Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old black teenager who was shot to death by a reputed Neighborhood Watch captain named George Zimmerman. The shooting, which happened about a month ago, has now reached the stage of "Blame the Victim." Trayvon's mother has said that her son's life has been destroyed and now the attempt is being made to destroy his reputation. About the only thing of any substance that has been brought out is that traces of marijuana were found in his backpack in school but that holds no relevance to a claim that Trayvon Martin may have attacked George Zimmerman. Very recently, the charge has been made that Trayvon swung at a bus driver. That charge seems to rest entirely on an email from a cousin who is apparently responding to an email from Trayvon in which he may have said something about taking a swing at a bus driver. There is apparently no report of such an incident by a bus driver, nor is there any police report. Trayvon and his cousin may have been acting out a psychodrama of no real substance.
The other attempt to blacken the image of Trayvon Martin and justify the shooting is the circulation of a picture of a black teenager in baggy pants, "showing the finger." The circulated picture has been identified as that of another teenager. The only aspect of Trayvon Martin's history that might be relevant to the shooting is if he had a record of violence against others and thus may have initiated a physical conflict with Zimmerman. No such record has surfaced.
The story surfacing in the past week or so is that Trayvon Martin jumped George Zimmerman from the back, toppled him and repeatedly drove his face into the pavement, breaking his nose and bloodying his face. Allegedly, Trayvon attempted to get Zimmerman's gun.
The story raises some questions. I don't recall an initial report of a bloody-faced Zimmerman with a broken nose.* Does Zimmerman have a broken nose? Does his face show signs of bruising? Two eyewitnesses who saw and heard the shooting, went outside and saw George Zimmerman with his hands on the back of the prone Trayvon Martin. One of the eyewitnesses said they were within about 10 feet of Trayvon. Neither one noticed anything unusual about Zimmerman's face but one eyewitness said it was getting dark and the lighting was not good.
It is hard to believe that George Zimmerman would have allowed Trayvon Martin to get the jump on him. Zimmerman said in his call to the police that the guy he had observed seemed to be "up to no good." One probably would not totally turn his/her back on someone who was "up to no good." without turning the head around to make sure that this potentially dangerous person did not attack from the back. Even if Zimmerman was attacked and then somehow got the upper hand, was it still necessary to shoot to kill his attacker? He had his gun out and Trayvon Martin was unarmed. With the huge advantage George Zimmerman had, would the teenager have still presented such a threat to him that it was necessary to shoot to kill?
Racial stereotyping entered this tragic story when Geraldo Rivera raised the issue of Trayvon wearing a hoodie and the hoodie made him appear to be more dangerous: to many people a hoodie conveys an image of black teenagers filled with menacing violence. A number of years ago, fear was inflamed by reports of a new generation of super-predator young people posing a threat of violence to communities across the nation.
So, besides the racial element, why might there be such a major effort being made to blame Trayvon Martin for initiating his own death and exonerating his killer? A motivation that comes to mind is the fear that "Stand Your Ground" laws might be overturned because of the Martin case. The National Rifle Association was a major driving force behind the Florida law and other similar laws in other states; therefore, the more it can promote the idea that the use of a firearm is a legitimate way to end what is perceived as a potentially dangerous situation, the better it will be for gun sales. Fear is a great generator of gun sales and if people feel not only feel safer carrying a gun, but also rationalize that they can successfully claim self-defense if they falsely perceive a threat to them, they will be more inclined to arm themselves.
I have heard that the number of claimed self-defense shootings has tripled since "Stand Your Ground" was enacted but have not seen any law enforcement statistics. It would seem that making it easier to claim self-dense in a fatal shooting imposes a big burden on a prosecutor when someone is able to make an intended killing look like self-defense.
In regard to the Sanford Police Department, standard police procedure is to interview everyone who may have seen or heard anything in a case of apparent murder. The Sanford police did not interview the many people who apparently had visual or auditory information about the interaction between Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman, nor did they do a toxicology test on Zimmerman, although they did one on Martin.
It is a part of the deteriorated state of U.S. society that when firearms are such a major component of the high level of violence in the nation that we should be promoting the greater availability of firearms.
* It has been mystifying to me why there were no local police reports of taking into custody a badly bruised and battered George Zimmerman. And if Zimmerman was in such bad shape because of assault by Trayvon Martin, why didn't the media pick up on that condition weeks ago? Is this a case of major media malfeasance?
I raised questions earlier in this blog about whether or not George Zimmerman has a broken nose and does his face show signs of bruising. Now it appears I have my answer. On this morning's 5 a.m. (Mountain time) CNN newscast, the report was that police videos don't show any apparent damage to George Zimmerman's face, including the nose. The same newscast said that a New York Police Department person -- I assume for credibility reasons it was a person with medical credentials -- had carefully examined photos of Zimmerman taken after he was taken into custody. The examiner could find no abrasions or contusions on the face.
The 6 a.m. CNN newscast said that ABC News has published pictures of George Zimmerman getting out of a police cruiser at the police station. There is no visible damage to the face and no discoloration of his clothing indicating the presence of blood.
CNN newscasts also reported this morning that George Zimmerman's father is alleging that Trayvon Martin launched a vicious attack on his son and threatened to kill him. The threat to kill claim could only have come from George Zimmerman and cannot be corroborated.
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