Requests are circulating across the internet for the sharing of this article by Gary Younge that the Guardian has decided not to publish.
Calls for calm after George Zimmerman
was acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin are empty words for black
families
Let it be noted that on this day,
Saturday 13 July 2013, it was still deemed legal in the US to chase
and then shoot dead an unarmed young black man on his way home from
the store because you didn't like the look of him.
The killing of 17-year-old Trayvon
Martin last year was tragic. But in the age of Obama the acquittal
of George Zimmerman offers at least that clarity. For the salient
facts in this case were not in dispute. On 26 February 2012 Martin
was on his way home, minding his own business armed only with a can
of iced tea and a bag of Skittles. Zimmerman pursued him, armed with
a 9mm handgun, believing him to be a criminal. Martin resisted. They
fought. Zimmerman shot him dead.
Who screamed. Who was stronger. Who
called whom what and when and why are all details to warm the heart
of a cable news producer with 24 hours to fill. Strip them all away
and the truth remains that Martin's heart would still be beating if
Zimmerman had not chased him down and shot him.
There is no doubt about who the
aggressor was here. The only reason the two interacted at all,
physically or otherwise, is that Zimmerman believed it was his civic
duty to apprehend an innocent teenager who caused suspicion by his
existence alone.
Appeals for calm in the wake of such a
verdict raise the question of what calm there can possibly be in a
place where such a verdict is possible. Parents of black boys are
not likely to feel calm. Partners of black men are not likely to
feel calm. Children with black fathers are not likely to feel calm.
Those who now fear violent social disorder must ask themselves whose
interests are served by a violent social order in which young black
men can be thus slain and discarded.
But while the acquittal was shameful
it was not a shock. It took more than six weeks after Martin's death
for Zimmerman to be arrested and only then after massive pressure
both nationally and locally. Those who dismissed this as a political
trial (a peculiar accusation in the summer of Bradley Manning and
Edward Snowden) should bear in mind that it was politics that made
this case controversial.
Charging Zimmerman should have been a
no-brainer. He was not initially charged because Florida has a
"stand your ground" law whereby deadly force is permitted
if the person "reasonably believes" it is necessary to
protect their own life, the life of another or to prevent a forcible
felony.
Since it was Zimmerman who stalked
Martin, the question remains: what ground is a young black man
entitled to and on what grounds may he defend himself? What version
of events is there for that night in which Martin gets away with his
life? Or is it open season on black boys after dark?
Zimmerman's not guilty verdict will be
contested for years to come. But he passed judgement on Trayvon that
night summarily.
"Fucking punks," Zimmerman
told the police dispatcher that night. "These assholes. They
always get away."
