The facts behind the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida continue to slowly emerge. I have previously stated that I view critical facts as murky for a prosecution — even though I believe that there was sufficient evidence to arrest George Zimmerman at the scene. While we have still not seen some of the forensic evidence, a new report indicates that police may have based their initial decisions in part on the statement of a witness. We have been discussing the maddening gap in witness testimony at the critical moment of the confrontation. Now a new report suggests that there may have been a witness to the struggle and that witness reportedly told police that it was Martin who was on top of Zimmerman before the fatal shot was fired.
FOX 35 in Orlando says that it has spoken to the witness. The witness reportedly said that
“The guy on the bottom who had a red sweater on was yelling to me: ‘help, help…and I told him to stop and I was calling 911.” Martin was wearing a hoodie that night and Zimmerman was wearing a red shirt or sweater. A friend of Zimmerman has also come forward to say that Zimmerman looked like a mess after the fight and that he recognized Zimmerman as the voice on the 911 call asking people to help him.
An obvious defense case is emerging for a classic self-defense claim. Zimmerman on the 911 tape admits to have shadowed Martin but says it was Martin who was checking him out and moving toward him a threatening fashion. Zimmerman claims that he was attacked when he was returning to his SUV. Police and counsel reported that Zimmerman had cuts on his face and head and appeared to have been in a struggle. Zimmerman was lawfully carrying a handgun was allowed to use the weapon if he was in reasonable fear of serious bodily injury or death. This includes the possible use of the gun in a struggle of control of the weapon.
While the case has been treated as racially motivated, the Zimmerman family has strongly denied such a motivation — noting that he is a hispanic with many African-American friends. Frankly, Zimmerman does closely resemble an alternative profile — that of a defendant in “Castle Doctrine” or “Stand Your Ground” cases. In these controversies, we often see people who are obsessed with crime and in some cases inclined to use lethal force. That does not mean that race did not play a role here. However, it is possible that Zimmerman was motivated by his well-documented obsession with crime as opposed to race. While I understand the sensitivity to the race issue and have my own suspicions concerning the role of race, I believe it is premature to label this a racially motivated crime without more evidence of such a motive. None of this means that Zimmerman should not be charged, but rather than there remain murky elements to the case. We simply need to know more about such motivations. In terms of the state law, we also need more information (particularly forensic evidence) to better gauge the chances of a conviction in the case. I still find the fact that Zimmerman was armed and outweighed Martin to be the most significant. However, this case is still in its earliest stage in terms of development of the evidence and witnesses. Among other things, if a charge is brought, such evidence could push prosecutors toward a manslaughter claim with a lower likely sentence than second or first degree murder. Even with manslaughter, the prosecutors would have to establish the element beyond a reasonable doubt, including the claim of self-defense. Of course, the mere fact that Martin may have gotten the better of Zimmerman in dominating fight at one point does not mean that Zimmerman was not the original aggressor. It will depend on the full range of witness testimony and, again, the missing forensic evidence.
I was asked last week to sign an online petition demanding the prosecution of Zimmerman. As I have noted, I believe that there is sufficient evidence for an indictment. However, I have never support such public campaigns for indictments. I do not believe in prosecution by plebiscite. Whether there are 100 or 100,000 people demanding an indictment, a prosecutor should not be influenced by such popular outcries. We saw how distortive and corrupting such campaigns can be on prosecutors like Michael Nifong. Prosecutors must based their decisions on the weight of the evidence not the weight of public opinion. Regardless of my views about a possible indictment, I would not want a prosecutor influenced by any petition supporting those views. There is a line between the visceral and the legal and such petitions fall on the wrong side of that line.
Source: Daily Mail
Mespo, would you consider writing a guest blog on the fact that there now is an active contingent in the blogworld that believes that somehow, the case of the young black male named Tyrone Woodfork (who allegedly raped and murdered an elderly white woman and was arrested and charged with murder) makes the Trayvon Martin case irrelevant? Right-wing bloggers are essentially saying that the Woodfork case shows that the media should not be paying attention to the Zimmerman case, because young Black males are killing white folks and the media don’t care. One particularly addle-minded blogger called “Bubba” actually said:
“What’s the real difference between Tyrone Woodfork and Trayvon Martin? It will take a lot of work to make Woodfork look like the martyr that the media has already turned Trayvon into. Instead we’ll get Hour 24 of screeching coverage about Trayvon Martin and white racism because a Hispanic neighborhood watch captain with black family members shot a black teenager.”
I have a friend who graduated from Smith College in the 60s and is a physician and a recognized expert in the field of domestic violence and SHE HAS IT ON HER FACEBOOK PAGE as if it makes sense to compare these two cases; meanwhile the Woodfork case drivel has gone viral on the web and people are paying more attention to that case than to the continued inexcusable impasse in the Trayvon Marin homicide. I’m not able to do a guest blog because (a) I’m nobody and (b) plenty of etceteras, but I wonder if you would consider it. I would love to see someone take on the logical inconsistencies in comparing a case where [a Black alleged perp committed a crime against a white victim and was arrested] to a different case where [a white “neighborhood watch captain” killed a Black victim and was not arrested].
Thanks for considering it, if you see this comment. If you don’t want to do this, does anybody else want to do this?
According to the Detroit Free Press, Police Chief Lee said, before he “stepped aside” temporarily, that:
In an interview two weeks after the incident, Chief Lee, who has since stepped down from his post, said witness statements and physical evidence backed up Zimmerman’s version of events. He suggested that based on the timing of the call, he believed that Trayvon went out of his way to approach the person tailing him and mouth off.
This was an interesting statement, if in fact Lee used the words “mouth off.” Mouthing off, while slang, clearly indicates that a subordinate is speaking with a superior. A person addressing another person who is equal would not “mouth off” but would “say” or “speak” or “address” or even “yell.” And if you look at the timing of the period that Chief Lee was describing, you see that there are about four minutes in question. There is no recording — and was no evidence at all on February 26, 2012 other than the statement made by Zimmerman himself, which was very likely to be self-serving — of either Zimmerman or Martin speaking TO EACH OTHER.
So all Chief Lee would have to go on, in support of his “belief” that “Trayvon went out of his way to approach the person tailing him and mouth off,” is — well, I guess it’s — approximately NOTHING. And more precisely, NOTHING AT ALL.
Chief Lee is essentially saying: “Well, I believe that during the period of time when I have no idea what took place, an unarmed teen-ager with no criminal record approached someone who, I think, was ‘tailing him’ and then he ‘mouthed off.'”
INVESTIGATE LEE. How many conversations had he had with Zimmerman Senior before he formed his belief about the pre-dead teen going out of his way and mouthing off during the four-minute no-evidence period?
Something I would like folks to think about and if you have time, respond to: the OJ Simpson Mark Furhman experience. If you will remember, there were two points in the OJ Simpson trial where the fact that the media were all over the case brought some extra weaponry to the prosecution (a photograph of OJ wearing the shoes he described as ugly, declaring that he would never wear such footwear) and to the defense (the charge that the police officer who had denied using the “N” word was tape-recorded doing just that, therefore, was lying under oath). Both of these events would have been impossible to uncover if the case had not been publicized so completely that folks from all over were sending in their information.
My point: Just imagine every single police officer, every single EMT and/or ambulance or pathologist or morgue employee, every single prosecutor or employee of the prosecutor’s office, etc. etc. etc. etc. exposed to the kind of national scrutiny that was brought to bear on witnesses (and the defendant and those connected to the defendant and the victims and those connected to the victims) during the trial. OMG there isn’t anybody connected with this case who must not now go back in memory and try to figure out WHO heard him say WHAT to WHOM and what liabilities lie in their years of conduct that have suddenly been thrown into stark relief in this crucially important case. Officer X: has he ever said something at a party, while perhaps drinking a bit and perhaps thinking he was among friends who thought just like him and therefore would agree with any racial epithet he slung around?
Besides, already people are being quoted out of context over and over. Neighbor Ibrahim Rashada is being quoted all over the place as being a 25-year-old African American who said Zimmerman was a “cool dude” who encouraged his wife to learn to use a gun. But…the report seem to omit a comment he made when first interviewed, that he was frightened by Zimmerman’s distribution of warning brochures telling residents that they should watch out for young black males, because that stereotype “profile” looked just like him and he was thereafter afraid to walk in his own neighborhood. He said that when he wanted to “stretch his legs” he would drive DOWNTOWN to walk because he didn’t want “anybody chasing me.”
So there is an enormous unplowed field out there. Grand Jury proceedings are secret but they cannot be totally faked up because in some cases, there are ramifications if they are — and with the public eye, so inflamed, watching, there MUST BE some official response to all the demands for sunshine government in the sunshine state.
In some countries (admittedly, not ours) when there is a big nest of government corruption discovered and exposed, a government falls; at least a unit of the government, where the corruption fluorished, falls. It is not impossible here, in that the Seminole County police and prosecutor’s office have already started shedding bricks from the underground rumblings. If the ground really shakes under them, which it should soon, little sacrifice offerings here and there (people “stepping aside” for the good of the investigation or “wanting to spend more time with their family” and “apologizing for poor judgment”) may not be enough.
About the shifting of the burden of proof, we don’t start out with a “50/50” on this one. Zimmerman did kill Martin. That’s proven. The question then becomes, “Was it a crime?” There was certainly (all nonsense aside) a prima facie case that he killed Martin because he wanted to kill Martin — he identified Martin as someone HE did not like (“asshole” “something’s wrong with him” “suspicious”) and he CHOSE to get out of his car and follow Martin (whether he was advised against it, “ordered” not to do it or hinted at that there was no law enforcement “need” for him to do it). He also CHOSE to confront Martin; Martin did not come to his house and break in; Martin did not come to his car and try to get in. So on that alone, there’s a prima facie case that Zimmerman approached Martin with animus. Had nobody been hurt, there might have not been a crime involved; since someone WAS hurt, there had to have been a crime involved. The burden of proof would fall on the prosecutor to PROVE that there was a crime committed. He does not have a very hard time doing that; he has a dead body and a shooter who admits killing. He has a presumption of a motive from Zimmerman’s first police phone call. Motive, opportunity, crime.
NOW, we have another question: WHAT CRIME? For that we have some alteratives. Did Zimmerman form an intent, while he was on the phone with the police, as in, “Those assholes always get away; well THIS ONE IS NOT GOING TO GET AWAY!”? That would lead to a charge of premeditated murder. Did he simply form an intent to prevent the escape of the person he believed was “suspicious”? As in, “I better not let him duck out of this; I better corner him and draw my gun so he stays put for the police to arrest him!”? And then it turned bad because when he pulled his gun Trayvon Martin did not act as he had hoped? Or did he just intend to confront Trayvon and bring on a scene where he could be a victorious hero, stopping a crime before it was committed — but then got a beating instead, and ended up killing Martin either to stop the beating or to silence the adversary to keep him from telling police what had happened?
Either way we do not get to say that the burden shifts to Martin, because Martin is dead, and because this is NOT a civil action. This is a criminal action, with Zimmerman on the one side and THE PEOPLE on the other. Who complains of the death of Trayvon Martin, and whose burden of proof is it that has to prove Zimmerman took that life unlawfully? THE PEOPLE’S. It did not SHIFT. Martin is not PRESUMED to have attacked Zimmerman because Martin is no longer the party involved. The PEOPLE are the party involved. All the people have to prove is that Zimmerman’s tale of how he was forced to kill does not match the evidence. And it does not. A prosecutor on the job two weeks would know that. Wolfinger’s goal was to prevent this from reaching a court because if it did, all his efforts to throw the case might fail.
LeeJCarroll,
I agree that the “Fucking Coon” words are not clear but the “assholes always get away” is perfectly clear. And the guilt is not dependent on any of the nonsense that has been flying around, either the nonsense I have paid attention to or any of the rest of it. And speaking of guilt, WHAT CHARGE? THere is more evidence of 2nd degree murder than 1st; more evidence of manslaughter than murder; but the real issue here is appropriate investigation and non-corrupt law enforcement, NONE OF WHICH WE HAVE SEEN.
About a fair trial: The fact that now he may never be able to get a fair trial (only 12 true ostriches could serve on the jury!) is not a problem for me because there are appeals courts, changes of venue, habeas corpus proceedings, and etc. etc. etc. — enough to keep Professor Turley’s blog alive and buzzing for decades — may he live another hundred years — but that is not our issue as a society NOW. Our issue NOW is that he has not been treated like other men who have shot and killed a stranger in cold blood with only his own word as to his motivation. He has been treated differently from others in the same type of situation he was in on February 26, 2012, and the people have a right to demand that this be explained and explained thoroughly, and especially in the context of his victim being in a “protected class” when it comes to constitutional rights. Let’s not pretend we all don’t KNOW that a black youth who shot and killed an unarmed white man simply for walking in HIS neighborhood at seven in the evening on a grey day wouldn’t have been treated differently by the cops than George Zimmerman was. Don’t let’s all insult ourselves by being that stupid.
Let’s presume Zimmerman never said “fucking coon.” I’ll go with that. Doesn’t change my mind about this at ALL. I think Wolfinger should be charged with crimes in office, so should several of the cops, so should anybody who called the officials and used influence to keep Zimmerman from facing the music that would be playing if HE HAD BEEN SHOT that night.
Malisha, Zimmerman appears to be wrong, he killed an unarmed man, period.
There is debate as to what he said. I watched a news show this morning where they played the audiotape with a better resolution. One of their experts said he did say that, the other said he did not. They played each tape 3 times. On neither did I hear the awful word he is accused of saying. This is the problem: issues that are not resolved are believed to be so and each side takes it as their truth. Zimmerman will never be able to get a fair trial and may be able to walk because of that alone.
So far, many of the ‘facts’ like his words, are not facts but belief and supposition.
When we cry for a trial, and I think he should be arrested and made to answer for his decision, let’s not forget that a NYC jury let Bernhart Goetz off and that was equally egregious, if not more so, then what Zimmerman did.
Goetz got away with outright murder. I hope the same will not be said if Zimmerman (if the facts bear out to what is being presented. I still believe in innocent unutil proven guilty although the news media , and often the police evidently, forget that is the foundation of our criminal system.))
Dear Dean Fitzpatrick,
Excuse me for not being very clear, if you thought I was calling Trayvon Martin a junkie! I was being sarcastic about how TEAM-ZIMMERMAN is referring to the victim of this murderer!
I apologize if you got me wrong — God Forbid!
Here’s my real, non-humorous, non-sarcastic, non-ironic, inelegant take on this whole thing:
1. Trayvon Martin was an innocent person walking in public exercising his Constitutional rights to not be subject to unlawful search and seizure (or any other unconstitutional conduct by any person) when Zimmerman, who appears to have been a disturbed and hostile individual out on a mission to prove something or to express his internal rage in a way that would make him feel “big,” decided to stalk and kill him.
2 Zimmerman phoned the police to get them to swoop down on Martin, whom he called an “asshole” and a “fucking coon,” but then he began to fear that Martin would escape, so he struck out on his own and confronted and then killed the youth.
3. The police then treated this as if it was a botched but appropriate official arrest of some wrong-doer and they did a formalistic “interview” of Zimmerman and one of them even suggested arresting him under the statute used to try actual cops who actually DO kill a suspect who really IS the subject of police apprehension for some reason. They hope it will all go away and when it doesn’t, they start making up lies to cover their part in the conspiracy. The actual reasons they chose not to treat this crime as a crime include, but probably are not limited to: (a) Magistrate Judge Zimmerman called someone and told them to once again let his son off after having committed a crime; (b) they thought nobody would ever be able to raise a real fuss about Trayvon Martin’s life being taken because he sure wasn’t rich and powerful; and (c) whenever there is official corruption, and it is possible that it will be disclosed, there is MORE AND MORE AND MORE of it and the cover up becomes wider, deeper and worse. Only if you have MASSIVE ENERGY and almost unlimited staying power and money on the other side of one of these corruption-covers can you ever penetrate.
That’s my real take on this.
If I gave another impression, again, I’m sorry.
Sincerely,
Malisha
Malisha
What the heck are you even talking about? They found residue in a baggie and that was all and Mirjana does not a junkie make.I know because I have smoked it several times and I did not go into harder drugs. Not the reason Zimmerman’s and his conviction was overturned was because his dad is a judge and he wanted his son to be able to follow in his footsteps which he could not do with a conviction on his record so it had to be cleared off so enter judge dad. You know it is nice to have people in high places to where you can get away with anything.
No what many of you do not understand is that the moment Zimmerman killed Mr Martin the proof fell on Mr Martin to proof he did not attack Zimmerman, but of course since Mr Martin is dead then there is no proof so Zimmerman walks free or as I said in any other post else where Zimmerman, the police will just wait until everyone has all but forgotten at all this then Zimmerman will be free to go on about his life still carrying a deadly gun. Also do not forget Zimmerman’s dad is a judge.
Well I’m not too short to be poet in chief.
Something else occurred to me overnight, about my feeling of unease reading that police report.
Trayvon Martin’s hands were under him while he was face-down on the ground. Perhaps he was alive when the police arrived. Perhaps, when he was shot in the chest, he clutched his chest where it hurt, and fell forward. Perhaps, had Zimmerman not exhibited depraved indifference, Martin might have lived had he been turned on his back and had a responsible citizen immediately apply pressure to the wound to keep him from bleeding out. Perhaps also, when the “ho hum what have we here” officers arrived, they could have rushed Martin to the ER so that a few (or many) units of blood could have kept him going until he got a heart transplant. Or whatever was needed — we have not even heard where that bullet that killed him went! When I listen to the “help help” tape, I seem to hear TWO shots, by the way. I’m not a forensic listener, though. My points are that (a) the charge that even Officer Chris Serino was suggesting on the police report was completely ridiculous unless it could have been presumed (which it could NOT because Zimmerman was not a cop and was not entitled to accost or interrogate anyone) that he had a right to even engage Martin in conversation that night AND IT COULE HAVE BEEN PRESUMED that Martin was in the process of committing a crime that Zimmerman interrupted.
The charge listed on the police report, which even Serino thought should be lodged, was a per se violation of Martin’s civil rights (he was presumed guilty and then executed) and there was every reason to suspect that the police work might not have been shodddy so much as deliberately and conspiratorially indifferent to the rights of a victim of a crime.
Well it looks like maybe the cop who suggested charging Zimmerman with “negligent homicide” under the 782.11 statute might have been trying to do him a big favor. In the 1979 Florida case State v. Mitchell, a defendant (who was a police officer (and by the way most of the 782.11 cases are police officers who killed people they were arresting for an actual crime) who was convicted and then, on appeal, got off because nobody proved that the victim was committing any particular specific CRIME! His conviction was reversed because of the vagueness of the “crime” the victim was supposed to have been committing. But guess what: He could not be re-tried because of double jeopardy. So, had Zimmerman been arrested under 782.11, he could have gotten off whether or not he was convicted — on appeal — BECAUSE NOBODY COULD HAVE PROVEN THAT TRAYVON MARTIN WAS COMMITTING ANY CRIME. By the way, a crime directed at the person who kills the victim doesn’t count, for these cases. An independent crime is needed.
See how the law is an ass?
I just printed out and read and re-read Officer Ayala’s police report. It names Trayvon Martin. Although it appears to show that the “incident” was ended at about 3 a,m. on Feb. 27, 2012, therefore, it is clear that the report was not FILED until quite a bit later, because reports reveal that the body was not identified until about 12 hours after the incident, which started at 7 pm on Feb. 26, 2012. So it wouldn’t have been until AFTER this report was made that anybody knew who the dead person was.
Strangest damn police report I ever saw. There are about 100 things just peculiar about it, starting off with the fact that the police officers arriving on the scene find out Zimmerman shot Martin but they do not advise him of his right to remain silent. Also, they “hear” him talk to the EMT but they do not question him — as if they’re all kinda just thinking about things while they work, not very much concerned. If we believe this report, also, Martin may well have been alive when Ayala arrived on the scene, and if he had immediately given his attention to the person on the ground (Martin) while the other cop made Zimmerman assume the position, who knows, Martin might have lived. Nobody mentions at which point they called for an ambulance, or at which point they told the second ambulance not to come.
The thing is deficient, vague, and problematic.
I want to read other police reports from SPD from prior years relating to violent crimes with a person shot and/or dead, and see what a proper police report of such an incident looks like. Anybody who has any, do let me know, OK?
Thanks.
Idealist707,
It’s interesting to me that you still use that handle, someone as aware as you are of all that is wrong. I just want to weigh in now about your cabinet:
I second Gene H an Elaine. Vote for Blouise too. Mike S for FBI, great! I don’t know much about SWM, Lorra, Tonya C or MCM. MM, thanked you already. OS, I am a fan! Dredd, fabulous! I like that idea to keep Bdaman off the streets! But I’ll risk my ability to get these e-mails (which sometimes come, sometimes do not) by opposing the Honorable Jonathan Turley as Chief Justice. Yes, he is sober as a judge. BUT…his original post on this story was, if you recall, very defense-oriented, when the question was NOT guilt or innocence the question was ARREST! It read almost as if there was some rationale behind the police not having arrested Zimmerman because they thought, “oh hey, we better not, what if he gets acqutted?” Well they obviously DID NOT THINK THAT. They thought, “hey this corpse here, it’s some homeless, powerless, dead [fill in the blank]. He hasn’t got anybody who could really object in a meaningful way if we just let this one slide. Buddy Zim here, on the other hand, daddy’s a judge, friendly with Wolfinger, we better let him go with a warning. Maybe some therapy or anger management or something.”
So, actually, in your brand new state, do me a favor, nominate maybe Mespo to the High Court, maybe Rafflaw or someone — even aamom, who said it first: “Please, Professor Turley, the kid is dead and…”
I’m too tall to run the FBI.
If it is true that Officer Chris Serino filed HIS report on Feb. 26, 2012 shortly after the interview of Zimmerman, but the two other cops did not file them untll later, WHY did that happen?
I was very disturbed to hear that the cell-phone girlfriend, perhaps called “Dee Dee,” who spoke with Trayvon Martin before his death, has apparently not YET been interviewed by anyone in the investigation of the incident. Could this really be true?
I read on some of the blogs that she filed an “affidavit” but I’m not sure anybody has reported on that or substantiated it. Could someone enlighten me on that one?
Since she seemed to be saying that Zimmerman was first spotted by Martin while Z was still in his vehicle, it would be very good to know what her affidavit says, if there is one.
By the way, other “witnesses” and even this youngster as a “witness” are not really witnesses until there is a proceeding in which they can be sworn in. We really NEED THAT.
I would think that if the grand jury meets, it should HAVE TO HEAR from this Dee Dee person before deliberating.
First, I want to thank Idealist707 for my appointment as Official-Minister-without-portfoio-in-charge-of-Poetry. I accept; it is a great honor.
(For who I am, Your Honor, I can say for myself that Gabriel Garcia Marquez has called me his “amiga” and Yann Martel and I are penpals! So I am covered in honor alreay but humbly accept your additional accolade.)
Now, here I am, grateful but tardy.
Hey, there, Venganc, I see you’re still at it:
“you know them by how they breed. If the junkie hadn’t been expelled from school he would not be dating his fathers girlfriend. You expect that line of thinking from someone from the left. It is awful how they are trying Mr. Zimmerman in the press.”
I can see that your adrenalin has kicked in. But if you think about it, there’s a really big problem here: Trayvon Martin is dead. That’s the problem. Since our country (even FLORIDA!) has no provision for charging, indicting, trying and convicting people post-mortem, we will never get a chance to put Martin on trial to vindicate MISTER Zimmerman. MISTER Zimmerman will never have the chance to testify under oath about Martin’s crimes! All that was lost in a split second when MISTER Zimmerman shot too soon — had the police only been given a chance to arrive on the scene in time to take MISTER Zimmerman to the hospital (to document his injuries for the prosecutor to use in trying the expelled junkie) and to arrest that violent, aggressive, hateful, racially-motivated junkie f*&#^ing “coon or goon,” and charge him and try him and convict him, we would all have the facts before us and it would be a loooooooooooong time before that convict could breed, whether with his father’s girlfriend or just with anyone else.
Whoooooh! Damn!
For you, I-707:
Haiku Trayvon
Drizzle, hoodie, fear.
Are these the ingredients?
How we miss you, child!
Op-Ed Contributor
The Gated Community Mentality
by RICH BENJAMIN
March 29, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/opinion/the-gated-community-mentality.html?_r=1
AS a black man who has been mugged at gunpoint by a black teenager late at night, I am not naïve: I know firsthand the awkward conundrums surrounding race, fear and crime. Trayvon Martin’s killing at the hands of George Zimmerman baffles this nation. While the youth’s supporters declare in solidarity “We are all Trayvon,” the question is raised, to what extent is the United States also all George Zimmerman?
Under assault, I didn’t dream of harming my teenage assailant, let alone taking his life.
Mr. Zimmerman reacted very differently, taking out his handgun and shooting the youth in cold blood.
What gives?
Welcome to gate-minded America.
From 2007 to 2009, I traveled 27,000 miles, living in predominantly white gated communities across this country to research a book. I threw myself into these communities with gusto — no Howard Johnson or Motel 6 for me. I borrowed or rented residents’ homes. From the red-rock canyons of southern Utah to the Waffle-House-pocked exurbs of north Georgia, I lived in gated communities as a black man, with a youthful style and face, to interview and observe residents.
The perverse, pervasive real-estate speak I heard in these communities champions a bunker mentality. Residents often expressed a fear of crime that was exaggerated beyond the actual criminal threat, as documented by their police department’s statistics. Since you can say “gated community” only so many times, developers hatched an array of Orwellian euphemisms to appease residents’ anxieties: “master-planned community,” “landscaped resort community,” “secluded intimate neighborhood.”
No matter the label, the product is the same: self-contained, conservative and overzealous in its demands for “safety.” Gated communities churn a vicious cycle by attracting like-minded residents who seek shelter from outsiders and whose physical seclusion then worsens paranoid groupthink against outsiders. These bunker communities remind me of those Matryoshka wooden dolls. A similar-object-within-a-similar-object serves as shelter; from community to subdivision to house, each unit relies on staggered forms of security and comfort, including town authorities, zoning practices, private security systems and personal firearms.
Residents’ palpable satisfaction with their communities’ virtue and their evident readiness to trumpet alarm at any given “threat” create a peculiar atmosphere — an unholy alliance of smugness and insecurity. In this us-versus-them mental landscape, them refers to new immigrants, blacks, young people, renters, non-property-owners and people perceived to be poor.
Mr. Zimmerman’s gated community, a 260-unit housing complex, sits in a racially mixed suburb of Orlando, Fla. Mr. Martin’s “suspicious” profile amounted to more than his black skin. He was profiled as young, loitering, non-property-owning and poor. Based on their actions, police officers clearly assumed Mr. Zimmerman was the private property owner and Mr. Martin the dangerous interloper. After all, why did the police treat Mr. Martin like a criminal, instead of Mr. Zimmerman, his assailant? Why was the black corpse tested for drugs and alcohol, but the living perpetrator wasn’t?
Across the United States, more than 10 million housing units are in gated communities, where access is “secured with walls or fences,” according to 2009 Census Bureau data. Roughly 10 percent of the occupied homes in this country are in gated communities, though that figure is misleadingly low because it doesn’t include temporarily vacant homes or second homes. Between 2001 and 2009, the United States saw a 53 percent growth in occupied housing units nestled in gated communities.
Another related trend contributed to this shooting: our increasingly privatized criminal justice system. The United States is becoming even more enamored with private ownership and decision making around policing, prisons and probation. Private companies champion private “security” services, alongside the private building and managing of prisons.
“Stand Your Ground” or “Shoot First” laws like Florida’s expand the so-called castle doctrine, which permits the use of deadly force for self-defense in one’s home, as long as the homeowner can prove deadly force was reasonable. Thirty-two states now permit expanded rights to self-defense.
In essence, laws nationwide sanction reckless vigilantism in the form of self-defense claims. A bunker mentality is codified by law.
Those reducing this tragedy to racism miss a more accurate and painful picture. Why is a child dead? The rise of “secure,” gated communities, private cops, private roads, private parks, private schools, private playgrounds — private, private, private —exacerbates biased treatment against the young, the colored and the presumably poor.
Rich Benjamin is the author of “Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America” and a senior fellow at Demos, a nonpartisan research center.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/28/trayvon-martin-case-polic_n_1384301.html?ncid=wsc-huffpost-cards-headline
“Chris Serino, the lead detective on the case, expressed doubts around Zimmerman’s account of the shooting, according to ABC News. Serino filed an affidavit on the night of the shooting in which he said that he was unconvinced of Zimmerman’s version of events.
Serino told MSNBC Tuesday night that he was not at liberty to discuss the case, but he feels very encouraged by the new investigation into the shooting, and he was “looking forward to the truth coming out.””
VenganceNow1, March 28, 2012 at 10:12 pm
Sure, take up for the aggressor. I am sure folks know how to photo crop pictures and artistically cover any portion that they do not deem desirable. Been done before, could be happening here. What do you want from a collared boy
From a collared boy? You mean Zimmerman, of course, when he was collared by the police?
(And if Zimmerman so hurt who did he not go to hospital? I fell the other day and bloodied my nose, not even broken, and I bled like the proverbial stuffed pig. Everyone photoshopped Zimmerman’s face and shirt so no blood was visible? that is one heck of a conspiracy.)