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What Happened to Trayvon Martin?
Just heard about this, so I'm clueless. Tried looking it up on the internet, but I can't find anything to answer my questions.
What happened to him? Whats the big deal about it?
It said something about uncivil justice?
Thanks!
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What blr51697 said is almost completely wrong... (Well, they've edited it now and it's much closer to correct.)
Trayvon Martin was a 17 year old boy who was shot and killed walking home from a convenience store.
A man named George Zimmerman saw Trayvon and thought he looked suspicious. Zimmerman called the police and they were on their way. The police told Zimmerman not to chase Trayvon, but Zimmerman did chase him - armed with his gun.
Some people have said that Trayvon attacked Zimmerman when he caught up with him (I'm not sure I buy that, and even if he did, I'm not sure why it's wrong for a 17 year old who is being stalked by an adult with a gun to punch that adult, but it's perfectly legal for an adult to follow a teenager who has done nothing wrong, and shot him dead because he got punched.)
What we do know for sure is that Zimmerman shot Trayvon and killed him. When the police got there they didn't take Zimmerman's gun (which would be standard practice even if the death was in self-defense), and they didn't take Zimmerman in for drug testing (as is required by law when someone shoots another person). They also didn't check Trayvon's phone or contact his family in a timely manner. They let Zimmerman walk away because he claimed he acted in self-defense.
So there are three big issues:
One: The concern that Zimmerman acted based on Trayvon's race, and was suspicious and followed him because he was black. This isn't so much a legal issue, as a moral one, and a issue for the community.
Two: The concern that Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law means that what Zimmerman did isn't illegal at all, even if Trayvon didn't punch him.
Three: The way the local police handled the investigation has also caused a lot of concern.
"Civil Justice" can mean a few things, but basically it's the issue of the rights of private individuals, and the laws and procedures that should be followed when those rights are challenged. People don't say "Uncivil justice" much - that doesn't really mean anything. But if someone did say it, they probably just meant they felt that Trayvon's rights (or his family's rights) as a private citizen had been ignored when Zimmerman acted as he did, and the police mishandled the case.
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its sad but what happened was he was walking down the road and a guy that saw him and thought he looked suspicious. He had a hoodie on and they guy thought he was gonna do something so he claims in self defence he shot him..... It's sad. :(
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