Posted on 05/04/2012 12:19:57 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin has seen the media at its sensationalist worst. Press reports have cast Martin’s shooter, George Zimmerman, as a trigger-happy vigilante looking to make trouble where there was none. Attached to this storyline has been the charged subtext that Zimmerman acted out of racial prejudice, confronting Martin simply because the latter was black. Not surprisingly, this media-made version of the shooting has roiled racial passions across the country, turning a tragedy into a referendum on American race relations and setting up one of the most polarizing legal cases in recent history. But there is in fact far more to the story, as a recent Reuters’ investigation illuminates.
Reuters‘ report provides a complexity to the story that has been so sorely missing until now. Among other things, it calls into question the notion that white racism was the motivating factor in Martin’s shooting. That narrative was never entirely convincing, and not just because the mixed-race Zimmerman never fit into the media’s neat white-gunman-black-victim allegory. The New York Times‘ designation of Zimmerman as a “white Hispanic” was only the most strained attempt to impose a racial framework on the shooting.
Reuters‘ report muddles the racial element even further. It points out that Zimmerman was not only half-Hispanic but he also had black roots, tracing back to his Afro-Peruvian great grandfather on his mother’s side. So far from harboring anti-black racial resentments, he appears to have sought out the company of black friends and colleagues. In 2004, for instance, Zimmerman, an insurance agent, teamed up with a black friend to start up an insurance office.
Even more significant, perhaps, Reuters’ report makes clear that much of the media has simply failed to present the context in which the shooting took place. Yet that context is critical to understanding, if not justifying, why the shooting happened as it did. One would never suspect if from most media accounts, but Zimmerman had good reason to be suspicious of an unknown young black man walking through his neighborhood – and racism had nothing to do with it.
In the months before their fatal meeting, Zimmerman’s Twin Lakes community was hit by a crime wave that saw young black men commit a number of break-ins and burglaries. As the collapse of Florida’s housing market took its toll on the community, depressing home values and driving up crime, Zimmerman and his neighbors increasingly began to fear for their safety and for the security of their homes. Reuters reports that in the 14 months before Martin was killed, there were at least eight burglaries reported in Twin Lakes. Residents also reported dozens of attempted break-ins and incidents of burglars casing homes. Zimmerman’s city of Sanford was especially hard hit. According to Neighborhood Scout, a website that aggregates crime in American cities, on a 100-point scale where 100 is most safe and zero is least safe, Sanford had a dismal rating of 3.
Zimmerman was well aware of the breadth of the crime problem in Sanford. Indeed, he was one of the victims. The Reuters report notes that in July 2011, a black teenager walked up to Zimmerman’s front porch and stole a bicycle. Zimmerman also saw his neighbors victimized by burglars. On August 3, just a few months after his bicycle had been stolen, two black men broke into the home of Zimmerman’s neighbor Olivie Bertalan and attempted to steal her television. Bertalan, then home alone with her infant son, called the police, who arrived just as the burglars fled. Police reports show that Bertalan subsequently reported a digital camera and a laptop computer as stolen. Among those who had seen the robbery was Zimmerman’s wife, Shellie, who witnessed a black male teenager running through her backyard and reported it to the police.
Such incidents suggest that Zimmerman was justified in worrying about crime in Sanford. If he was suspicious of unfamiliar black men in his neighborhood, he was not the only one. “People were freaked out,” Bertalan told Reuters. “It wasn’t just George calling police … we were calling police at least once a week.” Significantly, those worried about crime committed by young black men included Zimmerman’s black neighbors. One black neighbor interviewed by Reuters said:
“Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. I’m black, OK? There were black boys robbing houses in this neighborhood. That’s why George was suspicious of Trayvon Martin.”
Tellingly, the woman refused to be identified. One can hardly blame her. By investing Martin’s shooting with racial connotations, the popular media and race demagogues like Al Sharpton have already incited a violent backlash, with black militants attacking whites under the banner of “justice for Trayvon.” That she wouldn’t wish to join the list of casualties of this racial revenge is understandable.
Still, it is clear that to understand what happened in Sanford, crime and not race is the relevant factor. Worried by the surge in crime, Zimmerman and a group of neighbors formed a neighborhood watch. While that fact has been cited to suggest that Zimmerman was “paranoid,” the fact is that he had already been forced to watch as a man he believed to be a burglar got away scot free. On February 2, 2012, according to Reuters, Zimmerman called the Sanford police after spotting a young black man peering into the windows of his neighbor’s empty home. Zimmerman said that he did not want to approach the man, and the police dispatcher told Zimmerman that a police car was on its way. When the police arrived, however, the young man had already fled the scene.
In light of this history, it is not entirely surprising that when Zimmerman noticed another young black man in his neighborhood on February 26, he became suspicious. He placed another call to the police, but this time, in circumstances that remain unclear, an alteration took place between him and the young man. That young man, of course, was Trayvon Martin.
It goes without saying that Sanford’s history of crime and Zimmerman’s previous experiences with black criminals in his neighborhood do not by themselves justify his shooting of Trayvon Martin, which is now the subject of a murder trial. But viewed in context these facts do suggest that the popular perception of the shooting, in which a self-styled community enforcer provoked a deadly confrontation with a young man just because he happened to be black, is woefully incomplete.
Only the legal system can exonerate George Zimmerman. In the meantime, Reuters’ report goes a small way to providing some perspective on the case. In the process, it restores some hope that a tragedy won’t be compounded by a false narrative that sows racial strife and public division even as it has little do with reality.
As long as blacks protect and approve criminal behavior things will get worse.Decent black people will have to demand change in black men’s behavior.But the Democrats under LBJ used the federal government to destroy the traditional self-respecting black family in order to buy votes of blacks dependent on government handouts.So EVERYBODY that pays taxes has a stake inreducing those government programs.
Truer words were never spoken. It has long been my belief that LBJ destroyed the black family when he started increasing the welfare checks for each child born to “single mothers:.
The article still pussy foots around the facts that resulted in the Sanford Police concluding the homicide of Martin was not murder, it was self defence homicide.
There is a considerable difference between homicide and murder. This article pretends to tell the truth, invoking a kind of quietude , meant to mollify white America, when white America should be deeply concerned and even outraged at Zimmerman’s treatment by the State of Florida and its cowardly governor, allowing in effect a political show trial for Zimmerman through circumventing the grand jury process.
Yes the article uses the term murder rather than homicide, displaying their true “color” on the Zimmerman case.Leftist propaganda can be coarse, and disturbing, but it can also be very subtle.
Zimmerman is the victim of a de facto violation of his due process rights as a citizen.He has in effect been subject to a defacto Bill of Attainder by the presidential pronouncement that Martin could have been his son.
It is well past time that America rids itself of the leftist scourge that Barrak Obama has become.In fact the majority of patriotic, constitution loving Americans, whether they are black or not, could care less whether Obama walks out of office or is carried out in a box.
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot about the Trayvon Martin thing. I’ve been “alerted” to so many new murder cases in the Detroit area that the Martin-Zimmerman affair just sort of dropped off of my ‘mur-dar’.
His family says he was “just walking home from the gas station”. Couple things I would like to see. A map. Was the gas station on the opposite side of the housing area from his home?
Why was he at the gas station? Walking, he obviously didn’t need gas. Did he smoke? was he buying something? Does the tape at the station back up this story? was he really ever there?
This thing is such Bovine Scat from the get go I would bet that the most inexperienced “journalist” could poke a hole you could drive a Peterbilt through without breaking a sweat. Of course, the danger to life and limb from libtards would probably cause a “cold sweat”.
And, among those decent black people must be those who are heroes to kids..The basketball and football players..The celebrity actors and musicians. Those with visibility must set the standard. It seems to me that the standard has gotten much lower over the past three years..Wonder why?
I worked with a black friend (single Mom) several years ago and I felt so sorry for her day in and day out as she searched for a way to get herself and her kids out of their crime ridden neighborhood because she was worried for her 13 year old son..SAD!
Justa few moments mapquesting Sanford FL Twin Lakes Nearest gas station makes me VERY sceptical.
How lazy does a reporter have to be to use media matters and Trayvon Martin’s sloppy lawyer as the sole source? If that Crump dude said George Zimmerman was from another planet, NBC would print it as fact.
You probably just started another meme. NBC will steal your idea and run with it.
I don’t hold out a lot of hope for this Trayvon ‘thingy’ to end in anything other than a tragedy of montumental proportions, our SBS (Special Broadcasting Service ) which is tilted so far to the left it’s in danger of falling onto it’s left ear...is still presenting us nightly with the sad story of the poor teenager wearing a hoodie who went to buy some skittles and ice tea for his little brother, and was shot on the way home by a cold blooded white man named Zimmerman. They are still using the same original images also, of dear little Trayvon when he was about twelve, and Zimmerman with the colour changed to make his shirt look like he was wearing an orange prison jumpsuit.
You couldn’t blame the Australian audience for assuming the worst, when PBS is priming them for it. The marxists are just itching for a race-war regardless of where they make it happen.
Wait! It's a "gas station" now?!? What happened to the "7-Eleven store" that had previously been reported by name?
You really do need to bring yourself up to speed by reading some of the many, many threads on this subject. Just use the keyword GeorgeZimmerman. For starters, Trayvon went to a convenience store and bought Skittles and Iced Tea.
When you hear some one say, "That black bastard" there is a 3-1 chance that he is correct.
There is only tatters remaining of the traditional black family so looking to the black family for help is futile.
Margaret Sanger would be proud.
Still waiting for any evidence to corroborate that assertion by the family.
It would be interesting to get the states for the two months after Martin was killed...
Our 7-Elevens are gas stations here in NJ.
You need to catch up. Read Conservative Treehouse.
Many of our 7-11’s are gas stations in PA as well.
No help. I found the site you didn't provide a link to. Maybe if I had a few days to wade through it I would find something related to my comment?
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