Written by: Erik Hagen
There is a great sadness involved in living in today’s reality, and it is that at any given time, for no reason whatsoever, you can be walking down the street minding your own business and be gunned down in cold blood by some idiot based only upon his personal prejudices.
This fact has been proven yet again, with the recent shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida.
Martin was walking to the local 7-11 before the NBA All-Star Game to purchase a can of iced tea and a bag of Skittles. On his way home, he was spotted by 28-year-old coward and local idiot George Zimmerman, who had appointed himself captain of the local neighborhood watch.
Zimmerman had not set up his self-appointed captainship with the national neighborhood watch program, because that would have meant that he would not be allowed to patrol his neighborhood with a loaded gun or to pursue suspects. Since those are both things that Zimmerman enjoyed doing, he was out in his SUV that night playing pretend that he was a cop when he spotted Trayvon on his way home. He called 911 to alert them that he had spotted someone who “looks like he’s up to no good, or on drugs, or something.”
Why did Zimmerman think these things? Perhaps a picture would be of some assistance.
As you can clearly see, Martin was, in Zimmerman’s eyes, appearing to be “up to no good” and “on drugs” because he was openly and defiantly committing the crime of walking down a street while being black.
So Zimmerman, want-to-be-hero, decided he would do the want-to-be-heroic sort of thing and pursued Martin with his gun, in spite of the fact that he was told specifically by the 911 operator to not do so. He did anyway. Martin ran away and escaped for a short while. But Zimmerman found him again. They wrestled. Then Zimmerman shot Trayvon in the chest and killed him.
At this point, this is outrageous enough. But the story doesn’t end here, because the story continues with your knowledge of the fact that at this very moment, Zimmerman is a free man. Because Zimmerman told the Sanford police department that he shot Martin to death in self defense.
Yes, the 17-year-old kid that he chased down in the streets and shot to death was killed in self defense. The kid that local neighbors calling 911 captured crying for anyone to please help him was shot to death in self defense. The kid who was on the phone telling his girlfriend that he was running for his life from some lunatic seconds before he was killed was shot in self defense.
And the police believed Zimmerman, and they still believe him, because the state of Florida just happens to have a law that defends just such actions. It’s called the “Stand Your Ground Law,” and it was passed in 2005. It states that if a person is in a place where they have the right to be and they find themselves under threat, they are legally allowed to defend themselves with lethal force without first retreating.
It is essentially a “shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later” law, which leads to wonderful he-said, he-said situations where one of the he-saids can’t say anything because that person is dead.
But if you’re thinking that Zimmerman killed Martin because Martin was black and Zimmerman is a racist, and the Sanford police department themselves are also racist for not throwing Zimmerman in jail, you better think again. Because when Zimmerman was originally reported to be a white man, his father Robert Zimmerman felt the need to clarify the record in a letter to the Orlando Sentinel that George was actually Hispanic, and that I guess it is impossible for one minority to ever be racist towards another, which is a common belief held by racists.
As for the police, Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee would like you to know that their “investigation is color blind and based on the facts and circumstances, not color,” and that he “can say that until I am blue in the face, but, as a white man in a uniform, I know it doesn’t mean anything to anybody.” Because if anyone is the victim here, it’s Bill Lee, poor persecuted white dude who everyone keeps yelling at for not doing his job.
So it turns out that if you ever get that urge to go kill someone, just for no reason whatsoever, better go do it in Florida, because apparently they just don’t care. Just make sure that you’re white first (oops, sorry, Hispanic), and that your victim is some poor black kid walking home with a pack of Skittles in his pocket. Because in the state of Florida, that’s all the grounds you need to blatantly shoot someone to death and not have it be murder. They’ve got laws for it and everything.
This is what happened to Martin. This is what could happen to you, to anyone who’s ever been different in a way that others find to be intimidating. Worse still, this is what could happen to you, and you could do nothing to stop it, and after the fact, when you are gone, it’s the person who did it to you who gets to walk away, his future still wide open ahead of him.
Bismarck resident Erik Hagen is the author of the SodBlog and so very angry. Send your emails to or visit his website at sodblog.com.
This entry was posted in SodBlog and tagged Erik Hagen, George Zimmerman, SodBlog, Trayvon Martin. Bookmark the permalink.Boy, I bet u wished you would have waited for more information to come out before you rushed to judgement on this case. I am very dissapointed in this article and the one on the Bowen Davis family. Yes, racism is out there. These are not poster cases for “your story on racism.”
By the way, I enjoy most of the critical indepth reporting on state and local issues in this newspaper. I was so sick and tired of picking up a local publication to see that it was full of left wing articles and views. Also, most of the state newspapers are a rehash of the Associated Press which of course is left wing.
You and many other journalists have fanned the flames of hate with this type of biased reporting on the Martin case. Shame on you.
you must have been there since you know so much about what went on. how about using a younger picture of martin ? there must be one of him in diapers that you could use. bush’s fault right ?