Before the National News got here.
The first time I remember hearing anything about a shooting in Sanford, was in the late local news on Sunday night. The news that night was all about the weather delay for the Daytona 500 (that is big news around here) and the results from the Oscars. In just a 30, maybe 40 second blurb the news said there was a young black man shot to death in Sanford as a result of an unknown altercation. That was it, nothing else to report.
Over the next few weeks rumblings began of how the police did not arrest the shooter and that the police never attempted to contact next of kin claiming that the youth had no identification (they did however have his phone, they didn’t seem to try too hard). The slain youth was identified as Treyvon Martin days later after his parents filed a missing person’s report and they identified the body. A few days later someone releases the 911 calls from the shooter chasing the suspicious person through the neighborhood.
With audio of the shooter chasing down the victim people start getting upset and the national media starts mentioning the story. It took another week for the national press to really start publicizing the events and even good old Al Sharpton came down to add some fuel to the fire.
What we know about the shooting.
On the night in question, George Zimmerman, the local self-appointed neighborhood watchman, calls police to report “Suspicious activity” by a Black male “late teens wearing dark gray hoodie jeans or sweatpants walking around area”. He told the police line operator that “These assholes, they always get away”. It should be noted that this was Mr. Zimmerman’s 45th time calling the police to report something that he thought was suspicious. Zimmerman starts to follow the suspicious man in his car, but Mr. Martin sees Mr. Zimmerman stalking him and is a bit weirded out by some “creepy ass cracker” following him. Mr. Martin starts to run away from Mr. Zimmerman, but Mr. Zimmerman gives chase on foot. The police line operator encourages Zimmerman not to pursue but Zimmerman disregards.
The next few minutes are quite blurry, but what ends up is a fist fight. A fist fight that young Mr. Martin is in control of. Mr. Zimmerman is on the pavement and his head is getting smacked into the ground. In a disparate attempt he pulls out his concealed 9mm pistol and fires a single shot hitting center mass of Mr. Martin and Mr. Martin falls face first to the ground.
What we might assume about the shooting.
We can assume that George Zimmerman really wanted to find somebody suspicious and that he really did think that a black teenager with a hoodie pulled up in Florida was up to no good. We can also agree that Treyvon Martin was a bit unnerved by being followed by a chubby white dude as he was walking to his grandma’s house. It is reasonable to think that when Treyvon started to run from George that this played right into George’s suspicion of the young man. It is also fair to assume that if you are being chased by some stranger in the dark, that you should punch that person in the face. If you get punched in the face you probably try to stop that. If the guy that was following is now grabbing all over you, it is reasonable that you should try to get him to stop by any means necessary. If you are getting your ass kicked and your head smacked on the ground by some young stranger in the dark, you might be afraid, even afraid for you life. If you think your life might end you should try to end the conflict and if you happen to have a gun on you…
The aftermath and the charges:
Let me preface this section by saying, I believe this is where the system failed.
According to the record, when the police arrived on the scene, they found Zimmerman bleeding from the nose and back of the head and Martin facedown with a gunshot wound to the chest and was pronounced dead on the scene. Zimmerman was grateful for the police’s arrival told them that he had been attacked, was afraid for his life and that he had shot Martin. The police took Zimmerman into custody, collected his gun and clothes released him a few hours later with no charges being filed.
The Police took the corpse of the young unidentified black teen, labeled him as John Doe, because he had no ID, however he did have his cell phone, but the police seemed to do nothing to identify the deceased.
From everything that I heard back when this was actually going on, before the national media got involved, was that the investigation of the crime scene was treated more of a cleanup that an active crime scene. The police seemed to play the role of judge and jury on the scene and defined the incident as a simple “Stand Your Ground” situation and there really was nothing else to consider. After the appearance of police negligence and lack of due process continued to grow the story started to build national attention and the authorities in this small town were completely ill-prepared for this type of scrutiny but tried to stick to their guns (no pun intended). After weeks and weeks as national and local outrage grew, Governor Scott asked the Local DA to bring up charges on Zimmerman to allow due process to play out. The DA for Seminole county asked to be excused for this task and wanted nothing to do with what had become a national shit show. A politically active DA who actually served on Governor Scott’s transition team, State’s Attorney from Jacksonville, Angela Corey, “stepped up” to prosecute the case, charging murder2 against Zimmerman and taking him into custody.
The Court Verdict.
They played every minute of the trial on live TV, and it was pretty clear from the beginning that the case presented by the state would not be compelling enough for a conviction. The prosecution’s witnesses seemed to be completely unprepared to take the stand and were presented in very poor light. After the verdict the prosecution team gave an interview, and the joy on the face of Angela Corey was uncontrollable. It was at this point that it was perfectly clear that the state, at no point, had intended to prosecute Zimmerman and the whole arrest and court case was to pacify the masses. I see nothing that would lead George Zimmerman the be convicted of leaving his house on Feb 26, 2012, with the intent on shooting someone, that is the definition of murder2 (as I understand it) in Florida. I see no other verdict to the charge of murder2.
Here goes my rant.
…I’m not sure where to even start. I guess I will start with the 800lb gorilla of the racial issues surrounding this case.
I don’t think that Zimmerman is a racist, but idea that race had nothing to do with any of this is simply absurd.
Things are kind of strange down here. I am used to a very particular type of racial prejudice. What the president refers to as the bigotry of low expectations. The northern type of soft bigotry and white liberal guilt that has led to things like affirmative action and the Rainbow coalition and the real race based prejudicial views being stronger or weaker on a person-to-person individual level.
In central Florida its different. The racial projections are inherent in the governing systems. Simple things like black police are rare around here. The rules down here are not applied equally. It’s hard for me to even explain it, but when your down here with all the shiny Mickey Mouse and universal attractions you realize that outside of that bubble, you are in the south, and not in a good way.
The law writers when writing the “Stand your ground” provisions to the self-defense statutes were not thinking that it would be a good idea that black folks with guns should kill people if they felt threatened. (I know you think I am stretching it a bit). The executive, law enforcement, doesn’t handle it the same way when a white person shoots someone compared to when a black person does the same thing. If the situation were exactly the same with the exception that it was a boy named Tyler Martin, is there any real doubt in your mind that Zimmerman would have been arrested on the spot and that media would be crying that we need to tighten border security (Zimmerman is a bit Latino). There is NO doubt in my mind that this whole thing would have been handled completely different.
Outside of the race issue, is the “thought crime” issue.
I am against “hate crime” legislation. To make crimes more or less severe based off of the thoughts that were going through the mind of the attacker seems impossible to prove let along that if the thought is the crime, does that mean that the thought by itself is actionable by the authorities.
HOWEVER, this rant is not about hate crimes. It is about “Stand your ground” provisions in the state of Florida. The difference between manslaughter and no crime what-so-ever in the state of Florida is based on a thought, or more specific, a feeling. If you feel like you are in danger, you are allowed to take action to end another person’s life. Without that feeling, its manslaughter. All states have self-defense measures, everyone in the country has the right to defend themselves. Hell, Treyvon, if he did start the fight, was just defending himself.
The Florida “Stand your ground” provisions have ended up encouraging people to put themselves in bad situations, giving them assurances that they will not be prosecuted. Under the current law in Florida Treyvon and George were equally justified in shooting the other. ITS MADNESS!!!
Self-defense claims are, under state law, always a viable defense, as is insanity. When a person kills someone, they should get arrested, and they will get their day in court where the state must prove their guilt. With this case “stand your ground” was claimed and that was the end. No arrest and no real investigation. There is more investigation when a police officer shoots someone, than there was in this case.
The court and jury didn’t fail Mr. Martin (and the rest of us). The law itself, along with the elected and non-elected officials that are entrusted to apply the law, is where the true blame lies in this case. And until the people of Florida realize this and either change the laws and/or the way they are enforced, I don’t see anything changing.
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