TRAYVON M -
Dedicated to Trayvon Martin and his family- and to all victims of hatred, ignorance, and injustice...
By Judd Legum on Mar 18, 2012 at 6:19 pm
um on Mar 18, 2012 at 6:19 pm
On
February 26, 2012, a 17-year-old African-American named Trayvon Martin
was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida. The shooter was George
Zimmerman, a 28-year-old white man.* Zimmerman admits killing Martin,
but claims he was acting in self-defense. Three weeks after Martin’s
death, no arrests have been made and Zimmerman remains free. Here is what everyone should know about the case:
1. Zimmerman called the police to report Martin’s “suspicious” behavior, which he described as “just walking around looking about.” Zimmerman was in his car when he saw Martin walking on the street. He called the police and said: “There’s a real suspicious guy. This guy looks like he’s up to no good, on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around looking about… These a**holes always get away” [Orlando Sentinel]The Martin case had been turned over to the Seminole County State Attorney’s Office. Martin’s family has asked for the FBI to investigate.
2. Zimmerman pursued Martin against the explicit instructions of the police dispatcher:
Dispatcher: “Are you following him?”
Zimmerman: “Yeah”
Dispatcher: “OK, we don’t need you to do that.”
[Orlando Sentinel]
3. Prior to the release of the 911 tapes, Zimmerman’s father released a statement claiming “[a]t no time did George follow or confront Mr. Martin.” [Sun Sentinel]
4. Zimmerman was carrying a a 9 millimeter handgun. Martin was carrying a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea. [ABC News]
5. Martin weighed 140 pounds. Zimmerman weighs 250 pounds. [Orlando Sentinel; WDBO]
6. Martin’s English teacher described him as “as an A and B student who majored in cheerfulness.” [Orlando Sentinel]
7. Martin had no criminal record. [New York Times]
8. Zimmerman “was charged in July 2005 with resisting arrest with violence and battery on an officer. The charges appear to have been dropped.” [Huffington Post]
9. Zimmerman called the police 46 times since Jan. 1, 2011. [Miami Herald]
10. According to neighbors, Zimmerman was “fixated on crime and focused on young, black males.” [Miami Herald]
11. Zimmerman “had been the subject of complaints by neighbors in his gated community for aggressive tactics” [Huffington Post]
12. A police officer “corrected” a key witness. “The officer told the witness, a long-time teacher, it was Zimmerman who cried for help, said the witness. ABC News has spoken to the teacher and she confirmed that the officer corrected her when she said she heard the teenager shout for help.” [ABC News]
13. Three witnesses say they heard a boy cry for help before a shot was fired. “Three witnesses contacted by The Miami Herald say they saw or heard the moments before and after the Miami Gardens teenager’s killing. All three said they heard the last howl for help from a despondent boy.” [Miami Herald]
14. The officer in charge of the crime scene also received criticism in 2010 when he initially failed to arrest a lieutenant’s son who was videotaped attacking a homeless black man. [New York Times]
15. The police did not test Zimmerman for drugs or alcohol. A law enforcement expert told ABC that Zimmerman sounds intoxicated on the 911 tapes. Drug and alcohol testing is “standard procedure in most homicide investigations.” [ABC News]
16. In a cell phone call moments before his death, Martin told a teenage girl that he was “hounded by a strange man on a cellphone who ran after him, cornered him and confronted him.” “‘He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man,’ Martin’s friend said. ‘I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run but he said he was not going to run.’ Eventually he would run, said the girl, thinking that he’d managed to escape. But suddenly the strange man was back, cornering Martin. ‘Trayvon said, ‘What, are you following me for,’ and the man said, ‘What are you doing here.’” [ABC News]
17. Zimmerman told the police “he had stepped out of his truck to check the name of the street he was on when Trayvon attacked him from behind as he walked back to his truck.” “He said he feared for his life and fired the semiautomatic handgun he was licensed to carry because he feared for his life.” [Miami Herald]
18. Zimmerman was not a member of a registered Neighborhood Watch group. Zimmerman also violated basic Neighborhood Watch guidelines by carrying a weapon. [ABC News]
* Zimmerman was described by the police as white. According to his family he is also Hispanic.
Think Progress Justice
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/03/19/447904/breaking-us-department-of-justice-announces-investigation-into-shooting-death-of-trayvon-martin/?fb_comment_id=fbc_10150580016432224_21459464_10150580020247224
BREAKING: U.S. Department of Justice announces independent investigation into shooting death of Trayvon Martin | Statement: “The department will conduct a thorough and independent review of all of the evidence and take appropriate action at the conclusion of the investigation. The department also is providing assistance to and cooperating with the state officials in their investigation into the incident. With all federal civil rights crimes, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person acted intentionally and with the specific intent to do something which the law forbids – the highest level of intent in criminal law. Negligence, recklessness, mistakes and accidents are not prosecutable under the federal criminal civil rights laws.” The U.S. Attorney and the FBI are also participating in the investigation.
A Million Hoodies March for Trayvon Martin
http://www.facebook.com/events/347784265268106/
Trayvon Martin's Last Phone Call Contradicts Shooter's Claim, Attorney
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/03/20/148994809/trayvon-martins-last-phone-call-contradicts-shooters-claim-attorney-says
by Mark Memmott
George
Zimmerman's statement to police about what 17-year-old Trayvon Martin
was up to on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla., "is completely contradicted" by
the boy's cellphone records, an attorney for Martin's family just said
during a news conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Attorney Benjamin Crump said the African-American teenager had been talking to friends all day and, as first reported earlier today by ABC News, was on the phone with a young girl when he was confronted by, in Crump's words, "neighborhood association loose cannon" Zimmerman.
The girl, Crump said, says Martin was just trying to get back to the house he and his father had been visiting when Zimmerman came into the picture. She heard Martin ask "why are you following me?" Crump said. Another voice, according to the girl, asked at least twice "what are you doing around here?"
Moments later, Martin was shot in the chest.
The 28-year-old Zimmerman, who had called police to report seeing a "suspicious" person and was advised not to follow that person, has told police he acted in self defense.
As we've been reporting, Martin's death has reignited a national conversation about race and racial profiling. And it has led to charges from Martin's family and their supporters that local police failed to adequately investigate. "Arrest killer. He killed this child in cold blood," Crump said a moment ago.
Zimmerman has not been charged with a crime. The federal Justice Department is now getting involved, and the local state attorney announced this morning that he's asked a grand jury to investigate.
Attorney Benjamin Crump said the African-American teenager had been talking to friends all day and, as first reported earlier today by ABC News, was on the phone with a young girl when he was confronted by, in Crump's words, "neighborhood association loose cannon" Zimmerman.
The girl, Crump said, says Martin was just trying to get back to the house he and his father had been visiting when Zimmerman came into the picture. She heard Martin ask "why are you following me?" Crump said. Another voice, according to the girl, asked at least twice "what are you doing around here?"
Moments later, Martin was shot in the chest.
The 28-year-old Zimmerman, who had called police to report seeing a "suspicious" person and was advised not to follow that person, has told police he acted in self defense.
As we've been reporting, Martin's death has reignited a national conversation about race and racial profiling. And it has led to charges from Martin's family and their supporters that local police failed to adequately investigate. "Arrest killer. He killed this child in cold blood," Crump said a moment ago.
Zimmerman has not been charged with a crime. The federal Justice Department is now getting involved, and the local state attorney announced this morning that he's asked a grand jury to investigate.
