The background story of the death of Trayvon Martin
Trayvon Martin was a 17-year old black teenager who was visiting his father, stepmother, and little brother in Sanford, Florida. One night, he left the townhouse in the gated community where they lived to walk to the nearby 7-11 to pick up some Skittles and Arizona Ice Tea. It was raining out, and he was wearing a hoodie. A normal kid, making a normal convenience store run at night to pick up a few things. Nothing unusual about that, right? In a just world, there shouldn’t be, but in our world, there was. Trayvon Martin is dead, and his killer is walking around free, almost a month later.
Like many people, I didn’t hear of the case when it first happened. It wasn’t until the 911 tapes were released that the case started gaining traction in the media. The story unfolded gradually, and with each new piece of information, the story became more and more disturbing – not to mention enraging, heartbreaking, and depressing. It also became very complex and layered, so I’m going to try to break it down as best as I can.
As I said above, the basic story is that on February 26, Trayvon Martin went to the local 7-11 to grab some snacks. It was nighttime and raining, and Trayvon was wearing a hoodie. The self-appointed captain of the (gated) neighborhood watch, George Zimmerman, spotted him, called 911, and followed Trayvon. Zimmerman was carrying a 9mm handgun. There was a scuffle, and Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon. Zimmerman claimed it was self-defense; the police claimed they couldn’t prove differently, and that was that.
The release of the 911 tapes changed everything
Well, not exactly. For weeks, the Sanford police refused to release the 911 tapes, saying the case was still under investigation. They received pressure from the media and the family to release the tapes, and they finally did. In the aforementioned link, Zimmerman can be heard saying that he saw someone suspicious walking around, just looking around, his hand in his waistband. Zimmerman said he thought the suspect was black, in his late teens, and was acting as if he was on drugs or something. He said the suspect was looking at him and then started running. Zimmerman added, “These assholes always get away with it.” He continued to talk to the dispatcher, and it’s clear that he’s moving. The dispatcher asked if he was following the suspect. Zimmerman said yes, and the dispatcher said he didn’t need to do that.
Here we have the first lie of Zimmerman. Before the tapes were released, his father claimed that Zimmerman never pursued Trayvon, yet, on the tape Zimmerman told the dispatcher he was following Trayvon, and the dispatcher told him he didn’t need to do that. Zimmerman continued to follow Trayvon, anyway.
There are eight 911 tapes in all, seven of them are in this HuffPo link. The first audio is the one of George Zimmerman calling 911. The second, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh are of other people calling in after Trayvon was killed. The last (seventh) has the witness clearly explaining what she saw, including one person saying help, help and the other guy shooting him (paraphrasing). She sobbed as she continued talking about what she saw and heard, and she stated more than once that the person screaming help and the person doing the shooting were two different people.
The tape I want to focus on right now, however, is the third one. I must say that while all the tapes are upsetting, the third tape is excruciating and heartbreaking to listen to because you can actually hear someone in the background screaming for help before you hear a gunshot. Then the screaming stops. Zimmerman said that it was him yelling for help, something the police corroborate, but Trayvon’s family said it’s Trayvon. The witness in the last audio seemed pretty sure that the one screaming help and the one doing the shooting were two different people, as well. And, as I listened to the audio, I was pretty sure it was Trayvon and not Zimmerman. The voice did not sound like Zimmerman’s, and the timing of the screaming and the shot don’t make sense if it’s Zimmerman yelling for help and not Trayvon. So, that would be lie number two. It was Trayvon screaming for help, not Zimmerman.
George Zimmerman’s story continues to unravel, and a little background on him
One of the reasons Zimmerman was not arrested the night he killed Trayvon was because he told the detectives he did not have a record, that he was “squeaky clean”. The police told this to the family, who later found out that Zimmerman had been charged in 2005 with resisting arrest with violence and battery on a police officer. Zimmerman was allowed to plead guilty to simple assault, thus, erasing his record and allowing him to have a concealed gun permit. So, a lie? Maybe not exactly, but he wasn’t squeaky-clean, either. You know who didn’t have a record at all? Trayvon.
Residents of Retreat at Twin Lakes (the community) had been missing some grilles and bikes. A few residents thought strangers were casing their townhouses as well. Zimmerman, a 28-year old man criminal justice student, volunteered to head the neighborhood watch when no one else spoke up. He would go house to house, warning everyone to be on the lookout for suspicious people, and he specifically mentioned young black men.
From January 1, 2011 until now, Zimmerman called police 46 times, complaining of suspicious behavior, windows left open, etc. 9 of those times, he saw someone or something suspicious. He did catch one thief, and an arrest was made. However, he seemed to be preoccupied with black men, and he made several references to his neighbors about seeing suspicious black men in the neighborhood. One neighbor, Ibrahim Rashada, said that while Zimmerman was pretty cool and helpful, all the talk about ‘suspicious black men’ kept him (Rashada) from walking around the neighborhood.
I fit the stereotype he emailed around, [Rashada said]. “Listen, you even hear me say it: ‘A black guy did this. A black guy did that.’ So I thought, ‘Let me sit in the house. I don’t want anyone chasing me.’
Racism is not predicated on the shooter’s race, but on the victim’s
Zimmerman’s father has insisted that his son is not racist, that he can’t be because he’s Latino and part of a multiracial family. Why the black neighbors love Zimmerman! That proves it, right?
No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter that Zimmerman is half-Latino or that he has friends and family who are black. What matters is how he viewed any black man he didn’t know and how he applied that viewpoint to Trayvon Martin the night he killed Trayvon. In his 911 call, he said he saw a man walking around, looking suspicious. He identified the suspect as black in response to the dispatcher asking the ethnicity of the suspect (edited for clarity). He said the suspect must be on drugs or something. And, when Trayvon took off, Zimmerman followed him despite the dispatcher saying he didn’t need to do that.
Black teenager. Walking around in a hoodie. Looking for his father’s townhouse. That’s all it takes to be suspicious in Zimmerman’s eyes, to become one of “these assholes”. That’s all it takes for Zimmerman to chase down an unarmed teenage black boy and kill him, despite the boy screaming for help. In other words, Zimmerman had a certain way he looked at young black men he didn’t know, and he made Trayvon Martin fit his stereotype.
I will have more on the racial aspects of this case in another post and much more besides, but I just want to end this post by asking you to sign the petition to have George Zimmerman prosecuted. As Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton said in an interview with ABC, she is just looking for an arrest. She added, “Let a judge and jury decide the rest.”
It’s the least we can do for Trayvon*.
*I will expand further in a future post on what we can do in addition to signing the petition to try to insure that a tragedy like this doesn’t happen again.
This breaks my heart. That could have been one of my nephews. This lying piece of shit needs to be brought to justice!
Zimmerman is a coward and a murderer.
Thankfully, Justice and the FBI are investigating, and hopefully he’ll either be arrested, tried, and convicted, or show his miserable face in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The first is what ought to happen. The second would not disturb me greatly.
Trayvon Martin is the Emmett Till of another generation.
How I feel as well.
When Zimmerman said that they always get away, I was thinking that he must have stalked and accosted others who ran away from him. The guy’s a menace and should never be allowed out on the streets again.
I think it was Toure’ who first pointed out that at around the 2:11 mark on one of the tapes you can hear Zimmerman mutter “fuckin’ coons” as the dispatcher tries to gather more information from him.
I received that link just as I was finishing up this post, eb. I will be including it in the next post. SMDH.
I look forward to more on this Minna.
Thank you for all this information. You were right. It does appear that Zimmerman is both a racist & a self-important bully with a gun. It is my understanding that the FBI is investigating this but they won’t say anything until the investigation is over. The police Dept is covering for him & I would like to know why. Yes, they are racists but I smell more here. Just how far were they supporting his vigilantism?
Just an aside, Latinos can be just as bigoted & racist as anyone else.
Right there with you, Aquagranny. I think it’s also a matter of not wanting to back down once they (the cops) made the initial assessment of the situation. Plus, Zimmerman fancied himself a cop – perhaps they viewed him as an honorary member, too. I will definitely be delving into the police behavior aspect of the case as well.
I, too, am glad the DOJ is getting involved. I just hope they can find Zimmerman when/if they charge him.
“The police Dept is covering for him & I would like to know why.”
Possibly because Zimmerman’s father was a judge?
LE looks after its own.
angry broken hearted upstate ny middleaged white lady.
arrest the stalking murderer. NOW!
I’ve been reading that DOJ is investigating & that the local district attorney is asking for a grand jury hearing of all the evidence. I believe that Zimmerman will be indited.
Also read that Trayvon was on his cell phone with a friend & told her some strange guy was following him & he was scared. All the truth will come out & Zimmerman will pay for killing Trayvon
Never forget: it’s the white cops who are the REAL victims.
http://www.salon.com/2012/03/19/white_police_officials_we_are_the_real_victims_here/singleton/
How does someone shoot an unarmed teenager on the street, call it self-defense, and not even get taken in for questioning? WTF?
Seriously, if I step out of my apartment and go gun some teenage boy down, they’re just going to take my statement saying it was self-defense and let me go back home?
I don’t get the world at times. I simply do not get this.
It’s part of Florida’s Stand Your Ground gun law, Makabit. I will be getting more into that in my next post.
I haven’t been able to bring myself to listen to the 911 tapes. Just reading about that poor boy screaming for help then being shot down gives me cold chills and I can’t stop thinking about it.
The picture you posted of Zimmerman was my first glimpse of him. All I can say is if that scary looking dude was following me I would run too.
What a beautiful person Trayvon was and this POS ended all that was beautiful and possible in life for him.
Hopefully we will see justice for Trayvon and the Zimmermans of the world will think twice before playing vigilante in the future.
Honestly though with the way things are going in this country right now I have doubts. Please let me be wrong!!
Zimmerman is a cold-hearted racist bully who thought he could play cop, and the police were quite willing to let him get away with it.
I hope that the agencies investigating this throw the book at Zimmerman AND at the local cops!
Our deepest sympathies to Trayvon’s family at the loss of their son. It’s pretty clear that Zimmerman was looking to engage some one in a confrontation, especially after the 911 dispatcher told him not to follow this young man. I wish this young man had thought to call 911 himself to report Zimmerman following him and he was scared of him.There would have been Trayvon’s recording of the events as they unfolded and Zimmerman would have been arrested on the spot! No matter who you are, man, woman, or child, if you feel scared or in danger and especially if you think that you are being followed…call 911! It’s way better to be safe than sorry!
Signed.
I cannot believe this man is not in jail. How on earth can even the most credulous of people accept the self-defense argument when he was the pursuer? All other (very damning) facts aside, this is enough, all by itself, to destroy his credibility.
I have to say that that is the most objective description of the know facts I have read almost anywhere. Until it comes to the emotional impact of believing we are hearing the last cry for help of a young man about to die.
Does it change anything for anyone here that it turns out that the person screaming for help was clearly Zimmerman?
(citation needed)
Hey, I’ve got a citation! From Fox News, no less!
Unfortunately, it does not bear out the idea that it was Zimmerman screaming.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/01/voice-heard-screaming-on-11-tape-is-not-trayvon-martin-shooter-george-zimmerman/
i beleive had the gentleman did as the police told him he would not be in this situation anyone can say what happened after the fact the kid is not around to speak or say anything.
I’m Chinese and I attest to there being a racism problem in the Chinese community, just because you are Not White doesn’t mean you can’t practice Colourism against someone with darker skin than you.
…and man, from all the John Douglas books I read, the cold blooded killer here is more LIKELY to be George Zimmerman, police buff, he fits the profile.
…and speaking of John Douglas, I don’t want them to give George Zimmerman a polygraph: apparently a lot of killers past polygraphs when they believe the victims deserve it, and the the greater the distance between the act and the test, the easier they’ll past.
They really need to arrest Zimmerman soon, the longer they wait, the more he’s going to be convinced of his version of events.
.
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COMMENT:
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Wow — it seems so obvious to me that
Zimmerman’s “self-defense” claim — is
based on nothing more than a sack of…
S-kittles
H-oodies
I-ced
T-ea
and how he feels the world is unable
to see him for what he really is —
as he piles up and throws his
S-kittles
H-oodies
I-ced
T-ea
based “self-defense” claim at us all.”
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RELATED LINKS:
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/31/trayvon-martin-shooting-911-call-screams_n_1394224.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/FarmFamily/trayvon-martin-case-george-zimmerman_n_1392591_145066428.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/FarmFamily/trayvon-martin-case-george-zimmerman_n_1392591_145073593.html
.
Some updates on the case. I wrote an omnibus article just to sort out what happened, it’s at http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/03/29/why-hasnt-george-zimmerman-been-arrested/
Now two different forensic consultants have concluded that the voice screaming for help on the 911 calls was NOT Zimmerman. They cannot say conclusively that the voice is Trayvon until they get a sample of his voice, but that can say it’s not 28-year old Zimmerman.
Forgot to post the link to the sound analysis info: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-03-31/news/os-trayvon-martin-george-zimmerman-911-20120331_1_voice-identification-expert-reasonable-scientific-certainty?pagewanted=all
Nice digging.
This will eventually result in a trial, of that I’m fairly sure. Whether Zimmerman will walk will depend on the quality of evidence the investigation yields, and following that, just what sort of jury is assembled.