Justice for Trayvon

The left is out enjoying their summer, waving posters demanding "Justice for Trayvon!"  A fair few of them seem to believe that justice for the late Trayvon Martin involves themselves doing a bit of destructive rioting and looting; perhaps they'll think of poor Trayvon every time they put on the expensive sneakers they snagged through a smashed store window.

Of course, next to none of them are giving a whit of thought to what actual justice for Trayvon Martin would mean, and that's a shame.  He's dead now and no amount of justice will bring him back.

But if justice had been properly done in Sanford, Florida, Trayvon Martin would be alive today - behind bars.

Once A Thug...

You'd never know it from the mainstream media, but Trayvon Martin was far from the innocent choirboy his years-old photograph implied.

For one thing, the pictures that Mr. Martin himself stored on his cellphone during his life reveal him to be a criminal: they contain a picture of him with a mouthful of marijuana smoke, as well as child pornography.  OK, the porn was photographs of female classmates more or less his own age - but still.

There's also said to be a particularly interesting photograph of a pile of jewelry.  No, not the inner-city rap-star thug bling that Trayvon might have worn himself, but old-white-people jewelry.  Where might this have come from?

Dig a little deeper into Trayvon's past, and you'll find more interesting facts the jury was never allowed to see.

In October 2011 Trayvon Martin was searched by School Resource Officer, Darryl Dunn. The search of Trayvon Martin’s backpack turned up at least 12 pcs of ladies jewelry, and a man’s watch, in addition to a flat head screwdriver described as “a burglary tool”.

When Trayvon was questioned about who owned the jewelry and where it came from, he claimed he was just holding it for a “friend”. A “friend” he would not name.

It's been reported that the jewelry didn't match reported thefts, and that's true in the sense that the police didn't match it to any theft reports.  That's not because it didn't match, however, it's because they never tried to match it!

Why not?  Because they were never asked to:

SRO Dunn never filed a criminal report, nor opened a criminal investigation, surrounding the stolen jewelry. Instead, and as a result of pressure from M-DSPD Chief Hurley to avoid criminal reports for black male students, Dunn wrote up the jewelry as “found items”, and transferred them, along with the burglary tool, to the Miami-Dade Police property room where they sat on a shelf unassigned to anyone for investigation. [emphasis added]

Years later after Martin's death, Miami-Dade police started an internal investigation which discovered that the "found jewelry" did in fact match a police report of a nearby burglary, but we'll never know for sure.  Why?  Because the Miami authorities had made a political decision to reduce their city's black crime rate by simply not prosecuting black student criminals, or even investigating them!

Broken Windows and Soft Bigotry

Trayvon Martin did nothing worthy of death but it's pretty clear that he committed crimes worthy of prison.

The Miami authorities thought it best not to put any more young black males in prison than were already there, regardless of the law or their felonious actions.  In making this decision, though, they went against the proven crime-reduction methods of New York City and particularly of former Mayor Guiliani: prosecute all crimes no matter how small, and you'll avoid a whole lot of bigger crimes.

Let's repeat: if justice had been served, Trayvon Martin would be alive and in jail today serving time on a charge of burglary and theft.  Which would his parents prefer?  Which would the Racist Reverends prefer?  Which would President Obama prefer?

How about the people of Sanford, Florida?  Yes, Trayvon Martin isn't going to be lifting anybody else's jewelry, nor is George Zimmerman likely to be gunning down any more hoodie-clad teenagers anytime soon.  But how many other "young black males" have been released uncharged to prey on their communities, guarded by how many other nervous neighborhood watchmen who know the police will do nothing when called for help?

Why was George Zimmerman out on patrol that night?  Because his neighborhood had been victimized by numerous burglaries - burglaries just like the ones that Trayvon Martin in all likelihood committed.

George Zimmerman saw a "suspicious character" - someone he thought was a would-be burglar casing the neighborhood.  You'll never, never hear this suggested in the media, but Martin's record strongly suggests that Zimmerman's profiling might have been spot-on.

We all know where that led - to one ended life and several ruined ones.  This is all because of the racist bigotry of Miami's politicians and police authorities who refused, for purely racial reasons, to investigate known crimes and prosecute likely criminals.

Justice for Trayvon Martin!  Let's start investigating and prosecuting all suspected criminals and thugs, regardless of their age or race, and upon conviction putting them safely in prison where they belong.