[Black Star Editorial]
The young man left the house to buy candy on Feb. 26, 2012 in Sanford, Florida, and he ended up dead because a “neighborhood watch coordinator” was angry that the “fucking punks” always got way, to use the gunman’s own words.
That night, the “neighborhood watch coordinator”, who was on punk-watch may have been determined that it would never happen again.
George Zimmerman, 28, had already prejudged 17-year old Trayvon Martin by the time he saw him; a Black youth whom he was unfamiliar with.
This adult, Zimmerman believed Martin was one of those elusive “punks”; the type allegedly involved in past thefts in his neighborhood. And nobody likes a punk.
So on that night in Florida this was the mindset that controlled George Zimmerman’s actions. And from this type of disposition, only trouble can come; nothing more. And trouble did come.
“This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something,” Zimmerman informed the Sanford Police Department, when he called, as he eyed Martin.
He was told by the Police Department not to follow Martin. But he did. That’s what happens when a person is determined to confront a “punk.”
Zimmerman and his lawyers can say anything now. Dressed in a nice suit and tie Zimmerman can be sold to jurors as this reasonable level-headed man. A man who supposedly was trying to protect his own life when he shot and killed Martin.
Zimmerman can show his bloodied nose and lacerations on the head; wounds described as superficial. He can say Martin was on top of him during a struggle.
He can have his parents claim the screamer on the tape was him and not Martin; even though Zimmerman himself wasn’t sure when interviewed initially.
But Zimmerman can’t erase the fact that he was fed up on the night of Feb. 26 that “punks” had gotten away in the past.
“‘Fucking punks. Those assholes, they always get away,’” Zimmerman had told The Police Department on that fateful night.
Trayvon Martin didn’t know there was someone searching for a “punk.”
And in Zimmerman’s mind, he would do.
Had it not been a “punk” named Trayvon on Feb. 26, so long as Zimmerman was determined to nail a “punk,” it might have been someone else some other day.
And he, likely, would have been Black.
