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<a href="http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/1105" eudora="autourl">
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/1105<br><br>
</a><font size=4><b>White Sheets Surround Florida Teen's Slaying<br><br>
</b></font>by Linn Washington Jr.<br><br>
<br>
In March 1799 authorities in North Carolina found no fault in a teen
fatally shooting a black man after confronting that man about his being
on a public road.<br><br>
In February 2012 authorities in Florida found no fault in a man fatally
shooting a black teen after confronting that teen about his being on a
public road.<br><br>
How authorities in Sanford, Florida have handled the fatal February 26th
shooting of 17-year-old black teen Trayvon Martin by a town watch
operative is, however, sparking outrage nationwide, including among many
whites.<br><br>
The slaying also raises the issue of race-tainted inequities that have
roiled through American society since before the formal inception of the
United States.<br><br>
Police in Sanford, outside Orlando, quickly accepted the claim of George
Zimmerman, 28, that he shot Martin in self-defense while he was allegedly
losing a fight with the younger, physically smaller teen. (Zimmerman is a
three inches taller and is nearly 100-pounds heavier than his victim, the
young Martin).<br><br>
The record, pried lose from reluctant police, shows that Zimmerman called
911 telling police he saw Martin acting suspiciously. Police, who
initially refused to release the 911 tapes, told Zimmerman not to
confront Martin, but he rejected the police orders. A scuffle ensued
where Zimmerman shot Martin with a 9mm pistol he was carrying.<br><br>
Zimmerman, initially described as having no police record, is a
self-appointed town watch captain and wannabe policeman with a checkered
past. Neighbors have reportedly complained about his aggressive
behaviors. He had called police 46 times in the past year alone in his
town watch capacity. In 2005 police charged Zimmerman with assaulting an
officer, but later dropped charges.<br><br>
Federal authorities are now investigating the fatal shooting of Martin by
Zimmerman, whom Sanford police cleared without doing any background check
(it turns out he was once arrested for assault on a policeman) and
without conducting tests to see if Zimmerman was under the influence of
drugs or alcohol at the time of the shooting. Some people who have heard
the 911 tapes contend he was under the influence of some substance, based
on the sound of his voice on those recordings.<br><br>
Martin, when killed by Zimmerman, was walking back to a relative’s home
in the integrated neighborhood after buying a bag of candy and a can of
ice tea from a local convenience store. Martin, a well-respected high
school student, had no criminal record.<br><br>
The shooting of Martin, however, raises an issue as contentious as racism
– the propriety of Florida’s controversial 2005 “Stand Your Ground” law
which turned self-defense law on its head by removing the duty to retreat
before using deadly force against an alleged attacker.<br><br>
That law additionally allows the use of deadly force against unarmed
persons.<br><br>
In May 2010 a Florida man successfully cited the “Stand Your Ground” law
following his shooting of another man during a fight at a beach where he
shot a man in the back of the head as his victim was getting out of the
water.<br><br>
Since this law’s approval, Florida authorities have cited it in finding
legal justification in an astonishing 400 slayings according to media
accounts. Almost two dozen other states have adopted similar
laws.<br><br>
This law, backed by the National Rifle Association, allows the use of
deadly force under the loose standard of a person “reasonably” believing
their life to be in danger.<br><br>
Police and prosecutors in Florida have opposed changing traditional
self-defense standards, warning that the looser “Stand Your Ground”
standards were ripe for abuse and create what critics term a
shoot-first/ask-questions-later environment.<br><br>
In the Trayvon Martin incident legal experts are wrangling over whether
Zimmerman surrendered the immunity protections in the “Stand Your Ground”
law because he was the aggressor by his refusal to follow police orders
to not confront Martin.<br><br>
What riles many is the Sanford Police Department's refusal to arrest
Zimmerman and the decision by the department to let the courts sort out
his self-defense claim during a trial. Some shooters who have raised
self-defense claims under the “Stand Your Ground” rule hve faced trials,
while police and prosecutors have simply accepted some claims,
eliminating the need for a trial.<br><br>
By quickly accepting Zimmerman’s self-defense claim, the Sanford Police
raise concerns about the race-tainted stereotype of the dangerous black
brute that reflexively causes many whites to fear for their
lives.<br><br>
Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee embraced Zimmerman’s claim that he was
forced to fire on Martin because Martin was beating him badly and no one
was responding to his cries for help.<br><br>
Lee contends Zimmerman’s injuries are “consistent with” his story,
apparently finding no fault in Zimmerman's having disregarded police
orders and continuing to confront the smaller Martin, who was apparently
doing nothing wrong.<br><br>
Lee’s police are drawing verbal fire for reportedly badgering witnesses
to alter their accounts in favor of Zimmerman’s version.<br><br>
Martin’s father and the local NAACP head are among many voicing the
sentiment that Sanford Police would have reacted differently if Martin
had shot Zimmerman under the same circumstances.<br><br>
Florida, like many places in America, particularly the South, has a
sordid history of race-based inequities.<br><br>
Incidents in Florida are mentioned frequently in the 1951 petition an
interracial group of Americans sent to the United Nations charging the
federal government with committing “Genocide” on
African-Americans.<br><br>
The “New Acts of Genocide” addendum to that 1951 petition lists racist
incidents from Florida more than any other single state.<br><br>
Those incidents include a Florida sheriff fatally shooting one black
prisoner and wounding another, and “racist terrorists” killing a NAACP
leader and his wife by bombing their house. That petition decried federal
and Florida state officials for failing to act in those murders.<br><br>
That “New Acts” section also cited whites legally excluding blacks from
one Seminole County, FL town located about 15-miles from Sanford, “to
prevent Negroes there from voting and from receiving fire, sanitary and
public health services.”<br><br>
Sanford absorbed the all-black town of Goldsboro in 1911, quickly
renaming streets bearing the names of black pioneers, according to
historic accounts.<br><br>
The mass disenfranchisement of thousands of blacks by Florida election
officials during the 2000 presidential election allegely won but actually
stolen by George W. Bush remains a stinging point among blacks.<br><br>
Florida’s then Governor Jeb Bush, George’s brother, later acknowledged
his role in the voter suppression that handed the White House to his
brother. Jeb Bush enthusiastically backed passage of the “Stand Your
Ground” law, calling it a “good, common-sense anti-crime”
measure.<br><br>
The murder of Trayvon Martin shares similarities with the 1799 North
Carolina shooting. Both incidents involved the killing of blacks on
questionable provocation and white authorities loosely applying laws to
clear the murderers.<br><br>
In the 1799 incident the Supreme Court of North Carolina acquitted the
teen who had confronted a black man on a public road. The teen told that
man to get off the road or he would shoot him with a shotgun.<br><br>
That man walked to the other side of the road where the teen blocked him
again.<br><br>
The teen shot the man after “the negro shoved him with some violence to
the other side of the road” according to the court record…that exhibited
shades of the black brute stereotype.<br><br>
NC’s Supreme Court ruled the shooting manslaughter not murder – a crucial
ruling for the teen because NC law barred punishment for manslaughter in
the “malicious killing of a slave.” Incidentally, NC law at that time
deprived free blacks of rights as it did slaves.<br><br>
“There is enough evidence of probable cause here to arrest Zimmerman,”
said Benjamin Crump, the attorney for Trayvon Martin’s family, adding,
“Race is the elephant in this room.”<br><br>
<br>
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