Has there been no justice for Trayvon Martin because he was black?

[chewchewmeaw]

www.channel4.com/news/trayvon...orge-zimmerman

I'm inclined to think things might be different if the roles were reversed.

Yanbu. This whole situation disgusts and saddens me.

YANBU

I signed the petition last week when the thread in In The News caught my attention.

The fact that the attitudes of the killer, and by extension the police, are still held, and tolerated, in this day and age just beggers belief.

RIP Trayvon

Hi, we've moved this to In the News.

This is so sad. Thanks for the link to the petition. I've just signed it.

Don't want to be confrontational, but why has this been moved Kat?

There is another thread on the subject in In The News, which sadly just didn't get the attention it deserved due to the lower level of traffic through this part of the forum.

A forum like AIBU or Chat has far higher volumes of traffic and are therefore a better place to get a thread "seen".

Again, not being confrontational, just curious as to the reason behind it

Zimmerman's father was white and his mother hispanic. His father is a retired magistrate judge.

He has a Florida record for assaulting a police officer -- he was not charged with a felony (possibly because he is articulate and not black and could afford good legal representation) and for this reason he was allowed the licence that enabled him to carry the weapon. He has previously been involved in a battle of injunctions against an exFiancee who made allegations of DV against him.

I have to say, he comes across as a psychopath, a privileged psychopath.

Christian Science Monitor report.

I'd like to see the thread back in Chat too, KatMumsnet, particularly as there is a petition now.

Some more info here: articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-03-26/news/os-trayvon-martin-zimmerman-account-20120326_1_arizona-iced-tea-suv-unarmed-black-teenager Doesn't seem as clear cut as previous reports.

All reports agree that Zimmerman followed Trayvon Martin against the advice of the Operator. As the black American priest said in his sermon in my church yesterday, if you were a black teenage boy, the last thing you would do when followed by a white man with a gun would be to run. But Trayvon appeared to have run, igniting some sort of hunting instinct in Zimmerman. The thing any young man would do if that armed man got close enough would be to tackle him, because running while the following man still had the gun would be extremely dangerous.

Here is what the Huffington Post reports.

The two things that will be critical to the decision to prosecute are whether Zimmerman called Trayvon Martin a coon or used any other racist epithet. This is alleged to have happened before he began to pursue Trayvon. If he did this, it trumps all other considerations.

The other consideration will be whose voice was heard begging for mercy, but only absent any racist term.

It seems very unlikely to me that a heavily built man who already had a little history of committing assault (police officer and girlfriend), and who was armed, would be the one pleading for his life.

Thanks Piggy I was on my phone earlier so I couldn't link.

There's a counter FB post about something that happened in 2007, where black people did some dispicable things to a white couple.

What they did was absoloutely horrendous, however it seems to being used to cloud the current issue somewhat.

Surely that can't be right mathsanxiety

Obviously the language used gives a clear indication of Mr Zimmerman's frame of mind at the time of the shooting but supposing he'd said nothing? How can it be OK for him to gun somebody down just for walking along the street?

I don't know whether Zimmerman was a racist or mentally unstable. The police's actions are absolutely bizarre, and the only conclusion I can come to is that they were racist (i.e. they assumed that Zimmerman's actions were justified because the victim was black). I find it difficult to believe that that many public officials were that incompetent without there being some alternative explanation like racism.

Online petition signed
Poor Trayvon, I wish there was more I could do

Some of the reports from america do seem more nuanced. I havent read much about this case though, so dont know enough to comment.

I can't believe what I am reading on here. You seem to swallow anything as truth with little in the way of facts.

He wasn't arrested due to Florida state law, it is illegal to arrest someone who.has been acting in self defense and the police are liable to be sued if they detain someone in this manner.

Thank god for due process otherwise Zimmerman would be crucified. By all the racists on here.

how was what Zimmerman did self defence?

(I am aware of the Stand Your Ground law, and the implications)

how can it be claimed that Zimmerman was in fear, when he had to get out of his car (which had not been approached by Trayvon) against official advice to follow the boy who was walking away? how can that constitute being 'in fear' to the extent that self defence can be claimed?

How fearful would you be having a 6'3" tabooed football player smash your head on the ground having stared at you with his hands in his waistband carrying a metallic object.

chew, I'm right with you on this.

Funny how having a "black" president (funny how he is called "black" when his mum is white) doesn't seem to make a bit of difference how America is (still)...

So fucking sad!!

What the fuck are you talking about URallchickenlentil? are we reading the same case?

I can't be doing with idiots today.

there is a new FB thing suggesting that Zimmerman is the victim, chew

ignoring all the evidence to the contrary

I'll see if I can find it

can't find it now, sorry

but from the Orlando Sentinel link upthread:

"In his version of events, Zimmerman had turned around and was walking back to his SUV when Trayvon approached him from behind, the two exchanged words and then Trayvon punched him in the nose, sending him to the ground, and began beating him"

what about the girlfriend who was on the phone to Trayvon at the time & heard what happened? isn't there a record of that call?

also, didn't it all happen a few yards from his father's house? where was the truck parked?

Personally, I can't believe that Zimmerman is still wandering around, a free man, having killed someone in cold blood.

Yes, he argues it was self-defense, blah, blah, blah but he still killed someone. The very, very least that should happen is that he should be taken into custody for thorough questioning.

It blows my mind that the President and the whole of the US media and NAACP and youth groups and all corners of society have weighed in now to speak out against the Sanford police and their police chief has stepped down and yet STILL that fat bastard Zimmerman is walking around, still with a gun license, still a free man, instead of being in prison having the fat kicked out of him by various black inmates.

Makes my blood boil...

I don't think he's doing much wandering or feeling particularly free, Napa - otherwise I agree with everything you say

apparently Zimmerman's father is a retired judge

\link{http://rollingout.com/culture/george-zimmerman-son-of-a-retired-judge-has-3-closed-arrests/\interesting...}

Urall - the point is that Zimmerman was never even questioned or detained by the police. Obviously Florida state law does allow a claim of self defence under the Stand Your Ground law but whether that law applies would have to be determined by a court rather than the killer just saying 'yeah it was self defense'. Otherwise we live in a society where it's acceptable to murder anyone and walk away as long as you claim self defense, which is just anarchy and a total abandonment of the rule of law.

The police took Zimmerman at his word and assumed that his account of events was correct and that Trayvon Martin had threatened him, despite witness evidence to the contrary, evidence they never even bothered to look at. The Sanford police are a disgrace.