Prior to a few weeks ago, I thought it was an obvious fact that you don't need a semi-automatic weapon to do neighborhood watch in a gated community.
However, George Zimmerman, a volunteer neighborhood watch captain in Florida, seemed to think otherwise.
On February 26th, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was walking home from a store.
Zimmerman spotted the teen and called 911. He told the dispatcher that Trayvon looked like a burglar and a drug user, that he must have been up to no good. In actuality, the teen carried only a bag of Skittles and some iced tea.
The 911 operator told Zimmerman not to pursue the boy but Zimmerman refused and approached Trayvon. [You can hear Zimmerman's 911 call to police as well as the neighbors' call to 911 after the murder here. On the tapes, you can clearly hear a boy screaming for 'HELP'.]
Zimmerman shot Trayvon in the chest.
Since January 2011, Zimmerman has called 911 46 times. He has called in open garage doors and 'suspicious characters' who were walking too slowly. [Can you say 'vigilante'?] He has also been convicted of assaulting a police officer. Trayvon had no criminal record. His only crime was minding his own business and looking 'suspicious' to a wannabe law man with a semi-automatic weapon.
Under Florida's exceptionally broad 'Stand Your Ground' law, a person, such as Zimmerman, is excused from such a crime if he felt threatened. Zimmerman reported to the police that Martin jumped up and attacked him from behind. The police did not make any arrests and Police Chief Bill Lee said that there was no probable cause. "We have not done anything but conduct a fair and complete investigation," Lee said.
Finally, after pressure from community members and others around the country, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division and the FBI are investigating.
Let us hope Trayvon's killer will be brought to justice.
