Changing "stand your ground" laws won't change the reality of the Zimmerman case, no matter how brazen the appeal to emotion

A couple of days ago, the following statement appeared in my email inbox from Change.org, composed (likely with the help of attorneys and media activists) by Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton.

Last year, our son Trayvon Martin was stalked, chased down and killed by George Zimmerman, and Zimmerman received no punishment whatsoever. That's in large part because Florida is one of at least 21 states with some form of 'Stand Your Ground' law which enables people like George Zimmerman to claim self-defense.

Anyone who has read my commentary on this case knows that this kind of talk is not likely to attract my empathy or support. This has less to do with the facts of the case than personal denial and a brazen appeal to emotion. I understand their grief; the problem is that Martin’s parents continue to refuse to acknowledge their own culpability in the raising of their son—especially the mother, whose “solution” to her son’s repeated delinquency was to ship him off to a father who lived 200 miles away. The fact that they refuse to acknowledge their son’s very real predilection to crime and violence, and what Zimmerman thought was his responsibilities as a neighborhood watch captain, invalidates their petition from the start in the face of more obvious examples of unjustified violence per “stand your ground,” such as the murder of Daniel Adkins.

And make no mistake: Zimmerman was and is being punished by unjust demonizing and dehumanization from all sides.

'Stand Your Ground' was never meant to give aggressors the opportunity to get away with murder, but that is what happened when our son Trayvon was killed. After Trayvon's death, law enforcement used the law as an excuse to refuse to arrest George Zimmerman. Even worse, the jury in the case was instructed to think of what Zimmerman did as self-defense, even though Zimmerman ignored instructions from the police and instigated conflict with our son, who was just trying to get home to his father.

Again it should be pointed out that “stand your ground” was never an issue either with police or even the prosecution. This was a media creation to negate Martin’s own violent actions. Lies and more lies infuse this paragraph. Beware: If you live in a neighborhood beset by home invasions and crime, and you see someone who you never saw in the neighborhood before, peering into the windows of homes late at night, and you choose to follow this person to see where they are going, you are an “instigator” and you deserve to be beaten-up, maybe even killed in the process. You have no right to self-defense.

We are shocked and heartbroken by the jury’s decision to allow our son’s killer to go free. Despite our despair, we must honor Trayvon’s legacy by doing all that we can to protect other young people from being targeted, pursued, and senselessly murdered.

I think I’ve already addressed this mendacity. I'd also like to take this moment to say that I've had to tolerate for years--and even more so now--the ignorance of self-righteous bigots of all colors. However, I don't go around beating "respect" into people--it seems to me to be a bit "counterproductive."

This is a matter of making sure that no other family will ever have to go through what we have been through. No parents should ever have to know what it feels like to watch your child's killer walk free.

What if Martin had killed Zimmerman after one too many blows? What if Martin—who thought beating on people was part of the “gangsta culture” he embraced, and was intending on obtaining a handgun (from who else, Rachael Jeantel), likely with money from his drug sales—had killed someone somewhere down the road? What would the parents of his victim feel about the “angelic” Trayvon?

Our hearts broke on the night of February 26, 2012 when George Zimmerman killed our son – and we were stunned and devastated when the police refused to arrest Zimmerman. We petitioned for Zimmerman’s arrest on Change.org, and after more than 2 million people joined our call, Zimmerman was charged with our son’s murder. We felt so much closer to justice for Trayvon, and so grateful for the support of those who signed our petition.

I wonder if their hearts were "broken" after yet another of a string of criminal behaviors that was the true precipitating event that led to their son's demise. And if Zimmerman was “Caucasian” and not Latino, there is no doubt that this 2 million would have been a much lower number, because the white people who signed the petition would have stepped back and thought about what if they had been in the same situation as Zimmerman confronted by someone like Martin.

But on July 13, 2013, our hearts broke again when the jury set Zimmerman free. Our hearts broke because it is so hard to accept that we can’t protect Trayvon anymore. But we can fight to make sure that this never happens again.

People ought to fear for the integrity of our justice system if they take this to heart. It was Zimmerman’s defense that offered a believable case based on the evidence; the prosecution only offered falsehoods, “opinion” and appeals to emotion as a “case.”

Please sign our petition calling for a thorough review of all ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws to prevent killers like George Zimmerman from going free.

I don’t have an issue with revisiting “stand your ground” laws—especially those which allow a homeowner to simply shoot someone for standing on their lawn (or like Cordell Jude, shooting a developmentally-disabled person walking his dog from the safety of his car). But this wasn’t what the Zimmerman case was about; it was about a 17-year-old “kid” who had just been suspended from school (again) and sent 200 miles away from his “hood” by his mother, to a place no one knew him or seen him before. There is no doubt that psychologically this small-time criminal was ready for physical confrontation with anyone who crossed his path, and who knows what else was on his mind to do in a place where he was an unknown to authorities.

We want to say thank you to all of you who have stood up for our son. Because of all your efforts, Trayvon’s life is celebrated all over the world. Please continue to stand with us as we fight to ensure that his legacy is to leave behind a safer and more peaceful world for all our sons and daughters.

The hypocrisy is just too much. We are supposed to “celebrate” the life of a thief, drug dealer and someone who believed in settling issues “physically”? While I personally agree that the ownership of handguns should be restricted, their complete banning hardly promises a “peaceful” and “safer” world when people like Martin can assault people at will—usually in the coward’s fashion against people who they sense are “vulnerable” to their predation—without fear of retaliation.