Murder Of Trayvon Martin: The Failure Of Democracy

Gorge Zimmerman a neighborhood watchman on February 26, 2012 decided 19 year old Trayvon Martin; a young unarmed African American boy, wearing a hoody was a threat and subsequently shot him. Regardless of what political orientation or race one is, there is only one reason Zimmerman considered Martin a threat, because of his race .Race matters because it is the skeleton which certain beliefs, attitudes, opinions, assumptions, and biased conclusions are shaped. The failure for Zimmerman to be acquitted for the murder of Trayvon martin highlights the failure of democracy towards African Americans, and explicitly shows why black lives matter should be a priority. Shortly, after the Zimmerman verdict was the emergence of the black lives matter movement, …show more content…
It is easy to note the common denominator between these people and the likes of Martin, Garner and Brown is their Race, and that justice was never served to their family and friends. It is also safe to say that democracy did not matter, because even after 400 years of oppression and the millennial claim of color blindness, it is still evident that black lives do not matter and are disposable .This is why race and democracy matters amongst African Americans and the relationship this has with the state and the criminal justice …show more content…
Did brown not deserve the right to be tried by a jury? Why was his lifeless body left on the street for hours? In a jury hearing on the shooting of Michael brown, Darren refers to brown as” it “when asked how many shots he fired at brown, and he says he cannot remember he just knows he shot at “it”. The justice department stated that Zimmerman could not be arrested for the murder of Trayvon martin because they could not find enough evidence for premeditated murder, and Florida is a stand your ground state. In 2014, Jordan Davis was gunned down in a Walmart parking lot for playing music too loud, the jury in Florida found him guilty on all four counts of first degree murder. However he was not convicted because the jury did not find him guilty, after claims by Dunn that he acted out of fear. On the flip side, in the same stand your ground state of Florida, a black woman was convicted of murder for exercising those same rights. Already the decks are stacked against African Americans , and when they are armed their interactions with the justice system is worse , so Is it safe to say that the stand your ground law only applies to white on black interactions? According to a study done by Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center, Whites who kill blacks in Stand Your Ground states are far more likely to be found justified in their killings. In non-Stand Your Ground states, whites are