Trayvon Martin
Lawrence O'Donnell believes there may be a police cover-up at work in Sanford, Fla. If true, it adds a whole other dimension to a tragic, fury-inducing story that has been rising in the public consciousness bit by bit over the past week.
Many words come to mind when characterizing the Sanford Police Department's investigation of the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. "Grotesquely amateurish" would be an extremely charitable description. If the problem of the police in that Central Florida city were only piss-poor incompetence in a single case, it would be bad enough. But something far deeper is amiss. There's a pattern that goes beyond screw-ups in the Martin case. And Police Chief Bill Lee's comments are sandpaper on the wound.
Which is why we are asking you to join us in urging U.S. Attorney Gen. Eric Holder to add another investigation to the one it's conducting into the shooting—an investigation of the SPD itself.
Did the department just botch its investigation of the shooting? Or was something else at work spurring the police not to arrest the shooter or give him a drug-and-alcohol test or even very vigorously interrogate him?
Did Trayvon Martin's skin color have anything to do with the apparent kid-gloves treatment the shooter got? When a guy with a record for acting a good deal like a bigoted vigilante doesn't spend a night in jail, doesn't even get booked and released, it certainly smells that way.
In the latest development, the department admits that its "investigators"—yes, I am putting quotation marks around that word—missed a crucial part of the recording of the phone call that George Zimmerman, the shooter, made to the police as he followed Martin around. They say they missed him muttering a racist slur, "fuckin' coons," under his breath to the police operator.
Or did they?
Several people, apparently starting with Sirius XM radio talk host Joe Madison Tuesday morning, listened to the recording of Zimmerman's call to the cops, in some cases making technical adjustments to bring more clarity to what's being said. The recording, including the racist slur, was played on Lawrence O'Donnell's "Last Word" Tuesday evening. O'Donnell said his reporting experience with police cover-ups made him believe that there is "evidence of a police coverup." There is, he said, evidence that the police department "never wanted anyone to hear those two words and that's why we haven't heard those two words until today."
Putting an exclamation mark on that view was one of O'Donnell's of his guests, Jasmine Rand, a lawyer for the family of Trayvon Martin. Here's the exchange:
RAND: My office has been analyzing the tapes even as I've been on air. And I know that in the version that we heard tonight, it appears that the words "eff-ing coon" were used. The official version that we have from the police department, you don't hear those expletives. So where the version stating "eff-ing coons" came from we don't know. at this time until we can verify that is an original copy from the Sanford Police Department. The family cannot stand by those terms because we don't know where that version came from.
O'DONNELL: Okay. Let's dig into that. That's important. So just so we understand, the version that you've heard or your office has heard from the police department, the official version doesn't have a blank there? Does it have something inaudible?
RAND: I don't believe that it has a blank there. I can't recall exactly from memory. But as stated earlier, first couple times I didn't hear or notice. That I have heard versions since then where I do hear that. But we went back and analyzed the original version that we received from the Sanford Police Department, and it does not appear to us that based upon the original version that our office received that expletives were included there. I can't say where that version where we can clearly hear the expletive there came from.
Is there just one version of the recording of Zimmerman's call to the Sanford Police Department in which that racial slur is somewhat difficult to hear and that the police missed until it was brought to their notice by people who actually paid attention when they were listening to it? That seems the most likely version, the simplest explanation. But maybe that's not the case.
Perhaps there are two versions, one without the slur and one with it.
If there are two, which version is accurate, and who made the second version? And for what purpose? Would the police dare to doctor the recording? Would a television station?
The Brevard County/Seminole County State Attorney has asked for patience until the grand jury is convened April 10. The Department of Justice has just begun its investigation into the case, and past experience indicates it could be months before we hear anything on that front. That's far too long to wait to have this particular matter cleared up. There's an original recording somewhere, one that someone with the proper skills can authenticate. Action on that front should not wait another three weeks or three months. If there are two versions of the recording of Zimmerman's call, we should know why ASAP.
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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.
