The TV show scenario of the gun falling out and the two men struggling for it is just nonsense. I believe Trayvon Martin had every reason to fear this stranger following him in the dark. I don’t believe the gun came into play during the struggle. If it had, if Zimmerman could have reached it during their encounter, I doubt he’d have taken the beating he claims to have taken. I believe the fight was over. Trayvon let George go, and Zimmerman, finally free to reach, pulled his gun and shot him. For me, no other scenario seems logical or even likely.
Post-Mortem:
911
Is A Joke
Of course, it goes without saying that, had the roles been
reversed, had Trayvon Martin shot a racist white man who was
pummeling him-- a fight Martin provoked by stalking the man-- that the clueless white women on the Zimmerman jury would have,
without a doubt, sent Trayvon to prison for the rest of his life.
The message, sent and received, is that racists can stalk anyone they choose in order to
provoke a violent incident to justify murdering them. The
prosecution was amazingly stupid and culturally tone deaf.
Focusing too much on George Zimmerman’s mindset, they failed
completely and absolutely to draw the jurors into the mindset of
Trayvon Martin. They were so intent on prosecuting Zimmerman,
they failed, utterly, to defend Martin or to humanize Martin in
any way. The inequity of justice between whites and blacks was
never explored. The prosecution allowed a baseline cultural
standard to exist in the minds of these white women that was
completely false. The culture of those white women jurists is a
call to 911 if they feel frightened or endangered. The culture
of the street is to handle things on your own because a call to
911 would certainly get you arrested instead of your stalker. I
am quite sure it never occurred to Trayvon Martin to dial 911.
911 is no friend to the urban black community. It is not what
you do.
The prosecution failed to educate the jury on urban black
culture. This speaks directly to what motivated Trayvon Martin
to confront George Zimmerman, if that is in fact what happened.
This, I assume, was some misguided attempt to keep race out of
the trial. But race had everything to do with the trial. Race is
what motivated Zimmerman to stalk Martin, and the cultural
environment in which Trayvon Martin grew up trained him—as it
surely trained me—to engage threats before becoming a victim of
them. These white women found Trayvon Martin guilty of
confronting George Zimmerman while acquitting Zimmerman of
stalking him—which provoked that confrontation in the first
place. This is the very essence of second-degree murder: motive.
There is no one on this planet, George Zimmerman least of all,
who believe Trayvon Martin was trying to kill his stalker or
that the fight between them would have resulted in Zimmerman’s
death. Presuming Trayvon jumped Zimmerman—which we do not know
to be factually true—it was a fight. In the hood, among teens,
fights happen every day. Somebody wins, somebody walks away.
Nothing in the trial coverage has changed my conviction that
George Zimmerman got his butt whupped, and that Trayvon Martin
would have and likely did release Zimmerman, likely warning him
to stop following him. And, when Martin moved to get up, that’s
when Zimmerman could finally reach his gun—which had been pinned
under Martin’s leg.
If George Zimmerman feared for his life—and we do not know that
to be factually true—it was because he was a punk. A punk who’d
never been in a common schoolyard brawl, as I am convinced none
of the white women jurors had ever been. Lacking that
experience, neither Zimmerman nor his jurors had any common
reference for the dustup between Zimmerman and Martin, a brawl
that resulted in minor lacerations and not life-threatening
injuries. Millions of street kids of all ages, genders and
ethnicities recognize the alleged encounter for what it was—a
fight, not a murder attempt. George Zimmerman lost that fight.
And, when Trayvon Martin moved to get up, Zimmerman pulled his
gun and shot him.
The Reasons Why
I also believe the silver bullet was the nonsense lie of the defense, including Martin’s family, asserting that was Martin screaming for help. In the hood, screaming for help is simply not done. There is nothing about Trayvon Martin’s aspect or profile that would suggest he would ever scream like a little girl. George Zimmerman, however, has “punk” written all over him. Everything about him suggests a pathology that would most certainly cause him to fold like a child in any physical confrontation. I never once thought that was Martin screaming, and it is likely that lie, unconvincingly told by Martin’s family, that prejudiced these culturally clueless women against them. That was George screaming like a little girl. And, soon as he could get his hand on his gun, he shot this kid. Truth is: Zimmerman could just as likely have cried “Uncle,” “All right! I’ll stop following you!!” And Martin would just as likely have gone his way. George probably didn’t know that because George seems to have never actually been in a real fight. He, like this jury, like these prosecutors, knew absolutely nothing about the environment that forged Trayvon Martin’s thinking. Zimmerman could have stopped that fight at any time simply by giving up. Nobody was trying to kill him.
Completely missing from this trial was the fact Trayvon Martin was likely frightened to death of George Zimmerman. Confronting his stalker—if that was what in fact occurred—was an act of bravery. To Martin, Zimmerman was the threat, and he had no idea why or what he’d done to provoke the man into following him. He died wondering.
