Ironically and truthfully, a guy who looks like this would be regarded suspiciously himself if he was walking around in my old neighborhood.
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
That shouldn't matter one bit, and I wouldn't even go so far as to say the cops were protecting "one of their own kind." He was a "self-appointed" neighborhood watch captain, for crying out loud. I watched a show about neighborhood watches and they are always told not to pursue a suspect but to report it and let the police handle it. In fact, in the show I saw, the watch volunteers were armed with walkie talkies and that's it.
People who know Zimmerman need to keep speaking out. Hopefully, with the public outcry, the cops will be forced to do something. Unless there's more to this story than is being published, Trayvon is innocent and Zimmerman had no reason to shoot him, much less shoot to kill.
I can't imagine what it must feel like to be his mother, not only losing her son, but then watching his killer go free.
This is just sad, and most likely, nothing will be done about it.
I hope you are wrong. I feel like all eyes and pressure will stay on them to do something. Like they should. Listening to that boy cry in the audio makes me want to kill that Zimmerman guy myself.
I can't help but cry for the child & his family. What went through my mind as I heard the 911 tape was a nightmare, & with that mental picture being as horrible as it is, I can't even imagine the depth of the pain & horror his parents are feeling. That baby was murdered & there's no reason why that piece of shit shouldn't be held accountable & severely punished.
To an old, fat, man with all of two inches?
Sorry. I couldn't help it.
I hope he gets held accountable for this.
The kid is dead at his hands and just because he's got friends on the inside (the police chief seems awfully smoochy if you ask me) shouldn't automatically mean he should get away without even an investigation.
He shouldn't get away period. And I hope that if he does some of Florida will put the heat on.
lol Especialy like this guy lives here. and knows it so well lol.They won't especially in Florida. Times like this I truly wish there were vigilantes who fought for justice because I'm sick to my stomach of seeing children murdered and the assholes getting away with it.
Guess its a great indication of how this country still sees black people. When even our children aren't safe from unjustified homicide what does that say.
lol Especialy like this guy lives here. and knows it so well lol.
Any how, will be passed to state. I don't think he is going to get a silly slap on the wrist with all of this evidence against him. The fact that he sounds drunk on the call to the police. The fact that kid has no priors. The fact that he went out to simply get candy and ice. The multiple reports of him being aggressive. The fact that he is in his 20's(not the most mature age to be carrying a gun).
There is more built on him than the Caylee Anthony case which the mother served time for lying and doing a bunch of other things. The only reason she didn't go to prison(for killing her kid assuming that she did do it) was that there was no direct evidence that she killed the child(remember O.J. same issue assuming he did it). This guy admits to it. so he is very likely to go to prison. It will end up a battle of was the kid a threat or wasn't he. It is very hard to prove a kid going out for candy and not having priors would attack a person over someone sounding drunk from the call with reported aggressive tendencies. It will be amazing if the case isn't tried by the state.
Also, Zimmerman has a record of battery against on officer and resisting arrest in 2005, a charge that was later expunged.
concerning racial issue, I think it is implied that this guy thinks the kid is an issue because he is black which is very hard to prove. It is going to be idiotic to run a case on this. as oppose to murder of second degree.
From:
To:
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 2:36 PM
Subject: Sybrina has sent you a message
Dear -,
Thanks for signing my petition, "Prosecute the killer of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin."
Winning this campaign is now in your hands. We need to reach out to as many friends as we can to grow this campaign and win.
Thanks for your support,
Sybrina
Take the next step: Ask your friends to sign.
SHARE THIS PETITION
Another article from NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/opinion/blow-the-curious-case-of-trayvon-martin.html?_r=2
The Curious Case of Trayvon Martin
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: March 16, 2012
RECOMMEND
COMMENTS (212)
SIGN IN TO E-MAIL
REPRINTS
SHARE
“He said that Tray was gone.”
Enlarge This Image
Damon Winter/The New York Times
Charles M. Blow
Go to Columnist Page »
Related News
Justice Department Investigation Is Sought in Florida Teenager’s Shooting Death (March 17, 2012)
Enlarge This Image
Courtesy of Sybrina Fulton
Trayvon Martin
Readers’ Comments
Readers shared their thoughts on this article.
Read All Comments (212) »
That’s how Sybrina Fulton, her voice full of ache, told me she found out that her 17-year-old son, Trayvon Martin, had died. In a wrenching telephone call, the boy’s father, who had taken him to visit a friend, told her that Trayvon had been gunned down in a gated townhouse community in Sanford, Fla., outside Orlando.
“He said, ‘Somebody shot Trayvon and killed him.’ And I was like, ‘Are you sure?’ ” Fulton continued in disbelief. “I said ‘How do you know that’s Trayvon?’ And he said because they showed him a picture.”
That was Feb. 27, one day after Trayvon was shot. The father thought that he was missing, according to the family’s lawyer, Benjamin Crump, but the boy’s body had actually been taken to the medical examiner’s office and listed as a John Doe.
The father called the Missing Persons Unit. No luck. Then he called 911. The police asked the father to describe the boy, after which they sent officers to the house where the father was staying. There they showed him a picture of the boy with blood coming out of his mouth.
This is a nightmare scenario for any parent, and the events leading to Trayvon’s death offer little comfort — and pose many questions.
Trayvon had left the house he and his father were visiting to walk to the local 7-Eleven. On his way back, he caught the attention of George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old neighborhood watch captain, who was in a sport-utility vehicle. Zimmerman called the police because the boy looked “real suspicious,” according to a 911 call released late Friday. The operator told Zimmerman that officers were being dispatched and not to pursue the boy.
Zimmerman apparently pursued him anyway, at some point getting out of his car and confronting the boy. Trayvon had a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea. Zimmerman had a 9 millimeter handgun.
The two allegedly engaged in a physical altercation. There was yelling, and then a gunshot.
When police arrived, Trayvon was face down in the grass with a fatal bullet wound to the chest. Zimmerman was standing with blood on his face and the back of his head and grass stains on his back, according to The Orlando Sentinel.
Trayvon’s lifeless body was taken away, tagged and held. Zimmerman was taken into custody, questioned and released. Zimmerman said he was the one yelling for help. He said that he acted in self-defense. The police say that they have found no evidence to dispute Zimmerman’s claim.
One other point: Trayvon is black. Zimmerman is not.
Trayvon was buried on March 3. Zimmerman is still free and has not been arrested or charged with a crime.
Yet the questions remain: Why did Zimmerman find Trayvon suspicious? Why did he pursue the boy when the 911 operator instructed him not to? Why did he get out of the car, and why did he take his gun when he did? How is it self-defense when you are the one in pursuit? Who initiated the altercation? Who cried for help? Did Trayvon’s body show evidence of a struggle? What moved Zimmerman to use lethal force?
This case has reignited a furor about vigilante justice, racial-profiling and equitable treatment under the law, and it has stirred the pot of racial strife.
As the father of two black teenage boys, this case hits close to home. This is the fear that seizes me whenever my boys are out in the world: that a man with a gun and an itchy finger will find them “suspicious.” That passions may run hot and blood run cold. That it might all end with a hole in their chest and hole in my heart. That the law might prove insufficient to salve my loss.
That is the burden of black boys in America and the people that love them: running the risk of being descended upon in the dark and caught in the cross-hairs of someone who crosses the line.
The racial sensitivity of this case is heavy. Trayvon’s parents have said their son was murdered. Crump, the family’s lawyer, told me, “You know, if Trayvon would have been the triggerman, it’s nothing Trayvon Martin could have said to keep police from arresting him Day 1, Hour 1.” Even the police chief recognizes this reality, even while disputing claims of racial bias in the investigation: “Our investigation is color blind and based on the facts and circumstances, not color. I know I can say that until I am blue in the face, but, as a white man in a uniform, I know it doesn’t mean anything to anybody.”
Zimmerman has not released a statement, but his father delivered a one-page letter to The Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. According to the newspaper, the statement said that Zimmerman is “Hispanic and grew up in a multiracial family.” The paper quotes the letter as reading, “He would be the last to discriminate for any reason whatsoever” and continues, “The media portrayal of George as a racist could not be further from the truth.” And disclosures made since the shooting complicate people’s perception of fairness in the case.
According to Crump, the father was told that one of the reasons Zimmerman wasn’t arrested was because he had a “squeaky clean” record. It wasn’t. According to the local news station WFTV, Zimmerman was arrested in 2005 for “battery on a law enforcement officer.”
Furthermore, ABC News reported on Tuesday that one of the responding officers “corrected a witness after she told him that she heard the teen cry for help.” And The Miami Herald published an article on Thursday that said three witnesses had heard the “desperate wail of a child, a gunshot, and then silence.”
WFTV also reported this week that the officer in charge of the scene when Trayvon was shot was also in charge of another controversial case. In 2010, a lieutenant’s son was videotaped attacking a black homeless man. The officer’s son also was not initially arrested in that case. He was later arrested when the television station broke the news.
Although we must wait to get the results from all the investigations into Trayvon’s killing, it is clear that it is a tragedy. If no wrongdoing of any sort is ascribed to the incident, it will be an even greater tragedy.
One of the witnesses was a 13-year-old black boy who recorded a video for The Orlando Sentinel recounting what he saw. The boy is wearing a striped polo shirt, holding a microphone, speaking low and deliberately and has the heavy look of worry and sadness in his eyes. He describes hearing screaming, seeing someone on the ground and hearing gunshots. The video ends with the boy saying, “I just think that sometimes people get stereotyped, and I fit into the stereotype as the person who got shot.”
And that is the burden of black boys, and this case can either ease or exacerbate it.
•
I invite you to join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, or e-mail me at chblow@nytimes.com.
Keep laughing chuckles. Florida is still the deep south and absolutely notorious for its history of racism against black people.
I know what you mean.Words can't convey how sick to my stomach I am right now. The fact that piece of shit Police Chief has the nerve to say some dumb shit like "I'm a white man in a uniform so no one will hear my side of it" is fucking ridiculous.
In what other situation in the history of this country would you have a teenagers dead body and the smoking gun in the shooters hand along with witnesses who said they heard a child scream would they allow the suspect to be taken at his word alone? Oh yeah slavery and jim crow.
It's like shit never fucking changes and you people wonder why I am so on edge when it comes to racial issues. Even in a situation that's so obviously messed up black people can't get any justice. It took weeks for them to release the 911 calls and still no arrests just an unsympathetic piece of shit police chief and DA. Where else can a child be murdered blocks from his home and no one see the immediate fault.
Like the article said had that boy been the one with the gun his ass would have been in locked up hour one.
This one really hurts yall.
Ok here is a thought that should scare some people. The fact is shit like this happens all the time but will receive no national or even local coverage. Cops can pull you over, and arrest you on bogus charges, and you can get locked up. Try going "THE COPS BE RACIST!" and have everyone looking at you as if your some kind of moron.
Theres been numerous cases where cops have shot people for "someone thought he had a gun." Even in the case of Oscar Grant (which was in the San Francisco bay area AKA "Liberal California.") The officer shot the cop was in-front of numerous cameras he was arrested for manslaughter, and then released after barely serving any time at all. Honestly if a black cop shot a white kid, and there was video evidence in court would that the officer would get the same slap on the wrist?
Welcome to the United States of America where more foreigners can agree that Im an American then Americans.