Florida’s Stand Your Ground law doesn’t prohibit that they arrest George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin. Family handout. Read Slate’s complete coverage of the Trayvon Martin case. With outrage over the shooting death of Trayvon Martin flaring into protest marches, the city manager of beleaguered Sanford, Fla., where the police have failed to arrest Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, released a crazy-making statement Wednesday night. The Sanford city manager claimed, “By Florida statute, law enforcement was PROHIBITED from making an arrest based on the facts and circumstances they had at the time.” (His caps.)
That is ridiculous. Florida’s Stand Your Ground law is bad enough, but it’s not that bad. The only evidence the police have that Zimmerman acted in self-defense is that he said he lost sight of Martin—after following him despite the 911 dispatcher’s instruction not to—and was going back to his truck when Martin attacked him. But there are at least four reasons to doubt what Zimmerman has to say. Good question. Laurie Penny: America learns it cannot ignore race and class on the Million Hoodie March - Commentators - Opinion. It's getting dark in Manhattan, thousands of young people in hoodies have taken to the streets, and brightly-coloured sweets are crunching underfoot. Seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was carrying a bag of skittles, a bottle of iced tea and no weapons when he was shot dead in Florida last month, and the police have still failed to punish his killer.
At this march, called in protest at institutional violence against young black men in America, demonstrators from Occupy Wall Street toss skittles over the pavement and carry iced tea, and hundreds of voices chant Trayvon's name. For the poorest urban communities, police brutality and financial injustice have always been part of the same equation - and it's just the same with the fightback.On the corner of Washington Square, you can hear them yelling in unison: 'We are all Trayvon Martin! '. Teenagers run with their hoods pulled up, stopping traffic as they go. Are We Teaching Kids the Wrong Lessons About Trayvon? - Lisa Armstrong - National. Pundits want black parents to use the teenager's death as a warning for their sons. But the real moral of the story is for white children.
Two young boys hold signs during a Tallahassee rally organized by the National Christian League of Councils on April 4, 2012. Philip Sears/Reuters In the past few weeks, I have read a number of articles about conversations that I, as a black mother, should be having with my 9-year-old son. In his Time.com article "How to Talk to Young Black Boys About Trayvon Martin," Touré begins by saying: "It's unlikely but possible that you could get killed today. Or any day. In a CNN blog post, Christy Oglesby speaks of the numerous warnings she has given her son, Drew, about how society might perceive him simply because of his race and gender. In light of Trayvon Martin's death, I, too, have cautiously begun the process of preparing my son for the challenges that likely lie ahead of him. Tarik is now at another school where there is much more racial diversity. Trayvon Martin’s Psychological Killer: Why We See Guns That Aren’t There. | Guest Blog.
When George Zimmerman saw Trayvon Martin walking down the street in Sanford, Florida, he quickly assumed that the Black, hoodie-clad teenager was carrying a weapon. He then pulled out his gun and fatally shot the young student, whose hands were gripping nothing more than a bag of Skittles. The fact that George Zimmerman assumed so quickly that Trayvon Martin was armed smacks of the worst kind of prejudice and racism. It is a tragic assumption that led to the death of an innocent young student, who had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But, unfortunately, a 2002 study by psychologist Joshua Correll suggests that the average, run-of-the-mill college student might have acted the exact same way. If you had a split second to decide whether or not to shoot someone in front of you, do you think you would shoot?
Do you think the other person’s skin color would matter? The researchers ultimately found a clear case of what they termed shooter bias. Image: werthmedia on Flickr. How Stand-Your-Ground Laws Threaten Public Safety. As the nation is riveted on the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida, I and others in law enforcement have been asked to comment on this high-profile case—mostly about police procedure.
But we cannot “armchair quarterback” this case or any other from afar unless and until we know the facts. What we do know is that the spotlight is very bright right now on gun violence, especially on so-called “stand-your-ground” laws, which 25 states have enacted, and five more are considering. Florida’s law, which extends the Castle Doctrine by removing the duty to retreat, gives legal protection to anyone, anywhere, to use deadly force “if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.
" The law also gives civil and criminal immunity to people who invoke it. Florida’s law effectively empowers a citizen to act as an ad hoc police officer. Email this post » In Florida, It’s Often Shoot First, Learn The Law Later. The Lone Star State has led a surprisingly progressive overhaul of its incarceration system. The story behind the bipartisan push that GOP contenders may be extolling come 2016. It appears Rick Perry is going to run for president again in 2016. Perry, 65, will leave the governor’s office next January after serving for 14 years, beginning in 2000, when George W. Bush resigned to prepare for the presidency. In recent months, Perry has appeared in both Iowa and South Carolina. At South by South West in Austin last month, Perry told Jimmy Kimmel “America is a great place for second chances.”
As he creeps back onto the national stage, Perry—who has overseen the executions of 268 people—more executions than any other governor in United States history—has brought with him an unlikely Lone Star State success story: prison reform. The conservative movement to reform prisons is not new. The Dean of the Texas State Senate, John Whitmire, is one of the architects of prison reform in the state. Why George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin’s killer, hasn’t been prosecuted. Family handout Read Slate’s complete coverage of the Trayvon Martin case. The story of Trayvon Martin’s death is heartbreaking. If you have missed the facts: The 17-year-old, who is black, was walking to a friend’s home in a gated community in Sanford, Fla., when a neighborhood-watch volunteer*, 28-year-old George Zimmerman, spotted him. Zimmerman, whose father says identifies as Hispanic, called the cops to report a suspicious person. They told him not to follow. “They always get away,” Zimmerman told dispatch in a 911 call released Friday, and he kept tracking Martin.
Zimmerman had a gun. Zimmerman shot and killed Martin, but he said he did so in self-defense. How did we get to a place where Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense, which seems barely plausible, could prevent his arrest? Let’s back up, with the help of Jeannie Suk, a Harvard law professor who wrote an article in 2008 that I’ll rely on for the next few paragraphs. Not all the states adopted the true man doctrine. The Sham Investigation Into Trayvon Martin's Killing - Ta-Nehisi Coates - National. As it happens, Trayvon Martin was on the phone when George Zimmerman was following him. The young lady with whom he was speaking, through her lawyer, talked to ABC News: "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. ABC News verified that Martin did talk to the young lady by looking at his phone records.
Nevertheless, when you read this, it's worth remembering the tale Zimmerman told the cops: Zimmerman said 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, police said. We know that this is almost certainly fiction. This investigation wasn't one. Trayvon Martin Case Spotlights Florida Town's History Of 'Sloppy' Police Work. SANFORD, Fla. -- In the summer of 2010, a masked man gunned down Ikeem Ruffin, 17, in an apartment complex on this city's north side.
When police arrived, they found Ruffin dead and another teenager beside the body calling for an ambulance. The next day, police charged the teen with robbery and murder. Prosecutors dropped the murder charge last August and said another man, still unidentified, pulled the trigger. Teresa Ruffin, the victim's mother, said the police overlooked important evidence -- including a witness who pointed to another suspect -- and allowed her son's killer to go free.
"They didn't do their job," Ruffin said of the police. Ruffin, who is black, said she sees parallels between how Sanford police officers handled her son’s murder and how they investigated the killing of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teenager shot to death Feb. 26 by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who told police he acted in self-defense. Martin's killing has sparked national outrage. Sgt. Media Firms Sue To Open Zimmerman File: New York Times, Associated Press, Gannett asking for Florida judge to unseal case. Trayvon Martin's Killer Was Looking for Trouble—and Found It - Andrew Cohen - National. Examining the details and unanswered questions that will come to light when the case goes to court next month. The neighborhood where 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot to death. Reuters Update 5:20 p.m. We've just learned from the Sanford Police that there is evidently a typo on the first page of the neighborhood watch calls report they provided.
The date range of Zimmerman's calls, they say, evidently is 2001-2012, not 2011-2012, which means his 46 calls came over a 10- to 11-year period -- roughly four calls per year -- and not four calls per month as the initial police statistics revealed. That certainly changes my early analysis on that issue -- but only slightly. My colleagues James Fallows and Ta-Nehisi Coates have written extensively about the senseless killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, who was shot to death last month in a Florida neighborhood by its "watch captain. " That's why there are so many "justifiable homicides" in Florida--dead men don't testify. Dishonoring Trayvon Martin.
It was all too good to be true. Last week even conservatives expressed concern about the way Sanford, Fla., police handled the death of unarmed, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, one month ago today. Florida’s Tea Party Gov. Rick Scott asked for an outside investigation, and another Tea Party favorite, Rep. Allen West, fumed, “This is an outrage.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called it “an incredible tragedy” and said, “I’m glad it’s being investigated and we’ll take a look at it as the investigation moves along.” What wasn’t quite as predictable was the last few days of push-back on behalf of accused shooter George Zimmerman – helped along by Sanford Police. If Zimmerman was indeed hurt in a scuffle with Martin – and news reports suggest he was bloody and bruised, with head lacerations that came from Martin pounding his skull into the sidewalk – why are there no photos?
And what does Martin’s suspension have to do with this case, anyway? Alan Dershowitz: The "Rorschach" Facts in the Killing of Trayvon Martin. The time has come for the cheerleading on both sides to stop in the killing of Trayvon Martin and for everybody to unite around the need for the truth -- or as much of it as we can recapture -- to emerge as to precisely what happened on that dark, rainy night. Once the facts have been established, by scientific, forensic and other evidence, then we can begin to analyze whether these facts constitute a defense under Florida's stand your ground statute, which, for better or worse, strongly favors the defendant. At the moment, the facts in the case -- at least those known to the public -- are ever shifting. One journalist aptly characterized the case as, "a narrative Rorschach that each side will interpret as it wishes.
" Now it has been announced that the special prosecutor may soon release new information that may change both the public perception of the case and its legal strengths and weaknesses. Several points can be made even now with a high degree of certainty. Florida v. Zimmerman Needs the Bravest Judge Around - Andrew Cohen - National. Why the case won't be as straightforward as you might expect. Put yourself in special prosecutor Angela Corey's shoes for just a moment. On the one hand, she has an ethical obligation not to prosecute a case she doesn't believe she can win. On the other hand she has an obligation to zealously prosecute people whom she believes may have committed murder. The first obligation reins in the vast discretion prosecutors typically have to bring criminal charges. Given the choice between the two options, to do something or to do nothing, it is perhaps inevitable that Corey would have exercised her discretion to charge George Zimmerman with the murder of Trayvon Martin.
So long as Corey and her team present a professional case against Zimmerman, so long as they are aggressive but honest in handling the evidence and the witnesses against him, they are now in a no-lose situation. Corey? A talk show host asked me, on the air, to put myself in Zimmerman's shoes today. Image: Reuters. Adam Winkler: Will George Zimmerman Be Convicted?
The news that Florida prosecutors are bringing charges against George Zimmerman for the death of Trayvon Martin raises two questions: Will Zimmerman be convicted? And what role will Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law play in the case? Before considering either of these two questions, however, one must recognize that we don't have all the relevant facts yet. Yet one thing is clear: prosecutors are not going to have an easy time convicting Zimmerman. There are too many conflicting accounts of what occurred that night, which creates the possibility of the jury finding reasonable doubt. What no one apparently disputes is that Zimmerman, an active neighborhood watch volunteer, saw Martin out on the street of the residential community; called 9-1-1 to report a suspicious person; followed Martin despite being told that wasn't necessary by the 9-1-1 dispatch; and eventually shot Martin at close range.
Beyond that, however, there is much uncertainty. What if Zimmerman's story isn't credible? George Zimmerman's trial could be as divisive as OJ Simpson's | Gary Younge. George Zimmerman is behind bars. Six weeks after he shot Trayvon Martin, the state of Florida has been pressured, from above and below, to at least contemplate the notion that a man who killed an unarmed child might have a case to answer. He has now been charged with second-degree murder.
What follows from here has the potential to be every bit as divisive as the OJ Simpson trial and every bit as inflammatory as the Rodney King case – only this time there's a black president in an election year. Blacks and whites already understand this case differently. Given that it was political pressure that made the trial possible, it would be naive to suggest that, now Zimmerman is in the hands of the law, his fate is now merely a legal matter.
The Martins understand this, which is why they have been rallying the nation to their cause. But that doesn't make it a show trial. So for the Martin family, this marks the end of the beginning. Zimmerman may be behind bars. Trayvon Martin killed by single gunshot fired from 'intermediate range,' autopsy shows. Prosecutors Say Zimmerman Hid Second Passport, Lied About Money. Should the police file on the man who killed Trayvon Martin stay secret? George Zimmerman stand your ground: In Trayvon Martin shooting case, stand-your-ground hearing likely looms. Parental Responses to Trayvon Martin’s Killing Prove That America is Not “Post-Racial” Geraldo Rivera's Obscene Defense of Trayvon Martin's Death: 'The Hoodie is as Responsible as the Murderer' Trayvon Martin and the myth of racist America | Nathalie Rothschild.
John Derbyshire, Trayvon Martin, and the ignorance of racial profiling. Do Gated Communities Threaten Society? - Neighborhoods. The Trayvon Blues. Trayvon Martin and America’s Gun Laws. Five ‘Stand Your Ground’ Cases You Should Know About.