Wednesday, April 11, 2012

George Zimmerman In Custody



In our sleep,

pain which cannot forget falls
drop by drop upon the heart until
in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.

I haven't reported on the sad and painful Trayvon Martin case and was holding back until further evidence of the fatal incident surfaced.  Well, there's no new evidence, but there was an arrest made today. That arrest, along with further investigation on my part, forced this blog post.


A young man of seventeen on a cell phone, wearing a hoodie, returning from buying skittles and a soda is shot and killed by a twenty-eight year old man on neighborhood watch.  The older man has been sanctioned by the state of Florida to "stand his ground" with use of deadly force.  The younger man was not armed.


High ranking police officials appear on the scene before the older man is taken into custody then released.  The story the older man gave investigating police is one of being attacked by the younger man, forcing him to use deadly force to defend himself. 


The police claim to have questioned witnesses who's stories support that of the older man defending himself. The police have yet to question the younger man's girlfriend who was on the phone with him at the time of the incident and claims to have heard what could be crucial evidence.  Phone records support the girlfriend's phone call claim.  


Video showing the police station arrival of the older man getting out of the patrol car handcuffed, shows no visual evidence of him being beaten in the face with his head being smashed into the ground repeatedly, as he claimed in his statement to police. The video shows a leaner, more athletically built older man than pictures of him shown via news coverage. Current photos of the younger man are also very limited and the one the media chose to show looks like that of a 13 or 14 year old adolescent instead of a teenager. Why such discrepancies?


The medical examiner as well as the funeral parlor mortician saw no evidence of a physical struggle on the body of the younger man.


Because the younger man is African-American and the older man is Caucasian, the question of how much did race play a part in this tragic event cannot be ignored.  It's actually become the driving force behind the story, unfortunately. President Barack Obama commented that the victim could have been his son if he had one.


We in the SF Bay area saw a young black man shot and killed by an older white transit security man in front of loads of eye witnesses. There was video of the shooting and eventually an arrest and prosecution, but it was not a cut and dry case and many still believe that justice was not served. 


Lawrence O'donnell on "The Last Word" raises this very telling question when interviewing Eugene O'donnell from John Jay College of Criminal Justice: 


"If you're listening to someone tell you a story as an investigator,  what does that person (the older man) need to be able to tell you about how he escaped from that complete physical control the other person (the younger man) is exerting over him, and got to a gun that's in a holster underneath the body of the other person (the younger man), who's obviously sitting on that gun, what does he have to tell you to convince you that he turned the tables in that situation and then shoot that person dead?"


Sad to say that the Criminal Justice expert from JJ could only say that "that's what's at the heart of the investigation, finding out if it's a believable, plausible story." I only wish that the interviewer had followed up with the question of whether or not it be wise to not hold a man in custody until his "extraordinary" story of killing in self defense can be fully believed and plausible.


It seems that the investigation, or lack thereof, has been as questionable as the self defense claim. Today George Zimmerman has been arrested and is being charged with second degree murder. The family of Trayvon Martin are relieved to hear of the arrest, but still have so many unanswered questions.  Trayvon's father, Tracy Martin, said this:



"The question I would really like to ask him is, if he could look into Trayvon's eyes and see how innocent he was, would he have then pulled the trigger? Or would he have just let him go on home?" 


As a parent Mr. Martin, I feel your pain and understand your cry for answers. My prayers to you and your family. 


To pray means to open your hands before God.  It means slowly relaxing the tension which squeezes your hands together and accepting your existence with an increasing readiness, not as a possession to defend, but as a gift to receive.  Above all, therefore, prayer is a way of life which allows you to find a stillness in the midst of the world where you open your hands to God’s promises, and find hope for yourself, your fellow congregation members, and the whole community in which you live.
— Henri J.M. Nouwen




The Killing
The Questionable Self Defense Claim
The Hoodie & Racial Profiling
Justifiable Homicide & Gun Laws
The Political Atmosphere & Police Investigation
The Media Slant
The Video Evidence
The Long Awaited Arrest

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