Trayvon Martin's parents re-live a 'nightmare' (Must read)

Madison Times ^ | March 28, 2012 | George E. Curry, NNPA Special Contributor

[maggief]

(Note: Spacing added at line breaks for easier reading.)

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – On the night of Feb. 26, Tracy Martin and his girlfriend had gone out to dinner in Sanford, Fla., leaving his 17-year-old son, Trayvon, behind at the townhouse with plans to watch the NBA All-Star game scheduled to be televised at 7 p.m. from Orlando’s Amway Center.

Trayvon decided to walk to a nearby 7-Eleven convenience store to pick up a bag of Skittles candy and a can of Arizona iced tea before settling in to watch East v. West all-stars. On his way back to the gated community, however, Trayvon was stalked by George Zimmerman, a non-Black neighborhood watch captain armed with a 9 millimeter handgun and a head full of stereotypes about African-American males.

According to 911 tapes, Zimmerman, 28, told the emergency police dispatcher that he had spotted a suspicious young male walking in the neighborhood. “This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He is on drugs or something.” Zimmerman said, “These ***holes. They are always getting away.”

When the dispatcher asked Zimmerman if he was following the young man in his vehicle, Zimmerman confirmed that he was. The 911 operator said, “OK, we don’t need you to do that.” Still, Zimmerman continued to follow Trayvon, who was unarmed. At one point, Zimmerman got out of his SUV, confronted Trayvon and fatally shot him in the chest.

Tracy Martin was unaware that his honor roll son, who was visiting from Miami, had been killed around 7 p.m. that Sunday.

Martin, Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton; Benjamin Crump, the family lawyer; Al Sharpton and former New York Gov. David Patterson participated in an exclusive 1-hour telephone conference call last Thursday with more than three dozen publishers from the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA).

Martin told publishers how he learned that his son had been killed.

“I had been out to dinner. When we got back between 10:15 and 10:45, he wasn’t at home. The night before, he had been to the movies with my nephew, who had recently moved up to the Orlando area from Miami. Every time Trayvon would come up here, they would find something to do, usually they would go to dinner. My nephew is 20 years old, a very responsible young man. So there was not panic at that moment that he was not home. I made several attempts to call his cell phone and it was going straight to voicemail. I called my nephew’s cell phone and it was going straight to voicemail. So at that point, I figured they had been in the movies because they would always go to the movies.”

Tracy Martin and his girlfriend went to bed. But the next morning, the day Martin and his son had planned to return to Miami, he learned that Trayvon still wasn’t back in the house. Tracy called his nephew again, this time reaching him and learning that Trayvon wasn’t with him.

“I had [his girlfriend] call juvenile justice, just to check and see if anyone by the name of Trayvon Martin had been picked up. No Trayvon Martin,” the father told NNPA publishers. “My next call was to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Department to see if any kid had been picked up.

“My third call was to a non-emergency number at the Seminole County Sheriff’s Department and I informed them that I was filing a missing person’s report. I let them know it hadn’t been 24 hours, but it was unusual for Trayvon not to return home. I told them we were supposed to be leaving that morning when we woke up. They asked me a few questions about him: date of birth, height, complexion, weight and they told me they would dispatch a unit. Five minutes later, she called me back and asked what was he last wearing. I gave them a description of the clothes that he had on last. She said a unit would be out.”

At that point, Tracy Martin still had no clue that his son was dead.

He said, “I got up, got on clothes, went outside because I knew my kid was going to walk back up to the door. Instead, three cars pulled up to the door, one of them an unmarked police vehicle.

“The first officer approached. I introduced myself and told him I was filing a missing person’s report. The second person to approach was a plainclothes detective. He asked me if I had a recent picture of Trayvon and it just so happened that I had taken a picture in my camera, maybe a week or two prior to the incident. I showed them the picture. He told me to give him a second. He walked to his vehicle, retrieved a folder and asked could we go into the house. We walked into the house. He told me he was going to show me a photo and that he was going to ask me if this was my kid. And he pulled out the photo. From that point, it’s been like a nightmare.”

That nightmare was compounded by the decision not to arrest or prosecute Zimmerman, who admitted killing Trayvon. Led by Attorney Benjamin Crump, the family has been making the rounds of national television programs to share their story – and to express their outrage that Zimmerman hasn’t been brought to justice. Protests, many of them led by college students, have taken place across the country.

“In the Black community, we all see Trayvon in ourselves,” Sharpton said. “We all subconsciously know that we’re born as suspects rather than citizens and that’s what Trayvon was – he was a suspect.”

Sharpton explained, “What happened to Trayvon is that it brought to the surface the fear that all of us have for our children and ourselves. I think White America was stunned. Black America became ignited when we finally got it out there. They [Whites] thought having a Black president had solved it. And now, people working in their offices, in the next cubicle, were saying, ‘No, this is me.’ They relate to Trayvon – it was me.”

After three weeks of mobilizing on social media, keeping the story alive in Black newspapers and African-American radio, the mounting pressure forced Sanford, Fla. officials to release the 911 tapes. Those tapes – which show that Zimmerman disobeyed the 911 dispatcher’s directive that he not follow Trayvon – along with the decision not to arrest Zimmerman, forced Police Chief Bill Lee to temporarily step down as police chief on Thursday.

On April 10, a grand jury will be convened to determine whether Zimmerman should be indicted. Both the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division and the FBI are looking into the case to determine if any federal statues were violated.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has appointed a Task Force on Citizen Safety and Protection to investigate how such tragedies can be avoided in the future. Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll will chair the special panel. Rev. R.B. Holmes, Jr, publisher of the Capital Outlook in Tallahassee, will serve as vice chair.

Sharpton led a rally Thursday night of more than 30,000 people in Sanford, many of them arriving from around the nation. Referring to the police chief, Sharpton said, “We did not come here for a temporary leave of absence. We came for permanent justice – arrest Zimmerman now.”

On Friday, President Obama expressed concern about the case.

“I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together, federal, state, and local, to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened,” Obama said. He added, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”

If the son had dressed like Trayvon, he would have come under criticism.

On the March 23 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, Fox News contributor Geraldo Rivera said, “I am urging the parents of Black and Latino youngsters particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies. I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was.”

For some reason, Blacks are stigmatized for wearing a hoodie – a sweatshirt with a hood attached to it – but Whites, such as New England Patriots football coach Bill Belichick and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, are not.

NBA star Dwayne Wade posted a photo of himself Friday in a hooded top to his social media pages, while LeBron James tweeted a photo of 13 Miami Heat players wearing black hoodies with their heads bowed in a tribute to Trayvon.

“I saw a post that D-Wade had saying, ‘I am Trayvon Martin,’” Tracy Martin said. “To see all these athletes put Trayvon in the same sentence with them, it feels real good. Trayvon was an excellent athlete and if he could hear them saying his name, he would be so moved by it.” On Sunday, many churches honored Trayvon, who was wearing a hoodie when he was killed.

Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, preached the 11 a.m. service in a Morehouse College hoodie. In his sermon, Warnock compared Trayvon Martin to Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Chicago youth who was murdered near Money, Miss. in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a White woman. “Both young boys were killed for crossing some imaginary social line,” Warnock said. “Mr. Zimmerman took a gun to a Skittles fight. Apparently Zimmerman is innocent until proven guilty and Trayvon is guilty until proven innocent.”

Sybrina Fulton is still living with the pain of her son’s death.

“It just reminds me of an awful dream,” she said in the conference call with NNPA publishers. “It just seems like the pain goes away temporarily and then it comes back. It just feels like my heart is just heavy. I still have tears, I still cry. It’s just difficult. Each day is just difficult to get by.” Sanford police claim they couldn’t arrest Zimmerman because he was protected under Florida Statute 776.013 (3), the state’s stand your ground law that gives citizens broad protection if they are acting in self-defense.

Jeb Bush, who as governor of Florida signed “stand your ground” bill into law, said the law does not cover the neighborhood watch captain who shot Trayvon Martin to death.

“This law does not apply to this particular circumstance,” Bush said after an education panel discussion at the University of Texas at Arlington. “Stand your ground means stand your ground. It doesn’t mean chase after somebody who’s turned their back.”

Reflecting on the moment he was asked by police to identify his son, Tracy Martin said, “I can’t describe the feeling, I can’t describe what was going through my mind because I was actually staring at a photo of my pride and joy on the ground dead. I still see the photo now – his eyes weren’t closed all the way, his mouth wasn’t closed, it was the worst feeling of my life.”

[TigersEye]

...Trayvon was stalked by George Zimmerman, a non-Black neighborhood watch captain armed with a 9 millimeter handgun and a head full of stereotypes about African-American males.

Talk about a hypocrite. I couldn't read any further but I expect the liberal-approved stereotyping just went on and on.

[patriot08]

What about the unbeliebable nightmare that befell the Straits?

While the Zimmerman/Martin ‘white’ on black killing is covered 24/7 on the MSM with an outpouring of rage and charges of a racial hate crime, where is the concern- where is the rage about the home invasion, torture, beating, rape and murder of the elderly white couple by a gang of feral blacks in Oklahoma just last week?

The 90 year old war veteran husband was beaten and his jaw broken. He was shot in the face numerous times with a BB gun and sent to the hospital in critical condition.

The 85 year old partially blind wife was RAPED and then BEATEN TO DEATH.

Can you just imagine the pain, the humiliation, the horror that dear old lady experienced being gang raped by that pack of feral animals?

(the autopsy states she was raped. Don’t think all of these animals didn’t all participate)

And can you imagine the pain, the horror of that dear old husband having to witness this?

There’s a lot more involved here than a home invasion and robbery.

WHERE ARE THE CHARGES OF A RACIAL HATE CRIME??

90 year old husband’s jaw broken and shot in face with a BB gun numerous times?

85 wife year old semi blind wife RAPED and BEATEN to death??

Why does it take a foreign press to enlighten America as to this henious crime?

Where is the outrage?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2117695/Brutal-home-invasion-Oklahoma-couple-ends-65-year-romance-meeting-blind-date.html

[liberalh8ter]

If there was ever a perfect example of schlock journalism, this is it.

[driftless2]

"liberal rag"

It's way beyond liberal. It's ultra-leftist. As in Noam Chomsky-type leftism. I distinguish between liberals and leftists. Liberals are like Hollyweird celebs who want people with a lot less money than they do to pay for their stupid scams. But they would never give up their expensive, capitalist life-styles. Leftists want to junk free-market capitalism and go right to Cuba-style socialim. Those are the people at the Cap-Times.

[PapaBear3625]

So I thought that Martin laid in the morgue for 3 days before the father found out.

While he found out the next day, it took a while to decide what funeral home to have the body brought to. With divorced parents living in different places, I can understand how coming to a resolution on that might take a bit of time.

[Scoutmaster]

He has no tattoos.

Please stop that. I don't know if the tattoos shown are his, but the photos you continue to post prove nothing. The "Sybrina" tattoo in the photograph is on the inside of a wrist. None of your photos show the inside of Martin's wrist.

The large tattoo is on the outer upper shoulder. The only photograph in which the outer upper shoulder is even visible is your top photo - and the outer upper shoulder is covered by a shirt.

Your photos do not prove what you post them to prove, one way or the other. Please stop posting them for that purpose and stating "He has no tattoos" based on those photos.

[Scoutmaster]

Closest one is almost 2miles away.

Source? We've had Freepers from the area say there's one about 0.7 miles away. Just wondering.

[VeniVidiVici]

Incident address: 2831 Retreat View Circle Sanford, FL 32771
Closest 7/11: 4085 W. S.R. 46 SANFORD,FL 32771-9721

Plug them into Google maps and tell it you want directions.

Are there closer stores? Yes. Upsala grocery is but it closes early. They are afraid of getting robbed. There is also a Walmart about a mile and a half or so down the road.

However, somehow it was originally reported he went to 7/11. If that’s NOT correct then the whole Skittles BS needs to get tossed or it needs to be found where he went and get the tapes.

[VeniVidiVici]

Oh, and I don’t live there but I drive right by the entrance to this gated community to go the mall or other stores in the area.

[CodeToad]

“and a head full of stereotypes about African-American males. “

What a load of horsesh*t! I stopped reading there. Nothing but a racist hit piece.

[Scoutmaster]

Oh, and I don’t live there but I drive right by the entrance to this gated community to go the mall or other stores in the area.

Thanks. I've heard '7/11' used generically a lot, and many things reported early (like 'he went at halftime of the NBA All-Star game') aren't panning out to be true. Are there any other convenience stores that are closer than the 7/11? I don't know if Starvin' Marvin from the Panhandle make it down that way, or other brands - or simply a generic convenience store.

Not disputing you, just curious given that you're narrowing it down to a specific brand of convenience store based on reports, and we've seen that the details in early reports were frequently trash.

[VeniVidiVici]

Nope. No Starvin’ Marvin.

I seem to be the only one that seems to think it’s important to nail down his whereabouts prior to his death. It’s entirely possible that 7-11 was used as a generic term as a destination to buy Skittles and a tea. I’ve mentioned from early-on about the Upsala Grocery which is a closer store but likely closed at that time of day. Then someone else brought up a nearby Walmart. But even that would be a 3mile round trip.

The point is somebody put the story out there that Trayvon was simply out to buy some candy. Another BS line to go with the 5 year old pics that he was an innocent child, murdered by wild Hispanic.

I’ve thought from the beginning he was out to buy drugs and Zimmerman’s description of Trayvon’s actions supports that. Which is why it is very strange that nobody is concentrating on collecting evidence to contradict it - such as the bag of Skittles, the iced tea or surveillance tapes from the few stores in easy walking distance.

[Eagles6]

What was said was that he didn’t know where tray on was for 3 days. Obviously not true . So this supposedly happened 30 yds from his house. Odd.

[Scoutmaster]

Which is why it is very strange that nobody is concentrating on collecting evidence to contradict it - such as the bag of Skittles, the iced tea or surveillance tapes

I've seen reports of the amount of money in Martin's pocket and the fact that he had an Arizona Iced Tea and Skittles, but I haven't seen the original source document. The 911 tapes on the Sanford website specifically state that they are in no particular order, although #1 is a call by Zimmerman. #3 is chilling. For approximately 42 seconds, you hear somebody screaming 'help, help, help' before the gunshot (the voice sounds suspiciously like Zimmerman's voice from call #1).

This means that the woman caller heard the cries for help, made a decision to call 911, got the phone, called 911, got an answer (I don't know if calls are quickly answered there), and got a 911 operator before the 40-42 seconds we hear of 'help, help, help,' which is presumably the beating/altercation. That's a long time of yelling for help before the gunshot.

[newbie 10-21-00]

Don’t bring Skittles to a gun fight

[floriduh voter]

post 91 is stereotyping. Just sayin’.

[floriduh voter]

post 91 is stereotyping. Just sayin’.

[floriduh voter]

I watched George Zimmerman’s brother on PIers Morgan last night. His brother said something to the effect that George LIED LESS than he (the brother did). So, apparently, George’s brothers says they both lie??????? It all goes back to who your daddy is and who your daddy knows and daddy knew the PD AND the SA Office.

[TheBattman]

You can say that again...oh wait.. you did.

But in all seriousness - is that not the exact stereotype image that Geraldo Rivera was trying to push?

I’m surprised there hasn’t been any comment about Treyvon’s pants... were they baggy “on the ground” like the thug “fashion”?

Was the hoodie part of a bigger “fashion ensemble”?

Of course, none of that is important if the Media and the rabid LEFT are actually correct - and Treyvon didn’t do anything wrong that evening.

But the problem is - those with a loud voice don’t care about facts, they don’t care about behavior or appearance - they just want to crucify Zimmerman without a trial.

I thought lynchmob “justice” was against the law...

[floriduh voter]

Oh, come on. I'm not a new black panther. They only found 9 new members. lol The hoodies are pulled from Cafe Press and cooler heads are prevailing.

I wear lots of "street" clothes myself. Floridians wear hoodies a lot because a real coat is not necessary and hoodies are "very Florida fashion item.

Stereotyping by clothes is as ridiculous as it gets.

You are insulting Governor Rick Scott's appointee who is investigating this hot mess. Are you saying she is part of a lynch mob? I see a lot of taking out of context going on.

I'm waiting for the DA and the Grand Jury. I just did a music video and I made some "street" poses at the end. It doesn't look suspicious. I look kewt. I have baggy pants too - lots of fashion starts in the street and trickles up. If you are making this about clothes, forget it.

Hoodies are more popular in Florida than ORANGES.