The Decade Since Trayvon Martin - Then and Now
"Stand your Ground," Vigilantism, Policing, Guns, and Loss
Then
March 30, 2012
Trayvon Martin – I Don’t Understand
I could not be living in America this week without forming a personal view of the Trayvon Martin killing in Sanford, Florida by neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman. Trayvon Martin who lived in the Miami Gardens Area of Miami-Dade County was in Sanford staying with his father’s girlfriend, Brandy Green, who he had visited on other occasions. He had been to a store where he purchased Skittles and Iced Tea and he was walking back to his temporary home on a February Florida evening and apparently talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone. He had probably never heard about George Zimmerman or the neighborhood watch group, but he happened to be walking by the Retreat at Twin Lakes neighborhood where George Zimmerman lived. This is a gated condo community with a diverse mix of homeowners and renters and Trayvon often played football with other kids from the community when he was visiting Sanford.
George Zimmerman, 28, is the man who shot Trayvon Martin, 17, and he is not in police custody. He is hiding out somewhere and everyone seems to be protecting him. If any one of us shot someone I believe we would be under arrest. I do not understand why Zimmerman is not in police custody. As a neighborhood watch captain, he had been told that he was not to approach whoever he was watching. He had been told that he was not supposed to carry a gun. He was told that very night by the 911 operator that he did not need to keep following his “suspect”. George Zimmerman, who had wanted to be a policeman, clearly got carried away with his role and, despite an incomprehensible “stand your ground law” overstepped his authority.
Are we upset that Trayvon was not meek enough when confronted with someone who was following him? Zimmerman was not a policeman; he could have been a sexual predator for all Trayvon knew. Are we upset that Trayvon defended himself, that he aggressively defended himself? This seems to me a normal survival instinct that is perhaps educated out of us as we mature. We eventually learn that not overreacting, even when angry, might work out better in cases where we are presented with an authority figure or someone who believes they are an authority figure. I wish Trayvon had not been quite so aggressive in his response to George Zimmerman (if he was as aggressive as they say) because then he would be alive. But we do teach our children about stranger danger. It is great that people like George Zimmerman, but this is not a popularity contest and it doesn’t really matter who is nicer, Trayvon or George.
Haven’t we lost enough promising young black men? In my community we hear about another young life extinguished, the life of someone who could have had a great future, or even a fine peaceful life. There are reasons this happens over and over again and although we have studied and talked about the problem we have not yet found the way to end it.
If I was presented with a George Zimmerman following me in his car on a February evening, would I be nervous? Yes, I would. Would I fight? Probably not. I am a female who has not been trained to fight. Do I admire someone who sticks up for him/herself? Yes, I do. I do not think that Trayvon Martin did anything to warrant his death. I do believe that George Zimmerman, however remorseful, overstepped the boundaries of his very unofficial role in law enforcement. I cannot imagine what other evidence will be available at this late date. If George Zimmerman is not tried in a court of law, then the justice system in Sanford, Florida needs a serious overhaul. If they don’t deal very honestly with this young man’s death it looks like there will be repercussions.
Now
March 29, 2022
Remember Their Names
It has been exactly one decade since Trayvon Martin’s death. Trayvon Martin was not killed by the police. He was killed because George Zimmerman, a self-appointed guy in a neighborhood watch group (but acting alone) took a gun with him to investigate someone he thought might be a thief. That person was Trayvon Martin, a teenager, making a convenient store run and chatting to someone on his phone. We will never be exactly sure what happened when Zimmerman and Trayvon fought over Zimmerman’s gun, but we do know that Trayvon Martin was killed, a tragedy his parents still live with. George Zimmerman was eventually tried but was not convicted of any crime. In the southern states there are “stand your ground” laws which make it legal to protect your property with a gun, even when the property is not technically yours. These are dangerous vigilante-style laws, part of America’s current style of interpreting the Constitution in the most literal way possible. The Second Amendment is more obscure than most of the amendments to the Constitution and could be interpreted differently than the NRA’s choice of preferred interpretations as backed by the Republican Party. This interpretation has given us guns everywhere, owned by anyone, no limits, no exceptions. If Democrats try to introduce laws like background checks for gun ownership, Republicans and the NRA begin to shout that the Democrats want to take away everyone’s guns and gun reform gets nowhere.
Most of the killings of black men and a few women have been at the hands of law enforcement, policemen. We understand that since there are guns everywhere it can be scary to be in law enforcement right now. However, we have also heard police loudly say that “there’s a gun” even when there is no gun, and then we know what will happen next. Someone will be dead. It could be argued that these officers thought there was a gun, but once we saw George Floyd, choked to death by the application of the knee of Derek Chauvin, we knew, incontrovertibly, that some or all these recent deaths were not about self-defense; they were about racism.
We need to remember their names. Things seem to have calmed down a bit for now. We hope we never have to watch events like these in America ever again, but we don’t trust that that will be the case.
Before 2014
Amadou Diallo-23, Alyana James-7, Rekia Boyd-22, Timothy Russell-43, Malissa Williams-30, Jonathan Ferrell-24 and Trayvon Martin who should be laid at the feet of officers who did not stop George Zimmerman.
2014
Dontre Hamilton-31, Eric Garner-56, John Crawford III-22, Michael Brown-18, Ezell Ford-25, Akai Gurley-18, Tamir Rice-12, Jermaine Reid-36
2015
Charles Leundeu Keunang-43, Tony Robinson-19, Anthony Hall-26, Eric Harris-44, Walter Scott-50, Freddie Gray-25, William Chapman-18, Jonathan Sanders-37, Samuel DuBose-43, Tanesha Anderson-37, Jamar Clark-24
2016
Paul O’Neal-18, Terrance Crutcher-40, Philandro Castile-32, Alfred Chango-38
2017
Jordan Edwards-15
2018
Stephon Clark-22, Botham Jean-26’
2019
Elijah McClain-23
2020
Manuel Ellis-33, Breonna Taylor-26, George Floyd-46, Andre Hill-47, Ahmaud Arbery-25 not by police officers but in a racially motivated hate crime
2021
Daunte Wright-20, Lindani Myani-29 (Hawaii)
2022
Jason Walker-37
This information is from Wikipedia and Google and may not be complete but there are other lists to be found on the web.
This chain of “deaths of escalation” looked and felt like racism in our police forces, and since hate affects the entire society in which it exists these deaths have affected all of us. With armed citizens and armed police, add in assumptions that black men are up to no good and voila, mayhem, and the expectation of the demise of our American republic, or Civil War, or apocalypse. Better policing, fairer policing, policing that evaluates its employees and fires bad police officers: these are things that would put America back on track to being a nation we can all admire. A few gun restriction laws wouldn’t hurt either.
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Is there a real difference between shooting dead a POC and hanging him/her from a tree? There might not be photographs of hordes of of white ppl attending a hanging anymore, but can we doubt that lots of a certain kind of white people applaud while watching re-plays on tv news-and-views of these modern murders.
It's too bad & sad that USAans are no better and no less barbaric than the foreign groups who kill just any handy "white" person...or anyone of a religious /political view the killers scorn. Millions of years and we have not progressed past "witch" burnings, crucifixions, torture, and religion-inspired burnings at the stake. It makes me cheer on planetary oblivion.