The implication of the verdict in the Zimmerman trial is that Zimmerman had a right to defend himself. That does seem to impose the role of aggressor on Trayvon Martin -- against whom Zimmerman was defending himself, doesn't it?
But we know from early reports that Zimmerman chose to follow -- "dog the footsteps" of -- Martin, not the other way around.
A teenage boy in a gray hooded sweatshirt leaves a 7-Eleven’s neon brightness with his purchase of some candy and an iced tea, and heads back into the wet Sunday evening of Feb. 26, back to a residential complex with a forbidding gate and a comforting name.
Trayvon Martin was more than welcome there; he was expected.
With his hood up as the rain came down, Trayvon made his way to one gated community among many, the Retreat at Twin Lakes. Past a dozen storefronts, four of them vacant. Past signs and billboards shouting “Now Leasing!” and “Rent Specials!” His was a tour of a post-bust stretch of Sanford.
For more than two years now, Trayvon’s father, Tracy Martin, a truck driver from Miami, had been dating Brandy Green, a juvenile detention officer in Orlando. She lived at the Retreat with her 14-year-old son, Chad, and it was not uncommon for the Martins to drive up from Miami for overnight visits.
Over six feet tall and lanky, Trayvon was interested in girls, computer games, sports and the beat of the rap and hip-hop emanating from the ear buds of his smartphone. Sleeping in Miami Dolphins bedsheets, he was all teenage boy, and more. ...NYT, 4/1/12
We also know that George Zimmerman didn't just happen to be at the site. There had been burglaries and Zimmerman had offered himself up as a neighborhood watchdog, a position for which he had shown real relish.
Last August, the homeowners association decided to create a neighborhood watch, and a Sanford police official came to the Retreat to explain the guidelines: volunteers do not possess police powers; they should not be armed; and they should be the eyes and ears for the police — but not vigilantes.
The group chose as its neighborhood watch coordinator the very man who had invited the official to speak: a man with thinning dark hair and an average build named George Zimmerman. The next month, the newsletter for the homeowners association included a cartoon of a man peering through a magnifying glass, à la Sherlock Holmes, next to a call for help: “We have recently experienced an increased incidence of crime within the community, including three break-ins in the past month, which is why having residents committed to being members of the Neighborhood Watch and reporting suspicious activities is so important. We must send a message that we will not tolerate this in our community!”
To get involved, the newsletter said, “Call George Zimmerman.”... ...NYT, 4/1/12
But, as the Times point out, Zimmerman liked to carry a gun -- "a licensed, slim 9-millimeter handgun that he kept in a holster tucked in his waistband — was in his truck when he noticed a hooded figure walking through the complex."
The ability to defend oneself in a serious encounter lay very clearly with George Zimmerman. People in the neighborhood and in Sanford knew him and -- this was clear from the outset -- whites liked and admired him while African Americans living in the same community believed they had cause to dislike him.
A 17-year-old African-American, Teontae Amie, who lives at the Retreat, recalled that Mr. Zimmerman once wrongly accused his friend of stealing a bike. “When you see him, you think automatically that he might try something,” said Teontae, who added that he kept his distance from the neighborhood watch coordinator. ...NYT, 4/1/12
Zimmerman wanted to be a police officer. And the police were very familiar with him.
Police records over the last several years suggest a man who was quite familiar with 911 dispatchers; who seemed, somehow, to be always in the middle of things. In October 2003, for example, on perhaps his greatest day in civic vigilance, Mr. Zimmerman chased after and assisted in the capture of a man who had stolen two 13-inch TV/DVD players from an Albertsons.
Mostly, though, his calls were less exciting, more anticipatory. Dangerous potholes. Stray dogs. Speeding vehicles. Open garage doors. Suspicious characters. On Feb. 2, he reported seeing a black man in a black leather jacket and printed pajamas in the Retreat; nothing came of it. ...NYT, 4/1/12
When he drove by on the evening he question, he spotted Trayvon with his munchies and a soda, he called the police. "This guy seemed to be up to no good; like he was on drugs or something; in a gray hoodie. Asked to describe him further, he said, 'He looks black. Now he’s just staring at me,” he said.
It's not like no blacks lived at the Retreat. So "he looks black" could easily be translated as "he's probably from the neighborhood." Or if he'd said, "He looks white," that could just as easily have meant the same thing. The color distinction was gratuitous. The thing is, Zimmerman was tailing Martin, not the other way around, and at some distance. The police told Zimmerman to keep his distance, not to interfere with Martin. But Zimmerman "jumped out of his car" and followed Martin.
I don't know about you, but this has a distinct look of predator and prey to me.
The wind could be heard whooshing through Mr. Zimmerman’s cellphone as he tried to keep the visitor in view. Also heard is a garbled epithet that some have interpreted to be a racial slur, though his father insisted that his son would never say anything like that. Dispatcher: “Are you following him?”
Mr. Zimmerman: “Yeah.”
Dispatcher: “O.K., we don’t need you to do that.”
Mr. Zimmerman: “O.K.”
He and the dispatcher arranged for Mr. Zimmerman to meet a police officer near the mailboxes at the development’s clubhouse, and the call ended with a “thank you” and a “you’re welcome.” ...NYT, 4/1/12
But Zimmerman left his car and tailed Martin on foot.
The Diane Rehm show had an interesting panel discussion of the case this morning. Maybe I've just missed this point until now but then, in all the talk of "stand your ground" as applied to George Zimmerman and his defense, I wasn't thinking about it. It's a simple question but I haven't seen much if anything about it. If Zimmerman was following -- tailing -- dogging Martin, wasn't Martin's normal reaction to react defensively. Didn't he have the overriding motive for self-defense?
Has anyone raised the issue that a scared kid being followed in a place where he has every right to be -- not somewhere off-limits -- was defending himself in any way possible from a stalking and (as Martin may or may not have known) armed older man? If you're a wannabe police officer but actually someone with no credentials, do you have special rights?
Does the Stand Your Ground law apply equally to whites and blacks? Who has a greater right to stand his ground, the innocent guy or the pursuer (whose motives are unclear to the pursued)?
Or am I being really stupid because you can't be right, innocent, and black at the same time? If that isn't a stupid question, then I'd like hear a full response from Eric Holder.
For a legal analysis of Florida's Stand Your Ground law and, well, how very bad it is, listen to this audio clip starting at 14:20 ...and until your head explodes...
