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Trayvon Martin and America’s Gun Laws

Trayvon Martin and America’s Gun Laws
Just after seven-thirty on the morning of February 27th, a seventeen-year-old boy named T. J. Lane walked into the cafeteria at Chardon High School, about thirty miles outside Cleveland. It was a Monday, and the cafeteria was filled with kids, some eating breakfast, some waiting for buses to drive them to programs at other schools, some packing up for gym class. Lane sat down at an empty table, reached into a bag, and pulled out a .22-calibre pistol. He stood up, raised the gun, and fired. Russell King, a seventeen-year-old junior, was sitting at a table with another junior, Nate Mueller. Ever since the shootings at Columbine High School, in a Denver suburb, in 1999, American schools have been preparing for gunmen. At Chardon High School, kids ran through the halls screaming “Lockdown!” From the cafeteria, Frank Hall, the assistant football coach, chased Lane out of the building, and he ran off into the woods. Moments later, four ambulances arrived. Danny Parmertor died that afternoon.

The Trayvon Blues Founded and preserved by acts of aggression, characterized by a continuing tradition of self-righteous violence against suspected subversion and by a vigorous sense of personal freedom, usually involving the widespread possession of firearms, the United States has evidenced a unique tolerance for homicide. -David Brion DavisHomicide in American Fiction 1798-1860 The Trayvon Martin story is not going to go away. It was a narrative event waiting to happen, and the story only gets richer with meaning as time goes on. Since the police and the various paralegal and wannabe versions of police are the first-line of contact between individuals and The State the incident's outcome is important in the struggle between citizens’ rights and state power. So far, the police and a flawed criminal justice system are winning most of the battles. George Zimmerman, the Retreat at Twin Lakes and Trayvon Martin Then there’s the realm of cameras versus guns and handcuffs.

Trayvon Martin Case Spotlights Florida Town's History Of 'Sloppy' Police Work SANFORD, Fla. -- In the summer of 2010, a masked man gunned down Ikeem Ruffin, 17, in an apartment complex on this city's north side. When police arrived, they found Ruffin dead and another teenager beside the body calling for an ambulance. The next day, police charged the teen with robbery and murder. Prosecutors dropped the murder charge last August and said another man, still unidentified, pulled the trigger. Teresa Ruffin, the victim's mother, said the police overlooked important evidence -- including a witness who pointed to another suspect -- and allowed her son's killer to go free. "They didn't do their job," Ruffin said of the police. Ruffin, who is black, said she sees parallels between how Sanford police officers handled her son’s murder and how they investigated the killing of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teenager shot to death Feb. 26 by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who told police he acted in self-defense. Martin's killing has sparked national outrage. Sgt.

Alan Dershowitz: The "Rorschach" Facts in the Killing of Trayvon Martin The time has come for the cheerleading on both sides to stop in the killing of Trayvon Martin and for everybody to unite around the need for the truth -- or as much of it as we can recapture -- to emerge as to precisely what happened on that dark, rainy night. Once the facts have been established, by scientific, forensic and other evidence, then we can begin to analyze whether these facts constitute a defense under Florida's stand your ground statute, which, for better or worse, strongly favors the defendant. At the moment, the facts in the case -- at least those known to the public -- are ever shifting. One journalist aptly characterized the case as, "a narrative Rorschach that each side will interpret as it wishes." Now it has been announced that the special prosecutor may soon release new information that may change both the public perception of the case and its legal strengths and weaknesses. Several points can be made even now with a high degree of certainty.

Adam Winkler: Will George Zimmerman Be Convicted? The news that Florida prosecutors are bringing charges against George Zimmerman for the death of Trayvon Martin raises two questions: Will Zimmerman be convicted? And what role will Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law play in the case? Before considering either of these two questions, however, one must recognize that we don't have all the relevant facts yet. Yet one thing is clear: prosecutors are not going to have an easy time convicting Zimmerman. What no one apparently disputes is that Zimmerman, an active neighborhood watch volunteer, saw Martin out on the street of the residential community; called 9-1-1 to report a suspicious person; followed Martin despite being told that wasn't necessary by the 9-1-1 dispatch; and eventually shot Martin at close range. Beyond that, however, there is much uncertainty. That's not, however, due to the Stand Your Ground Law. What if Zimmerman's story isn't credible?

Florida v. Zimmerman Needs the Bravest Judge Around - Andrew Cohen - National Why the case won't be as straightforward as you might expect. Put yourself in special prosecutor Angela Corey's shoes for just a moment. On the one hand, she has an ethical obligation not to prosecute a case she doesn't believe she can win. Given the choice between the two options, to do something or to do nothing, it is perhaps inevitable that Corey would have exercised her discretion to charge George Zimmerman with the murder of Trayvon Martin. So long as Corey and her team present a professional case against Zimmerman, so long as they are aggressive but honest in handling the evidence and the witnesses against him, they are now in a no-lose situation. Corey? A talk show host asked me, on the air, to put myself in Zimmerman's shoes today. He is alone but he isn't the first despised criminal defendant and he surely won't be the last. There is an old saying in the law that the vast majority of criminal cases can be handled by the vast majority of trial judges. Image: Reuters

George Zimmerman's trial could be as divisive as OJ Simpson's | Gary Younge George Zimmerman is behind bars. Six weeks after he shot Trayvon Martin, the state of Florida has been pressured, from above and below, to at least contemplate the notion that a man who killed an unarmed child might have a case to answer. He has now been charged with second-degree murder. What follows from here has the potential to be every bit as divisive as the OJ Simpson trial and every bit as inflammatory as the Rodney King case – only this time there's a black president in an election year. Given that it was political pressure that made the trial possible, it would be naive to suggest that, now Zimmerman is in the hands of the law, his fate is now merely a legal matter. The Martins understand this, which is why they have been rallying the nation to their cause. But that doesn't make it a show trial. So for the Martin family, this marks the end of the beginning. Zimmerman may be behind bars.

Do Gated Communities Threaten Society? - Neighborhoods The shooting death of Trayvon Martin has caused an epidemic of soul-searching in the United States. In the weeks since George Zimmerman pulled the trigger in that Florida gated community, it feels as though the entire nation has been busy trying to explain to ourselves what happened and why. We want desperately to find some sort of lesson. Maybe we’re looking for redemption. People who care about the way our cities and suburbs are built and organized have been no exception. In a post on Better! The Retreat at Twin Lakes, where Martin died, is the kind of place where people choose to live when they want to be safe – from crime, from outsiders, from economic uncertainty. The prevalence of gated communities has steadily risen across the United States and the world since the 1960s. Rich Benjamin, author of Searching for Whitopia, wrote in The New York Times: The answer is, according to Schneider, that there are no easy answers. Shilpa Sonal is different.

How Stand-Your-Ground Laws Threaten Public Safety As the nation is riveted on the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida, I and others in law enforcement have been asked to comment on this high-profile case—mostly about police procedure. But we cannot “armchair quarterback” this case or any other from afar unless and until we know the facts. What we do know is that the spotlight is very bright right now on gun violence, especially on so-called “stand-your-ground” laws, which 25 states have enacted, and five more are considering. Florida’s law, which extends the Castle Doctrine by removing the duty to retreat, gives legal protection to anyone, anywhere, to use deadly force “if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony." The law also gives civil and criminal immunity to people who invoke it. Florida’s law effectively empowers a citizen to act as an ad hoc police officer. Email this post »

John Derbyshire, Trayvon Martin, and the ignorance of racial profiling Mario Tama This weekend, National Review expelled John Derbyshire for writing, on an unrelated website, a racist response to “The Talk.” The Talk, as described by many black parents in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting, is when you tell your son how to avoid triggering stereotypes that might result in him being arrested or killed. Examples: Don’t wear a hoodie. Don’t look angry or raise your voice. Don’t carry anything that might be mistaken for a gun. Will Saletan writes about politics, science, technology, and other stuff for Slate. Follow Derbyshire’s ugly rejoinder was a “talk” for white or Asian kids. On Saturday, NR editor Rich Lowry banished Derbyshire from the magazine. Lowry is a good man and a solid editor. In points 4 and 5 of his 15-paragraph talk, Derbyshire affirms what most of us would agree are the central moral and intellectual principles: (6) As you go through life, however, you will experience an ever larger number of encounters with black Americans. Really?

Are We Teaching Kids the Wrong Lessons About Trayvon? - Lisa Armstrong - National Pundits want black parents to use the teenager's death as a warning for their sons. But the real moral of the story is for white children. Two young boys hold signs during a Tallahassee rally organized by the National Christian League of Councils on April 4, 2012. Philip Sears/Reuters In the past few weeks, I have read a number of articles about conversations that I, as a black mother, should be having with my 9-year-old son. In a CNN blog post, Christy Oglesby speaks of the numerous warnings she has given her son, Drew, about how society might perceive him simply because of his race and gender. In light of Trayvon Martin's death, I, too, have cautiously begun the process of preparing my son for the challenges that likely lie ahead of him. At the time, Tarik was attending a private school and was the only black child in his class. I told the school administrators that we all, every single one of us, have intrinsic biases that develop as a result of what we see and learn growing up.

Trayvon Martin and the myth of racist America | Nathalie Rothschild The killing of black, 17-year-old Florida high-school student Trayvon Martin by self-appointed neighbourhood-watch captain George Zimmerman was a tragedy. The local police’s poor handling of the situation is a scandal. Throughout America, people have been in a state of shock over the murder and there has been a widespread outpouring of support for the Martin family, demands for justice and a vote of ‘no confidence’ against the police chief heading up the shambolic investigation. This reaction shows how much American society has moved on from previous eras of racial discrimination. Even so, some are arguing that Martin’s murder reveals American society to be as deeply racist as ever. Addressing a congregation of hundreds at a Baptist church about 20 miles from the site of the shooting, civil-rights campaigner Reverend Jesse Jackson compared Martin’s killing to the murders of Emmett Till and Medgar Evers. article continues after advertisement

Dishonoring Trayvon Martin It was all too good to be true. Last week even conservatives expressed concern about the way Sanford, Fla., police handled the death of unarmed, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, one month ago today. Florida’s Tea Party Gov. Rick Scott asked for an outside investigation, and another Tea Party favorite, Rep. What wasn’t quite as predictable was the last few days of push-back on behalf of accused shooter George Zimmerman – helped along by Sanford Police. If Zimmerman was indeed hurt in a scuffle with Martin – and news reports suggest he was bloody and bruised, with head lacerations that came from Martin pounding his skull into the sidewalk – why are there no photos? Also Monday we learned that Martin had been suspended from school because officials found an empty baggie that once held marijuana (that’s after Geraldo Rivera told us he brought on his own death by wearing a hoodie). And what does Martin’s suspension have to do with this case, anyway?

Trayvon Martin’s Psychological Killer: Why We See Guns That Aren’t There. | Guest Blog When George Zimmerman saw Trayvon Martin walking down the street in Sanford, Florida, he quickly assumed that the Black, hoodie-clad teenager was carrying a weapon. He then pulled out his gun and fatally shot the young student, whose hands were gripping nothing more than a bag of Skittles. The fact that George Zimmerman assumed so quickly that Trayvon Martin was armed smacks of the worst kind of prejudice and racism. It is a tragic assumption that led to the death of an innocent young student, who had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But, unfortunately, a 2002 study by psychologist Joshua Correll suggests that the average, run-of-the-mill college student might have acted the exact same way. If you had a split second to decide whether or not to shoot someone in front of you, do you think you would shoot? The researchers ultimately found a clear case of what they termed shooter bias. Surely this must be influenced by racism, thought the researchers.

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