8 - Merrillville Community School

4 Opinion
The tragedy of Trayvon
Learn the lesson of independent thinking
By Joseph Patton
Staff Reporter
It’s hard to tread far in media without
seeing the name “Trayvon Martin.” The fallen
17-year-old’s name has held a lot of headlines
since his infamous death in late February.
George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic
male in charge of the Neighborhood Watch
in the community where Martin’s father lives,
has received just as much publicity. Their
names have been on everyone’s tongues for
weeks now, and the overwhelming verdict is
cold, deliberate murder. The nation at large
has demanded the arrest and arraignment of
Zimmerman for what some say is a vicious
slaying of an innocent youth, an outcry which
has as of late been responded to with the
charge of second-degree murder being brought
against him. But, in light of the recent
charges, it’s hard to feel as though the ordeal
was handled the right way. Yes, Martin is dead
and his blood seems to be on Zimmerman’s
hands. But, is Zimmerman completely guilty
of what he has been accused of, and does he
deserve the reproach of a nation?
When there is a murder anywhere (and
it happens quite often), two things are duly
noted: the age and race of both the victim
and the slayer. It is no surprise that upon
finding out that Martin was black and that
his killer is not, the obvious choice of motive
was racism. The thought held by many is that
Zimmerman profiled Martin and viewed him
as a threat to the safety of the community,
so he hunted him down and killed him. It
is an understandable concern. I am a black
youth myself. I have experienced the stigma
of profiling and stereotypes; racism is real and
is in some ways still a problem in this country.
The situation as a whole admittedly looks
bad. But, rather than sift through the mire
of details, the average person defaults to the
racism ploy without any prior knowledge of
Zimmerman’s motives.
Contrary to what might be expected,
Zimmerman was intent upon becoming
a police officer. He had even been the
voice that snagged a few arrests for his
community prior to the incident. It’s clear
that Zimmerman had a passion for something,
as evidenced by the numerous times he had
called the police to his neighborhood in recent
years and his opting to watch the streets
in the first place. The gated collection of
homes, known as the Retreat at Twin Lakes,
isn’t perfect by any means. There have been
a number of petty crimes there in the past
year, and Zimmerman’s appointment on the
behalf of his neighbors clearly shows that he
possessed some merit. The killer’s family also
asserts his support of racial activism in the
past (on the behalf of black people), a fact
that seems to bear no weight in light of his
recent actions. However, one can’t help but
think that maybe he isn’t the brutal killer that
he’s been portrayed as.
Stating those published facts is in no way
an effort to defend Zimmerman. He is still
accused of killing another human being, a
young man with a lot of life ahead of him.
Would a rational person think before killing
someone else, especially someone so young? I’d
like to think so. But, therein lays the problem.
I am not George Zimmerman, nor is anyone
else. No one knows precisely what happened
there but the accused and the deceased, and
rather than attempting to figure out precisely
what happened, the general populace turned
to arms. With zero hesitation, everyone picked
up their rifles and set their crosshairs directly
on Zimmerman. The images of Martin as a
child were all too compelling, and it’s very
easy to turn to uproar when life is taken. But,
does the voice of the people resound out of
a sincere concern for injustice or a visceral
desire to watch someone else burn?
It would seem as though people have just
been dying to have something to devote their
energy to, and this incident gave them the
incentive they needed to get loud. When
things go wrong, everyone wants to pitch in;
that’s just how things work. When a nation
is in crisis or a natural disaster happens, we
all get involved on a personal level. We like
it when others see that we’re doing our part
and it makes us feel warm inside when we
imagine that our bit plays a part in the bigger
picture. On a more base level, human beings
tend to be animalistic, and here we see two
distinct attributes of animals: aggression and
the ability to be controlled. Upon hearing
that a kid had been killed, most people simply
stopped there, grabbed their pitchforks and
lit torches. But why Trayvon Martin? Why
George Zimmerman? Murder isn’t a new
thing, and far more gruesome murders than
this occur all the time, many of them close to
us in location.
The fact that many decided to drive
this one home is in large part bandwagon
behavior. If someone else is talking about it,
you should be too, right? That isn’t to say
that there aren’t those of us who are active
and conscious all the time, but there are
many people who aren’t nearly as concerned
about social issues. Suddenly, though, we’re
all activists and we think that we’re shouting
at our television screens for the right reasons
because the nice, powdered people on CNN
told us so. If this case has proven anything, it’s
that we as a whole lack the ability to discern
for ourselves what exactly is going on in
the world and that we’re content with being
told when to be angry. It’s easy to turn to
violence. It’s easy to turn to revenge. If George
Zimmerman did kill Martin, perhaps it was
this innate human impetuousness that lead
him to do it. After all, if he could stop crime
from happening again, why not step up and
play his part?
Again, this is just hypothetical. It’s an
analysis, taking information from different
sources, weeding through what’s worth
listening to and what’s false and coming to
conclusions for oneself. That’s what should
have been done here. Whether or not the case
should have been blown to such a proportion
is subject to debate, but perhaps Zimmerman
shouldn’t quite be the villain that he is.
Would the case have even been brought to
national attention were Trayvon of a different
race? Would it be worse or less severe if
Zimmerman had been white or black? Maybe.
But that’s the point. There are so many
variables in the situation that plainly stating
that Zimmerman is a bloodthirsty criminal is
too black-and-white to be a sound judgment.
Between the slew of surfacing photographs
and facts, it’s hard to say who is wrong here, if
“wrong” is even an applicable term.
Yes, Zimmerman could have been more
careful, and maybe he was profiling Martin.
Maybe he wasn’t. The death is no less tragic
based upon Zimmerman’s motives, but the
truth of what happened and the character
of those involved is known only to those
involved and their families. With so many
assertions and pieces of evidence being thrown
in from so many angles, there may never be
a definitive answer to the question of what
truly happened to Trayvon Martin. What’s
important to remember here is that when
news arises, using a filter is key to keeping a
clear head. Instead of going along with what is
told to you, maybe deciding for yourself what
happened is better than calling for blood with
the rest of the nation. Perhaps then, we could
avoid making murderers and martyrs of people
who were simply in the wrong place at the
wrong time.
The shooting of Trayvon Martin (left) by George Zimmerman (middle) took place February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida. While on an errand Zimmerman saw Martin walking inside
the gated community where he was visiting. Zimmerman called the Sanford Police Department and described Martin as suspicious. Shortly afterwards there was an altercation
which ended with Zimmerman fatally shooting Martin once in the chest at close range. Police said that they had not found evidence to contradict his assertion of self-defense.
The circumstances of Martin’s death and the delay in charging Zimmerman have received national and international attention. Allegations of racist motivation for the shooting
contributed to public demands for Zimmerman’s arrest (as pictured during the “Million Hoodie March,” seen right). Zimmerman was later charged of second degree murder.
Martin and Million Hoodie March photos courtesy of Wikipedia, Zimmerman photo courtesy of MCT Campus.