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.”

[floriduh voter]

Gee. I thought I was in a typical Florida neighborhood. Lots of my neighbors have numerous tatoos and we all have hoodies. Maybe it's an age thing and olders are stereotyping youngers????? Maybe this is an old v. young stereotyping. Ya'll don't know much about Florida culture. You definitely know zip about fashion trends. I have a Mongoose bicycle with a skull on it and roses. Does that make me a gang member? No. It's not my favorite thing about the bicycle but I'm not going to paint over it. I think the skull thing started in Mexico and I'm not a huge fan but ya'll ever get out much culturewise?

I wanted a 20 inch bike instead of a bigger one. True dat. Yo, leave the brothers alone.

They're not all gang culture. THEY PLAY FOOTBALL and SING IN BOY BANDS.

[floriduh voter]

I hope I'm not honing in on the problem. BWPS.

BWPS = black while playing sports.

Is that the only venue where we will accept them??????????????????

[Alice in Wonderland]

Is that the only venue where we will accept them??????????????????

No! They make good housekeepers too!!!

I posted some links on this thread that you might want to look at:

Audio interview of witness who saw the shooting and the aftermath.

Former co-workers describe Zimmerman as a “Jekyll and Hyde".

The mother of the 13-year-old witness claims that he was pressured by the police to taylor what he saw.

Two other witnesses don't believe that Zimmerman was acting in self-defense.

Trayvon’s girlfriend recounts the final moments of her conversation with him before the line went dead.

There are no known cases of violence by Martin but there are several known cases of violence by Zimmerman (as an adult). It is also known, via Zimmerman's call, that Zimmerman followed Martin but that Martin avoided a confrontation by running. Nobody here has any genuine knowledge about what happened after that call and before the 911 calls that reported the fight already in progress.

BTW, since he scored highly on their test, the Navy recruiter visited my son-in-law several times. They were eager for him to sign-up, even thought he is heavily tattooed.

[Scoutmaster]

They're not all gang culture.

I agree with that completely. What I disagreed with was somebody posting three photos of someone that didn't show his inner wrist as proof that he didn't have a tattoo on his inner wrist. She'd done it on a previous thread and I'd pointed out to her that her photos didn't show his inner wrist, but she posted the photos as 'proof' again.

The photos she posted also didn't show his right upper arm (he's wearing a shirt in all three photos, and you can't even see his right arm in one photo), so they can't 'prove' he didn't have a tattoo on his right upper arm.

Do you understand?

As far as I know, Trayvon posted a photo of somebody else's tattoo - at least the upper arm one - on his MySpace page. I'm not claiming that tattoo is his, or that having the tattoo makes him a gang member or a bad kid.

I am stating that Alice In Wonderland's photos don't clear up the question of his tattoos at all. I have problems with Zimmerman 'supporters' on here claiming Martin weighed 200 lbs. - I've called them out based on the police report. I have problems with Martin 'supporters' on here posting photos as 'proof' when they don't prove what they're posted to prove. . . and then posting them again after it's already been explained to them that they aren't proof of no tattoos.

Does that make sense?

[floriduh voter]

Let's call a truce or whatever. Ya'll quit hating Trayvon and we will wait for the DA to prosecute George Zimmerman before a jury of his peers. Since it's Florida, there's a good chance he'll get off, just like Casey Anthony who killed little Caylee.

Replying to Alice in Wonderland's post above.

[floriduh voter]

I don't have any tattoos. I hate needles. I don't know how anyone even gets one. I've seen plenty of them and it all looks painful to me. I have a scar on my arm from my pet duck whom I accidentally picked up wrong once. It's as close to a tat as I will ever get.

I haven't been following what everybody weighed. I'm sure the M.E. weighed Trayvon's corpse.

I thought that George Zimmerman's brother was cute but he was just trying to rehabilitation George's image on PIers Morgan last night. Cute yes, totally credible? Not exactly.

[Alice in Wonderland]

Hoodies are more popular in Florida than ORANGES.

Everybody around here wears them but I'm so old fashioned that I still call mine sweatshirts. My favorite is my orange and blue UF Gators one, followed by my navy colored FDNY one.

[Fantasywriter]

Quote the exact post I made which ‘hates on Trayvon’.

You can’t do it because it’s a dirty filthy lie. Stop lying about me. Now.

[Fledermaus]

Have to attack neighborhood watch folks now because they don’t wear brown shirts.

[floriduh voter]

Hey, you said I hated George Zimmerman which I do not. I didn’t say you hated on Trayvon but there’s a bunch who have been and that is why I put “all” in my to: line, did I not? I wanted you to see stuff about Zimmerman that Alice in Wonderland found.

[Fantasywriter]

I said you hate Zimmerman because you twisted his brother’s words out of recognition, so as to use them to indict both brothers. I have done nothing comparable to Trayvon. In fact, I’ve done the mirror opposite. Your admonition to stop ‘hatin’ on Trayvon’, directed to me [since you pinged me to the admonition] goes beyond offensive. Please stop pinging me. I don’t take kindly to being lied about.

[floriduh voter]

Hey, if you don’t know what “all” means, we can’t have an adult discussion anyway. We be dun.

[Eaker]

“Alice in Wonderland”

Appropriate.

In the future when offered two pills don’t take either rather than both.

[Fantasywriter]

You pinged me to this comment:

“Ya’ll quit hating Trayvon and we will wait for the DA to prosecute George Zimmerman before a jury of his peers.”

Yes, I know what it means. You did too, when you singled me out to receive your special admonition. You knew exactly what you were doing, but you didn't expect me to call you on it. I did, and you've been dissembling ever since. You should be ashamed.

[Alice in Wonderland]

I received this FReepmail from a long-time member today:

"I used to feel a sense of pride about FR but now the management has allowed it to devolve into a cesspool of naked racism and hatred.

Without the mods cooling things down the number of freepers who feel that this is a safe site to vent their inner prejudice has grown daily.

For years racism would poke its head up here every once in a while. It would be pushed back into the swamp. Now it looks like it is sanctioned and any outside opponent of fr would be right in calling it a hate site."

It's true. I showed several threads to non-freepers. Their reaction was that a bunch of bigots post here.

[Scoutmaster]

AIW, there are certainly some people here who can only see the negatives in Trayvon Martin. I submit you can only see the negatives in Zimmerman and the positives in Martin.

Audio interview of witness who saw the shooting and the aftermath.

Yes, but that's not the only witness, right? And one or more witnesses who saw the shooting and aftermath support the other story, that Martin was on top of Zimmerman, pounding Zimmerman's head into the concrete, and striking Zimmerman. I've acknowledged both sides. Why do you only acknowledge one?

Former co-workers describe Zimmerman as a “Jekyll and Hyde".

Okay. And those tweeting with Martin ask about him swinging at a bus driver. He's a smiling kid in some photos, and flashing gang-type symbols, bare-chested, with 10" of boxer shorts showing in others. He's buying Skittles, but others are Tweeting him about buying weed. Sounds as if could be two Jekylls and Hydes, doesn't it?

The mother of the 13-year-old witness claims that he was pressured by the police to taylor what he saw.

That's troubling. Do you think some of the people who are against guns may be pressured by all of the media attention and civil unrest to tilt their memories and stories after five weeks, so that they now are speaking out when they didn't do it earlier?

Two other witnesses don't believe that Zimmerman was acting in self-defense.

Yes. Have you started to count the witnesses who believe he did? Or are you ignoring them completely?

Trayvon’s girlfriend recounts the final moments of her conversation with him before the line went dead.

This is the girlfriend who didn't come forward until the police found her, right? Do you think she may have an agenda? Do you think that, as Trayvon's girlfriend, she may be prejudiced in her story, either knowingly or unknowingly? If Trayvon's family first thought Trayvon went out at halftime of the NBA game, do you think they got that from her? If she was that inaccurate regarding the NBA game, I wonder what else she got wrong.

There are no known cases of violence by Martin but there are several known cases of violence by Zimmerman.

Hmm. Martin's a lot young, with a shorter past to accumulate 'known cases,' isn't he? Is the media looking into the 'swinging at a bus drive' incident? And 'several' incidents by Zimmerman? 'Several' means three or more. I know of two by Zimmerman - the former girlfriend and shoving the policeman (who wasn't in uniform, but says he ID'd himself; Zimmerman says he didn't). Do you know of a third, or did you exaggerate with 'several'?

It is also known, via Zimmerman's call, that Zimmerman followed Martin but that Martin avoided a confrontation by running.

Zimmerman says he broke off following Martin and was struck when walking back to his SUV. You can't tell from the call, can you? You also can't tell if Martin ran to avoid a confrontation, or simply because he was up to something (I'm not saying he was - I'm just noting that you can't tell from the call). I think you're interpreting things.

Nobody here has any genuine knowledge about what happened after that call and before the 911 calls that reported the fight already in progress.

No, we don't. Tragically, Martin is dead and can't tell us. Zimmerman has told us his story and there's no real evidence to contradict it - in fact, the police say that they have witnesses to back up most of it. They didn't say the witnesses contradict the rest of it - but that witnesses didn't see the other parts. I do know that call #3 on the Sanford page is frightening. AFTER the woman hears calls for help, and decides to call 911, and completes the call and reaches a 911 operator, you can hear just over 40 seconds of someone calling for help before the gunshot.

If you listen to call #1, the voice calling for help sounds distinctly like Zimmerman. I'm not saying it is - and I've never heard Martin - but if you listen to #1 and #3 back to back, you get the idea that somebody (and it sounds like Zimmerman) is being beat for 40 seconds plus the time to decide to call, to call, and to reach a 911 operator. Call it almost a minute.

It wasn't necessarily a 'fight.' It could have been a beating, couldn't it?

It seems you're as guilty as those on here who have convicted Martin; you've just chosen to ignore all exculpatory evidence, and to interpret all other evidence in favor of Martin. You appear to have convicted Zimmerman already.

[Mears]

bfl

[beandog]

That’s funny, I’ve shown this thread to a lot of nonfreepers and they want to know why several race baiters, like you, are allowed on FR.

I don’t know why someone, such as yourself, would want to continue to belong to a site that allows “bigots” to post. You are full of it.

[Alice in Wonderland]

Did you look at any of the links I posted? Had you had followed the one to the girlfriend you would have learned that she has never been interviewed by the police.

I posted the interviews I found. If you can locate more, please post them and ping me.

Even if Martin dabbled in drugs, carried himself like a gangsta and wore tattoos, did Zimmerman have the legal right to kill him?

[Scoutmaster]

The mother of the 13-year-old witness claims that he was pressured by the police to taylor what he saw.

Didn't she do that within 24 hours or so of another key event, Alice? What would have been the likely events, plural, to follow that other event?