Trayvon Martin's vanished smile
First you cry. Then you scream in anger.
Trayvon Martin's vanished smile
Trayvon Martin’s smile is haunting me. I see it in the photos broadcast on the nightly news programs, in the newspaper, and when I close my eyes. It’s a wide, shy slice of youth and happiness. And now, it’s permanently erased.
The person who guaranteed that the smile would be frozen in photos is a self-styled town-watch volunteer, which in Florida seems to be spelled V-I-G-I-L-A-N-T-E. The laws in that state, like the laws in many others, make it okay to “stand your ground” in self-defense, and a shooter under those circumstances is almost guaranteed a “don’t even get into jail” card. But George Zimmerman, the man who erased Trayvon Martin’s smile, might not be able to cower behind that questionable law, because by his own admission on a 911 tape, he was actively following the victim.
In that strange Floridian lexicon, that seems to be spelled “S-T-A-L-K-I-N-G.”
While I sincerely hope that this does not become a battleground between the NRA and the NAACP, we have to face facts. If Trayvon Martin were white, his shooter would be in custody. If George Zimmerman were black instead of Hispanic (he was adopted by Jewish parents), Trayvon Martin’s shooter would be in custody. You can pretend all you want that this has nothing to do with race. But you can also buy the Brooklyn Bridge at a fire sale.
Still, I hope that the issues of race and the 2nd Amendment don’t turn this death into a polemic over bigotry and gun violence. The more important issue is, how do we stop these ridiculous laws which have nothing whatsoever to do with your fundamental right to own a gun from making our children shooting targets?
Personally, I don’t have a problem with a law that allows you to defend yourself against an armed attacker. I certainly have no problem with one that lets you shoot an intruder in your own home. But this case is a glaring example of where the law can be used as a weapon, one far more deadly than any firearm carried by any Dirty Harry wannabe.
I’m glad the spotlight is shining in George Zimmerman’s face. He needs to be taken into custody. He needs to be asked questions. This is the gun case the Justice Department should be involved in (to perhaps make up for its deadly blunders in Fast and Furious.)
Then, perhaps, someone can answer for Trayvon Martin’s vanished smile.
As Lt. Columbo said,"I'm always getting you angry, it must be my accent or something."— Magistra- No, it's your medication-fueled pontification, condescension, and fact free bloviations. Also, your preachiness, excessive/repetative postings and advocacy of socialism.
— retour - And finally, it is the jury, not the lawyers, who decide the guilt or innocence of the accused. I have been on juries, including a murder case. I know how to weigh the evidence according to whatever law you want to quote, retour.
Even under the dubious Florida law, a prosecutor can make a strong case.
I teach at university by the way.
You don't get to be "Dean" for nothing.
8-)— Magistra - Can't help but notice how gushingly WILLING the author is to "go there" with the overt racial discussion, so long as she is safely on the PC side of a case with potential racial ramifications. Notice however, that she is not at ALL willing to discuss the repeated local cases of anti-white violence in the same terms. And, is anything she says in this article provably true? No. Not at all. She has limited access to the pertinent evidence obtained by the local police and we have not heard the factual testimony of the shooter or from his lawyer. But Chris has discussed his entire ethnic background, and has already resolved all the disputed (and unknown) facts AND has decided guilt. "Let's just hang this coward vigilante who is hiding behind the Florida waws." And while we're at it lets attach and rely for our facts on MSNBC articles. Lawyerly? Not at all. To quote her guy Santorum, this article "makes me want to spit up."
— retour 
Comment removed.- @retour
Posted 4:53 PM, 03/21/2012
No, it's your medication-fueled pontification, condescension, and fact free bloviations. Also, your preachiness, excessive/repetative postings and advocacy of socialism. — retour"
Really, retour, I am dismayed by your ad hominem attacks. That is the first sign that you have LOST the case.
The only pills I take are to prevent aceta and to aid my digestion. Maybe you should also if you are getting so sick in the stomach. Omeprazole can be purchased at discount places like BJ's.
Really, it should not be a capital offense to go the store on a balmy evening while visiting relatives.
— Magistra - Where was CF's article decrying what Homicide Capt. James Clark described as "an out-and-out assassination" of an entire Hispanic family, right here in Philadelphia, by two black thugs? They sounded like very nice hard-working people, but apparently no one was moved to write about them. No outrage. How come? This happened in Philadelphia, no more than six months ago.
http://articles.philly.com/2011-09-07/news/30123452_1_shot-multiple-times-grocery-store-surveillance-images#comments
How about the white store owner recently slaughtered in North Philly by another gang of black thugs. No article about this guy and his grieving family either.
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/03/08/suspect-identified-in-north-philadelphia-check-cashing-store-murder/
Why does Trayvon from Florida warrant an article, but not the white or Hispanic Philadelphians in the above heinous slaughters? I can only conclude this is a first class example of selective outrage; and an unwillingness to honestly address Philadelphia's infamous black crime problem.
— retour - Comment removed.
- Hamblin, I agree with you. Plumber, I strongly disagree with you. The Florida law, while ridiculously lenient, implicitly eliminates the possibility that a pursuer can ever feel that 'presumption of fear of death or great bodily harm.' You do not have a fear of something that you are actively pursuing. The evidence, now a month after the crime, shows by at least a clear and convincing standard if not yet beyond a reasonable doubt, that this young man with no weapon, was stalked by this wannabee block captain. There is no defense for Zimmerman's actions, even under the pathetic Florida standard. This is about race, this is about people who should not be able to have guns, this is about a law that in its current composition is an invitation to murder and this is about someone who cannot even claim the protection of this law if, in fact, it is conclusively established that he pursued the victim. By his own words, on the 911 tape, he did just that. There is no doubt in my mind, a lawyer's mind, retour, not that of a hormonal woman, that Zimmerman can be charged with, at the very least, assault with a deadly weapon. If he is not, there is no justice in this world.— Christine
- "Arresting a person means charging them with a crime. Police need probable cause that a crime was committed and the suspect committed the actual crime. The preliminary investigation indicated no crime was committed under Florida law. There is a difference between a legal crime and a social or moral crime."
Retired Chicago Police Officer also disagrees with Flower's emotional/irrational rant:
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/middle-class-guy/2012/mar/20/trayvon-martin-case-and-legal-experts/
— retour - Comment removed.
- And Magistra, thank you for being a pool of sanity in a sea of, I must say, disheartening rhetoric. To think that any sentient being could look at the facts of this case, cross reference them with the law, and still believe that Zimmerman did nothing wrong is amazing. Sometimes, black is black, white is white, wrong is wrong, and a murder is a murder.— Christine
- Sounds VERY Nancy Grace-ish. She also makes frothing emotional pronouncements of guilt or innocence from on high. — retour
- Comment removed.
- And Magistra, thank you for being a pool of sanity in a sea of, I must say, disheartening rhetoric. To think that any sentient being could look at the facts of this case, cross reference them with the law, and still believe that Zimmerman did nothing wrong is amazing. Sometimes, black is black, white is white, wrong is wrong, and a murder is a murder.— Christine
Email Christine M. at cflowers1961@yahoo.com Reach Christine M. at cflowers1961@yahoo.com.
