March 22, 2012 10:26 PM UTC

Trayvon Martin Was Lynched

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• by: MADCO

from Merriam Webster –

transitive verb

: to put to death (as by hanging) by mob action without legal sanction

paraphrased from the Wiki

Lynching is a nonjudicial execution, often by hanging by mob, but also by burning at the stake or shooting.  the goal is not justice nor revenge, It is an execution done in order to punish a supposed transgressor,  to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people.

Lynchings have often been the means used by the politically dominant population to oppress social challengers.

People get shot and killed everyday in the USA. Approx 27.

I don’t notice, and while in a generalized sense I care, I’m used to it and so it doesn’t pain me.   I”ve bee thinking about why certain murders affect me more deeply, even when I don’t know the victim.

(slight apology for the length – I’m sure there is a way to edit it down, or perhaps just the lynching piece is on Youtube somewhere.  But the rest is pretty sweet.)

I’ve been feeling especially bad because Trayvon Martin was lynched.  It may not have started out that way – although I haven’t heard the “gated community” where it happened apologizing or distancing themselves from the killer.  But in the instant that Zimmerman decided to follow Trayvon Martin, to stalk and intimidate him; to ultimately murder him, this became a lynching.

Martin was just a kid. By all accounts a good kid. And now he’s dead.

Clearly the crime of walking while black knows no age limit.

The 911 recording makes it clear that Zimmerman was at least partially motivated by Martin’s race.  “fuciking coons” is what he said, and it sounds partly like he’s trying to stoke his own fear and anger, partly like a practiced expression of racism.

The description of Zimmerman as some kind of neighborhood watch vigilante makes it sound like perhaps the “gated community” wanted him on the lookout for undesirable types.

And while I think it too convenient to draw a conclusion about the original motivation based on the outcome, I feel confident that black kids out walking are going to avoid that neighborhood.  And if they live there – they will stay inside.

No way Zimmerman shoot the kid if the kid looks like him.

No way Zimmerman’s community is going to put him ont he other side of their gate.

WIll he be prosecuted?  Apparently not be the locals. And making the federal case seems ….difficult.  

And here in Colorado we have make my day and private carry and guns on college campuses (students – not staff) and some who want a Florida-like stand your ground law.  

Trayvon Martin was lynched – that’s why it feels so bad.