The lynching of Trayvon Martin

By now I suspect that you’ve heard about the murder of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin. But in case you haven’t here are the details.

17-year-old Florida teenager Trayvon Martin

From The Washington Post
Seventeen year-old Trayvon Martin, who was visiting relatives in a gated community in Sanford, Fla., on February 17 was on his way back to their house from 7-Eleven with an iced tea and a bag of Skittles. That’s when he caught the eye of (28 year-old) George Zimmerman, a crime watch volunteer who called 911.

“Hey, we’ve had some break-ins in my neighborhood and there’s a real suspicious guy,” Zimmerman tells police before giving the address of where he is. “This guy looks like he’s up to no good or he’s on drugs or something.”

“These [expletive], they always get away,” Zimmerman says before getting out of his car to pursue Trayvon.

“Are you following him?” the police ask.

“Yes,” Zimmerman says. The officer on the phone tells him, “We don’t need you to do that.” But he did. In another 911 call, you can hear screaming for help and the fatal gunshot. Zimmerman brought a 9 mm handgun to the altercation. A scuffle ensued. Trayvon was fatally shot in the chest. His mother told the Associated Press yesterday, “(Zimmerman) was chasing him, he was following him, and my son was afraid. He didn’t know who this stranger was.”

Murderer George Zimmerman

George Zimmerman murdered Trayvon Martin. But since the shooting the Sanford police department has interviewed Zimmerman at least three times and have declined to arrest him and the local DA has so far not charged him with any crime. And that’s what makes this more than simply a cold blooded murder, that makes it a lynching.

This Zimmerman apparently thought that a Black child walking in his neighborhood was suspicious. And now the police apparently are taking the side of Zimmerman. When a citizen kills another that’s murder but when law enforcement refuses to seek justice for the victim then it becomes a lynching.
And we all know that had Zimmerman been Black and Martin been a White teen, Zimmerman would be under the jail by now.

My hope is that very soon the U.S. Justice Department will intervene and arrest Zimmerman. And if they don’t do it soon I can very easily see this situation getting seriously out of hand. People want justice and when the system denies them it they sometimes find other ways of getting justice.