Just like Trayvon Martin, I sometimes like to have a bag of candy, often Skittles, as I walk home or to a friend's house. Just like Trayvon Martin, I often put my hood on to shield my hair from the rain. But unlike Trayvon Martin, I have never been followed, stopped, or shot at by police.
Because unlike Trayvon Martin, I just happen to be white.
Sadly, that is the reality. Not me, nor any of my white friends, have ever been stopped by police, and we are no less "suspicious-looking" than our black counterparts. In 2011, the New York City Police Department stopped nearly 700,000 people, over half of which were black, and only nine percent of which were white. That certainly seems suspect in a city where nearly half of the population is white, and only one in four are black.
Advocates claim that the program is legal, necessary, and only a small price to pay for the potential of catching a criminal or recovering a weapon. But of all the people stopped in 2011, nearly 90 percent of them were completely innocent. Sure, it may be legal, but is it really making us safer?
There is an argument to be made for the guilty 10 percent. After all, if you're innocent you will just be let go anyway, so isn't it worth it for all of us to just sacrifice a few moments in order to catch the guilty 10 percent?
Mr. Martin wouldn't think so.
Unfortunately, tragedies like the one involving Mr. Martin are the result of the actions taken by the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies throughout the country. Some will say that things happen when you are trying to catch criminals, and there isn't really anything we can do about it. The reality, however, is that those tragedies seldom involve a white person.
Racial profiling, as it might as well be called, creates a certain culture. When the police target specific groups of people at such a disproportionate rate, less-informed individuals will conclude that those groups must be more dangerous, regardless of the fact that most are innocent. It forces the targeted groups to live in fear and contempt of authorities, which in turn makes them look suspicious.
And if it is true that law enforcement sometimes goes awry, racial profiling only ensures that those legal burdens will lie solely on one group of people. That is neither fair nor necessary, and only feeds back in to destructive and offensive stereotypes.
That culture has evidently spread throughout the nation. If we fought crime based on evidence instead of race, Martin never would have been approached. It was because of this country's willingness to shove all the legal burdens on one group that this tragedy was able to happen.
Fortunately, this case has provoked immense public outrage. But most of the discussion has been focused on gun laws, Stand Your Ground laws, and whether or not Martin's killer should be prosecuted. Those are all very important issues, but lost in the discussion is the underlying culture that allowed this to happen. That culture will remain only until we crack down on law enforcement agencies that seek to paint one group as dangerous, regardless of any reason for doing so. So long as cities like New York and Sanford, Florida, continue to employ racial profiling, these tragedies will continue.
President Obama struck a nerve when he declared that, if he had a son, "he'd look like Trayvon." The president was right to make the matter a personal one, as we all should. But he was also right in making clear that, at its core, this tragedy was simply about one's appearance.
Trayvon Martin and I were around the same age, and were probably very similar. But because we were born different colors, I get to live and he does not. So much for justice.
Follow Jess Coleman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@jesskcoleman
He saw a "suspicious guy" walking the neighborhood" and called police. The guy got away. That much we know for a fact based on the 911 calls.
He doesn't even know the guys race before he makes the call.
What happens after that is what is in question.
And the evidence and witness statements matched with Senor Zimmerman's statements that he made when he was taken in and questioned.
Trayvon Martin Case: Police Video Shows No Blood, Bruises On George Zimmerman After Killing
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/28/trayvon-martin-police-video_n_1386764.html?ncid=webmail1
We will see how all of this plays out.
Looks like a gash on his head in this close up of the video.
That in itself should have been enough to arrest and detain Zimmerman! Where was the crime scene investigation??? Evidence collected? Since when do we take someone at their word, that it was self-defense and release them? REALLY?!?!?! If those tables were turned and Trayvon was the shooter, this whole story would have a different ending and NOT in Trayvons favor!!!!!!!!!
I AM TRAYVON MARTIN! NO JUSTICE !!!
George Zimmerman, Son of a Retired Judge, Has 3 Closed Arrests
Did George Zimmerman have help from his father, a retired judge, in clearing his name in three separate arrests?
That’s the question that’s being asked now that more information on Trayvon Martin’s 28-year-old killer is being revealed. Robert Zimmerman, a former Orange County magistrate judge, recently wrote a letter to The Orlando Sentinel defending his son, who’s been dragged through the mud for shooting the unarmed 17-year-old last month. In the letter, the senior Zimmerman asks people not to jump to conclusions and insists that his son didn’t follow the young boy home as he walked through their gated community.
Now more info is being dug up on his “victimized” son through public records and revealing his checkered past.
According to a records search on George, he was previously arrested for domestic violence, resisting an officer without violence and most shockingly, resisting an officer with violence — a felony charge that surely could have landed him in prison.
All three of those arrests, however, were mysteriously closed with no semblance of charges for the Florida resident. So how was someone with a violent past including that of battery against an officer able to carry a 9 mm handgun? Maybe that’s a question Robert Zimmerman should answer …
Lots of covering up !!!! Typical !
This may shock you to learn, but false and unwarranted arrests happen all the time.
On 9/11 airport workers watched the hijackers come and go practicing dry runs of buying tickets and sneaking weapons onto the planes to make sure it would work on 9/11. They were not allowed to say or do anything about it because racial profiling is not fair or right supposedly.
There are reports of white men driving in a "black neighborhood" late at night that are pulled over and searched because police officers profiled them and wanted to see if they were there to buy drugs. Are all islamic men plane hijackers? Of course not. Are all white men in the "hood" to buy drugs? No. To say no profling is allowed is to remove the element of common sense.
It's similar to womens rights and us wanting to be able to dress the way we want without being sexually harassed or assualted. Should we have that right? YES! Absolutely. Does that mean I am going to walk down a dark alley at night in a mini skirt and haulter top because I SHOULD have that right? Absolutely NOT! There is common sense that I would be putting out a certain perception of myself that just might put me in trouble.
As the mother of a 16-year-old African-American male who lives in a predominently white neighbourhood where my son is the only AA in most of his AP classes, situations like Trayvon make me extremely concerned for my son's safety. My husband and I are not so deceived to believe that what happened to Trayvon couldn't happen to our son. There is no amount of money we make, degrees we hold or properties we own that exempts our son from being classified as "suspicious". The author is correct when he talks about the situation being a cultural issue and I would submit that it is also an institutional one as well.
I can't help but wonder how outraged the supporters of the shooter would be if the shooter was balck and the victim was white. Would the police accept the same story from a black man and let him leave the scene with a loaded weapon? Would the supporters of the right to carry a gun be as vigorous in their defense of the shooter? White America may never come to a realization of the reality of what most African-Americans live regardless of their position or income.
Electing a black President gave some the delusion that America has come so far from its past. Trayvon's murder and its aftermath is a sober reminder of how far we have yet to go.
George was attacked with a bloody nose, bleeding from the back of his head, back of his shirt wet and grass stained supported by witness testimony that Trayvon was on top of George beating him. Witness testimony is credible when it is supported by physical evidence.
Trayvon was 6' 3" a John Doe with no identification on his person. No recent pictures of Trayvon for the last month until yesterday. Family took town FB account.
George is not a police officer, he was the volunteer neighborhood watch man who spotted a Stranger in his neighborhood acting strangely. according to the 911 call he has the legal right to question a suspicious stranger in his neighborhood.
There is a distinction between No Criminal Record, No Juvenile Record and No Legal History for a Minor so it was a flag when MSM was only reporting No Criminal Record. .
http://sanfordfl.gov/investigation/trayvon_martin.html
Police: Zimmerman says Trayvon decked him with one blow then began hammering his head
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-03-26/news/os-trayvon-martin-zimmerman-account-20120326_1_miami-schools-punch-unarmed-black-teenager
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-03-04/news/31122324_1_white-boy-fire-tv-station
Teens set kid on fire for being 'white boy'
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/03/was_boy_in_kc_fire_attack_a_victim_of_his_schools_racist_teaching.html
Zimmerman, out of shear hate, frustration, ignorance, racist stereotypes, or however you want to explain it targeted Trayvon because he felt Trayvon was "out of place",and "suspicious looking" based on his preconceived notions. How do I know this? Zimmerman has a history of calling the police complaining about black teens SPECIFICALLY, as he did when he took it upon himself to "police" Trayvon. Let us consider the 911 call.
Firstly Zimmerman characterized Trayvon as suspicious. He told operators that Trayvon looked like he was on drugs. And Zimmerman bemoaned that "they always get away". With all of that being said can we conclude that Zimmerman's assessment of Trayvon was a negative on based on his stereotypes of black people.
Secondly, against the operators directive he followed Trayvon. Why would he do that unless he was seeking a confrontation? I confrontation he felt confident he would win because he was armed no doubt. Now ask yourself considering Zimmerman pursued Trayvon, (by his own account on the 911 call he said that Trayvon was running), why wouldn't Trayvon have a "RIGHT" to stand his ground? Zimmerman is not being "railroaded", he has clearly gotten a pass by the Standford Police Dept. because they failed to follow simple procedure from day one.
It appears it was. Each day we learn Trayvon was not the angel media has portrayed.
Trayvon was Responsible and Accountable for his actions choosing to attack George.
Witness accounts of Trayon on top of George beating him with verifiable injuries :
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/17/v-fullstory/2700249/shooter-of-trayvon-martin-a-habitual.html
When the homeowners association wanted to start a neighborhood watch, only one man stepped up: George Zimmerman
Zimmerman called police 46 times since Jan. 1, 2011 to report disturbances, break-ins, windows left open and other incidents.
Nine of those times, he saw Someone or Something suspicious.
The answer may lie in police records, which show that 50 suspicious-person reports were called in to police in the past year at Twin Lakes.
There were eight burglaries, nine thefts and one other shooting in the year prior to Trayvon’s death.
In all, police had been called to the 260-unit complex 402 times from Jan. 1, 2011 to Feb. 26, 2012.
“He once caught a thief and an arrest was made,” said Cynthia Wibker, secretary of the homeowners association. “He helped solve a lot of crimes.
and neither was Trayvon. he was killed by a vigilante who was told to stay in his car by police dispatch. end of story. zimmerman should be arrested and tried for murder.
Dear Mr. Zimmerman,,
Can you see what you have done? Can your recognize what is happening? This is not going to go away.You know deep down Trayvon Martin did NOT deserve to have his life blown away. YOU made a mistake...many tragic mistakes which lead to this boy's life being taken. You made yourself the police, the judge, jury and executioner. That is wrong on so many levels. I believe you know this George Zimmerman..
You contend you were defending yourself? What about Trayvon? Didn't he have a right to defend himself from a stranger with a gun who was chasing him in the dark? If he did physically defend himself, you deserved it. You were the aggresser who initiated the whole thing. Had you waited for the police, Trayvon would be alive, going to HS, listening to music, talking to his girlfriend and loving his family right now. He would have had a chance to be a MAN like you now have the opportunity to do.
Please be a MAN and step up. Give yourself up to police and ask that the case be evaluated and your part in the death of Trayvon assessed by the courts. It's the right thing to do.
Don't make stuff up.
try again.
This incident is the predictable outcome of sending armed but entirely untrained persons into the streets to to accomplish....what? Conservatives apparently believe that the shooting death of a teenager is a reasonable price to pay to reinforce a paranoia-driven, pathological need for "safety."
Were you not questioned and allowed to go on about your business. Had Zimmerman been a policeman or a security guard . and asked questions. And had discovered that the suspicious Trayvon had a right to be in his Father's neighborhood. THEN like you he would be here to tell his story. Instead he rests beneath a headstone with less than a score of years between his date of birth and his death date. Because unlike you he wasn't questioned and allowed to go about his business. But pursued by another citizen with a gun who didn't allow the cops to do their jobs. and didn't listen when told not to follow him.
Don't make stuff up.