Trayvon Martin is dead. While walking from a gas station to his father's house, he was shot by an over-eager community watch captain. Protests are erupting all around the nation. The usual suspects are claiming that this is a case of racism, and that we need to immediately address this issue.
Back story:
George Zimmerman was a 28 year old community watch captain, who by all accounts seemed to be a little over zealous. Records show he called 911 46-49 times this past year. On Feb 26, he called 911 to report someone he was watching that he had a bad feeling about. There were a number of breakins reported recently in Zimmerman's gated community, so it seems like the watch captain was on edge.
The person Zimmerman was watching closely was Trayvon Martin. The 17 year old black kid was just walking back his father's house after getting iced tea and skittles from the gas station. There seems to be no justifiable reason for Zimmerman to be watching Trayvon so closely, unless you consider racial, age, and social profiling to be effective. Trayvon was black, 17, and wearing a hoodie. Those details alone are hardly damning evidence of wrongdoing.
Zimmerman followed him in his van while talking on 911. Trayvon was talking to his girlfriend on his cell-phone, and it seems that he tried to lose Zimmerman at least once. All said and done, Zimmerman at some point got out to confront Trayvon, a witness claims there was a scuffle. A witness claims that at some point during the scuffle the watch captain was on the ground. The witness states Zimmerman was calling for help while Trayvon was on top of him. The police say that the watch captain suffered a broken nose, an injury to the back of his head, and that there were grass stains and water marks on his back (seems to corroborate the witness).
While the witness was running inside, a shot rang out, and Trayvon was no longer on top of Zimmerman. Trayvon died of the gunshot wound.
Trayvon was a good kid, had no criminal record (it seems), and did nothing wrong to justify being followed. Zimmerman was a overzealous community watch captain, who created a bad situation, and ended up killing Trayvon.
No one knows how (or even if) Trayvon was provoked.
It's a tragedy all the way around, with the bulk of the blame seeming to rest on Zimmerman.
But this isn't a case of racism where someone was just jonesing to cap a black kid. Racism is wrong, but is profiling? Supposedly (I haven't found the numbers yet) in New York blacks are 25% of the population, Latinos are another 25% with whites coming in at 35%. Blacks and Latinos account for 98% of all gun crime in New York. Profiling means understanding that each situation is an individual case, but when you're using heuristics to figure out who to worry about shooting someone, Las Vegas is not putting money on white guys. Facts suck, but ignoring them does not make them less true.
This past weekend in Chicago, something like 10 people were killed in gun violence. One of the murdered included a 6 year old girl. It feels bad to say, but how is Trayvon's killing any more tragic than this 6 year old girl? Crime is rampant in urban areas, but people latch onto individual cases of tragic situations like this. Why? The narrative seems to fit a case of whitey killing someone for the crime of "walking while black". The problem is that Zimmerman is half Hispanic and half White. Now typically multiculturalism dictates that we must call this person "hispanic". The New York Times describes Zimmerman as a "white-hispanic", a naming convention that I haven't ever seen in The Grey Lady.
The media and the usual race-baiters are playing this off as indicative of the level of racism that exists in America today. I feel nothing but sorrow for Trayvon and his family, and from my perspective it's impossible for anything good to come of this. No amount of protesting will bring Trayvon back. Stop looking for a (non-existent) racist splinter in America's eye when the beam in the eye of urban culture is killing far more people.
The true tragedy is how the inner city problems will never be addressed because of PC cultural sensitivities.
