Dead Teenager And No Arrest

I’ve been following this story for the past week, and I’m surprised by how long it’s taken the national media to cover it.

Trayvon Martin was killed in Sanford, Florida last week three weeks ago.  He was killed by a Neighborhood Watch member, who followed him for several minutes, and called Sanford 911 to report a person acting suspiciously.  That person was a 140lb African American teenager who was in the gated community visiting his father and step mother.  When he called 911, the Neighborhood Watch member, George Zimmerman, was told not to approach or engage the person he was following.  Instead, he killed Trayvon Martin with a handgun.  Trayvon had a can of soda and a bag of skittles.  You get to guess which ethnic group George Zimmerman is NOT a member of.

Go listen to the 911 call.  It’s chilling.  Then explain to me how this is possible:

To date, George Zimmerman has not been charged with a crime.  There is no circumstance that fits the publicly known facts that I can think of under which this isn’t a crime.

I simply don’t understand how you can shoot (twice) and kill someone and then go on your merry way.  Mr. Zimmerman was in his car following the teen.  He called 911 to report a suspicious person and was instructed not to “approach or engage the person he was following.”  Mr. Zimmerman ignored these instructions, got out of his car and followed the teen.

Given this behavior, I don’t see the self-defense claim.  The second Mr. Zimmerman ignored 911 instructions and left his car he put himself in potential danger – of a soda and Skittles attack.  Mr. Zimmerman’s actions lead me to believe that he was looking for a confrontation and wanted to play vigilante.  As a cop’s kid I grew up understanding the way to handle a situation like this is to not engage, remove myself from the situation and call professionals – the police.  I also live in a neighborhood with community watch, and George Zimmerman broke every rule of neighborhood watch – you do not engage or escalate the situation.  Mr. Zimmerman did both.

The Orlando Sentinel has more:

It was the first time that anyone said two shots were fired that night.

But police on Friday told the Orlando Sentinel that they believe it was Zimmerman’s screams for help that could be heard on the recording.

In the call placed by Zimmerman to alert authorities that there was a suspicious person in the neighorhood, he says the person “looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something.”

Moments later, Zimmerman says, “These assholes, they always get away.”

In one of the 911 calls, placed moments later, a man reports that “they’re wrestling right in the back of my porch. There’s a black guy down. It looks like he’s been shot and he’s dead.”

“These assholes, they always get away.”  Guess George Zimmerman decided that wouldn’t be the case on February 26th.

And what’s with the Sanford police?

The agency decided to release the 911 calls after a series of meetings Friday with U.S. Rep Corrine Brown, Sanford’s mayor, Jeff Triplett, Commissioner Velma Williams and City Manager Norton Bonaparte. Triplett and Brown will be asking to meet with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder early next week.

“I would hope that they’d make a difference, to try to stop or slow down … the high state of emotions,” Police Chief Bill Lee Jr. told the Sentinel in an exclusive interview Friday.

Lee said he is frustrated that Trayvon’s family, its lawyers and others have ripped his department for its handling of the case. He is not a racist, he said, and his officers conducted a thorough and fair investigation and did nothing underhanded or untruthful.

“The hysteria, the media circus, it’s just crazy,” Lee said. “It’s the craziest damn thing I’ve ever seen, and it’s sad. It’s sad for the city of Sanford, the police department, because I know in my heart we did a good job.”

At a press conference Friday morning, Trayvon’s parents said that in the three weeks since he was killed, their trust in the Sanford Police Department has disappeared.

Tracy Martin, father of the slain teen, told reporters he felt “betrayed” by law enforcement investigating his son’s death because they have not arrested the shooter.

I guess Trayvon’s father does feel betrayed.  A community watch member, with no training or authority to stop someone, got out of his SUV (when he was specifically told not to), followed a teenager on foot (again, something he was specifically told not to do), ends up in confrontation and the teenager ends up dead.  Tell me, again, why no one was arrested.

There’s a powerful editorial in the NYT.  Here are some questions and observations it makes:

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.

Those questions must be answered.  Even more bizarre are the conflicting reports.

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.

If I were Trayvon’s parents I wouldn’t trust the Sanford police either.  And while Police Chief Bill Lee Jr knows in his heart they did a good job, I know in my heart that if the position had been reversed and Trayvon had shot and killed Zimmerman an arrest would have been made.