If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, then you know that I’ve been paying attention to what’s going on in the Trayvon Martin case.
We live in a world where a young black man, unarmed, is shot coming home from the convenience store and his killer is not arrested, not prosecuted. We live in a world where a young black man, unarmed, is shot coming home from the convenience store and he is deemed to be at fault for his own death.
Quite frankly, there’s just too much for me to do justice in a post, so I’m going to post links to what I’ve been reading, in the order that I read them, earliest reports to latest. Please click through to these reports. Please read. Please get informed. If you don’t have time to click through to all the links, Mother Jones has a frequently updated page with all the latest developments.
- Florida’s Stand Your Ground Laws and the Killing of Trayvon Martin
- Trayvon Martin: Sorry, The First Murder Is Free Of Charge
- Zimmerman actively stalked Trayvon & knew he would be protected by NRA’s insane “Shoot First” law in FL.
- Good essay on Trayvon and that bumpersticker
- Trayvon Martin Killing’s Youngest Witness, 13, Still Can Hear The Screams
- Go Get Skittles for Your Brother, End Up Dead: The Killing of Trayvon Martin and Who’s Getting Away With It and Why
- Killing Trayvon Twice
- In Trayvon Martin case, Justice Dept will also investigate “police response + the decision not to arrest Zimmerman“
- Trayvon Martin, Racism in the United States, and You (VA doesnt have a “stand your ground” law on the books, but case law has given us a de facto one)
- “Black children are seen as dispensable.” TrayvonMartin & the culture that criminalised & then killed him.
- Florida Refuses to Suspend Gun License of Trayvon Martin’s Shooter
- Via nprnews: Trayvon Martin Was Afraid, Too
- Video: Obama says, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon Martin.“
- Author of “stand your ground” law: George Zimmerman should probably be arrested for killing Trayvon Martin (via @CBSNews)
- How did black kids in hoods become scary? History would imply otherwise. (via @SER1897)
- FACT: Last year, Zimmerman called the police to report a suspicious black male “7-9″ years old, “skinny build”
- I just became a Heat fan.
- A Young Black Man, Being Late
- Hoodies don’t kill, but ignorance and hate do:a Friday post by BGIM
- This powerful Samuel L. Jackson video is from 2010. Chillingly applicable to George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin.
- “The hoodie is just a symbol, one symbol among many that creates a constantly moving target to justify racist violence”.
- “I Could Be Trayvon“.
- “White privilege”: Not discovering that GeraldoRivera thinks he can tell me these things – even tho I’m POTUS (Rly: http://t.co/sOz0bX7v) (via @emilylhauser)
- Stand with Trayvon’s mother for justice
#cnn - “When Lindsay Graham obliquely calls your actions racist, you have derailed.” – Liss in http://t.co/qipQXg6z
- An Open Letter To George Zimmerman from @PWRMommyNation. (via @CecilyK)
- The lead investigator on the Trayvon Martin case wanted a manslaughter charge (via Shakesville
and ABC News). - 30 paragraphs into this story, it’s mentioned that Zimmerman’s dad is a retired magistrate judge. (via Shakesville
) - And from this morning, more links at Shakesville
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4 comments
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Tom Seeman
March 31, 2012 at 7:26 PM (UTC -4) Link to this comment
When the story first broke, it looked pretty clear-cut that a grave injustice had been done to Trayvon Martin. Then, more information came out that cast doubt on the initial version of events and made one wonder if Mr Martin was really so innocent, and Mr. Zimmerman so guilty. But then over the past 24 hours or so the pendulum has swung again, casting doubt on the second round of information, and now… I have no idea where this thing is headed. I’m reserving judgment for now except to say that I’d like an independent investigation.
The usual suspects on both/all sides are exploiting the event for all it’s worth. Unfortunate but predictable.
Posting links to an ongoing story seems a worthy thing to do, but once again I’d caution against drawing premature conclusions. What I find fascinating is the tendency of partisans to believe the version of events that fits their political ideology… a trap I’ll admit I’ve fallen into more than once!
Liz
April 2, 2012 at 4:21 PM (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What I, and most of the folks who I’m linking to, want is merely for there to be some kind of judicial accounting.
In England, according to what I’ve read, every death is looked into by a court of Inquest. A jury looks at all the facts in evidence and declares their judgment of what caused the death. Natural causes, murder, what have you.
I wish that we had that system here, because what offends me most is that there would be no official attention paid to this death if we were not protesting.
I’m not saying that Zimmerman should be convicted. I’m saying that Zimmerman should be tried. Letting him walk away from this shooting without even a trial? Now THAT’s a rush to judgment!!!!
Tom Seeman
April 5, 2012 at 1:06 AM (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Liz, I think you misunderstand how the judicial system works. We do not have trials to discover the truth or to hold people accountable or whatever. A trial is not nor should it be an inquiry. That’s why we have investigations.
Only if the state believes the person to be guilty are they brought to trial. So if you do not think someone should be convicted there is no reason to bring them to trial, because like I said you (the DA, Commonwealth’s Attorney, whatever the title)don’t bring someone to trial unless you’re sure they’re guilty.
So far the local authorities did their investigation and did not believe Zimmerman guilty. Now, perhaps they are wrong, perhaps they did a bad job, perhaps they’re a bunch of Klansmen. In that case we bring in the state or Feds and they do an investigation.
I’m all for a higher-level investigation, but a trial at this point is premature.
Liz
April 5, 2012 at 2:01 PM (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well, when a tragedy like this one occurs, it seems that merely investigating is not enough for transparency and accountability. I do wish we had the inquest system here for deaths so that we could have a public accounting of what is known about a death, and who, if anyone should be held responsible, and if there is enough evidence to bring to a trial.