A police report has finally been released in the case of the
shooting of Trayvon Martin. According to this report, Martin actually assaulted Zimmerman quite violently. This assault occurred after Martin got out of his
car and followed the teen. He called 911 to report Martin as suspicious and was
told he should stay in his car instead of following the teen. Zimmerman did not
listen to this sound advice and put himself in a dangerous situation.
Is the hoodie still a dangerous clothing item? Zimmerman
might not have considered Martin as suspicious had he not been wearing a
hoodie. However, we can no longer consider Martin as an innocent teen victim of
a shooting. How can the New Black Panther Party justify their campaign against Zimmerman now?
I think different people were quick to judge and react, even
though the police had not released a full report of the shooting. This case
gave us a good insight into how media functions and how quick we are to label
this type of incidents as racial or cultural issues.
One question still remains: do we really need neighborhood
watchmen? This incident shows that these watchmen are not necessarily following
advice from the police and take things in their own hands. Zimmerman put
himself in a dangerous situation by following Martin and ended up with no other
choice but to shoot the youth to defend his life. This is why trained officers
should be doing this job, not neighborhood watch captains, no matter how good there
are.
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