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Early in the dark and rainy Sunday evening of February 26, 2012, TrayvonMartin, a tall, slim 17-year-old African-American boy, walked from the home ofhis fathers fiance in Sanford, FL, a suburb of Orlando, to buy a can of ice teaand a package of Skittles candy from a 7-Eleven. Martin, who lived with hismother in Miami, was visiting his father during a ten-day suspension from highschool after traces of marijuana were found in his book bag.

On his way back from the 7-Eleven, Martin was observed by a neighborhoodwatch coordinator named George Zimmerman, a hefty white man in his latter20s whose mother was Peruvian. Zimmerman thought Martin lookedsuspicious and called 911 from his SUV.

The neighborhood in question was a gated community called Retreat at TwinLakes which had a problem with burglaries. The previous fall, at Zimmermansrequest, a representative of the Sanford Police had met with a couple of dozen

Twin Lakes residents to set up a neighborhood watch. Their role, therepresentative told them, was to be the eyes and ears of the police, notvigilantes, and they should avoid confrontations and call the police from thesafety of their homes or cars.

The residents designated Zimmerman as their watch coordinator.Zimmerman, who worked as an analyst at a mortgage firm, watched the TwinLakes neighborhood in the evening.

Despite some history ofviolence, Zimmerman had obtained a permit to carry aconcealed handgun, which is easy to get in Florida. Although neighborhoodwatchers dont possess police powers and supposedly dont carry weapons, onthe evening of February 26th Zimmerman was carrying a concealed 9millimeter handgun.

When he called 911, Zimmerman told the police dispatcher of his suspicionsabout the person he described as a black teenager and then commented,

These assholes, they always get away. (At minute 1:38 of the first ofeightedited tapes later released by the police) The dispatcher (at 2:23) asked ifZimmerman was following the teenager, and when Zimmerman said he was,the dispatcher said that the police dont need you to do that. But Zimmerman,who had gotten out of his SUV, continued to do that.

Meanwhile, according to a girlfriend with whom Martin was conversing througha headset connected to a cell phone in his pocket, Martin mentioned someonewas following him. She told him to run, but he wouldnt.

Shortly thereafter, before the police arrived, Zimmerman and Martin met up.According to Zimmerman, he had lost sight of Martin and was returning to hisSUV when Martin came up behind him and accosted him. They got into an

argument and then Martin decked him with one punch, jumped on top of himand started banging his head on the walkway.

Zimmerman was calling for help, according to one eyewitness, who told Martin(presumably) to stop and then went into his home to call 911. Before hereached his phone, he heard at least one gun shot. And then, when I gotupstairs and looked down, the guy who was on the top beating up the otherguy, was the one laying in the grass, and I believe he was dead at that point.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/us/trayvon-martin-had-been-suspended-over-marijuana.html?hphttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/us/trayvon-martin-death-spotlights-neighborhood-watch-groups.html?_r=1&hpw=&pagewanted=allhttp://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-03-23/news/os-trayvon-martin-george-zimmerman-job-20120323_1_robert-zimmerman-source-new-detailshttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-horwitz/arming-zimmerman_b_1367648.htmlhttp://www.usaonwatch.org/assets/publications/0_NW_Manual_1210.pdf#xmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/trayvon-martin-911-audio-_n_1354909.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/trayvon-martin-911-audio-_n_1354909.htmlhttp://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/seminole_news/022712-man-shot-and-killed-in-neighborhood-altercationhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/us/trayvon-martin-had-been-suspended-over-marijuana.html?hphttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/us/trayvon-martin-death-spotlights-neighborhood-watch-groups.html?_r=1&hpw=&pagewanted=allhttp://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-03-23/news/os-trayvon-martin-george-zimmerman-job-20120323_1_robert-zimmerman-source-new-detailshttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-horwitz/arming-zimmerman_b_1367648.htmlhttp://www.usaonwatch.org/assets/publications/0_NW_Manual_1210.pdf#xmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/trayvon-martin-911-audio-_n_1354909.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/trayvon-martin-911-audio-_n_1354909.htmlhttp://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/seminole_news/022712-man-shot-and-killed-in-neighborhood-altercation

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Another eyewitness, a teenage boy who was walking his dog, told the 911operator that he saw a man in a red shirt (Zimmerman) on the ground who wasscreaming and needed help. Later, chasing his dog, he heard a gunshot andthen the screaming stopped.

By that time, several residents were calling 911. When the police arrived,

Zimmerman admitted that he killed Martin but claimed self-defense. Thepolice made a cursory investigation, found no reason to doubt Zimmerman andreleased him without charges. Over the course of the next month, protestsover the police inaction and the killing grew rapidly throughout the country andeven abroad.

But the Sanford police inaction was consistent with how the courts interpretFloridas law on the justifiable use of force, which is to free assailants claimingself-defense unless they determine that there is probable cause that the use offorce was unlawful. In a case in Miami a month after Martin was killed, the

judge dismissed a murder case against a young man who had chased downand stabbed a suspected burglar on the grounds that his claim of self-defensewas credible.

In 2005 Florida enacted a Stand Your Ground law promoted by the NationalRifle Association (NRA), which exists to promote the sale of firearms. A keysection provides in part that a person is justified in the use of deadly force anddoes not have a duty to retreat if:

(1) He or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary toprevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herselforanotheror to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony;[emphasis added]

In the years since enactment,justifiable homicide cases have tripled. Florida ison its way to becoming a new state-wide O.K. Corral reality show. Who or what

is to blame?In the senseless and tragic death of Trayvon Martin, however the conflictingstories are resolved, George Zimmerman is to blame. He became a vigilantea person who is not a member of law enforcement but who pursues andpunishes persons suspected of lawbreakingin pursuit of an innocent manwhom he killed with a concealed weapon.

In the larger context, the real culprits are Floridas Stand Your Ground law andthe states policy of encouraging its residents to arm themselves and carryconcealed weapons. In concert they elevate every angry confrontation into apotentially lethal one.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/trayvon-martin-911-audio-_n_1354909.htmlhttp://www.sun-sentinel.com/os-trayvon-martin-shooting-zimmerman-letter-20120315,0,757781.storyhttp://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0776/Sections/0776.032.htmlhttp://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0776/Sections/0776.032.htmlhttp://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0776/Sections/0776.012.htmlhttp://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0776/Sections/0776.012.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/22/trayvon-martin-case-stand_n_1372105.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunfight_at_the_O.K._Corralhttp://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=vigilante&submit.x=46&submit.y=20http://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=vigilante&submit.x=46&submit.y=20http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/trayvon-martin-911-audio-_n_1354909.htmlhttp://www.sun-sentinel.com/os-trayvon-martin-shooting-zimmerman-letter-20120315,0,757781.storyhttp://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0776/Sections/0776.032.htmlhttp://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0776/Sections/0776.032.htmlhttp://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0776/Sections/0776.012.htmlhttp://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0776/Sections/0776.012.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/22/trayvon-martin-case-stand_n_1372105.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunfight_at_the_O.K._Corralhttp://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=vigilante&submit.x=46&submit.y=20http://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=vigilante&submit.x=46&submit.y=20