The Price Of Justice – Trayvon Martin

Folks let me start of by saying that I may ramble off in this piece due to the fact that I just have a few things I want to get off my chest.

It bothers me to hear of the untimely death of the teen in Florida by the name of Trayvon Martin. I became familiar with the case back at the end of February when Good Morning America did a small piece on it. All they reported was that a teen had been shot and killed by a neighborhood watch leader. This leader they said made a 911 call and was told by police to not follow the young man but he continued to do so and we know what happen. Well, at that time they only had Trayvon’s dad on and they didn’t mention the race of the shooter, nor did they give a name or show a picture of him. At the time what I found SO interesting about the story was the fact that the shooter admitted to shooting Trayvon, and yet he still walked free.

Weeks have passed and attention to this case has grown to massive nationwide attention all because, in my belief, race has been the focal point of things that have transpired. 911 tapes have been released with the shooter supposedly uttering racial slurs. The cellphone records have been checked for Trayvons phone. Other bit’s of evidence and reports have come in and yet it seems the Sanford police department felt just in allowing the shooter to remain free based on their evidence, or lack thereof.

Growing up at the start of the 70′s and being influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement of those days and personally knowing people like Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) and being taught and made familiar with the plight of our people in this country, It has had an impact on my thinking and the way I view things that happen and effect African Americans in this country. Being told and taught at an early age that Emmett Till is a relative of mine and seeing what happened to him and the outcome of the justice that was served in Mississippi, NONE, it oftentimes kept me on edge.

I was always the one growing up who had a bit more of a militant view than my friends and family members my age. I can’t tell you how many times people have jokingly called me Nat Turner. Even though my views may have been different from most my age I still could relate to anyone despite your race, religious beliefs or political views. I believed in judging a person on who they were as a person and not what they looked like, talked like, dressed like. It’s because of this that I felt as though the Trayvon Martin case is not about race, it’s about justice.

Justice needs to be served in this case simply because you have a kid who wasn’t bothering anything or anybody. He was walking home from the store. He was approached by the shooter. Now we don’t know what all took place but a few things are pretty clear. The shooter was told to leave him alone and not to follow him but he didn’t listen to the authorities. There was an altercation between the shooter and Trayvon. Let me ask you this, put yourself in Trayvon shoes, your out of town at your father’s house walking home from the store and a strange man approaches you and start asking you question about what are you doing in that neighborhood what would you do? I know I instruct my son to not stop and talk to strangers that approach him. So I can see Trayvon running trying to get away.

There seems to be little to no value on the life of young black men here in this country. I’m not only talking about when people outside of the race kill young black men and boys. I’m referring to all killings that occur. I say this because it always seems like there is evidence that doesn’t get processed or looked at properly, or a witnesses testimony that didn’t make it into the report or little to no interest or effort on the part of the authorities in solving the case. Just recently there were over 40, yes 40 killing in Chicago over a weekend, 1 single weekend! I think this should have gotten as much attention as Trayvon case. Here is the thing, I don’t look to the media to give our stories major attention, WE NEED TO DO IT. We need to reach out to each other and speak up and spread the news. We need to demand justice when crimes are committed against blacks by blacks with the same vigor and zeal as we do when we want to look at a crime as racially motivated.

Too many times cases like Trayvon’s take place and too many times they are not solved. Let’s take race out and do whats right, solve the case. I encourage you to have this approach when it comes to local crimes, don’t allow a murder to go unsolved when you have key evidence that will help.

Thanks for listening, i just had to get a few things off my chest. I’m saddened, upset and pissed off by whats going on.

My prayers go out to Trayvon and his family.