February 26, 2012: Trayvon Martin Is Murdered

February 26, 2012: Trayvon Martin is murdered, and the murderer got away with it.

Martin was a 17-year-old African-American high school junior, living with his mother in Miami. He'd been having a difficult time, and his mother had him transferred to a new school. It didn't help, and his father thought another change of scenery might up. He took Trayvon to his fiancée's at The Retreat at Twin Lakes, a gated community in Sanford, about 20 miles north of Orlando.

From January 1, 2011 to February 26, 2012, police were called to The Retreat 402 times. Among the crimes they investigated were 8 burglaries, 9 thefts, and a shooting. In September 2011, residents created a neighborhood watch program. The coordinator they chose was George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old native of Manassas, Virginia, Hispanic on his mother's side. At the time, he was an employee of a car dealership. He was a registered Democrat, and had voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential election, but had become highly critical of Obama's Presidency.

From 2004 to 2012, including well before his appointment, he had made nearly 50 calls to the police. Each time he reported a suspicious person, the person in question was a black male.

On February 26, 2012, at 6:24 PM, Trayvon Martin walked into a 7-Eleven store, and bought a packet of Skittles and an AriZona brand Watermelon Fruit Juice Cocktail. (Somehow, the drink mistakenly got into the public mind as an iced tea.)

At 7:09, Martin was walking through The Retreat, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt over his head. In public, he was almost never seen without a hoodie. Zimmerman saw him walking on Twin Trees Lane, and called the police. At 7:11 (the time, not the store), the dispatcher on the phone asked Zimmerman, "Are you following him?" He said, "Yes." The dispatcher told him, "Okay, we don't need you to do that." He responded with, "Okay," as if he had agreed to stop his pursuit. Had he done that, both he and Martin would likely have been fine.

At 7:16, a witness made a 9-1-1 call about a fight, and the dispatcher hears a gunshot. Within seconds, an officer arrived on the scene. He saw Martin on the ground, shot. He arrested Zimmerman at 7:19. At 7:30, a paramedic pronounced Martin dead at the scene. He was just 70 yards from his temporary residence.

Zimmerman was found to be bleeding from his nose and from the back of his head. He claimed that Martin had thrown him to the ground and tried to choke him to death, and so he pulled his gun and shot Martin in self-defense. Because there was no other living witness to the shooting, and because the State of Florida had a "stand your ground" law, Zimmerman was released by the police, without being charged.

When the national media reported the story, it seemed as though an unarmed black teenager had been murdered by an armed white adult in a Southern State. Did Zimmerman act in self-defense? Or... did Martin do exactly what Zimmerman said he did, which could be interpreted as Martin acting in self-defense?

In March, at a White House press conference, President Obama, who has 2 daughters but no sons, was asked about the case. He said, "If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon. And I think they are right to expect that all of us, as Americans, are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves." Former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, the presumptive Presidential nominee of the Republican Party, refused to demagogue the issue, essentially agreeing with Obama, saying a full inquiry was needed, "so that justice could be carried out with impartiality and integrity."

Finally, due to the public outcry, there was no choice: Zimmerman was indicted, charged with second-degree murder. On July 13, 2013, he was acquitted. He had gotten away with murder.

Within 2 years of his acquittal, Zimmerman was charged with domestic assault 3 times. Each time, the charges were dropped.

Trayvon Martin was not the only black person in America murdered by an apparently racist person during the Obama and Trump Administrations. Far from it. He wasn't the first, nor was he the last, nor was he even the youngest. (Tamir Rice, killed in Cleveland 2 years later, was only 12.) Nor was he the only one whose killer got away with it.

But there was something about Martin's case that stuck in the public memory. He seemed to symbolize the unfairness of it all.

In response to the acquittal, Patrisse Marie Cullors-Brignac creates the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag.

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February 26, 2012 was a Sunday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA played its All-Star Game that day, not far from the site of the shooting, at the Amway Center in Orlando. The West beat the East, 152-149. LeBron James for the East, and Kevin Durant for the West, each scored 36 points. Durant was named the game's Most Valuable Player.

There were 7 games played in the National Hockey League that day:

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-3 at the Prudential Center in Newark. Martin St. Louis scored a hat trick for the Bolts.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Ottawa Senators, 5-2 at Scotiabank Place (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-2 at the BankAtlantic Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-2 at the Consol Energy Center (now the PPG Paints Arena) in Pittsburgh.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-3 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Loui Eriksson scored the winning goal with 1:08 left in overtime.

* And the Anaheim Ducks beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-1 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

And in English soccer's Premier League, the North London Derby was contested between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal's home. "Spurs" took a 2-0 lead, and Arsenal came storming back, winning 5-2. I have a separate entry for this event.