I hadn’t picked up on the story of Trayvon Martin’s death until today, when I checked out my favorite blogs and I ran across this account from asiangrrlMN on Imani Gandy’s most excellent blog, Angry Black Lady Chronicles:
Trayvon Martin was a 17-year old black teenager who was visiting his father, step-mother, and little brother in Sanford, Florida. One night, he left the townhouse in the gated community where they lived to walk to the nearby 7-11 to pick up some Skittles and Arizona Ice Tea. It was raining out, and he was wearing a hoodie. A normal kid, making a normal convenience store run at night to pick up a few things. Nothing unusual about that, right? In a just world, there shouldn’t be, but in our world, there was. Trayvon Martin is dead, and his killer is walking around free, almost a month later.
Like many people, I didn’t hear of the case when it first happened. It wasn’t until the 911 tapes were released that the case started gaining traction in the media. The story unfolded gradually, and with each new piece of information, the story became more and more disturbing – not to mention enraging, heartbreaking, and depressing. It also became very complex and layered, so I’m going to try to break it down as best as I can.
As promised, asiangrrl does a really good job of breaking down this very complicated story, so please go read it.
Also, both the Justice Department and the FBI are investigating Trayvon’s death:
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, and the FBI opened an investigation into the facts and circumstances of the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. The department will conduct a thorough and independent review of all of the evidence and take appropriate action at the conclusion of the investigation. The department also is providing assistance to and cooperating with the state officials in their investigation into the incident. With all federal civil rights crimes, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person acted intentionally and with the specific intent to do something which the law forbids – the highest level of intent in criminal law. Negligence, recklessness, mistakes and accidents are not prosecutable under the federal criminal civil rights laws.
I have a son a few years older than Trayvon, and I have often thought how utterly horrific I would feel if I were the mother of a black male and thus had no choice but to increase my concerns for his well being times ten every time he left the house. That being said, I am so angered by this incident, and not just at the guy who gunned down Trayvon Martin, but at the society in which black people, especially black males, have been fodder for target practice for so long.
It has to end.
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