The Victims of Trayvongate

Now it is impossible to believe, but it is a fact. The tragedy that is bringing thousands onto the streets of American cities, that is forcing America’s leading politicians, including Barack Obama, to issue strident statements, was once completely ignored both by politicians and the media. On the evening of Feb. 26, when the police of Sanford, Florida, recorded the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, neither they nor Trayvon’s parents could imagine that an event so commonplace for Florida — the death of a black man from a gunshot wound — would become an event of national and even global proportions. Or that it would become on par with Watergate, Iran-gate, and Monica-gate, thus earning the name “Trayvongate.”

On the evening of Feb. 26, the 911 emergency line of Sanford received a phone call. The speaker introduced himself as George Zimmerman, a member of the local volunteer community watch. He relayed that he had noticed, in the residential complex in which he himself also lived, a suspicious young black man holding something in his hands, perhaps a gun. “I’m going to follow him,” Zimmerman told the operator, proceeding to ask the operator to send a police squad. The emergency services officer replied that a police squad had been sent, and Zimmerman did not need to follow anyone. “We don’t need you to do that, sir,” said the emergency services officer. Just a few minutes after this conversation residents heard shouts for help, followed by a single gunshot. When they arrived at the scene, the police squad found a young black man wearing a hoodie lying in a pool of blood. Nearby lay a pack of candy and a bottle of iced tea. Next to the body stood a young white man, his face injured, blood dripping onto his red sweater. In his hands he held a gun.

The young man identified himself as George Zimmerman and told the police that he had killed the young man in self-defense. According to Zimmerman, when he came up to the guy and asked him what he was doing in this neighborhood, the teenager punched him, knocked him to the ground and started hitting his face. “I thought he was going to kill me,” Zimmerman said later.

The police escorted Zimmerman to the station, took his testimony, wrote up a report, interviewed witnesses who wholly confirmed everything the shooter said and released him. The teenager’s corpse was sent to the local morgue, where it was identified three days later by his father.

At first, everything fell into place for George Zimmerman. His testimony was corroborated by witnesses, one of whom had also called 911 and said that he saw someone beating up “a guy in a red sweater.” The injuries on his face and the back of his head were also consistent with the testimony of the shooter. Given that several residents of the region in which this tragedy took place had recently been the victims of attacks by black teens, the local police chief decided to close the case. Yes, Trayvon Martin was unarmed, but he was behaving aggressively, and Zimmerman had every right to defend himself. Especially since Florida is a state in which the law treats self-defense extraordinarily well.

In most states in America, there exists a law under which a person has every right to use lethal force in self-defense. However, one would have to prove, in court or during the inquiry, that he had first taken all measures of passive defense: retreating from the area in which an attack upon himself was possible, locking himself in his house and so on. Or at the very least, that he was unable to take such measures. In Florida, everything is different. In accordance with the “stand your ground” law adopted in 2005, a citizen has the right to immediately shoot to kill a threatening person, without even attempting to hide or leave the scene of the confrontation first.

According to the Sanford police, Zimmerman, since he was defending his life, acted within the bounds of the law. The fact that the victim was unarmed was irrelevant to the case. As, indeed, was the fact that the victim originally had no desire to harm Zimmerman.

Trayvon’s parents, Tracy Martin and Sabrina Fulton, did not agree with the police’s view. They had been separated for some time, which in fact explains Trayvon’s appearance in a neighborhood with which he was unfamiliar. He lived with his mother and on the last day of his life, he had just come to visit his father. He became bored with the adults, since he had no friends in the neighborhood, and so the teen decided to walk down to the store and back. He spent the whole walk talking on the phone to his girlfriend, who has now become one of the main witnesses to the incident.

“I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast…Trayvon said, ‘What are you following me for.’ And the man said, ‘What are you doing here.’ Next thing I hear is somebody pushing, and somebody pushed Trayvon because the head set just fell. I called him again and he didn’t answer the phone,” recounted his girlfriend, whose name authorities have not disclosed, as she is a minor.

Trayvon’s parents demanded an official investigation into the death of their son, and when the city police refused to do so, they launched a public campaign. In the view of Trayvon’s parents, everything was very simple: A racist citizen patrolman killed their son, and racist police officers were covering it up. This drew attention to the story of Trayvon Martin’s death, first just in the state’s liberal media and then in all of America. Numerous public organizations have spoken out and demanded that a full investigation be carried out. Demonstrations with similar demands have swept across the country, from Florida to Washington.

Initially, of course, Florida and U.S. law enforcement agencies refused to deal with the matter of the teenager from Sanford. This was not because they did not think it was a big deal. It was just because the case fell within the exclusive jurisdiction of the city police. State law enforcement agencies, and certainly the FBI and U.S. Justice Department, simply did not have the right to interfere. However — and this is just as much of an election year tradition as are primaries and party conventions — on the eve of the most important political event, nothing is impossible. As the case became more and more of a hot topic, regional and federal politicians were left with no choice but to give orders to the relevant authorities.

In early March, the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI announced that they would be looking into the murder of Trayvon Martin. Florida Governor Rick Scott in turn declared that the death of any teenager is a monstrous tragedy and should, of course, be investigated by specialists of the highest class. Sanford’s Police Chief announced that he was taking a temporary leave of absence, so as not to interfere with the investigation.

After this, it became clear that everything would be just as Trayvon’s parents wanted. And all they wanted was for George Zimmerman to be sent to the defendants’ chair, and from there, if possible, to death row. Judging by the great number of demonstrations organized in support of Trayvon, the vast majority of U.S. citizens were ready to agree with this. In any case, there were less and less people brave enough to dare to say anything in defense of Zimmerman. It got to the point, when it came to passing judgment on Zimmerman, that both Republicans and Democrats appeared on the same side of the issue. The scandal reached such a high pitch that even the U.S. president himself felt it was necessary to get involved.

“When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids. And I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this… But my main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” stated Barack Obama. Some Republicans tried to dissent and even accused Obama of using the racial factor to his own interests, but the critics were quickly silenced.

George Zimmerman is in hiding. This was the recommendation of the police who, given the present circumstances, were unable to guarantee his safety. The extent of the threat to his life is evidenced by the fact that an elderly couple was forced to temporarily move out of their house because one of the fighters for Trayvon’s rights gave their address as Zimmerman’s home address.

At the same time, the police are saying that Zimmerman is in constant contact with them and is being fully cooperative. But it is hard to say how long Zimmerman will continue to be willing to cooperate with the authorities. One of Zimmerman’s friends noted that he is becoming less and less confident every day in his belief that the matter of Trayvon’s death will be investigated thoroughly and impartially. According to him, Zimmerman has become the victim of a witch-hunt.

George Zimmerman is not the kind of person to whom the public feels an instinctual affinity. Quite the contrary. He has a criminal record (Trayvon Martin did not). He beat his girlfriend (Martin, as far as we know, did not). Finally, the 25-year-old Zimmerman killed a 17-year-old teenager, not the other way around. The print coverage of the tragedy has only exacerbated the issue. The newspapers continually publish pictures of Martin in his sports uniform, at an amusement park, with a baby in his arms. Each time his picture is accompanied by the same photo, taken by the police, of Zimmerman in the orange garb of a prisoner. Finally, observers are saying that, in America, there have not been such mass demonstrations in condemnation of a single person for a very long time. The Zimmerman case, they say, is almost unique. America has not known such national hatred directed at one man since the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in 2001, and even then people did not take to the streets demanding that Osama Bin Laden be personally punished. Furthermore — and this, too, is characteristic of the current situation — not a single serious media outlet or politician has commented on the statement issued by the racist, anti-Semitic organization, the New Black Panther Party, which declared that it believes in the validity of the principle, “an eye for an eye, a death for a death,” and offered $10,000 to whomever would reveal Zimmerman’s location or facilitate his arrest. Given this organization’s track record, the proviso about arrest is no more than a nod in the direction of the law enforcement agencies, in case the Black Panthers are accused of calling for the murder of Zimmerman.

It is no surprise that even Zimmerman’s closest friends are now trying to stay in the shadows and that their explanations and comments are taking the form of apologies. “As far as I know, Zimmerman himself is a representative of an ethnic minority [he is Latino], so he can’t be a racist,” said his former teacher.* He quickly added that Zimmerman should be placed in prison, “if only for his own safety.” Any and all attempts to defend Zimmerman are condemned and suppressed.

“Look, the whole problem was that this guy was a guest in our neighborhood. George went up to him and asked what he was doing. If the guy had just answered that he was only visiting, that his father lived here, then everything would have ended right there,” said one of Zimmerman’s neighbors, who had been asked to appear on television, in an attempt to explain the situation.* “These words are sickening,” a black activist who was invited into the studio immediately declared. “I’m just sick of people mocking Trayvon.”* Zimmerman’s defendant, of course, was not allowed another word.

There is another reason that no one is in any hurry to help Zimmerman. This reason is the right’s desire to retain — regardless of what might happen — the existing self-defense law in Florida, without any significant changes. The only way to accomplish this is to divert the public’s attention from the law and acknowledge only Zimmerman’s wrongdoing. And it must be said, that even Zimmerman’s lawyer is working towards the same end.

“In my legal opinion, [‘stand your ground’] is not really applicable to this case. The statute on ‘stand your ground’ is primarily when you’re in your house,” said one of Zimmerman’s lawyers. “When my defendant ran after the man, he lost the right to use this law to justify his actions. However, he retained all his other self-defense rights.”*

The official federal investigation into the murder of Trayvon Martin continues. The lawyers are saying that if the case were to be separated from politics, then either Zimmerman would be acquitted, or the case would not even make it into court. After such hype, Zimmerman’s lawyers will easily prove that not a single state in the U.S. could guarantee their defendant an impartial examination of the case. However, there is little reason to expect that the authorities won’t listen to the voice of the public in a presidential election year. And there is no doubt that public voice is only getting louder. It was revealed last week that Sabrina Fulton has already filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for acquisition of the rights to the phrases, “Justice for Trayvon,” and “I am Trayvon.” Many people felt that this news was just as terrible as that of Trayvon’s murder. Zimmerman’s few defenders even accused the teenager’s parents, as well as the main supporter and organizer of the protest marches, Al Sharpton, of attempting to capitalize on the teenager’s death commercially or politically.

*Editor’s Note: The original quotation, although accurately translated, could not be verified.