Nothing to update on the Daniel Adkins case, and justice seems less and less likely to occur in Arizona—no big “surprise” considering the position of Latinos in the state. Meanwhile, there have been several more aspects of the Trayvon Martin case that disturb me. First was the firing of Sanford, Florida police chief Bill Lee, who was on paid administrative leave. Lee became chief after his predecessor was embroiled in his own race controversy, when the black community complained about several instances of police brutality. Lee was “tasked” to calm relations between the black community and the police; the problem was that crime subsequently went up. Part of this was blamed on the economy, but another element was the “easing off” by police in crime-ridden neighborhoods. In George Zimmerman’s formerly “family-friendly,” community, unemployed and new “transient” arrivals—according to long-time residents mostly young black males—were responsible for home invasions and robberies that were a weekly occurrence. And Zimmerman’s wasn’t the only one that felt it needed a neighborhood “watch captain,” either; in fact it was part of a city-wide initiative.
Last September, the local newspaper, The Sanford Herald, reported on the “rising tide” of crime in the city. “At the last City Commission meeting, about 50 citizens turned out to voice their protest against the increased number of criminal incidents occurring every day, victimizing people and property. ‘I live in the historic district and I have never seen it so bad,’ said Linda Surdin, who is a leader in her Neighborhood Watch group. She said residents have been harassed and attacked by the homeless and citizens are afraid, in their homes and in the community. Meanwhile, Sanford resident Gloria Baskerville said crime is not limited to the historic district or perpetrated just by the homeless. She said drug dealing and prostitution is done in the open in her neighborhood.”
Between April and June 2011 alone, 300 burglaries and 400 thefts were reported. “A homeowner who has lived on Elm Street for 26 years said crime is rampant. On Christmas Day last year, he left his home for only an hour, but he returned to find his entire set of lawn furniture gone. ‘The crime in my area has been real bad,’ he said. ‘The alleys are the hotspots.’ Another resident in the historic district also recently had their patio furniture stolen—along with a grill, lawn chairs, five trashcans and a jade plant that had special sentimental value because it came from her mother’s funeral.” Police Chief Lee was quoted as saying “The police officers can’t do it all by themselves. We need your eyes and ears to let us know when things are going on. It truly is a partnership.”
The reason why I continue to point this out is because the mainstream media continues to ignore this “backstory” in the Martin case; the failure of the media to do an “updated” character profile of Trayvon Martin that would “explain” his delinquency and his easy resort to violent behavior should also be in order. He was just as much responsible for his fate as Zimmerman.
Speaking of violence, another “incident” that fell below the mainstream media radar was that which occurred shortly after the Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson public rally in Sanford—which also just happened to be coincide with the Adkins killing. Now, I have nothing against Sharpton or Jackson (I voted for the latter in the 1988 presidential primaries), but to me it was reprehensible for them to stir-up violent emotions without learning all the facts first. Anyways, shortly after the rally, two black teens—Julius Bender and Yahaziel Israelin—decided to find themselves a white man and mete-out their own “justice.” According to the Sanford Herald,
“Investigators believe Bender and Israel beat a 50-year-old man with a hammer inside his vehicle and then took him into the woods in the area of Beardall Avenue and Lincoln Street where they continued to attack him. A witness that heard the victim’s cries for help and saw the beating called 911, but Bender and Israel fled the area before deputies arrived. The two men left in the victim’s vehicle, abandoning it a short distance away. Deputies found the victim in the woods, barely conscious and with severe head injuries.”
Note that there was no indication of the race of either the victim or perpetrators in the story; this was also the case initially in the Orlando Sentinel’s report. The Sentinel admitted that it had omitted the race and mug shots of the perpetrators deliberately. Note also that the perpetrators were “teens” like Martin, and may have intended to kill the man before they were spotted; I’m not sure either one was described as a “young child” by their defenders. Also unsaid was why we should regard such crimes as motivated by "simple justice" and not as hate crimes.
Another issue I find disturbing is the reaction of Latino “leaders,” who have fallen flat-faced not just concerning the Adkins case, but the Martin case as well. Instead of questioning why it seemed so easy for the media to demonize George Zimmerman without heed to the facts, last April you would be more likely to hear ill-informed comments like “George Zimmerman is half Latino, but his mentality appears to be completely white supremacist.” Again, this is simply repeating the given propaganda without relation to facts—especially given the fact that blacks are just as likely as whites to have negative opinions of Latinos, and the Martin case is a perfect example of those two communities finding “common ground” when the target is the “common enemy,” the Latino. As Ryan W. McMaken for the libertarian LRC Blog said at the time, “The way the press uses these terms (Latino and ‘white’ Hispanic) betrays just how completely ignorant most reporters and talking heads are about even the basics of ethnicity and race in this country.” Zimmerman was initially labeled white “because that's what the media has determined will produce the most fertile ground for ‘racial’ conflict.”
The last item on my plate was the release to the media six of the 151 jailhouse phone calls made between George Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie. Unlike the callous, thug-like attitude about life that we heard from Cordell Jude, the impression one gets from listening to the conversations—which the Huffington Post had the audacity to post both the audio and written transcripts of—are of a loving couple concerned about their situation both legally and financially, trying to figure out how she will make ends meet while fearing for the lives of everyone who has the “misfortune” of being too closely tied to Zimmerman. It is despicable how their private affairs are being made public, but it goes hand-in-fist with the media’s scurrilous behavior overall in the Martin case. To partially combat the media’s “interpretation” of a Macbethian couple, the following sums-up what kind of people they really are:
ZIMMERMAN: Man I can’t remember what the dream was but it was really nice. It was like, I bought you something that you always wanted. I don’t remember what it was.
SHELLIE: Oh honey, you don’t need to worry about that cutie.
ZIMMERMAN: I wish I could remember, it was like a, a nice scarf or something.
SHELLIE: Oh, you’re so cute. I love you so much.
ZIMMERMAN: I love you so much.
And:
SHELLIE: Not with him man. Like he is doing, what’s best for you. O’Mara
ZIMMERMAN: Good
SHELLIE: Yep, what’s best for justice.
ZIMMERMAN: Good, that’s all I ask.
Hasn’t the media gone too far in “examining” Zimmerman and his life and finding so very little to justify their “evil” narrative? Martin was engaged in a brutal beating; as I mentioned before, what is it that we don’t know about him that the media seems so reticent about investigating?
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