The Neighborhood Watch in a Florida community spotted a black guy walking down the road in a gated community. They killed him dead. He was visiting relatives, unarmed, walking home from the store, but it was in an all white community.
Trayvon Martin was shot dead after he took a break from watching NBA All-Star game television coverage to walk 10 minutes to a convenience store to buy snacks including Skittles candy requested by his 13-year-old brother, Chad, the family’s lawyer Ben Crump said.
The person who shot him is not being charged. Shall I ask the obvious question?
I want to hear the 911 calls.
Hat Tip: Gwen.
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Don’t read the comments. Really. Don’t.
o.0
Top comments on the linked yahoo story express outrage about the killing right now.
Wait, this is not a rerun of the story from Alabama in the 1960s? A white man saw a black man running through town, so he shot him dead. “A black man running for no reason? He must have been running form something, so I shot him.” The murderer was acquitted.
Not being charged? WTFF?
Why is it that when something is seriously wrong, one of the popular things to do is to pile more wrong on top?
I think your use of the word ‘they’ as in ‘they killed him’ is a bit misleading here since there’s no indication that anyone other than Zimmerman was involved. The police received one 911 call, traced to Zimmerman, and Zimmerman is the only suspect.
Mike.
The police received one 911 call, traced to Zimmerman, and Zimmerman is the only suspect.
Mike.
The word ‘suspect’ implies a crime was committed. As of now, it is not being treated as a crime. Zimmerman is claiming self defense…even though he got out of his car to shoot the unarmed Martin.
I think Stanford Florida needs a riot.
The victim’s father lives in the community.
You have to see this as progress.
In the good-ol-days of the deep south there would have been a full-on lynching. Trayvon Martin, in typical fashion, might be beaten bloody, hung until limp, lowered while still alive, flogged with a bull whip soaked in brine, have the meat burned off his feet with a flaming pine bough, hoisted again (slowly to avoid snapping his neck), and allowed to kick for the three to seven minutes it takes him to die.
It might take hours as the white citizens vie to outdo each other in cruelty and inflicting pain and degradation. The scene is surrounded by a carnival atmosphere with women and children wearing their Sunday best and socializing.
During this performance popcorn, ice cream, beer, and postcards of other lynchings would be sold. After the victim succumbs and the crowds thin out people will line up to be photographed with the blackened and mangled body. Prominent businessmen, preachers and politicians would give speeches. The evening edition, possible even a special edition, of the newspaper would come out with front page articles proclaiming that the rule of law, and the will of God, have been upheld.
Looking at a calender you can see we are well into the 21st century but here, in the deep south, there are still isolated communities, and a good portion of the minds, still living in the late 1800s. I half expect Mr.Zimmerman to apologize to and offer to compensate Trayvon Martin’s owner for the loss of his property thinking that will make it all right.
There are neighborhoods in Florida where black people are expected to stay out of after the sun sets. Failure to observe the convention is seen as something of a provocation to the white citizens. Palm Beach used to have that as a matter of law. Most of the laws have been removed but the social convention remains in many communities in rural Florida. Even in large cities there are unwritten rules. If a car load of black people show up in a neighborhood for a party it is best to make sure there is a white male present to reassure the locals that they are not up to no good.
Every year it seems to mellow a bit but then something like this happens and it is the good-ol-days, when blacks could be shown their place with clubs and guns and rope, again. Sad.
You’re on the internet! This is no place for facts!
I know FTB has little to no control over the ad placements, but they’re hawking concealed carry information and a security app for one’s phone. I…waiter? Check, please.
A little Googling indicates the guy has a previous arrest for assaulting a police officer. Charges were dropped and he’s studying law enforcement. I had assumed he’d be an older guy but he’s 28.
Of course, the kid was probably being uppity. That makes it all just fine.
@ ^ trebuchet : Which guy? The black victim or his murderer?
Wow. This is just, I don’t know what to say except I thought this sort of thing didn’t happen in the USA anymore.
Dreadful. 🙁
Which obvious question? It seems to me there are a lot of them.
Why isn’t the murderer being charged?
What actually happened – how did someone stopping an unarmed man end up shooting him dead like that?
Why isn’t the 911 call being released?
Being three of the main ones plus :
What if Trayvon Martin had been white?
Also larger social question – what era are living in, what sort of place is this where this can happen?
Why oh why, did I read the comments? The comment section is populated by loathsome racist….
@StevoR
The victim was 17, so I’m assuming Trebuchet is referring to Mr. Zimmermann.
… which begs the question, what kind of 28 year old becomes the head of the neighborhood watch?
Sounds like another mall ninja to me (and if you don’t know the term “mall ninja”, seriously google it, comedy gold).
… and wait a second, he was head of the Neighborhood Watch in Sanford?
This is incredibly fucked up, and I hope the shooter gets slapped with murder charges.
Right. Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I was picturing Zimmerman as being some retired guy, maybe moved down to FL from another state. Cop wannabes are a plague on society. He probably figured they’d give him a medal.
*SMDH*
And people want there to be more guns in the hands of civilians?
I weep for humanity…
@19.Trebuchet & #17 kyoseki : Thanks.