Richard Lowdown Hoad on April 20 sought to inspire us to stand our ground. As the heading promised, the Travyon Martin murder was featured.

This incident was framed as a “stand your ground” situation.

It has to be noted that Jeb Bush, governor of Florida when the law was passed, did not see the incident falling within its ambit. The law was intended as a justification for a person to use maximum force to defend his/her home and space.

Neither the evidence freely available nor any credible scenario saw Mr Zimmerman defending either.

The information available shows that the African American teenager Trayvon Martin was walking through a neighbourhood with a bag of sweets and iced tea, wearing a hoodie, and talking on the phone with his girlfriend. Mr Zimmerman meanwhile was alerting 911 to the threat posed to the community by this youngster.

A black man wearing a hoodie with bag in hand had to be a criminal, so that, in spite of a warning by the 911 operator, he had to be followed. The teenager told his girlfriend that he was being followed and promised her that he would walk faster.

He didn’t threaten: “I am going to turn back and get that man.”  

Minutes later he was dead.

Bill Cosby, mellow in old age, saw this episode as a gun matter rather than potential racist profiling; he said that Zimmerman’s main mistake was carrying a gun.

Hoad opines that without the gun Zimmerman might be dead, and the implications are clear. Conjecture is all we have, but conjecture should be based on reason.

I cannot conceive of a scenario in which Trayvon would have turned back and attacked Zimmerman without provocation, since last we heard he was speeding from the scene, followed by Zimmerman.

So why does Mr Hoad excuse this gunshot? Only Hoad can answer that.

Share your thoughts

Please sign in or register to leave your comments.

Page 1 of 1 pages

Page 1 of 1 pages

Recent Comments

Your Friends' Activity

What Do You Think?

To view this site, you need to have Flash Player 9.0 or later installed. Click here to get the latest Flash player.

Daily Cartoon