If you are a young black male, such as Trayvon Martin and you make the mistake of walking home in a gated community in Orlando, FL, with bags of skittles concealed in your pockets, you will be shot and killed. Not by the police, mind you, but by the Captain of a Neighborhood Watch program, who made a 911 call regarding a “suspicious person” back on the evening of February 26th.
Before the police arrived on the scene, 17 year old Trayvon, who was visiting his father’s fiancee and his step-brother, was already dead from a single shot to his chest, delivered from a gun carried by by George Zimmerman, a 28 year old white man, and the same individual who made the 911 call. Trayvon had nothing on his person except for 2 bags of skittles and a can of ice tea, which he had purchased at the local 7-11.
Oddly enough, the police investigation of this incident is still ongoing, Mr. Zimmerman (who received a bloody nose from an alleged scuffle with the deceased) isn’t talking, and the family of this child (yes 17 is still a child) is questioning the authorities as to why no progress has been made in this case:
Sybrina Fulton, Martin’s mother, said the family thinks her son was killed because he was black.
“I’m a normal mother. I just want justice for my son,” Fulton said, speaking at the same Miami Gardens church where the teen was previously laid to rest. “My heart is broken. I keep thinking he is going to walk in through the door and the nightmare is going to end.”
The police have refused to release the tape of the 911 call Zimmerman made that night, as well as the tapes from other 911 calls made by residents regarding the alleged fight between Zimmerman and Trayvon. The family, frustrated after weeks have passed and nothing has been done, have filed a lawsuit to force the police to turn over the 911 tapes as well as all the other investigative documents. They believe they have been lied to by the police and are being given the run around by the local authorities so that Trayvon;s killer can go free.
The Martin family’s frustration with Sanford police extends beyond the 911 tapes — the family also says Sanford police misleadingly told them Zimmerman had a clean criminal history.
In fact, Orange County court records show Zimmerman was arrested in 2005 for resisting an officer with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer. The charges were later dropped. […]
A day earlier, Bill Lee, Sanford’s police chief, said the 911 tapes would not be released because the investigation was still underway.
“There is evidence that George Zimmerman acted in self-defense.” Lee said.
Trayvon was a junior at at a High School in Miami. He’d left the house that night to go to the 7-11 to buy candy for himself and his 13 year old step-brother. No doubt the only way the 28 year old older Zimmerman could defend himself (after forcing a confrontation with Trayvon) from a punch in the nose was to shoot Trayvon — dead. Of course, he could have chosen to wait for the police to arrive after he called 911, but heck, what kind of chicken-livered volunteer neighborhood watch captain waits for the police when he sees an unknown black teenager on the loose in his community? Better to “take charge if the situation” and prevent the threat of “imminent harm” posed by the young black miscreant and his concealed skittles, even if you do end up shooting the boy to death with one shot.
“If the 911 protocol across the country held to form here, they told him not to get involved. He disobeyed that order,” said Ryan Julison, a spokesman for the family.
“He (Zimmerman) didn’t have to get out of his car,” said [the family’s lawyer], who has prepared a public records lawsuit to file on Thursday if the family doesn’t get the 911 tape. “If he never gets out of his car, there is no reason for self-defense. Trayvon only has skittles. He has the gun.”
Well, we all know how dangerous teenage boys walking the streets at night can be. One question, though. If this had been a white 17 year old boy, would Mr. Zimmerman have called 911? Would he have gotten out of his car and confronted the teenager? Would he have pulled out his “black Kie Tek 9mm semi-automatic pistol” and shot the 140 pound boy dead? Did a bloody nose justify the use of deadly force by a civilian with no legal authority to act in the way that he did? Inquiring minds want to know.
