Justice for Trayvon Martin
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| Trayvon Martin was 17 years old when he was shot down, just yards from his father's house. |
Imagine that you're seventeen years old, your little brother wants a pack of skittles, so you take a walk to the corner store to get them, and an Arizona ice tea for yourself. It's February 26th, the night of the NBA All star game, and you're rushing back to your dad's house to bring the candy and watch the game.
In the dark, someone is trailing you. The person has a loaded 9 mm weapon. You don't see the person, but the person sees you. You're about 70 feet from your door, when this person pulls up in his car, gets out and confronts you. Then shots rang out.
You collapse to the ground, losing air, bleeding...you've been shot. The skittles for your little brother are still in one pocket, and the Arizona ice tea in the other. Your life is ending. And all you did was go to the store to get your little brother some candy.
Your family sits in your home, waiting for you to return. You never will. That is what happened to Trayvon Martin. But he was not in Liberty City or Hialeah or any other so called "dangerous" Florida neighborhood.
He was walking back to his father's home in a gated community. You know, one of those "good neighborhoods", where stuff like this is not supposed to happen.
Now, guess what? The police know who killed Trayvon Martin, but the suspect has not been arrested. How is that possible? Well, Trayvon's killer is not a "suspect", he's a "college guy", who belonged in that neighborhood. He wasn't "suspicious" as he described Trayvon to 911 dispatchers.
He was a self proclaimed neighborhood watch captain, who allegedly had a violent past. Surprised? Sad thing is, many minorities in this country are not surprised. George Zimmerman was White, Trayvon was not.
| George Zimmerman gunned down an unarmed teenager, yet walks free. |
From Huffington Post:
In an interview with HuffPost on Thursday, Tracy Martin said that when he asked police why Zimmerman hadn't been charged, officers told him "they respected [Zimmerman's] background, that he studied criminal justice for four years and that he was squeaky clean." He continued: "My question to them was, did they run my child's background check? They said yes. I asked them what they came up with, and they said nothing. So I asked if Zimmerman had a clean record, did that give him the right to shoot and kill an unarmed kid?"
The thing that George Zimmerman didn't give Trayvon, is exactly what the legal system in Sanford, Florida is giving him. THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT. See Zimmerman's allegation that he felt threatened is already taken into consideration. He isn't treated as a suspect, even though he got to treat Trayvon, who merely walked home, like one. He didn't give Trayvon the benefit of the doubt. You know, that he belonged in the neighborhood, and was merely walking home.
Bill Lee
Chief of Police
Bill.Lee@sanfordfl.gov
- Office
407.688.5071 - Fax
Sanford Main Office
State Attorney's Office
Criminal Justice Center
101 Bush Boulevard
PO Box 8006
Sanford, Florida 32772-8006
But, Zimmerman is privy to the BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT, and walks free because of it. What shooter you know, who has been identified, who left a dead body behind, of an unarmed teenager, gets to walk around freely without being arrested? If you watch the First 48 on A&E, you'll see that it rarely happens.
Probable cause, gives police the authority to arrest someone. Self-defense, is just that: A DEFENSE. A legal determination made in the court system. Let's see: A dead unarmed, teenager, carrying skittles and an Arizona ice tea, versus an armed guy who has allegedly attacked police before, who admits to shooting the teenager. Sounds like probable cause to me. But that's just me.
The Sanford police are supposed to have a press conference soon. We'll see what happens...I honestly...I don't give them the BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT. I pray they prove me wrong.
After I posted this, I decided to go deeper. We all grow up with certain standard perceptions based on how we were raised and who raised us. They are also based on our experiences and treatment by other people, and the treatment others in our particular peer group receive.
What colors perception is sometimes the inability to understand someone else's perception. As a minority growing up in the US (no, not just the south, but the US), sometimes my perception is colored by stories like this. So I don't really look at certain authority figures as protectors. More often, I see them as threats.
Think about it... I don't read stories too often of the reverse happening. Young white kid, minding his business going home with skittles and an ice tea, when someone from a minority group guns him down and walks around freely. How often have you heard that story?
Shouldn't I be able to look at certain authority figures as heroes too? I mean heck, I contribute to their livelihoods just like everyone else, with my tax money. But if calling them causes me more anxiety than dealing with the issue that I'm having, that means something is wrong somewhere...and it isn't with me.
It's hard to view things that way. That's what I want people to understand. Look across the fences, and see how your neighbors are living and being treated.
UPDATE:
Neighbor heard Trayvon crying for help. Police "corrected" her statement. In other words, they tried to convince her she didn't hear Trayvon crying for help, but the 200+ lb man who accosted him crying. She spoke to abcnews, verifying this as fact.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/neighborhood-watch-shooting-trayvon-martin-probe-reveals-questionable/story?id=15907136&page=2#.T19gJPGPWnk
