{"id":13891,"date":"2021-03-17T14:42:38","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T14:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/whose-son-next\/"},"modified":"2021-03-17T14:42:38","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T14:42:38","slug":"whose-son-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/whose-son-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Whose Son Next?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whose Son Next?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>
(i.m. Trayvon Martin 26th February 2012)<\/p>\n

by\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Incident<\/strong><\/p>\n

A boy\u2019s walking back to his dad\u2019s
girlfriend\u2019s place in Sanford, Florida
with a pack of Skittles, can of Arizona
iced tea from the 7-Eleven for his bro,<\/p>\n

in time for the NBA All-Stars game.
Earphones in, he\u2019s chatting to his girl,
oblivious; it\u2019s early, no-one\u2019s around,
no reason for vigilance.<\/p>\n

A man cruises by in a truck, self-appointed
neighbourhood watch vigilante,
George Zimmerman, looking for trouble;
thinks his luck is in, he\u2019s found it.<\/p>\n

He calls 911, reports a real suspicious guy\u2026
up to no good, on drugs or something.
It\u2019s raining and he\u2019s just walking around
looking about. This is Zimmerman\u2019s<\/p>\n

46th 911 call since the New Year.
And he\u2019s a black male\u2026 something\u2019s wrong
with him\u2026 got something in his hands\u2026
These assholes, they always get away.<\/p>\n

Shit, he\u2019s running! The operator thinks
he\u2019s left his vehicle to run after the male.
Are you following him? Yep.
OK, we don\u2019t need you to do that.<\/p>\n

Trayvon tells his girlfriend a stranger\u2019s
following him. She tells him to run, hears
him say, What are you following me for?
The reply, What are you doing round here?<\/p>\n

She hears shoving and the line goes dead.
It is 7.16pm. Police arrive on the scene
at 7.17. Trayvon\u2019s lying on the ground
fatally wounded, a bullet in his chest.<\/p>\n

Freeze-frame the scene right here. Imagine
you\u2019re a cop who\u2019s just jumped out.
A black boy is on the ground, barely alive,
a man\u2019s brandishing a gun, admits<\/p>\n

he shot the youth but claims self-defence.
You\u2019ve seen crime dramas, know the score;
paramedics try everything, police cuff
the gunman, get statements off neighbours<\/p>\n

who called 911. Wrong. This is Florida: the law
allows anyone to \u2018stand their ground\u2019, fire
a gun if they think they\u2019re under threat.
The man\u2019s not breathalysed, arrested or charged.<\/p>\n

Nicknamed Crazy-Legs because he never sat still,
the boy will be taken to the morgue in a body bag,
his corpse tested for alcohol and drugs \u2013 negative.
Despite slurring his speech, Zimmerman goes home.<\/p>\n

Aftermath<\/strong><\/p>\n

March 2012 and still no arrest: hundreds
of students at Trayvon\u2019s High School hold
a walkout in support. A white supremacist \u2018s<\/p>\n

hacked Trayvon\u2019s email and twitter, making
selective posts on The Daily Caller and Gawker
to suggest violations, violent tendencies.<\/p>\n

The day before the funeral in Miami,
more than a thousand queue to view
Trayvon\u2019s remains, pay their respects.<\/p>\n

2.2 million sign an online petition, seeking full
investigation and Zimmerman\u2019s prosecution;
police still claiming no grounds for arrest.<\/p>\n

Trayvon\u2019s parents, Tracy and Sybrina,
contact Benjamin Crump, civil rights
attorney, who takes on the case, pro bono.<\/p>\n

The Million Hoodie March is held
in Manhattan, against racial profiling
of non-white youths in hoodies.<\/p>\n

Media coverage of Trayvon Martin
overtakes reporting on the presidential
race. Obama goes on record \u2013 If I had<\/p>\n

a son he would look like Trayvon.
Romney calls for an inquiry so justice
can be carried out\u2026 with integrity.
Whose Son Next? Page 3<\/p>\n

44 days on, Zimmerman\u2019s arrested
and charged. In June the Martins deliver
a petition with 340,000 signatures asking<\/p>\n

for changes to the stand-your-ground law.
The task force eventually reports back,
recommending against repealing the statute.<\/p>\n

July 10th 2013, the case goes to court.
Zimmerman pleads innocent to murder
and manslaughter. On July 13th<\/p>\n

the jury \u2013 6 women, 5 white, 1 black \u2013
agree and acquit him. Obama says Trayvon
Martin could have been me, 35 years ago.<\/p>\n

A girl posts online \u2013 black lives
matter \u2013 the message goes viral
and a movement is born. <\/p>\n

3 years after the shooting, the US Justice
Department closes its investigation,
will not bring a civil rights charge<\/p>\n

as the killing was not race-based,
not motivated by hatred. Trayvon\u2019s
parents\u2019 hearts are broken again.<\/p>\n

Repercussions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is this where the story ends?
Well, no. Tracy and Sybrina set up
a foundation in Trayvon\u2019s name<\/p>\n

to support other parents who\u2019ve lost
their children to violence.
Rest in Power takes 5 years<\/p>\n

to write. We don\u2019t portray
Trayvon as being an angel\u2026
but he was our angel.<\/p>\n

Zimmerman sells the gun
he used to kill, online,
for 138,900 dollars,<\/p>\n

claims some of the proceeds
will be used to fight
Black Lives Matter violence
Whose Son Next? Page 4<\/p>\n

against law enforcement
officers. He\u2019s currently suing
Trayvon\u2019s parents for 100 million<\/p>\n

dollars for defamation, conspiracy
and malicious prosecution
in the Trayvon hoax.<\/p>\n

Coda<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the picture I have of you
the pale grey hood of a sweatshirt
haloes your adolescent face.<\/p>\n

You could be any age between thirteen
and seventeen, faint line of hair
on your lip, ghost of a future moustache;
that vulnerable, frightened stage boys
go through. I should know \u2013 my son
was nine months younger than you
when you were killed.<\/p>\n

The wary look, retreating into
the hoodie\u2019s safe space.
Over and over your eyes
challenge \u2013
How could you let this happen?<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t have to teach my son
to be frightened of all white men,
especially on streets after dark;
the drill for being stopped by cops \u2013
hands in the air, call them sir, ma\u2019am,
keep your voice low, respectful
and never, ever answer back.<\/p>\n

What I can do now is honour you, Trayvon,
and all the other Americans who lost
their black lives and for whom justice
was found wanting. Your lives mattered,
they matter and I can no longer stare at
your photo and say I did nothing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whose Son Next?\u00a0(i.m. Trayvon Martin 26th February 2012) by\u00a0 The Incident A boy\u2019s walking back to his dad\u2019s girlfriend\u2019s place in Sanford, Floridawith a pack of Skittles,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":594,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[2364],"class_list":["post-13891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-2","tag-black-lives-matter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/594"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}