The Miami Heat originally posted at Lebron James's Facebook page: "We Are Trayvon Martin. Hoodies. Stereotyped. We Want Justice."
With the Sanford Police Department's "partial" initial report of the Trayvon Martin shooting now
in the public domain, the platter of questions about the case still overflows.
A month after George Zimmerman shot Martin dead in the central Florida city, we should know a lot more than we do. As a result of the shoddy work by the SPD, some questions may never be answered no matter how meticulous Special Prosecutor Angela Corey's investigation is. The delay by Sanford officials in dealing with community concerns over the shooting and the police response to it, whether a product of incompetence or something more malignant, will always hang over the teenager's death.
Meanwhile, a smear campaign against Martin is under way. It's conducted in part by the likes of Michelle Malkin, whose website Twitchy posted a purported photo of Trayvon in gangsta-style pose and Zimmerman in a suit. Twitchy bellyached about supposed media bias in not showing these photos of the men "because they convey a message that no one else wants to take into consideration." Just one problem: the photo of Trayvon wasn't Trayvon. That could have been resolved beforehand with a simple phone call or two, the kind of basic journalism that Malkin often rails about being absent. But presenting the truth wasn't what Twitchy's editors had in mind. On the contrary.
The effort was as clumsy as Zimmerman's "friend" Joe Oliver trying to explain how the shooter's muttering of "fuckin' coons" was really something else or maybe even that something else was something else, but whatever it was it wasn't racist. Not to mention his trying to paint Zimmerman as the victim. And then there have been the antics of Craig Sonner, Zimmerman's legal advisor.
But as transparent as these efforts have been, as many catcalls and guffaws as they have elicited, they have one effect that cannot be denied and may indeed be their main intent: tainting the jury pool.
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Columnist Jonathan Capeheart of the Washington Post editorial board, who has followed the case closely and previously raised questions, had a whole bunch more today since the leaking of the SPD report. Others have asked similar questions. Among them:
It wasn’t until Trayvon’s father, Tracy Martin, called to file a missing-persons report on Feb. 27 that police went to his fiancee’s house with pictures of his son’s dead body. News reports have said that Trayvon’s body was tagged as a John Doe. But the “Partial Report Only” that was completed at 3:07 a.m. on Feb. 27 lists Trayvon’s full name, city of birth, address and phone number. How did police get that information? Was Trayvon carrying identification? Did police try to contact that home number?
Trayvon’s father called his cell phone several times. Why didn’t police answer Trayvon’s cell phone? [...]
A drug and alcohol test was performed on Trayvon’s body. Were drugs and/or alcohol found in his system? There are reports that a similar test wasn’t done on Zimmerman? If not, why not?
As Capeheart notes, even amateurs who watch shows like
Law and Order can come up with these and other basic, common-sense questions.
Another question has been spurred by what almost seems an afterthought remark on ABC about a possible 911 call by Trayvon. If there was, it would be a crucial bit of evidence. But how could that be if he was on the phone with his girlfriend at the time? Was this just speculation or the passing along of a rumor by ABC? It should be a simple matter to clear up with a direct question to whoever is handling press responses these days at the SPD. Did he make a call, or didn't he?
Unless there are more leaks and "partial" leaks, which there probably will be, many answers will have to await the special prosecutor's report. For instance, what is in the autopsy report?
The Volusia County Medical Examiner's office, the body that "independently, objectively and scientifically determines the cause and manner of death under certain circumstances," handled the autopsy.
For now, that report remains under seal, spokesman Dave Byron told The [Los Angeles] Times. It has been forwarded to the Seminole County branch of the Florida state attorney's office and won't be made public while the investigation is pending.
That could be weeks or longer, although the pressure must be immense on Angela Corey and her task force to complete that investigation quickly to take some of the heat off city, county and state officials.
Whatever they come up with, what will still need doing is a full-bore investigation of the Sanford Police Department. Because its handling of the Trayvon Martin case looks to be the tip of an iceberg.
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[UPDATE]: The special prosecutor in the case will be bringing in "independent voice analysis experts to enhance the 911 tapes at the center of the case." Not exactly a surprise.
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Sign our petition asking U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the Sanford Police Department's pattern of failing to prosecute violent crimes against African-Americans.