{"id":1077,"date":"2012-03-27T21:09:22","date_gmt":"2012-03-28T01:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.law.harvard.edu\/journals\/hlpr\/?p=1077"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:23:41","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:23:41","slug":"trayvons-killing-exposes-festering-wounds-of-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2012\/03\/27\/trayvons-killing-exposes-festering-wounds-of-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"Trayvon’s Killing Exposes Festering Wounds of Racism"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Billy Corriher<\/p>\n

<\/em>When the lives of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin collided on February 26, neither one could have understood what was happening. Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch volunteer, and he mistakenly thought this skinny teenager, walking down the street with candy, was some sort of threat. \u00a0Martin, on the other hand, had no idea why this stranger was staring at him and following him. \u00a0Visiting his father in Sanford, Florida, Martin had grown up in Miami, a diverse city where young black males are not accustomed to suspicion and harassment. \u00a0In a few moments, Martin would be lying face down on the ground with a hole in his chest.<\/p>\n

Zimmerman found Martin suspicious because he was walking too slowly in the rain, and so he called 911. The 911 operator advised him not to follow the person, but Zimmerman did. \u00a0Martin\u2019s girlfriend, who was speaking with him on the phone, said she heard Martin ask a person if he was following him. \u00a0What happened next is unclear. \u00a0Neighbors\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0they heard an altercation, then cries for help, and finally, a gunshot.
\n
\nSince Martin\u2019s death, the world has been\u00a0focused<\/a>\u00a0on the small town of Sanford. \u00a0Civil rights leaders have ledrallies<\/a>\u00a0calling<\/a>\u00a0for Zimmerman\u2019s arrest. \u00a0Zimmerman has faced criticism for carrying a gun and for following someone who did nothing wrong. \u00a0It is clear that Zimmerman was very bad at watching his neighborhood, and his incompetence may have caused this grave tragedy.<\/p>\n

Residents of Sanford\u2019s historically black community, Goldsboro, expressed frustration at police inaction. \u00a0David, a barber at 13th Street Barber Shop in Goldsboro, said the Police Chief\u2019s resignation will not ease the tension. \u00a0He described the shooting as \u201cmurder,\u201d but his customers said they doubt Zimmerman will be arrested. \u00a0David said Sanford police have long had a strained relationship with black residents, citing allegations of police\u00a0brutality<\/a>. \u00a0Edward Young said that, until he moved to Sanford from Detroit a year ago, he had never encountered explicit racism. \u201cI\u2019ve never heard of anything like this,\u201d he said. \u201cI was called \u2018nigger\u2019 for the first time in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police said they declined to arrest Zimmerman because prosecutors advised that his conduct was justified under Florida\u2019s \u201cstand your ground\u201d law. \u00a0The statute\u00a0expanded the traditional right of self-defense<\/a>. \u00a0At common law, citizens could use deadly force to defend their homes, even if they could retreat to avoid danger, but a citizen in a public place had to first attempt to retreat. \u00a0Under the Florida law, citizens facing danger in public do not have to retreat before killing the aggressor.<\/p>\n

Sanford authorities should have at least required Zimmerman to tell a court his side of the story. \u00a0Some Republican supporters of the \u201cstand your ground\u201d law\u00a0say<\/a>\u00a0it shouldn\u2019t<\/a>\u00a0protect Zimmerman. \u00a0The authorities in Sanford, Florida, allowed a man to kill an unarmed teenager with impunity.\u00a0 Police should have been more concerned about Martin\u2019s death than protecting the vigilante who killed him.\u00a0 Studies have\u00a0noted<\/a>disparities in punishment for persons suspected of killing members of a certain race.<\/p>\n

Because Martin was from Miami, he may not have grown up around racism.\u00a0 A young black male from Sanford may not have been so confused about why this person was following him. \u00a0Though much smaller, Martin\u00a0may have even been<\/a>\u00a0the aggressor. \u00a0Perhaps Zimmerman tried to retreat but couldn\u2019t. \u00a0These questions ought to be confronted and settled in court.\u00a0 Trayvon Martin deserves that much.\u00a0 Justice would go a long way towards healing this divided community<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Billy Corriher When the lives of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin collided on February 26, neither one could have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQka-hn","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}