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AIBU?

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Where is the fucking justice for Trayvon Martin? a 17 year old INNOCENT CHILD shot to death simply because he was walking in his father's gated community.

939 replies

chewchewmeaw · 17/03/2012 19:10

Why in gods hell has that MURDERER not been arrested?

Are they looking for riots? they will happen if Zimmerman is not brought to justice. I am so sickened by this.

I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't heard this story yet - very slow in reporting it.

He was begging for his life': Family's anger as police finally play 911 calls made by neighborhood watch captain who shot black teen

Trayvon Martin,17, was shot dead by George Zimmerman, 28, last month, who claims the killing was self defense and has not been charged
Police finally gave into mounting pressure on Friday and released eight 911 calls
The teen's family say the calls show Zimmerman was the 'aggressor' not Trayvon

The police have finally released the 911 calls made in relation to the killing of an unarmed black teenager who was shot by a white neighborhood watch captain.

George Zimmerman, 28, had called 911 to report a suspicious man and can be heard pursuing Trayvon Martin, 17, on foot against the dispatcher's advice causing the teen to run away.
Moments later the police are bombarded with calls from terrified neighbors as a voice in the background can be heard desperately screaming for help before the sound of two gun shots.
When police arrived at Florida's Retreat at Twin Lakes Townhomes they found Trayvon, who had been returning from a store with candy for his younger brother, had been shot dead by Zimmerman.
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Trayvon Martin, 17, left, was killed by George Zimmerman, 28, right, after the neighborhood watch captain pursued him as walked in a gated community

Zimmerman had called 911 after spotting the teen walking through the gated community.
'This guy looks like he is up to no good. He is on drugs or something,' Zimmerman told the dispatcher from his SUV.
He added that the black teen had his hand in his waistband and was walking around looking at homes.

More...
Teenager's death gives life to others: Organs donated by girl, 16, who died in crash provide new hope for the desperately ill
'These a---. They always get away,' Zimmerman said on a 911 call.
During Zimmerman's initial call, he told the dispatcher he was following Martin and the dispatcher told him, 'You don't need to do that.'
But Zimmerman sounds as if he continues to pursue the teen saying: 'He ran.'
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In Zimmerman's 911 call he said Martin, pictured, looked like he 'up to no good' and on drugs as the teen returned home with skittles for his brother
He then refuses to meet police officers at an agreed location and asks for them to call him on arrival instead so he can tell them where he is.
Sanford police officials, who have not charged Zimmerman after accepting his claim that his actions were in self defense, finally released eight 911 calls on Friday after mounting pressure.
Martin's family had demanded the release of the calls to help better understand how Martin died while walking home from a convenience store last month.
'He was yelling for help, and no one could help him. He saw his life being taken away from him,' the teen's father Tracy Martin said.
He said they will continue pushing for charges to be filed against Zimmerman.
'We?re hoping this doesn?t happen again to another family, and that America opens their eyes ... even though this won?t bring Trayvon back,
we don?t want there to be another Trayvon,' Mr Martin said.
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The teenager's parents; mother Sabrina Fulton, right, and father Tracy Martin, left, are said to be devastated after hearing the 911 calls of their son's last moments

Benjamin Crump, the attorney for Martin's family, said that the 911 calls show that the teenager spent the last few moments of his life terrified and Zimmerman should be charged
After listening to recordings of 911 calls, Martin's family said they're more convinced than ever that the Zimmerman should be charged with a crime.
'You hear a shot, a clear shot, then you hear a 17-year-old boy begging for his life,' said Natalie Jackson, the family attorney. 'Then you hear a second shot.'
The case has been turned over to the State Attorney's Office which can decide whether to file charges or present evidence to a grand jury.
Attorney Benjamin Crump, who is also representing the family, told reporters outside Sanford City Hall that Martin's parents both broke down and cried as they listened to the recordings.
'They are completely devastated, and they are in unbelievable grief,' Crump said. 'The last seconds of his life were in absolute fear.'
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Martin was visiting his father and stepmother in Sanford where they live at The Retreat at Twin Lakes, pictured, when he popped out to buy snacks for his younger brother
He added that a third witness has come forward saying it was the boy who was crying for help.
Martin's parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, previously sued to have the recordings released. A hearing for the case had been scheduled for Monday.
Moments after Zimmerman's initial call, dispatchers were bombarded by seven 911 calls from frantic neighbors describing a fight between two men, screaming and then a gunshot.
'There is somebody screaming outside,' one female caller said, as an unknown male voice can be heard crying in the background. Then a shot is heard.
A male caller described a physical altercation between Martin and the shooter.
'I just heard a shot right behind my house,' The caller said. 'They're wrestling right behind my porch. The guy is yelling 'Help.' I'm not going outside.'

By the time police officers arrived, unarmed Trayvon, who had been carrying Skittles and soda, was dead on the ground from a single gunshot
Another woman said a man in a 'white top' was on top Trayvon.
Earlier on Friday, Martin's parents called on the FBI to take over the investigation, saying they no longer trusted the Sanford police department.
Sanford police Sgt. David Morgenstern said the department stands by its investigation but welcomes help from any outside agency. FBI agent David Couvertier said the agency has been in contact with Sanford police and is monitoring the case.
'We are committed to having somebody review this to see if we made a mistake,' said Sanford Mayor Jeff Triplett. 'If we made missteps and there is something there, we will act accordingly'

Trayvon's family believe Zimmerman should be charged and brought to justice for shooting their young son
Several Sanford residents who spoke to The Associated Press said they think there would have been an arrest already if the shooter had been black and the deceased had been white.
They said blacks and whites in this city of 53,000 residents were pretty much in agreement that an injustice had been done with no one arrested, and that there was no racial divide in how the case is being perceived. The city is 57 percent white and 30 percent black.
Zimmerman's father delivered a letter to the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday, saying the way his son is being depicted in the media is cruel and misleading.
He also says his son has received death threats and moved out of his home. George Zimmerman is Hispanic and grew up in a multiracial family, the statement says.

OP posts:
AmberLeaf · 15/07/2013 12:01

Yeah I think you are probably right there MrsTerryPratchett.

I don't understand why people are blind to this sort of injustice?

emuloc · 15/07/2013 12:44

I agree with you MrsTerryPrathett. If the situation you wrote had happened it would be a whole different story. A grave injustice has happend. People are righfully protesting about it.

CheerfulYank · 15/07/2013 12:51

Nope, no sleep for me. :(

Have any of you seen the movie "A Time to Kill"?

FreedomOfTheTess · 15/07/2013 13:04

Regardless of whether it was self-defence or not - and my own opinion is it wasn't - one fact stands out above all the rest.

When he made the 911 call, the police told Zimmerman to stay in his car, and that they'd be out to deal with his report.

He blatantly IGNORED this advice, instead choosing to act like a vigilante, and take the "law" into his own hands.

If Zimmerman had listened to the police, and stayed in God damn the car, Trayvon would be alive today.

AmberLeaf · 15/07/2013 13:06

Ive seen it Cheerful, not for a while though. Just saw Boomba mention it on the other thread too.

Im surprised at some peoples ignorance to how different black people are treated in the US justice system [and the UK one tbh]

lydiajones · 15/07/2013 13:13

YANBU - I don't understand it.

Wellwobbly · 15/07/2013 13:16

Can't really comment on the legal aspect, but just thinking from the personal interaction that went on:

I am just wondering if this 17 year old did the whole street-cred gangster rap defiance thing and failed to realise how threatened his challenger was.

Had he stayed polite and calm and reassured the other person would it would have turned out differently.

Did he belligerently start on his 'rights' and end up dead?

Chris Rock has a sketch on this: 'how not to get arrested'

AmberLeaf · 15/07/2013 13:36

Oh yes, back to that black 'boy' must be polite to the 'masser'

emuloc · 15/07/2013 13:47

He could haye been as polite as possible. There is no getting away fron the fact that guy had his own agenda when he took it upon himself to stalk Trayvon instead of leaving the police to do their job.

limitedperiodonly · 15/07/2013 13:59

I've belligerently insisted on my rights when confronted by a random while going about my lawful business.

As a middle-aged white woman I'll continue to do it and probably avoid being shot dead and having people blame me for being uppity.

Perhaps Victoria Wood could do a routine on it.

Wellwobbly · 15/07/2013 14:52

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by Mumsnet for breaking our Talk Guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

quietitude · 15/07/2013 14:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FreedomOfTheTess · 15/07/2013 15:04

Why was none of Zimmerman's DNA found on Trayvon's hands, if he is meant to have assaulted Zimmerman?!

Wellwobbly · 15/07/2013 15:06

So Autumnleaf, cut the sarcasm and the self-loathing apologising. If other Americans imply that young Mr Martin was a badly behaved adolescent, my suggestion that he COULD have misbehaved himself into his own danger (being a human being before any other identity, and all) is hardly the vicious racist apology you imply.

GoshAnneGorilla · 15/07/2013 15:10

"Misbehaved himself into his own danger"

What sort of victim-blaming spew is this?

Why, Wellwobbly do you seem to be using strangely passive verbs to disguise the fact that Zimmerman shot him dead.

He grabbed his gun, aimed it at Trayvon, pulled the trigger and shot him dead.

Wellwobbly · 15/07/2013 15:20

Anne, you are right, I could be victim blaming.

But I live in a very dangerous country, and we are given lessons on how to behave if confronted by gunmen.

Which are: don't look them in the eye. Hold your hands up to show no weapons or threat. Say soothing things like 'take it easy', and lastly, show no resistance at all.

ie, managing the situation in as de-escalating a manner as possible, because you have a very large possibility of winding up dead.

That is all I am saying. Trayvon Martin, on being unfairly accosted, had two choices. He could have taken the above route, or he could have done the whole aggressive thing.

Simplistic black and white thinking (Zimmerman: an evil racist, Martin: an innocent angel) just has a habit of not being accurate, that is all.

SpecialAgentTattooedQueen · 15/07/2013 15:20

I don't view a fight/flight response to being stalked as misbehaving. I also do not think Trayvon did the right thing (especially as he was dealing with a man with a history of violence and racism, obviously how was he to know? Still, not the 'right' or safest response.)

But I myself have responded in the same fashion in a very similar situation. We just cannot control that sort of reaction as human beings. We think we can but having been there myself I can fairly say fear can make you do stupid things if your survival instinct kicks in.

Sadly, a man who deserved a manslaughter charge got free and instantly bragged about his lack of remorse, which seems... Unusual to me.

emuloc · 15/07/2013 15:21

Here we go again. Wellwobbly What do you hope to gain by asking questions like that.

SpecialAgentTattooedQueen · 15/07/2013 15:22

we are given lessons on how to behave if confronted by gunmen.

Which are: don't look them in the eye. Hold your hands up to show no weapons or threat. Say soothing things like 'take it easy', and lastly, show no resistance at all.

^

I've lived in a very dangerous country myself, and was given virtually the same lessons.

I didn't respond the same when I was confronted with a frightening situation. I'm very lucky it didn't end badly for me, ad I'm shocked now at how I reacted but my survival instincts kicked in.

Sadly, Trayvon's fear response got him killed. :(

GoshAnneGorilla · 15/07/2013 15:56

This case sets a terrifying precedent, IMHO.

Wellwobbly · 15/07/2013 16:22

Sadly, Trayvon's fear response got him killed

THANK YOU Queen! What I have been trying to say. Two people, reacting out of fear and escalating the situation.

I am not: ushering in the new Nazi order, clearly an evil person because I tried to introduce a humanist perspective, or evil because I don't support your stance that 'all victims are automatically angels'. They aren't.

Just saying there were two human beings there that night, and proposing that neither of them behaved very well, and that, sadly, one person's bad behaviour got them killed.

Chris Rock:

It is not evil and racist to state that gangsta aggression and posturing tends to escalate situations... (however hard that is for lefties to swallow).

Wellwobbly · 15/07/2013 16:34

MN Towers: why is my reply deleted,

but her implying racist supporting 1960s deep South attitudes left to stand?

I dont' get the justice of MN Towers, really I don't.

Maybe I should have just 'implied' that Autumn was a self-loathing leftie!!!

SpecialAgentTattooedQueen · 15/07/2013 16:42

Trayvon reacted out of fear from being stalked though. No one has the fight/flight response to following someone, calling the cops andstill following when the cops told them not to.

Wellwobbly · 15/07/2013 16:51

Here is a calmer perspective:

Peter Foster, The Telegraph:

No: the real, hard, incontrovertible lesson that should be drawn from this case is not about race, but about guns.
If this event had happened on a British housing complex, then the worst that would likely have happened to George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin would have been a br0ken nose and some bruised egos. In Florida, an innocent teenager loses his life.
That's the lesson here. People like George Zimmerman shouldn't be carrying guns, and it is inexcusable for the law in states like Florida - the so-called "Stand Your Ground" laws - to so embolden the Zimmermans of this world to use them.
Even if you accept entirely Zimmerman's version of events ? that he was jumped by Martin who then banging his head on the pavement ? was he really justified to shoot him dead? What happened to crying for help? Or begging for mercy?
Trayvon Martin had no knife, Zimmerman's injuries were far from life-threatening and yet he apparently felt no compunction in pulling out his gun and shooting Martin dead?
That's what unfathomable here, the frame of mind that allows Zimmerman to take such a disastrous, fatal step and the legal system that encourages him to pull the trigger.

Ashoething · 15/07/2013 16:53

"We are a nation of laws and the jury has spoken"-president Obama. A black president voted in by a country of racistsHmm

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