network’s delayed coverage—and attempts to link it to gun control.

It’s an explosive story with ingredients that Fox News should be well familiar with: race, guns, and crime.

But as the shooting death of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin makes national headlines, Fox’s coverage is becoming a story in its own right—from its slow start behind other networks to its attempt to shift the story onto the more comfortable turf of gun control.

Details of the case are tragic, and now widely known. On the night of Feb. 26, Martin was walking to the Sanford, Fla., home of his father’s girlfriend after a trip to a nearby convenience store. The boy was carrying a cellphone, an iced tea, and some candy. George Zimmerman, 28, had a gun. A member of the gated community’s “neighborhood watch”-like project, in the past Zimmerman had reportedly called police nearly 50 times to report what he thought was suspicious activity. On this rainy night, he followed Martin—against the advice of a police dispatcher—and, after a confrontation, shot and killed the boy. In the weeks since, with Martin’s family calling the incident a murder and Zimmerman claiming it was self-defense, he has not been arrested or charged with a crime.

Outrage over the shooting built steadily, fueled by social media, and then erupted over the weekend with extensive coverage on cable news channels and in national newspapers. Audio of several 911 calls were played and replayed, including one by Zimmerman describing his pursuit of Martin, and one with harrowing screams of “Help! Help! Help!” in the background—followed by the sound of a fatal gunshot. ABC News reported the incident on March 10; CNN did so on March 12.

By March 19, the story was officially national news—and so was Fox News’s relative absence. Think Progress ran a story under the headline “All Major News Outlets Cover Trayvon Martin Tragedy, Except Fox News,” which was tweeted more than 1,500 times and picked up by a wide array of blogs and news sites. A chart accompanying the item said that between Feb. 26 and March 19, CNN had devoted 41 segments to Trayvon Martin, with MSNBC airing 13 and Fox News one.

A Fox News spokesperson disputed those numbers on Tuesday afternoon, saying the network by then had aired roughly 15 segments on at least seven programs, including Happening Now, America’s Newsroom, Studio B, Fox Report, Fox & Friends, Fox & Friends First, and America Live. A correspondent, Steve Harrigan, is in Florida reporting on the story. The spokesperson declined to comment further on the network’s coverage.

The segments that Fox News did air quickly drew scrutiny. Monday afternoon, anchor Martha MacCallum introduced a piece that tied the release of the 911 calls to a general statement on the shooting by the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “The alleged gunman [is] claiming that it was self-defense,” said MacCallum, “and now anti-gun advocates say the 911 calls from some witnesses prove otherwise—and they’re using them as ammunition in a new attack on the National Rifle Association.”

Los Angeles correspondent Trace Gallagher described portions of the tapes, and then concluded: “Remember, Florida is also a ‘Stand Your Ground’ law state, which means that you can use guns or other deadly force as self-defense without backing out of a confrontation. Now, the National Rifle Association backed that law, and now the Brady Campaign, which is pushing for tougher gun laws, says, ‘That’s the National Rifle Association’s vision for America.’ It’s important to point out that gun sales in this country have never been higher, and the crime rate, says the FBI, is very low.”

For most of the segment, a chyron read, “ANTI-GUN ADVOCATES USE TEEN’S DEATH TO GO AFTER NRA.” Other reports have been more straightforward.

Media Matters, a liberal organization that regularly takes Fox News to task, criticized the network’s coverage. “That’s really telling,” said Ari Rabin-Havt, the group’s executive vice president and author of The Fox Effect. “They switch from this horrific clip—they’re playing the 911 tapes, they play the actual gunshot. And then they switch to a kind of political attack on gun-control advocates, which is ridiculous, in terms of the kinds of the emotions being used there.”

“You never know motivations. But Fox has a habit in the stories they pick: they did more than 90 segments on the New Black Panther story, but they certainly don’t dedicate that kind of coverage to Trayvon Martin,” Rabin-Havt said. “I can’t tell you why they pick the stories they pick, but it does say a lot about the network.”

Fox has been known for its aggressive coverage of stories relating to race, guns, and crime, but lately has tried to take the edge off such hot-button topics. In January 2011, after a gunman shot and nearly killed Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Fox News CEO Roger Ailes told entrepreneur Russell Simmons in an interview that he wanted less heated rhetoric on his network. “I told all of our guys, shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually,” Ailes said, according to a transcript. “You don’t have to do it with bombast. I hope the other side does that.”

With the Martin case set to escalate further—the FBI and the civil rights division of the Justice Department have announced investigations, and a Seminole County grand jury will convene next month to weigh charges—Fox News will face ongoing pressure to keep covering the story, and just as much scrutiny over the way it does so.

 

[Thick Johnson]

Makes you want to fuck some shit up.


Some other shit is taking place right now though.


This is being used as a smoke screen.

 

[QueEx]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/DZpsCc8IRHY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[cottonwood]

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/0...s-readers-set-new-high-water-mark-for-racism/


^ Fox news commentators refer to Martin as a "little thug ghetto monkey".

Bigots are flocking to Fox to cheer on the murder of a black man.

[New here, but not a lurker...sort of. ASR transplant]

 

[AGYMAH]

It's total bullshit. With all the information thats coming out now esp with this fool being heard on his 911 call saying "Fucking Coons" This idiot shouldn't be free for long. I have 3 sons and this fucking pisses me off.

This is what they think about us.

 

[QueEx]

In my opinion, a lot went wrong in the Trayvon Martin fiasco. A lot.

The 911 tapes allow us to peer into the mind of George Zimmerman;

The young lady on the phone allows us to peer into the last thoughts of Trayvon;

2 White female witnesses allows us to see them both, Zimmerman perched atop Trayvon, Trayvon shot and lying face down with Zimmerman on his back; and

One guy, Frank Taaffee, a resident of the subdivision/community where the shooting took place, allows us a peculair look into the mindset of the problem in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper:

AC: I guess, you know, a lot of people believe race played a factor in this. Form what you know about George Zimmerman, do you believe race played a factor?

Taaffe: Absolutely not.

AC: Why do you feel so strongly about that?

Taaffe: George is not a racist. He was just performing his duties as watch captain. Whether it be African American, Latino, Asian, or white, he would’ve done the same thing. He would have approached the person, asked him “What’s your business here?” and <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">if he had just answered him in an appropriate manner, “I’m just here visiting. My mother’s house is around the corner,” and be upfront and truthful, there wouldn’t be any problem</span>.​

Apparently, in Frank Taaffe's mind, Zimmerman had the RIGHT to stop and ask Trayvon his business; and Trayvon had a DUTY to respond, OR, THERE COULD BE TROUBLE; and it was ZIMMERMAN'S DUTY to do these things.

Really?

The Constitution of these United States of America must have been amended, without my knowledge -- because the last I checked, it didn't give Zimmerman such a right; it didn't impose such a duty; and it dammned sure didn't give Zimmerman (or any police force, for that matter) the RIGHT TO PUNISH Trayvon Martin if he failed to answer ANY QUESTIONS.

I have to wonder, which of those residents (Taaffe ???) told Zimmerman he had such power ? ? ? And, how much insurance does he/she/they have ???

Frank Taaffe




When/if Icome across the video of the Taaffee/Anderson Cooper video, I will post it. In tne meantime, if one
of you come across, please do me the honors.

Thanking you in advance.

 

[thoughtone]

You're over intellectualizing it. Just as was argued in another thread, our constitutional rights have been trampled on for far too long. The SYG law is unconditional. The right to bare arms does not grant the right to eliminate perceived threats. The law was based in racism, white supremacy and capitalism. First the racism that is fed by the legacy of racism that has never been fully exorcised from the ex-Confederacy and American in general; if it ever will. Second, the fear of the enviable of so called "whites" becoming the minority and loosing their so called privileged status in the electorate. And finally capitalism. The zeal o make money from guns and the weapons culture and the expense of human life.

How easy it is to minimize the life of people of African descent.

Ironic that the so called libertarians, strict conditional constructionist and self named conservatives fear posting in this thread!

 

[nittie]

Frank Taaffe had a point when he said it was a perfect storm that led to Trayvon's shooting. The neighborhood had experienced a rash of burglaries by young black males, people were on edge and Florida's gun laws so this was bound to happen sooner or later. Many of us have seen our neighborhoods deteriorate because of what could be called urban thug life, young black kids wildin out it makes you want to hurt them. Zimmerman should be tried but burying him and our heads in the sand will not solve the problem.

 

[anonymous]

Great post Op. Thank you.

 

[thoughtone]

Frank Taaffe had a point when he said it was a perfect storm that led to Trayvon's shooting. The neighborhood had experienced a rash of burglaries by young black males, people were on edge and Florida's gun laws so this was bound to happen sooner or later. Many of us have seen our neighborhoods deteriorate because of what could be called urban thug life, young black kids wildin out it makes you want to hurt them. Zimmerman should be tried but burying him and our heads in the sand will not solve the problem.

So using your logic, an innocent Black person was bound to be murdered by a paranoid white person. It's always Black folks fault, never whites.

i will remember this the next time a High School is shot up by middle class whites.

 

[nittie]

So using your logic, an innocent Black person was bound to be murdered by a paranoid white person. It's always Black folks fault, never whites.

i will remember this the next time a High School is shot up by middle class whites.

Yeah a innocent Black person was bound to get killed but there's another case in Florida where a white Iraq vet was killed by a Black man under the same law. I was just making a point we are a society in decline for several reasons one of which is young black males growing up in a thug culture. Another aspect is Blacks can be outraged by Trayvon's death but go to work, school or play and compete with the person sitting next to them. We judge each other by what we drive, how we speak, the shade of our skin so we are complicit in a adversarial society which stresses and rewards competition. Competition is the issue and the powers that be use it to keep everyone at each others throats.

 

[QueEx]

You're over intellectualizing it.

Well please except my apologies, for being intellectualizing. LOL. But I don't apologize for my analysis. We all see things differently, from different perspectives.

Sometimes we disagree because we're wrong, sometimes because we're right; and sometimes because we don't share perspectives.

Just as was argued in another thread, our constitutional rights have been trampled on for far too long.

Of course, in actuality, thats relative -- as in perspectives -- depending upon where you stand. But I don't know if its as bad as you imply, or worse.

The SYG law is unconditional. The right to bare arms does not grant the right to eliminate perceived threats. The law was based in racism, white supremacy and capitalism.

You're right; the right to bear arms does not grant the right to eliminate a perceived threat. But the right to self defense is not dependent upon nor derivative of, the 2nd Amendment. For sure, the right to self defense pre-dates the Constitution and can be fully and completely effected without the use of "arms" -- an automobile, one's fist, one's brute strength too can be "deadly force." The question then, is when is one authorized (allowed to use without criminal punishment) deadly force in the protection of oneself or another.

Generally speaking:

Under most traditional Self Defense laws - the person asserting the right to defend may be required to demonstrate that he/she first attempted to 'avoid' having to use deadly force or that he first attempted to 'retreat' away from the situation. If after attempting to avoid or retreat and he reasonably believes that his life or the life of another is in immediate peril - then he is permitted to use deadly force to protect his life or the life of another.

Under SYG, Stand Your Ground - the person is NOT required to retreat or avoid. Here, if the person reasonably believes that his life or the life of another is in immediate peril, HE DOES NOT have to retreat, he does not have to attempt to avoid, etc., he is immediately authorized to use deadly force to protect him/herself, without punishment.

Now, I can't say that those principles were born of racism. I do believe, however, that much of that body of law has its origins in the early common law where the disputes were intra-caucasion. On the other hand, many innocent things have been used by racists, supremacists, capitalists, atheists, communists, socialist, etc., to their advantage. Maybe, to understand a particular circumstance requires analysis. Some may call that intellectualism. Others may just call it, what the fuck happened, here

 

[pookie]

I DOWNLOADED ONE CLIP WHERE THE DUDE WAS THINKING LIKE ME. HOW DID ZIMMERMAN GET OUT OF THAT FIGHT WITH A POLICE OFFICER. DID HE BECOME AN INFORMANT AFTER THAT. WAS HE BEING PROGRAMED BY THAT POLICE DEPT. I HAVE NEVER SEEN A DUDE LIKE HIM USE SUCH RACIAL WORDS. THE WORD COON IS USUALLY USED BY HARD CORE RACIST. SOUNDS TO ME LIKE THEY WERE PROGRAMING HIM FOR SOMETHING. JUST LIKE THE PEOPLE IN JONESTOWN.
AND WHERE DID ZIMMERMAN WORK? I KNOW HE MAY BE SAYING HE IS HIDING BECAUSE OF DEATH THREATS. BUT THE POLICE HAD ALREADY THOUGHT THAT THRU. WITH IT RAINING AND HARDLY NO ONE AROUND WAS THE RIGHT TIME TO DO WHAT THEY HAD BEEN PROGRAMMING HIM FOR. HE MAY NOT HAVE DONE NOTHING LIKE THAT BEFORE. BUT THAT POLICE DEPT. HAS. WE KNOW WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE. THE BLACK GROUP THAT WANTED TO MAKE A CITIZEN ARREST, THEY CANNOT FIND HIM. I AM VERY CURIOUS AS TO WHAT HE HAS TO SAY. AS LONG AS HE IS HIDE THINGS ABOUT THE POLICE DEPT. CANNOT BE ASKED.

http://blacknation.vpweb.com/

 

[QueEx]

Frank Taaffe had a point when he said it was a perfect storm that led to Trayvon's shooting. The neighborhood had experienced a rash of burglaries by young black males, people were on edge and Florida's gun laws so this was bound to happen sooner or later. Many of us have seen our neighborhoods deteriorate because of what could be called urban thug life, young black kids wildin out it makes you want to hurt them. Zimmerman should be tried but burying him and our heads in the sand will not solve the problem.

some might argue, Zimmerman missed his target.

 

[QueEx]

Frank Taaffe had a point when he said it was a perfect storm that led to Trayvon's shooting. The neighborhood had experienced a rash of burglaries by young black males, people were on edge and Florida's gun laws so this was bound to happen sooner or later. Many of us have seen our neighborhoods deteriorate because of what could be called urban thug life, young black kids wildin out it makes you want to hurt them. Zimmerman should be tried but burying him and our heads in the sand will not solve the problem.

Sorry, on the real. Where, in all of the evidence that has come out over the last couple of weeks and especially in the last few days, have you seen anything at all that points to young Trayvon Martin: wildin, thuggin, burglarizin, ???

Where ???

 

[nittie]

some might argue, Zimmerman missed his target.

It's no argument that you are upset about this because some white people in the media want you to be they could easily bury this story or frame it in a different manner. That is also the reason you think you know what you are talking about.

 

[QueEx]

Yeah a innocent Black person was bound to get killed but there's another case in Florida where a white Iraq vet was killed by a Black man under the same law.

You're right; that did happen. In that case, and rightfully so, the facts were investigated and the black guy was charged and tried.

Question: What is the difference between that case, and this one ? ? ?

 

[thoughtone]

Yeah a innocent Black person was bound to get killed but there's another case in Florida where a white Iraq vet was killed by a Black man under the same law. I was just making a point we are a society in decline for several reasons one of which is young black males growing up in a thug culture. Another aspect is Blacks can be outraged by Trayvon's death but go to work, school or play and compete with the person sitting next to them. We judge each other by what we drive, how we speak, the shade of our skin so we are complicit in a adversarial society which stresses and rewards competition. Competition is the issue and the powers that be use it to keep everyone at each others throats.

You have strayed off topic. Trayvon Martin was none of those things. Sounds like you have bought into judging all young Blacks males as thugs, which is what Zimmerman did. I lived in the Orlando area too. There is also a case of a homeless person getting shot by a person claiming to be threatening. Black on Black crime is a serious issue to be dealt with, but you seem to excusing Zimmerman because of that.

 

[nittie]

You have strayed off topic. Trayvon Martin was none of those things. Sounds like you have bought into judging all young Blacks males as thugs, which is what Zimmerman did. I lived in the Orlando area too. There is also a case of a homeless person getting shot by a person claiming to be threatening. Black on Black crime is a serious issue to be dealt with, but you seem to excusing Zimmerman because of that.

I didn't stray off topic I expanded it to try and make some sense of what appears to be a emotional reaction by a disturbed white guy. What we are dealing with is a changing society and if we don't get a grip we could easy see our way of life end.

 

[QueEx]

It's no argument that you are upset about this because some white people in the media want you to be they could easily bury this story or frame it in a different manner. That is also the reason you think you know what you are talking about.

No bro, don't YOU get it twisted. I'm saying things here and a lot of other places to a lot more people - because I desire to shape shit. I want people to question deeper than thug-level, than black-burglar-level. YOU, nittie, brought that shit to the table. Not one soul here, but YOU. You Strayed!

Hence, it must be whites knowing how to push your button; AND, you've responded predictably

 

[muckraker10021]

I didn't stray off topic I expanded it to try and make some sense of what appears to be a emotional reaction by a disturbed white guy. What we are dealing with is a changing society and if we don't get a grip we could easy see our way of life end.

You have strayed off topic. Trayvon Martin was none of those things. Sounds like you have bought into judging all young Blacks males as thugs, which is what Zimmerman did. I lived in the Orlando area too. There is also a case of a homeless person getting shot by a person claiming to be threatening. Black on Black crime is a serious issue to be dealt with, but you seem to excusing Zimmerman because of that.

All of us residing in United States — regardless of class, color, or creed have been inculcated into the American system of “white supremacy”.

Prior to World War II, Irish, Greeks, Italians, Russians, Spaniards, and people whose religion was Judaism (Jews) — were not considered ‘white people’ in America. This reality is highlighted by an often cited story about Joseph Kennedy Sr., the patriarch of the Kennedy family, and father of President John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Ted Kennedy. In 1934 President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Joe Kennedy Sr. as the first commissioner of the newly formed SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission). J.P. Morgan Jr. chairman of the eponymously named bank J.P. Morgan & Co. was the most powerful man on Wall Street at that time. When the Chairman of the SEC, Kennedy, went to Wall street to meet with Morgan at the behest of FDR, Morgan refused to even see him, stating “I refuse to meet with Irish trash”. Everybody who wasn’t considered white in America wanted to become white.

After World War II all the European ethnic groups who had been disparaged as a cut below WASP white people finally got their official white people card. To use the phrase first used by the late professor Derrick Bell whose name has been in the news lately ,Black people were stuck — “just faces at the bottom of the well”. This murderer Zimmerman is a racist imbued with the mindset that Black men are “the public enemy”. Many in our own Black community have absorbed this Black men as “the public enemy” as reality, and have turned our backs on our own children.

I just finished reading the new book by Connie Rice 'Power Concedes Nothing' — about her battle in Los Angeles at the intersection between the Black gangs and the paramilitary LA police department determined to kill as many Black males as possible. It’s a must read, go out and by it —$16.00. Connie Rice a Harvard and NYU law graduate could of used her credentials to move to the suburbs ,live the bourgeois life, and forget about “the public enemy”, Black men exchanging gun fire with a paramilitary police force.

White man, Tim Wise, in an article below, captures the reality of what this murderer Zimmerman exemplifies about today’s American culture.


<hr noshade color="#0000FF" size="4"></hr>

Trayvon Martin, White Denial And The
Unacceptable Burden of Blackness in America


<img src="http://speakoutnow.org/img/pic/WiseSmile.jpg" width="100">
by Tim Wise

March 22, 2012

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/...le-Burden-of-Blackness-in-America?detail=hide

By now, you probably know the shameful details, but they are worth repeating, in any event.

On the evening of February 26, George Zimmerman, a self-appointed "neighborhood watch captain" in an Orlando suburb, shot and killed 17-year old Trayvon Martin.

Because Martin was black.

And no, don't even think of rolling your eyes at the suggestion. That is what happened, just as surely as so many might well be loathe to admit it.

Oh sure, he denies such a motivation, as does his family, but the details of the incident, now emerging from that evening leave very little question about it.

This was not, as we too often hear in the wake of such incidents, "a tragedy."

This was not, as some would have it, "a terrible accident."

It was murder, plain and simple. And it would be called such by everyone in a nation that had any commitment to honest language, which, sadly, would pretty much rule out the one in which Martin's life began and ended, and in which Zimmerman continues to operate as a free man, unarrested by the police.

Trayvon Martin is dead because George Zimmerman believed his neighborhood needed and deserved to be protected from young black men, who could not possibly belong there, in his estimation. Never mind that Martin was in the community with his father, visiting friends. Never mind that Martin was armed only with Skittles and iced tea, while Zimmerman carried a loaded weapon.

Zimmerman, who has a history of aggressive behavior (including assaulting an officer a few years ago), appears to have something of a Dirty Harry syndrome about him. He is someone described by his own neighbors as overzealous, motivated by an obsessive desire to guard the perimeter of his community and pose as a crime-fighting hero to those around him. It doesn't take much imagination to size up Zimmerman psychologically. He's like so many other utterly unaccomplished males who fantasize about being a badass law officer, meting out justice to the ne'er-do-wells. He's the kind of person who, if he weren't playing at policeman, would be one of those guys fabricating stories of his war heroism, buying fake military uniforms and medals on eBay and telling strangers in bars how he single-handedly held off insurgents in Kandahar or some such shit. He's one of those guys. If you've met one, you've met them all: a wannabe somebody with a gun permit and a healthy dose of amped up, testosterone-fueled anxiety about outsiders; and so too, in his case, it appears (not only from this incident but also from dozens of previous 9-1-1 calls he'd made), a consistent fear about black men, whom he seemed to consider, almost by definition, as not belonging in his neighborhood.

If Trayvon Martin had been, say, Todd Martin, a 17-year old white male, in the same neighborhood on the same evening, it wouldn't have mattered that he was wearing a hoodie, looking at homes as he passed them by, or fiddling with his waistband. These, it should be noted, were the apparent indicators of criminality that Zimmerman felt compelled to share with the police during his 9-1-1 call, before opting to chase Martin himself, in brazen defiance of their explicit instruction to stay put. Had he been white, Martin's humanity would have been clearly discernible to Zimmerman. But he was black, and male, and that alone inspired Zimmerman to conclude that there was "something wrong with this guy," and that he appeared to be "on drugs," a judgment Zimmerman felt qualified to render based on his extensive background in behavioral psychology, bested only by his prodigious law enforcement training, and by extensive and prodigious, in this case, I mean none whatsoever.

Indeed, if you do not know that Martin's race (and more to the point, Zimmerman's racism) is central to the former's death at the hands of the latter, it may well be that you are incapable of ever comprehending even the most obvious manifestations of this nation's longstanding racial drama. Worse still, it may suggest that you are so bereft of empathy as to render you morally and emotionally dangerous to decent people.

And by empathy here, I don't mean merely the ability to feel for the family of this murdered child. I'm guessing most all can manage that much. Rather, I refer to the kind of empathy too rarely attainable, by whites in particular, in the case of black folks who insist, based on their entire life experience and the insight gained from that experience, that their rights to life and liberty are too often subject to the capricious whims of those with less melanin than they, and for reasons owing explicitly to the color of their skin.

Empathy -- real empathy, not the situational and utterly phony kind that most any of us can muster when social convention calls for it -- requires that one be able to place oneself in the shoes of another, and to consider the world as they must consider it. It requires that we be able to suspend our own culturally-ingrained disbelief long enough to explore the possibility that perhaps the world doesn't work as we would have it, but rather as others have long insisted it did.

Empathy, which is always among the first casualties of racist thinking, mandates our acceptance of the possibility that maybe it isn't those long targeted by oppression who are exaggerating the problem or making the proverbial mountain out of a molehill, but rather we who have underestimated the gravity of racial domination and subordination in this country, and reduced what are, in fact, Everest-sized peaks to ankle-high summits, and for our own purposes, rather than in the service of truth.

And please, let us have no more ignoble and dissembling rationalizations for Trayvon Martin's death and Zimmerman's killing of him. If you are one, like those firmly ensconced in the pathetic Sanford, Florida police department, trying against all logic and human feeling to square this pernicious circle, just stop it. That there had been a half-dozen or so break-ins in Zimmerman's community, ostensibly orchestrated by black males matters not a whit. Likewise, that there was a string of robberies in my New Orleans neighborhood during my senior year of college, which were the handiwork of white men, would not have justified my being stopped by police every time I returned home from a late afternoon class, to say nothing of being accosted by some community asshole with a Charles Bronson complex. But of course, such an analogy is silly isn't it? We all know that whites are never subjected to this kind of generalized suspicion, even when we do, indeed, fit the description of one or another bad guy on the loose. We are not all looked at sideways when yet another white male serial killer is at large, or yet another abortion clinic bomber. We don't face police roadblocks in lily-white communities so as to catch drunk drivers, even though the data is quite clear that whites represent a disproportionate number and percentage of those driving under the influence.

As for Zimmerman's claims of self-defense, that anyone could believe such a demonstrably transparent lie as this is stunning. Or rather it isn't. It makes perfect sense in a nation where blackness and danger have long been considered synonymous, such that any black male over the age of perhaps 10 can "reasonably" be assumed a predator whose designs on decent people and their property are so concretized as to warrant virtually any measure invoked to monitor, control and incapacitate them. However much has changed in the U.S. since the 1960s, or for that matter the 1860s, make note of it that at least this much has not: black folks are still, in the eyes of far too many whites, a problem to be addressed, a riddle to be solved. And deprived of the old mechanisms of social control to which we were once so wedded -- formal segregation, regular lynchings, forced sterilization, even enslavement -- we have opted for the development of new forms: racial profiling, gated communities into which we shall police entry, zoning laws that limit who can live among us, and mass incarceration for non-violent drug offenses, among others.

Under what rational interpretation of self-defense could Zimmerman's actions qualify? Zimmerman chased Martin down. Zimmerman tackled Martin after Martin demanded to know why Zimmerman was following him. Martin screamed for help. And Zimmerman shot him. Even if Martin fought back, how could such a thing -- a quite reasonable response, it should be noted, to being attacked by a total stranger -- justify pulling a gun, pulling the trigger and shooting the person who was acting in self-defense against you? To those who accept Zimmerman's claim of self-defense, let us ask a simple question: would you be so willing to buy that argument if a black person were to chase down a white person in a mostly black neighborhood, and then upon catching him, end his life when the white person resisted being pummeled? You know full well the answer. We all do.

If I chase you and jump you, and you resist my assault, and in response to your resistance I kill you, I am the bad guy. Period. End of story. No exceptions, no prevarications, no ifs ands or buts. It's me. Trayvon Martin is the innocent one here. He is the one who was acting in self-defense, when he resisted the assault of a total stranger, whose purposes for chasing him and accosting him made him rightfully afraid. After all, "neighborhood watch captains," whether duly elected as such or just in their own heads (as seems to have been the case with Zimmerman), don't wear official law enforcement uniforms, which might help identify them to the persons they may find themselves pursuing. And ya' know why? Because despite their fervent and pre-adolescent desires to play cops and robbers like they used to do when they were eight years old, they are not cops. They are not even security guards. They are self-appointed enforcers with no authority whatsoever, save that which they have chosen to fabricate so as to make themselves feel more important.

Oh, and when you abuse that ill-gotten authority and take the life of a young black man in the process, you don't get to be taken seriously when you swear that your actions couldn't have been racist because, after all, you're Latino (this being the latest fanciful insistence of Zimmerman's family). Dear merciful Lord, what is that supposed to prove? Racism is not about the identity of the person acting it out so much as those upon whom it is acted, and for what purpose. There were black slave owners in the South, after all, and what of it? American slavery was a racist institution because it subordinated people based on racial identity, and was predicated on the notion of black inhumanity and white supremacy. That there were some black people who bought into both sets of lies does not acquit the institution of the charge of racism, nor those among the African American community who participated in it. So too, that there are persons of color who are just as anti-black in their thinking as many whites, pathetic and heartbreaking though it may be, means nothing and truthfully, should surprise no one.

It should be especially unsurprising that Zimmerman would have internalized racially-biased assumptions about black males, given the society in which he (and we) reside. And although this hardly lets him off the hook -- one must be responsible for one's own actions in any event, no matter the social contributors to those actions -- it is worth noting a few things about the milieu in which this wannabe police officer was operating. In other words, Zimmerman's culpability, while total and complete, is not solitary.

After all, we are a society in which research has shown quite conclusively that local newscasts overrepresent blacks as criminals, relative to their actual share of total crime, and overrepresent whites as victims, relative to our share of victimization.

A society in which other studies have shown that these racially-skewed newscasts have a direct relationship to widespread negative perceptions of black people. Indeed, a substantial percentage of anti-black racial hostility can be directly traced to media imagery, even after all other factors are considered.

A society in which the disproportionate incarceration of black males -- especially for non-violent drug offenses, which they are no more likely (and often even less likely) than whites to commit -- feeds the perception that they are so treated because they are dangerous and must be kept at bay.

A society in which criminality is so associated with blackness that whites literally and almost instantly connect the two things in survey after survey, and study after study, even though we are roughly 5 times as likely to be criminally victimized by another white person as by a black person.

A society in which anti-black racism has been so long ingrained that not only most whites, but also most Latinos and Asian Americans, demonstrate substantial subconscious bias against African Americans in study after study of implicit racial hostility (and even about a third of blacks themselves demonstrate anti-black racism).

George Zimmerman was very simply taught to fear black men by his society, and he learned his lessons well. And while he must be punished for his transgressions -- and hopefully will be, now that the Justice Department is investigating and a Grand Jury is being convened -- let there be no mistake, he cannot and should not take the fall alone for that which stems so directly from a larger social and cultural narrative to which he (and all of us) have been subjected.

Black males are, for far too many in America, a racial Rorschach test, onto which we instantaneously graft our own perceptions and assumptions, virtually none of them good. Look, a black man on your street! Quick, what do you see? A criminal. Look, a black man on the corner! Quick, what do you see? A drug dealer. Look, a black man in a suit, in a corporate office! Quick, what do you see? An affirmative action case who probably got the job over a more qualified white man. And if you don't believe that this is what we do -- what you do -- then ask yourself why 95 percent of whites, when asked to envision a drug user, admit to picturing a black person, even though blacks are only 13 percent of users, compared to about 70 percent who are white? Ask yourself why whites who are hooked up to brain scan monitors and then shown subliminal images of black men -- too quickly for the conscious mind to even process what it saw -- show a dramatic surge of activity in that part of the brain that reacts to fear and anxiety? Ask yourself why whites continue to believe that we are the most discriminated against group in America -- and that folks of color are "taking our jobs" -- even as we remain roughly half as likely to be out of work and a third as likely to be poor as those persons of color. Even when only comparing persons with college degrees, black unemployment is about double the white rate, Latino unemployment about 50 percent higher, and Asian American unemployment about a third higher than their white counterparts.

George Zimmerman must be held accountable for his actions, and hopefully he will be. Innocent until proven guilty of course, there is a process for determining matters of formal legal responsibility, and may that process now move forward to a just conclusion. But beyond the matter of legal guilt or innocence, beyond that which can be addressed in a court of law -- one way or the other -- there is a bigger issue here, and it is one that cannot be resolved by a jury, be it Grand or otherwise, nor by judges or prosecutors. It is the none-too-minor matter of the monster we as a nation have created, not only apparently in the heart of George Zimmerman, but in the minds of millions: individuals far too quick to rationalize any injustice so long as the victim has a black face; persons for whom no act of racially-biased misconduct qualifies as racist; persons who have allowed their own fears, anxieties and occasionally even hatreds to numb them, to inure them to the pain and suffering of the so-called other.

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from someone suggesting that perhaps we should begin to sport buttons like those that became so ubiquitous in the case of Troy Davis last year. You know the buttons, right? The ones that said: "I am Troy Davis." The ones that aimed at solidarity with an unjustly executed man, but which, on the lapels and t-shirts of white people seemed, to me at least, more banal and offensive than anything else, since we were not, in fact (and would not likely ever be) in the position of Troy Davis. And while in this case too, I understand the sentiment and appreciate the real compassion underlying the suggestion -- or the no-doubt-soon-to-be-witnessed insertion of Trayvon Martin's name in many a Facebook profile handle -- I feel that perhaps we who are white should remind ourselves, before we jump on either bandwagon, that unfortunately, we are much less like Trayvon Martin and much more like George Zimmerman.

And that is the problem.


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