Friday, March 23, 2012

Every Person George Zimmeran Reported to Police as Suspicious Was a Black Man

Race plays a major role in how Stand Someone Else's Ground laws play out, as does gender to a lesser extent.  It is one of the reasons that the use of deadly force by ordinary citizens rather than police presents a spectrum of problems, especially when those citizens operate under less accountability for their decisions to use deadly force than law enforcement does.
I found this paragraph in the Florida News Journal about the many 911 calls to the Sanford police to be interesting, although I would prefer the slur quoted below to be verified by lab efforts to make it more clear if the words quoted are what is really being said, as that part of the recorded speech is muffled, before representing it as conclusive:
Zimmerman has a long history of calling police on "suspicious people", in fact each of his calls over the last year were to report someone who was black. In his recent call to police over this incident he was record using the words "F***ing Coon" while describing Trayvon Martin.
The Sanford PD released this 47 page report of the calls made by George Zimmerman confirming Zimmerman's odd obsession with black males.
When one of the news stations inquired if the reports of crimes being committed by blacks claimed by Zimmeran in the gated community where the Martin shooting occurred were accurate, the local police department did NOT support that claim made by Martin and his fellow neighborhood watch co-captain.

Statistically, there are greater problems, as was noted in this New York Times article for black males than for example, black women as a group.  As a sometime student of criminal justice studies, Zimmerman may have felt that this gave him the justification for his suspicion of all black males.  The problem of course is that people are individuals, not statistical aggregates.  What is true of a group is not automatically true of every individual who has something in common with a group.  There are as many false representations of facts about groups as there are accurate ones; a case in point is the notion that there are more black men in jail than in college.  This is false, as documented at African American Demographics, quoting U.S. Department of Justice data.  That is the problem with belief and assumptions, that a person's information may be incomplete or inaccurate, in addition to a generality not being true in the specific.  Zimmerman wouldn't be the first person to be suspicious of black men, but that is precisely why arming people and giving them a greater rather than lesser license to use those weapons violently is not safe.
But the greater problem lies in the ambiguity that is at the core of the Stand Your Ground,  Stand Somebody Else's Ground,  Chase Somebody Down Ground, Shoot First, Make My Day law, which only requires someone reasonably believe they were in danger, not that they in fact objectively WERE in danger.  The wording was intended only to separate out those who acted in the heat of the moment from those who acted in a premeditated fashion.  The law was intended to remove the second guessing of people who were not there, and to give effective carte blanche to people to act with little if any accountability.  The problem is that with that wording, objectivity is removed, and people are unfairly put at risk because of someone else's belief, someone's subjective reaction.
It SHOULD be a decision when you use deadly force that you can support with objective criteria.  It should be a decision you make with the greatest trepidation.  You SHOULD be concerned that you will be in trouble if you make the wrong decision that injures someone or ends their life.  Removing that concern has resulted in an increase in homicides, mostly in shootings, and in many of the victims being found to be unarmed.
Further, we are too quick to give the benefit of the doubt that people exercise good judgment when carry permits for guns are issued too easily.  Clearly, good judgment is, like common sense, not so common.  The judgment of people who carry is affected by bias, prejudices, and inaccurate assumptions like the false assumptions about black males attributed to George Zimmerman.  Other people's lives should not be at risk because of that judgment, particularly when there is not a good justification or necessity for the carrying of weapons.
We do NOT live in a country with a crime rate out of control.  There is no justification for vigilanteism.  There is no necessity for every person to go armed in fear of their lives.
Some residents of the gated community who were black noted that they themselves resembled the stereotype description of suspicious individuals that George Zimmerman circulated in an email to community members, and claimed that Zimmerman's assumptions about black people in that regard made them uncomfortable.  This would suggest that despite the assertions that George Zimmerman, the vigilante who shot Trayvon Martin, believed in a stereotype in which black males were consistently viewed as criminals.  While Zimmerman may not have regarded black children in a racist way, or black women, the fact that he appears to have regarded all black males in this way does suggest a type of racism in the unfair assumptions he appears to have held about blacks, if only towards adult male black individuals.
The prevalence of anti-black beliefs was not unique to George Zimmerman.  That there is racism among the pro-carry gun crowd was documented in the comments made by pro-gunners in response to the Trayvon Martin shooting on the blog of NRA election coordinator Keith Milligan of PA, and the Koch Brothers Cato Institute Clayton Cramer's blog, shown with screen captures of the comments
:
Commenting on a post at "Shall Not Be Questioned" (a blog authored by NRA Election Coordinator Keith Milligan of Langhorne, Pennsylvania), several pro-gun activists expressed thoughts which speak for themselves. First up was "mobo," who wrote, "OMFG, not that this has anything to do with anything really, but 'TREYVON' was this kid’s name? What on Earth is the matter with people? How is a kid supposed to get a respectable job when he grows up when the first thing the employers see is 'Treyvon' on the top of the resume?" He couldn't even be troubled to spell the deceased young man's name correctly. But "Heather from AK" didn't care. She replied, "That’s actually one of the more normal names, these days." Mobo added that no name "scream[s] 'ghetto' like Trayvon ... I guarantee you at least one juror will be inclined to aquit the shooter in part because of the victim’s name."
"dustydog" then suggested that Trayvon Martin got what he deserved, writing, "Kids, it is wrong to beat up armed people. As the unofficial motto of DS [Defensive Shooting] says, “The defenseless victim deserves what he gets.” Whether or not Martin "beat up" Zimmerman is unknown. Regardless, the notion that Martin deserved to be killed because he was not carrying a gun is grotesque.
Pro-gun activist "emdfl" was also quick to blame the killing on Martin, writing, "IIRC from the story, that poor, innocent, (17yo)chillin was visiting his stepmother/father(?). Probably from up north where it’s perfectly acceptable to smart mouth/attack older white people asking you what you are doing in their neighborhood. Unfortunately, Treyvon forgot he wasn’t in the disarmed-victim zone he is used to working in." Martin was actually from Miami, Florida and had no criminal record. Zimmerman, on the other hand, has been arrested for assaulting a police officer.
Next up was the following comment from "Moshe Gintel": "I think the young negro was stopped by Zimmerman, and the kid strong-armed Zimmerman. The kid probably took off on Zimmerman’s race and if he was alive, the kid should be charged with a ‘Hate Crime’ Horrid case of anti semetism. Jews should congratulate the Sanford police chief for not arresting Zimmerman." One of the many problems here is that George Zimmerman is not Jewish.

"Sage Thrasher" made it clear what his "gut reaction" was to the shooting: "You’re right about state of mind. If you’re walking in a strange neighborhood and a car starts shadowing you really slowly on the sidewalk is your first thought going to be 'neighborhood watch' or 'drive by'? Same if you see a teenage walking through your neighborhood: kid buying snacks or mugger? No matter how open minded you are, your reaction is going to depend partially on both your race and the race of the other person; much of that driven by statistics, probability and your own life experiences. (Personally, if I’m minding my own business walking back from a store and car starts following me, my first thought probably isn’t going to be 'somebody wants directions' unless it’s a very nice neighborhood.) In the same way, many of our (and I’ll admit, my) gut reactions to this story are based partially on the age and race of the two participants in trying to decide who the actual 'victim' was in this case."

Finally, Clayton Cramer, the author of a new report for the CATO Institute entitled, "Tough Targets: When Criminals Face Armed Resistance from Citizens," drew the following conclusion on his blog: "Zimmerman, the shooter, had a bloody nose and blood on the back of his head. Based on what the witness said, it sounds like he was getting hit pretty hard by the 17 year old. Regardless of how bad a decision Zimmerman made in confronting Trayvon Martin, once it reached this point, shooting was the right decision."

The deplorable and mistaken assumptions in these comments, by those who carry guns and are eager to use them without legal impediment illustrates precisely why both of those things must be more difficult.  We can't outlaw stupidity and hatefulness, but we certainly don't need to arm it or make it easy for those who engage in it to shoot people.
It will be interesting to observe if the statements from neighbors who were black and felt that Zimmerman targeted people like themselves, prior to the shooting of Trayvon Martin, in conjunction with the reporting of only black men as suspicious will be sufficient for the threshold of a violation of Trayvon Martin's civil liberties.
It should also be a contributing factor to repealing the problem law in Florida and other states that emulated Florida, and a good argument for more restrictive gun laws, particularly as relate to open and concealed carry.  It is better to err on the side of fewer trigger happy well intentioned killers.

2 comments:

  1. Great post, except for the fact that it makes me nauseous to read it. Don't worry, I'm not going to blame the messenger, but those kinds of comments really make me sick.

    I walk down the sidewalk here, and I don't expect to be hassled by self-appointed vigilantes. I expect to be treated well by the police, too. But then, I'm white.

    I don't expect to be assaulted when I'm walking alone, either, even at night. But then, I'm a man.

    The fact that other people do have to worry about these things makes me furious. And when idiots turn around and blame the victim, it makes me positively sick.

    Anyway, thanks for the post. Nice job!

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  2. Not the same color, he is a white Hispanic, as opposed to s black person who is African American. Some differentiate it as an ethnicity, versus what some people call race. His mother is from Brazil, I believe; that could as easily mean she was of European descent as from either native descent, so no he's not necessarily a 'person of color' because of being Hispanic.

    In some areas there is a pattern of hate crimes between Latinos and blacks.

    Here is an example of the pattern of Latino and black violence:

    http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/25/local/me-hatecrime25

    or this quote from five days ago from LATINO FOX NEWS (I figured you required a right wing news source, even if Faux News is usually badly skewed):
    http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/03/21/trayvon-martin-case-does-race-play-role-even-though-zimmermans-not-white/#ixzz1qGvf0Pcr
    "In reality, discrimination and even hate crimes aren’t uncommon between Black and Latino communities. In fact, there have been many of these cases, such as this case in Pascall, New York or this one in Moline, Illinois."

    So there you go; it actually makes it more plausible, not less, that there was racial prejudice going on. What I found more significant however that Zimmerman was racist were the statements from some of his black neighbors that they felt UNsafe because of his racial profiling.

    It is worth mentioning btw that the police refuse to confirm that ANY of the crime in the neighborhood where Zimmerman was doing his cop-wannabe patrols were in fact commited by blacks, contrary to his routine assertions to that effect. The idea appears to be all in Zimmerman's head.

    You might also find this 2010 article of interest:
    http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/florida-kkk-leader-says-law-enforcement-officers-are-169139.html

    The Imperial Wizard of the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is guarded about discussing his organization's membership.

    But this much Cole Thornton openly shares: Florida cops belong to his Klan group because he said they like its rigid standards and its adherence to a strict moral code.

    "They (police officers) like the fact that we support law enforcement," said Thornton, who is based in the Gulf Coast community of Englewood. "These guys are out there putting their lives on the line and we back them."

    He would not name those law-enforcement officers, but Thornton said he thinks that being a member of a "traditional Klan" group "makes them a better cop."

    Thornton's comments come in the wake of the firing of an Alachua County corrections officer who acknowledged he was a member of Thornton's Klan organization.

    Sanford is reputed to have an active group of the Kluckers, but I haven't confirmed that specifically; however, the Sanford police have a bad track record of tolerance for crime against blacks, which could simply reflect a local or area or regional culture of intolerance within that part of Florida. The history of Florida regarding race and slavery dating back to the civil war is soemwhat different than the more traditionally 'deep south' states.

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