{"id":6732,"date":"2012-03-20T10:45:48","date_gmt":"2012-03-20T14:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=6732"},"modified":"2012-03-20T10:45:48","modified_gmt":"2012-03-20T14:45:48","slug":"trayvon-martin-the-killing-of-an-american-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/03\/20\/trayvon-martin-the-killing-of-an-american-child\/","title":{"rendered":"Trayvon Martin: The killing of an American child"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Frances Robles of the Miami Herald<\/em> reports that the \u201cU.S. Department of Justice, FBI and FDLE to probe Trayvon Martin killing<\/a>\u201c:<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Justice\u2019s Civil Rights Division and the FBI will investigate the killing of Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch volunteer, the department announced late Monday.<\/p>\n

The announcement coincided with a statement from Florida Gov. Rick Scott asking the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to offer \u201cappropriate resources\u201d in the case.<\/p>\n

The federal and state agencies are intervening in what attorneys call a botched investigation into the killing of the Michael Krop Senior High School student, who was killed Feb. 26 in Sanford, a town of 55,000 just north of Orlando. Trayvon, 17, on suspension from school, was staying at his father\u2019s girlfriend\u2019s house when he walked to a nearby a 7-Eleven store to buy candy and iced tea.<\/p>\n

George Zimmerman, 28, a neighborhood watch volunteer with a long history of calling in everything from open garage doors to \u201csuspicious characters,\u201d called police to say he had spotted someone who looked drugged, was walking too slowly in the rain, and appeared to be looking at people\u2019s houses. Zimmerman sounded alarmed because the stranger had his hand in his waistband and held something in his other hand.<\/p>\n

The unarmed teen was carrying Skittles and a can of Arizona iced tea.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Trayvon Martin was 17 and he didn\u2019t do anything wrong.<\/p>\n

Judd Legum provided a good roundup of Trayvon\u2019s slaying yesterday, \u201cWhat Everyone Should Know About Trayvon Martin (1995-2012)<\/a>.\u201d From that article:<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Trayvon Martin (1995-2012)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

5. Martin weighed 140 pounds. Zimmerman weighs 250 pounds.<\/p>\n

6. Martin\u2019s English teacher described him as \u201cas an A and B student who majored in cheerfulness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026 10. According to neighbors, Zimmerman was \u201cfixated on crime and focused on young, black males.\u201d<\/p>\n

11. Zimmerman \u201chad been the subject of complaints by neighbors in his gated community for aggressive tactics\u201d<\/p>\n

12. A police officer \u201ccorrected\u201d a key witness. \u201cThe officer told the witness, a long-time teacher, it was Zimmerman who cried for help, said the witness. ABC News has spoken to the teacher and she confirmed that the officer corrected her when she said she heard the teenager shout for help.<\/p>\n

13. Three witnesses say they heard a boy cry for help before a shot was fired. \u201cThree witnesses contacted by The Miami Herald say they saw or heard the moments before and after the Miami Gardens teenager\u2019s killing. All three said they heard the last howl for help from a despondent boy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Field Negro<\/a> and Where\u2019s the Outrage?<\/a> have been following this story closely. So has Ta-Nehisi Coates, who highlights the way local police seem determined to exonerate the shooter<\/a> while casting suspicion on the victim. Coates also reports<\/a> that Trayvon Martin was on the phone as Zimmerman began following him. The account of the friend he was talking to confirms that of eyewitnesses, while contradicting that of the shooter and the police defending him.<\/p>\n

Rashad Robinson writes about the ColorOfChange campaign to seek \u201cJustice for Trayvon Martin<\/a>.\u201d The letter from ColorOfChange offers more details on the incident, the investigation, and the background of the Sanford Police. Here is their petition urging the U.S. Justice Department to take over the investigation<\/a>. The DOJ is \u201cinvestigating\u201d the incident, but as I understand it hasn\u2019t yet taken charge of the case.<\/p>\n

Chauncey DeVega cuts to the heart of the matter<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Trayvon Martin was killed for the crime of being black, young, and \u201csuspicious.\u201d Like many other young black boys and grown men throughout United States history, he was shot dead for the crime of possessing an innocuous object (and likely daring to be insufficiently compliant to someone who imagined that they had the State\u2019s permission to kill people of color without consequence or condemnation).<\/p>\n

\u2026 Common sense renders a clear judgement here: if a black man shot and killed a white kid for holding a bag of Skittles he would already be under the jail; in this instance, the police are operating from a position where a young African American is presumed \u201cguilty,\u201d and his murderer is assumed innocent.<\/p>\n

\u2026 White privilege \u2026 involves the luxury of not having to have a conversation with your kids about how to avoid being murdered by the cops because of your skin color. In many matters of life and death, white supremacy remains, in many ways, unchallenged. Black and brown folks, if they are responsible parents, cannot avoid such conversations with their children. The foot-dragging by the police in regards to the murder of Trayvon Martin reveals this ugly truth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Grace at Are Women Human?<\/a> begins a passionate, thoughtful post on the case by quoting from Audre Lord on the same subject DeVega mentions there:<\/p>\n

Some problems we share as women, some we do not. You [white women] fear your children will grow up to join the patriarchy and testify against you; we fear our children will be dragged from a car and shot down in the street, and you will turn your backs on the reasons they are dying.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lorde wrote that in 1980. The killing of Trayvon Martin reminds us that it is still horribly true 32 years later.<\/p>\n

Grace\u2019s Are Women Human? post discusses the appalling details of the lopsided investigation by the Sanford, Fla., police:<\/p>\n

This was a kid. A child. With a family who loved and cared about him and still does. We talk endlessly about protecting children and family values when the truth is we don\u2019t think many children are worthy of protection. Quite the opposite. We don\u2019t value many families.<\/p>\n

Look at this case and see how the basic decency that Trayvon and his family are owed as human beings has been trampled and spit on at so many points.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that the police knew<\/em> George Zimmerman went after a smaller, younger kid, who wasn\u2019t doing anything wrong, despite the fact that they knew<\/em> Zimmerman was armed and Trayvon was not. \u2026<\/p>\n

They ran a background check on Trayvon Martin, who was dead, but not on George Zimmerman, the man who killed him. They believed Zimmerman had a clean record \u2013 on his own assertion, apparently. Turns out he doesn\u2019t. They ran alcohol\/drug tests on Trayvon Martin (likely as a routine part of an autopsy), but not on Zimmerman, his murderer.<\/p>\n

The police didn\u2019t have the basic decency to do their job and investigate whether Trayvon Martin had a reason for being in the neighborhood, whether he had any friends or family in the neighborhood. Instead, they tagged him as a \u201cJohn Doe.\u201d His family thought he was missing. They had to call around and essentially do the work for the police of identifying their dead son.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Grace also refuses to allow the question of racism to be reduced to a matter of personal sentiment:<\/p>\n

Look, I don\u2019t give a shit how George Zimmerman or Bill Lee personally feel about black people or what their personal relationships with black people are like. I am not in the least interested in whether they\u2019re \u201creally racist\u201d or not. I care what they did. I care about the cultural and institutional realities that made what they did (and are still doing, on the part of the Sanford PD) possible, and made them think \u2013 with very good precedent for thinking so \u2013 they could get away with it. And those \u2013 the actions and structural realities \u2013 have everything to do with racism, no matter what Zimmerman or the Sanford PD feel about black people.<\/p>\n

\u2026 They can love all the black people they want \u2013 nothing changes the fact that this was, no question, racism at work. Racism isn\u2019t just hate. It\u2019s inequity. Privilege for some and contempt for others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See also:<\/p>\n