Boy in the Hoodie

Something you may not know about Trayvon Martin:

After taking an airplane ride two years ago, Trayvon decided he wanted to learn to fly, his uncle Ronald Fulton said. The teen attended a Miami aviation school part time and was studying to be an engineer, a path to realizing his ambition, Fulton said.

Math was Trayvon’s favorite subject.

Something else you may not know about Trayvon Martin:

“He was extremely creative,” said Michelle Kypriss, Trayvon’s English teacher at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School in Miami. “He just loved building things. He really was intrigued by how things worked.”

She described Trayvon, a junior, as an A and B student who majored in cheerfulness.

Something you may have heard about Trayvon Martin:

Trayvon was under a five-day suspension when he was shot that Sunday night, but Kypriss said it was due to tardiness and not misbehavior.

“Trayvon was not a violent or dangerous child. He was not known for misbehaving,” the teacher said. “He was suspended because he was late too many times.”

What Glenn Beck’s Blaze website makes of that information:

We’re also learning more about Trayvon Martin. According to reporters he had been suspended from school. The International Business Times says Martin’s suspension was due to last for 10 days.

What the International Business Times says:

Martin has a clean criminal record. But he was suspended from him Miami high school for 10 days in February, which was why he was in the community, visiting his father and his father’s girlfriend.

IBT reporter Michael Billera’s Twitter bio:

New York Reporter for International Business Times (@IBTNewYork) Lover of dogs. American.

IBT reporter Michael Billera’s source for a ten-day suspension instead of five:

None.

IBT reporter Michael Billera’s spelling of Sanford, Florida:

Sandford

What Blaze writer Mytheos Holt extrapolates from an unsourced, incorrect fact provided by an IBT reporter a thousand miles north of Sandford Sanford, Florida:

But what exactly was he suspended for in the first place? Sources sympathetic to Martin say he was suspended for “excessive tardiness.” However, a quick review of both the local policies for Martin’s school, the Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School, and of the Miami-Dade school district’s district-wide policies, raise some doubts. According to Miami-Dade policy, in order to get a suspension of 10 days, Martin would have had to either commit “repeated, serious or habitual” acts of the following:

Some of the following listed by Blaze writer Mytheos Holt:

• Aggravated assault
• Aggravated battery against a non-staff member
• Armed robbery
• Arson
• Assault/Threat against M-DCPS employees or persons conducting official business
• Battery or Aggravated battery against M-DCPS employees or persons conducting official business*
• Homicide
• Kidnapping/Abduction

Sample infraction meriting a five-day suspension under the Miami-Dade Code of Student Conduct:

Failure to comply with previously prescribed corrective
strategies

What Trayvon Martin’s teacher said, in case you missed it the first time:

“He was suspended because he was late too many times.”

One-word description of Blaze writer Mytheos Holt:

Asshole.

Two-word description:

Incompetent asshole.

Spread of the incorrect “ten-day suspension” fact and insinuated violent behavior:

All over the fucking place.

Houston Chronicle blogger Gina Carroll, explaining “Why I Cannot Write About Trayvon Martin”:

I am, after all, the mother of two African-American boys — boys who, like Trayvon Martin, love basketball and lemonade and Skittles. Boys who wear hoodies when it’s cold; wear hoodies when it’s not; wear hoodies because hoodies are cool. Boys who frequent gated and affluent communities. Boys who are often on foot…

Not too long ago my teenagers were returning home late from a party. The neighborhood patrol followed them through the neighborhood , through the gates of our house and into our driveway.

“What are you doing here?” the officer asked.

“We live here.” My son replied.

“Oh, your mother works here?” the officer asked.

[Indignant pause by children. Deep breath. Anger suppressed]

“No, my parents own this house.” My son said.

[indignant pause by officer. Quizzical look.]

“Then I’d better let you kids get home. It’s late.” Officer says and exits.

The Year of Our Lord, just to make sure we haven’t slipped into a time warp:

2012.

26 Comments

I’m just disgusted with this tragedy, but more disgusted with the distortion by obviously racist asshole from the “buhbuh-lazy” and “oh it’s just self defense” bullshit used by Florida officials to excuse a possible racist with incredibly poor judgement/reasoning.

I think that this would be dealt with as a murder (probably 1st degree) anywhere outside of the state of Florida (or certain other parts of US America) thanks to their poorly thought out “self defense” law that immunizes folks from the consequences of their own poor judgement/stupidity/racism/anger.

Trayvon might not be an angel, but he sure as hell didn’t deserve to die at the hands of a thug.

:’-(

I can’t believe, I mean I really can’t believe that idiots are trying to say he deserved being shot while armed with a bag of Skittles.

Has his murderer been charged yet?

If somebody happened upon a teahadi rally in Florida and “felt threatened” by a mass of frothingly racist wanna-be secessionists, would they be upset if that person just started firing? Something tells me the teabaggers would suddenly develop a strong interest in gun control…

That’s a sweet photo, by the way.

The RW is also trying to muddy the issue by saying that Zimmerman is “Hispanic.” Because if he were Hispanic, then he wouldn’t shoot a black kid.

The whole argument falls apart when you realize that, if this took place in a gated community, then the fine white people of Sanford have indeed failed to keep out the brown people, as intended.

Either way, even today, black male in hoodie = danger to a whole lot of people–white, Latino, and even black. Whether he was on suspension is also irrelevant to the issue at hand, since kids on suspension don’t wear a scarlet letter letting the community know that they are a menace for missing so many days of school.

@matador1015:

Yes, I too noted how quickly the “Zimmerman identifies as Hispanic” narrative was put out there. It’s clearly a PR/defense strategy meant to imply that because he was a minority (or identifies as such… whatever that means) his motives must have been pure.

Nevermind that minorities of one race can absolutely be horribly bigoted when it comes to other races. There’s nothing in law of man or nature to prevent that. Indeed, it’s easy to see how a Hispanic person might seek to “rise” above the bigotry that he himself is subjected to by being especially bigotted against a minority that is even more reviled by the majority. I say this as a Latino American myself.

I can’t talk about this event, I can’t even think about it, without starting to cry and yell out obscenities. Yet again every time I turn on, listen to, or read the news, I find myself looking at a calendar and reminding myself that indeed it is 2012. I’m getting really fucking sick of that, and I’m really fucking sick of our country thinking it’s okay to kill or destroy anyone who isn’t a rich white Republican male.
Thank you Nojo, and what everybody else above said. It’s 6 in the fucking morning and I’m crying. And using the word fuck a lot.

/need some fucking coffee

@SanFranLefty: I’ve consumed 3 cups of coffee and it is only making me angrier. Black Snob hits it on the head:

To this end, I say, if you ever thought about not doing, loving, saying, being something that you wanted to be because you were worried about what “society” would think, stop thinking that way. There is nothing you can actually do. All you can do is live your life in the most honest way possible. Be good to those who are good to you. Love whole-heartedly. Care for your friends and family. Follow your dreams. You can’t waste any bit of your short, precious time on this Earth worrying about what some unknown bigot thinks.

Or what anyone thinks.

Because it is beyond your control.

And there is no path that promises your child will be safe. And this is the world that we live in. But you don’t have to accept anything.

Not. One. Damn. Thing.

And you don’t have to take that load and just accept the racism and injustice and crime and rape and murder in our world. Nobody owns you. They can’t make you accept that tragedy as just “part of your life.”

BTW, everybody, I’m going underground for a bit on the book of faces. Just need to disconnect. If y’all would like to chat/conversate/bitch/moan/make fun of the right wing, email me at hollarptrcub@gmail.com. I’ll be there. And here.

@rptrcub: Thanks, that is a great piece. Good to know you’ll still be around these here parts.

This Deaf man’s account of meeting (and signing with) Obama cheered me up, if you need a moment of happy news. And confidential to Benedick, at the end of the clip Obama flashes his dazzling smile at a Deaf woman who signed “I love you” to him.

ADD: Confidential to Dodger – there’s a clip of Shelley Oh! signing more extensively than just “thank you” – I think you’ll like it.

@SanFranLefty: Lewis Black was on Rachel Maddow’s show last week, discussing how Republicans are trying to roll back the clock on women’s rights, and his words apply equally well here: “I’ve been through this for the last forty years of my life, we’re not doing it again, I’m not going through this again.”

@mellbell: Black’s words are so true when you have Santorum going around saying “America was great before 1965.” Why waste his time with coded dog whistles when he can just say it directly?

@SanFranLefty: Awesome. I needed that. Thanks.

@mellbell: I know Margaret Atwood has been thrown around a lot in these discussions, but seriously, The Handmaid’s Tale was prescient. All of this really scares me.

What we are seeing here from the Right is desperation. They are poised for huge losses this year, and have already seen historic recall efforts at the state level. They know at this point their ideas have been debunked by 8 years of President Bunnypants. Given that Conservatism by its very definition cannot look forward and embrace new ideas, they are looking to their past- for distractions from their past that have been winners for them: Racism, sexism, red-bating. This rush to make the victim responsible for his own death because of his identity as a young black man is part and parcel of their terrified retreat to the past.

I will go so far as to say that even if this kid was selling crack and breaking into cars it is still racist and insane for some random fucktard to shoot him at will, summarily executing him. People have the right to go to the damn store no matter who they are, and not get shot for it. This, in my mind, should be the response to this nonsense.

@Tommmcatt Be Fat, And That Be That:
I agree now that Mittbot has “won” the GOPer nom. The guy can’t even handle Newt in a debate (NEWT!) and how is that oaf going to handle Barry the Centrist who is an “okay” public talker guy?

Like I said, Mittens ineptitude could hurt the down vote races.

@ManchuCandidate: The enthousiasm gap is going to be huge no matter who the candidate is, although oddly enough I think that Santorum would have been their best choice if they wanted to get people out to the polls. With Mittens in the driver’s seat I just don’t think many Goopers will even show up at the polls.

If a black guy had shot down a white guy wearing a hoodie in a gated community, ya think he wouldn’t be in stir now?

@Tommmcatt Be Fat, And That Be That: If by “won” you mean “Dishonorary Loser”, then Yes.

@Dodgerblue: “Thump, thump!”
/shooter after being thrown under bus

@nojo: Once again I beat you all at losing!!!! I’m 4 for 4 at this point!!!

@rptrcub: If it makes you feel better, today’s political and military “leaders” are far too corrupt and incompetent to pull off a full Gilead-style theocratic dictatorship. At most we’re looking at more pathetic, half-assed, Fascism 4 Dummies.

Add a Comment
Please log in to post a comment