This George Zimmerman case is bothering me. From the beginning I have been disgusted by
the death of Trayvon Martin. Now
following the verdict I continue to be disgusted.
Don’t get me wrong, I can see the reason for the
verdict. Florida has the most lenient self
defense laws around and based on the evidence and the charges pursued it really
wasn’t a surprise. I am liberal enough
that I do feel that unless all reasonable doubt has been removed the right
choice is not guilty. I am also rational
enough to know that sometimes your gut tells you when something is wrong, even
if based on our court system the person facing charges must be let go. It can be flawed, but it is a decent system
designed to (hopefully) prevent the innocent from being wrongly convicted. Sometimes the innocent are found guilty,
sometimes the guilty go free, but as a perfect system is not possible I am not
disgusted by the system we have. Sometimes
our laws do interfere with the right judgment being made.
I haven’t followed the case extensively; I just don’t have
the time for that kind of thing. I
acknowledge that Trayvon wasn’t an angel.
I’ve read he had a few run ins with the authorities in the past, but
then again from what I’ve read the same could be said for George. It is clear that Trayvon wasn’t up to
anything, he was just walking; George didn’t know this, but then again I feel
that it shows a certain level of bias that his assumption was the kid was up to
no good. He called 911, which I think is
a realistic thing to do if you have concerns.
I once called the police because I saw someone messing with a manhole in
the street in front of our house in the middle of the night. The police checked and found that city
workers had been called in for an emergency situation. I did what I think most normal people would
do, contact authorities instead of directly approaching a person. George decided, despite the recommendation
from the operator not to, to follow and approach Trayvon. This seems to be the big disagreement point,
what followed after George notified 911.
I have seen, in my opinion, far too many people that feel George was in
the right in following and approaching Trayvon, that Trayvon’s reaction (which
isn’t clear) and the altercation that happened justified George in shooting
Trayvon.
Let me tell you a little story. Back when I was pregnant with my oldest child
I had a prenatal appointment. The only
parking was in a poorly lit parking deck attached to the office. The parking deck is incredibly poorly lit;
during the day it is dark enough in the parking deck that you actually have to
turn on your headlights (which on more than one occasion resulted in me
forgetting to turn them off and running out my battery.) At night the lights come on inside, but
during the day they’re not on and the natural light is just horrible. I had asked my husband to join me, but he had
to work, didn’t think he’d be able to leave early, so he said he wouldn’t be
able to make it. I take a long lunch
from work, drive to the parking deck, and can only find a parking space deep in
the deck because of all the other offices in the building. I gathered up my things (the purse and such),
huffed and puffed my way out of my car (which word of warning, if you find out
you’re pregnant and have a car that sits really low, just sell it or eventually
you’ll be considering a winch to get you out.)
As I walked towards the offices I hear footsteps behind me. I glanced and saw what seemed to be a male
walking behind me. It was dark enough
that only the general shape of the person could be made out. That wasn’t that uncommon, like I said there
are quite a few doctors’ offices there.
Then I heard the steps quicken.
If you are female, you know the last thing you want to hear when in a
dark area and no one else is around are footsteps following you quickly. I tried to pick up my pace, as best as I
could as I waddled along. The footsteps
behind me picked up their pace. This is
what you might call an “oh crap” moment.
I’m not much of a runner, and most women will tell you that running
while pregnant is pretty difficult (except for those rare women that continue
to run a mile until the day they go into labor.) I still had a way to go, so running wasn’t a
great option. I do, habitually, carry a
rather large purse and have for a rather long time. I’m one of those people that carry everything
but the kitchen sink in my purse. My
purses are big and hefty enough that at times it makes my shoulder and back
hurt. I shifted my keys so one was
poking out of my fist. I grabbed my
purse strap as if I was adjusting it as I heard the steps right behind me. I suddenly spun around and swung my purse
right at the person behind me. I am kind
of proud, my aim was dead on. I managed
to give my husband a really good whack with the purse.
I didn’t know it, but my husband did manage to get out of
work early. He was sweet and decided to
surprise me. He did a marvelous job of
it! He saw me park, and parked a few
spaces away. I was so occupied trying to
get out I didn’t pay attention to that.
There was no threat at all. He
didn’t say anything because he saw me glance at him and thought I was able to
tell it was him. He was just trying to
catch up to me. He was sweet, and I
yelled at him to never do that to me again.
Why? And also, why in the world
would this man later buy me pepper spray??
Back to the first “why?”
I think it is our natural response to feel threatened if someone is
following us in the dark. This is a
reaction that is ingrained into us. It
goes back to our incredibly distant ancestors.
In the days of hunters and gatherers becoming alarmed by possible
threats in the dark helped keep them alive.
This turned into the instinct that we have today. When we feel threatened it brings about our
fight or flight response. It is only
rational to believe that as Trayvon realized some strange man was following him
that he would begin to feel the rush of adrenaline and the beginnings of the
urge to flee or fight. He could have run. Really though, if he ran people would have
used that as proof that he was up to no good, and considering George’s already
gung-ho actions it is possible he would have shot a running Trayvon under the
belief that he was trying to stop someone guilty of a crime. Because why would an innocent man run? Unless he’s scared of a stranger coming towards
him in the dark. Apparently Trayvon went
with fight. There is nothing that shows
exactly who threw the first punch, the exact sequence of events. Maybe Trayvon did turn around, on the
offense, and become hostile towards George.
This isn’t exactly a surprising reaction though, if he did it. I can’t say that I would be shocked if this
was his reaction though. My own harmless
incident, I didn’t politely turn around and ask the person behind me who he was
and if his intention was to rob me, rape me, abduct me, or maybe some
combination. In hindsight, instead of
whapping my innocent husband with a heavy purse I could have whapped an
innocent stranger with my purse. Our
instincts don’t tell us that when we encounter a perceived threat to stop and
talk about the situation; we are not wired that way.
While the racial overtones of the case are alarming, I am
most disgusted by the most basic facts of the case. A male spots another male that he thinks
could be a potential threat to someone (not himself or any specific person,
just a potential threat to anyone in the general population.) After alerting the authorities, who encourage
him not to do so, he decides to follow and approach that potentially
threatening male. An altercation ensues,
in which the male decides to shoot the potentially threatening male. Realistically, stripped down it could almost
sound like self defense, except for the fact that the male (George) pursued the
altercation with someone that wasn’t doing anything more suspicious then being
somewhere that the male (George) felt the potentially threatening male didn’t
belong. I prefer a more traditional view
of self defense. I see self defense as a
threat comes to you and you then use necessary means to stop this threat. I even go so far as necessary means if
another person’s life is in danger. I
kind of have the old view of “don’t start nuthin’, won’t be nuthin’.” If you don’t go and seek out the altercation,
then it won’t start and you won’t have to feel like you are in danger. George Zimmerman felt threatened when he got
out of his car with a gun, then followed a stranger, and an altercation with
that stranger ensued. He felt
threatened. I wonder how Trayvon felt
when he was followed in the night by a stranger.
No comments:
Post a Comment