Wow !!! - 'Trayvon Martin: Before The World Heard The Cries' - Reuters

[WillyT]

Trayvon Martin: Before the world heard the cries
By Daniel Trotta - Reuters
SANFORD, Fla., April 3 | Tue Apr 3, 2012 2:21pm EDT

<snip>

(Reuters) - Tracy Martin had been looking for his son Trayvon since the night before. He went to bed figuring the teen must have gone to the movies and turned off his phone. When Trayvon still wasn't home in the morning, Martin called the police.

After a flurry of phone calls back and forth, an officer told him a police unit was on the way.

"So I went outside waiting for Trayvon to show up," Martin said.

Instead of one squad car with his son in the backseat, three vehicles pulled up: a police cruiser, an unmarked sedan and another official-looking car. Martin would discover the third car belonged to a chaplain.

It was not yet 8 in the morning, barely 12 hours since the shooting that took place about 100 yards away, and Martin was still unaware of the fate of his son.

The Feb. 26 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, 17, at the hands of George Zimmerman, 28, a neighborhood watch captain who said he acted in self-defense, has riveted the nation, largely because of race. Trayvon Martin was black. George Zimmerman is white and Hispanic.

For about 10 days, the story remained obscure. Television news from nearby Orlando aired a few segments. The Orlando Sentinel published two brief articles, and the twice-weekly Sanford Herald ran 213 words. Otherwise, there was media silence.

This is an account of what happened before everyone knew Trayvon Martin's name...

<snip>

More: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/03/usa-florida-shooting-trayvon-idUSL2E8F31ZX20120403

[K Gardner]

1. Unbelievable story.. first time we've heard a lot of it. How heartbreaking to hear

what exactly that family went through.

It clears up some rumors, too. Some were saying they didn't know where Trayvon was for 3 days, but this makes it clear the family just were not allowed to take his body for 3 days. How absolutely horrible.

I hope the ME did his job during those 3 days and collected evidence, i.e., bullet trajectory; entrance and exit wounds, etc. I'm surprised the autopsy report hasn't been "LEAKED" yet.

God bless this family. Excellent article. K&R

[HangOnKids]

19. Indeed

This article blows the shit out of Zmmerman and his GOON squad. I meant that as endearing.

[Swagman]

50. GOON squad is right.

[deutsey]

30. Agreed n/t

[Baitball Blogger]

2. That's right. That's how they roll down here.

[JDPriestly]

3. Huge mistake in that article.

It isn't because of race, although that is important. The Trayvon Martin murder is important because of the Stand Your Ground law and the vigilante mentality it encouraged in that case.

[K Gardner]

5. Yes, it's true because of both. It was a deadly mix, and we're only now finding out

the extent to which this abominable law has been used in 27 other states.

[uponit7771]

9. His race played a part and it should not have, no one should profiled like Trayvon was

[pacalo]

11. When I first read "the case is about race", I felt the same way as you, that the point was about

a young boy being gunned down by a wannabe neighborhood John Wayne. But then I thought, no, Zimmerman made it about race when he acted on his presumptions about a young black kid.

Zimmerman's character witness, Mr. Taaffe, unintentionally made that clear during his CNN interview today. He emphasized that the neighborhood had been burglarized 8 times by young black men (how does he know that?). He went on to say, "It was the perfect storm" and "When you plant corn, you get corn" -- which I took to mean, when young black males have burglarized our neighborhood, we have the right to target young black males.

[marshall gaines]

46. burglarized??

Burglarized 8 times, is that even true? I believe nothing coming from a zimmerman stoogie

[jwirr]

18. Exactly. We have so little justice in this nation already. This involving a child was way beyond

the level of tolerance.

[mainer]

34. The shooting was about race. The coverup is about power.

And both are about Stand Your Ground.

[fascisthunter]

4. Maybe it's a Time for a War against Bigotry

[got root]

6. it's indicative of our messed up media that it has taken this long to write

thanks for sharing

[K Gardner]

7. I know !! I'm kicking this up again.. everybody needs to rec this one :-)

[pinboy3niner]

12. Kick

[Sarah Ibarruri]

8. "..white police officer's son was captured punching a black homeless man outside a bar..."

"...a previous Sanford police chief was forced out of the job after a white police officer's son was captured punching a black homeless man outside a bar. Sanford police did not arrest the assailant until video of the attack surfaced on local TV and provoked an outcry..."

Sanford is one racist little spot, isn't it?

[WillyT]

10. Great Catch !!! - Thank You !!!

[MrMickeysMom]

13. "Sanford is one racist little spot, isn't it?"..

Yes, it is...

And, so are many other towns like it. Racism knows no particular boundary of living quarters. It's still fighting to survive as part of this country's awful past.

I worked in Sanford as a respiratory therapist in the 80's. I won't go into great detail to describe it (before the Frist family turned a community hospital into a for profit widget maker), but that small town couldn't possibly have gotten rid of all its racists physicians, business community and legal system. Who ends up in local government? Why, your uncle Billy Bob and all his fucking relatives, I'm guessing.

I pointed out racism to another person who worked with me one time ... It went way over her head, because that stuff is culturally inculcated.

I think the governor would defend this little hospital, mainly because Rick Scott's crimes are associated with it.

I hope the best for Sanford, as a result of this shit, but it's going to take a lot of love to overcome its racism.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

28. So what was her response when you pointed out the racism in Sanford? No response at all?

When I was younger, I had this idea that by the year 2000 racists would be a thing of the past. Was I ever mistaken.

[MrMickeysMom]

47. You must be psychic, SI!

How'd ja know, otherwise?

Actually, this woman went on to marry, have a child and move to TN, where she apparently lives happily ever after. I quit communicating with her after sending her a rather long rant, which I feel must have been quite insulting.

When we worked in Sanford, I believe she continued to believe, as many like her, that there would always be two Americas, the South and the North... She was raised to believe that when things were sooo funny, it was perfectly fine to exclaim, "I laughed so hard, I made nigger babies in my pants"... An otherwise, intelligent person in her profession, but so clueless as to WHAT the hell she had just said. I reminded her of her comment afterwards. I looked at her in disbelief when she said this, and she actually thought the fellow laughing right along with her (who was another supervisor, like she was at the time, but was black) "didn't mind at all!"...

I suppose when you think you're right to keep referring to things as if you're living in the antebellum South, nothing else matters.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

48. What a pig! Sheesh.

I wonder if she looked like this:

[MrMickeysMom]

49. Actually, I think those are her LIPS!

[csziggy]

14. In 911 Sanford took a black community into their city limits against the residents wills

And changed the street names from ones that honored the original black settlers to names that had no meaning to the residents.
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/22/149164373/racial-tension-runs-through-sanfords-roots

When Jackie Robinson was beginning to break the race barrier in baseball, the minor league team he played for had their winter practice in Sanford. Even though Robinson tried to follow the Jim Crow laws, the City of Sanford would not let the integrated team play. The team manager moved their winter headquarters to Daytona Beach.
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/hs_es_jackie_robinson.htm

Long before the live oaks and Spanish moss gave way to interstate highways and box stores, Sanford began as a citrus town in the 1870s, conceived by a New England tycoon. Henry Shelton Sanford, who had ingratiated himself to Abraham Lincoln and served as Lincoln’s ambassador to Belgium for eight years, had the town built by Swedish laborers. Though the citrus empire he dreamed of didn’t exactly flourish, Sanford proved instrumental to promoting trade with the Belgian-controlled territory of Congo—which included his vision of promoting Congo as a place to ship America’s freed blacks. The African locale, he said, represented an outlet “for the enterprise and ambition of our colored people in more congenial fields than politics.” A Congo peopled with African Americans could be “the ground to draw the gathering electricity from that black cloud spreading over the Southern states.”

The back-to-Congo movement never took off, but Sanford’s Florida hamlet did. In 1911, it absorbed the town of Goldsborough, an autonomous black community. The merger was hostile, according to local historian Francis Oliver. “[Sanford] never paid restitution to the people who lost their jobs and asked for money because they…no longer [had] jobs,” she said. “The mayor didn’t have a job, City Council people didn’t have a job, the postmistress didn’t have a job, the jailers didn’t have a job, the marshal didn’t have a job.”
More: http://agentlemansview.com/2012/03/28/sanford-florida-a-history-of-violence/

[Alcibiades]

16. And here's Sanford's obituary

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D07E5D6163AE533A25750C2A9639C94609ED7CF

An irony here is that he must have been a staunchly antislavery Republican--and yet also probably racist.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

29. No frikkin' respect. nt

[2banon]

15. Well Done! Excellent writing and reporting..

This is the best report I've seen on this story so far..

[grasswire]

17. Mayor Triplett should be commended.

He is the one who ordered the release of the 911 tapes, which galvanized national outcry. And that was against the will of the State Attorney and the police.

The mayor cried when the tapes were played, according to the news story above.

[malaise]

24. Indeed

It's the coverup that will get these scumbags

[99th_Monkey]

20. I'm so grateful this back story has made it into the light of day.

It is incredibly moving, and helps clarify the case against Zimmerman immensely.

[WillyT]

21. ...---...

[savalez]

22. K&R

[K Gardner]

23. Kick

[myrna minx]

25. K&R - Thanks for posting. n/t

[Ganja Ninja]

26. "neighbor Selma Mora Lamilla saw Zimmerman pacing back and forth, holding his head in his hands."

Not holding his head up to try and stop the bleeding from his supposedly broken nose.

"Zimmerman starts to reach into his pocket to get his cellphone, and at that point Trayvon attacked him. He says Trayvon hits him. He falls on the ground. Trayvon jumps on top of him, takes his left hand and covers Zimmerman's mouth and tells him to shut the F up and continues to pound on him.

"At that point Zimmerman is able to unholster his weapon and fire a shot, striking Trayvon in the chest. Trayvon falls on his back and says, 'You got me.'"

So he supposedly shot Trayvon while he was on top of him but got no blood on him in the process.

And he claims Trayvon had his mouth covered and was pounding him yet he also claims he was the one yelling for help on the 911 tapes.

[Starry Messenger]

31. k&r

[april]

32. When in the hell is an arrest going to be made?

Not just Zimmerman but the whole F...ing police dept for cover up .

[DallasNE]

33. The Story

The detective gave to Tracy Martin is materially different than the story the Zimmerman family have given to the public. It is also incompatible with the timeline contained in Trayvon's phone call with his girl friend.

The key missing piece of evidence is powder burns on Martin's body. Unless he was shot at very close range there is no way that Zimmerman's story holds any water. Besides, I have never understood how a fit 220 pound man couldn't easily flip a 150 pound man off the top of him. Or how someone with a gunshot wound in the chest could say "you got me" while laying on his back, nevermind that police reports say Martin was face down with his hands under his body. And police say they can't find any holes in Zimmerman's story. Give me a break.

[abelenkpe]

35. HUGE MISTAKE: Zimmerman is NOT neighborhood watch!

Why the Fuck does the press keep saying he is neighborhood watch.

[Zookeeper]

41. From what I've gathered...

the "Neighborhood Watch" talking point resonates with a lot of conservatives, especially the paranoid, gated-community dwellers. It makes them much more sympathetic to Zimmerman. (I'm basing this, in part, on conversations my daughter has had in a conservative community of U.S. expats.)

[Pat Riot]

42. Orwellian newspeak

Power-tripping vigilante becomes neighborhood watch captain the same way forced shaming transvaginal ultrasound becomes "Women's Right to Know." The same way Koch brothers-funded union busting law becomes "Right to Work." The same way stripping the Bill of Rights away becomes the Patriot Act. The same way earned benefits you've worked your ass off all your life become "entitlements."

Words matter, folks, please don't automatically echo what you hear in the media like a parrot.

[Fawke Em]

36. He had a tear on his cheek?

OK... I'm crying now.

[Uncle Joe]

37. If Zimmerman shot Trayvon in the chest while Trayvon was on top of him

""Zimmerman starts to reach into his pocket to get his cellphone, and at that point Trayvon attacked him. He says Trayvon hits him. He falls on the ground. Trayvon jumps on top of him, takes his left hand and covers Zimmerman's mouth and tells him to shut the F up and continues to pound on him.

"At that point Zimmerman is able to unholster his weapon and fire a shot, striking Trayvon in the chest. Trayvon falls on his back and says, 'You got me.'"

why wasn't there any of Trayvon's blood on Zimmerman when they took him to the police station?



I would think Zimmerman would be covered in it.

Thanks for the thread, WillyT.

[Rex]

38. Not only that

but you would think a man that had his head bashed into the curb repeatedly (until he was almost dead) would have AT LEAST ONE MARK on said cranium to show for it!! Or blood on his shirt, back, pants etc.. The video PROVES Zimmerman is lying beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The BULLSHIT will stop at the FBI's doorstep.

[Lost-in-FL]

39. Or conscious enough to know where to aim the weapon. nt

[Rex]

45. So many good points

I hope the FBI picks up every one of them.

[pnwmom]

44. And why, if he landed on his back, did the police find him lying on his front?

Why would Zimmerman flip over a dead or dying man?

[Zookeeper]

40. Good article; now when do we find out...

When do we find out who's paying for Zimmerman's lawyers, especially the new one that hasn't even met Zimmerman yet. My money's on the NRA.

As a mother, my heart just aches for Trayvon's parents. As a citizen, I mourn the loss of a young man who, it appears, would have grown into a good adult member of society.

[Pat Riot]

43. that piece of shit

doesn't need a lawyer until he's ARRESTED. 39 days.