Trayvon Martin’s Killing

Have you been following the case of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager in Florida shot to death in his own gated community by a white man who took him to be a threat? Ta-Nehisi Coates has been posting extensively on the matter, and I suggest reading his stuff. It appears that the trigger-happy guy who shot him, George Zimmerman, was a paranoid neighborhood watch guy who disobeyed a police dispatcher’s order to cease pursuing Martin, and who also disobeyed national Neighborhood Watch policy. The Orlando Sentinelreports that in the 13 months prior to the shooting, Zimmerman called 911 an astonishing 46 times. This is not a vigilant neighbor; this is a paranoid with a 9 mm handgun. Trayvon Martin was not an interloper; he was Zimmerman’s neighbor, and he was gunned down only yards from his own door.

The issue here is not only that Zimmerman shot and killed Martin, who, again, was in his own neighborhood, and doing nothing wrong. The issue is also that Zimmerman was not arrested by the police, who appear to have done a slipshod investigation (see here).