Trayvon Martin and the Sad History of Sanford, Florida

Subject: Trayvon Martin and the Sad History of Sanford, Florida

Where, my Christian friends, is that promised day when the Lion shall lie down by the Lamb?  ,

Actually the Bible verse from which this condensed phrase comes from is:

Isaiah 11:6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child
will lead them.
So perhaps the real question is, Where is that little child? 

The world is not going to simply change and one day we will all wake up smiling and living and loving together.  Some little child must take that first step in Love.  And we must follow.  We have tried violence and war and hatred long enough. 

But of course we on this and other "blind lists" can't even accept one another's differences, much less those of the "Sighted World".  It has to begin somewhere.  It could begin right here.  Think of the power we, "The Blind" could have.  We could be the beginning of the end of violence, and prevent future racial hatred and murders. 

Ah me, time to drink my coffee and wake up. 

 

Carl Jarvis    

 

 

Dear Friends,
Three weeks ago, 17-year old Trayvon Martin was gunned down by
self-appointed neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman. Despite
Zimmerman admitting to following, confronting, and killing Trayvon, he has
yet to be arrested or charged with any crime.1

Just minutes before Trayvon was killed, Zimmerman had called police stating
that Trayvon looked "suspicious." Trayvon was unarmed and walking back to
his father's home in Sanford, Florida when Zimmerman accosted him.

At the crime scene, Sanford police botched their questioning of Zimmerman,
refused to take the full statements of witnesses, and pressured neighbors to
side with the shooter's claim of self-defense.2 As it turns out, Sanford's
police department has a history of failing to hold perpetrators accountable
for violent acts against Black victims, and the police misconduct in
Trayvon's case exemplifies the department's systemic mishandling of such
investigations.3 And now, the State Attorney's office has rubber-stamped the
Sanford police's non-investigation, claiming that there is not enough
evidence to support even a manslaughter conviction.4

Trayvon's family and hundreds of thousands of people around the country are
demanding justice.5 Please join us in calling on the Department of Justice
to take over the case, arrest Trayvon's killer, and launch an independent
investigation into the Sanford police department's unwillingness to protect
Trayvon's civil rights. It takes just a moment:

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/Trayvon

Walking home from the store shouldn't cost you your life, but when Black
youth are routinely assumed to be violent criminals, being randomly killed
is a constant danger.6 Before Zimmerman decided to get out of his parked car
- gun in tow - to pursue Trayvon on foot that night, he called the police to
identify Trayvon as a "suspicious person" - apparently because he was
wearing a hoodie and walking too slowly in the rain for Zimmerman's liking.
Despite being instructed not to follow Trayvon, Zimmerman proceeded to
confront and fatally shoot the boy in the chest within a matter of minutes.7


The case has been compromised from the beginning. When Sanford police
arrived on the scene, Zimmerman was first approached by a narcotics
detective - not a homicide investigator - who "peppered him with questions"
rather than allowing him to tell his story without prompting. Another
officer "corrected" a witness giving a statement that she'd heard Trayvon
cry for help before he was shot, telling her she had heard Zimmerman
instead.8 And beyond the questions of professional competence or even the
police's disregard for the facts, Florida's notorious "Shoot First" law
takes a shooter's self-defense claim at face value - incentivizing law
enforcement not to make arrests in shooting deaths that would lead to murder
charges in other states.9

Sanford has a history of not prosecuting when the victim is Black. In 2010,
the white son of a Sanford police lieutenant was let go by police after
assaulting a homeless Black man outside a downtown bar. And, in 2005, a
Black teenager was killed by two white security guards, one the son of a
Sanford Police officer. The pair was arrested and charged, but a judge later
cited lack of evidence and dismissed both cases.10

Please join us in calling on the Department of Justice to arrest Trayvon's
killer and launch an investigation into the Sanford police department's
mishandling of the case and when you do, ask your friends and family to do
the same:

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/Trayvon