I read something this morning that prompted me to write the following letter. First, from the piece Jenice Armstrong: Trayvon was no angel, but does that merit a death sentence?:
THE PUBLIC SLIMING of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Florida teen slain last month after buying candy and ice tea at a convenience store, is under way.
A month after Trayvon's tragic death, now comes word that the 17-year-old had been visiting his dad while on a 10-day suspension from school for having a baggie containing marijuana residue in his book bag and, according to the Miami Herald, a marijuana pipe.
That's not cool.
But what does that have to do with what went down the night Trayvon was killed?
...
According to the Herald, he had been suspended two other times, once after he reportedly defaced school property with graffiti - he reportedly wrote the acronym "WTF" on school property. When school officials searched his bag looking for the marker he used, they discovered 12 pieces of women's jewelry and a flat-head screwdriver. The Miami paper reported that he was suspended for the graffiti but was not disciplined for possessing the women's jewelry.
None of that looks good.
...
Read the full piece. It seems the author is (correctly) articulating that, whatever Trayvon's disciplinary record, he didn't deserve to die and most certainly doesn't deserve to be publicly slimed. However, the author also adds pieces of information (without sufficiently debunking them) that I think
adds to that slime. Here's my response to her:
=
Hi Jenice,
I’m a random reader of your Philly.com piece, “Jenice Armstrong: Tryavon was no angel, but does that merit a death sentence?”. I’ve never written to a journalist before in my life, but I felt compelled to now.
While I admire and agree with your message that no kid deserves to be killed under the circumstances of Trayvon’s death, I see some things in your writing that only add to the public sliming you said is under way:
1. That’s Not Cool: Being suspended for unused marijuana paraphernalia may or may not be right by you, but adding the statement “that’s not cool” casts a judgment that your readers may internalize. Since you help shape public opinion through your writing, I believe that statement actually added to the sliming. The line “But what does that have to do with what went down the night Travyon was killed?” is a brilliant transition into the intended thesis of your piece, but it loses its impact with the preceding “that’s not cool” statement.
2. Broken Nose: According to the partial Sanford report, one of the officers claims, “I could observe that [Zimmerman’s] back appeared to be wet…Zimmerman was also bleeding from the nose.” I don’t know if that’s the same as a broken nose; saying it was insinuates that Travyon broke it, and we don’t know that. This prematurely casts Trayvon as an aggressor in the situation.
3. Pieces of (Stolen?) Jewelry: This is the item I have the most trouble with, because what do most people think of when hearing that a kid has a bunch of jewelry in his backpack? Naturally, that the kid stole it. But we don’t know that. The school security guard describedthe screwdriver as “a burglary tool”–but, again, we don’t know that it actually was or why he had it. Carrying a screwdriver or jewelry is not a crime. He wasn’t even suspended for that. So what purpose does mentioning the jewelry and screwdriver serve, other than the unintended consequence of adding to the public’s suspicion that perhaps Trayvon was some school-skipping, jewelry-stealing little bugger that maybe wasn’t up to any good the night of his death? Now you have idiots online claiming Trayvon had a screwdriver and jewelry in a backpack the night of the incident; while this perversion of the facts is not yours to shoulder, it should at least give you a moment of pause.
I agree with you that, as rape victims get demonized by their (irrelevant) sexual histories, Trayvon is being demonized by his (irrelevant) non-criminal school suspension record. So why bring it up if you know it will only add to the public sliming noise?
As a former schoolteacher, I can tell you I’ve taught hundreds of graffiti-writing, hoodie-wearing teens, some of which could do a lot worse than carry a bong or a screwdriver in their backpacks–but none of them, nor kids like Skittles-toting Travyon, deserve to be stalked and then die at the hands of grown man with a gun. That is the only thing that matters at this point.