Trayvon Martin's parents at New York protest rally. Photo credit: David Shankbone via flickr
America has seen more than its share of trials that reveal the still-sore fault lines of racial tension – and the upcoming trial of George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, has the potential to be among them. That’s, of course, assuming that it does.
Here are the other cases to which the shooting of Martin is being compared:
OJ Simpson. The Martin case has already garnered numerous comparisons to the trial of former football star and actor OJ Simpson. In 1994, after leading police on a wild chase through the freeways of Los Angeles in the famous white Bronco, Simpson was arrested for the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. Simpson was eventually found not guilty in the criminal trial, but not before the case sparked a firestorm of racial tension, accusations of systemic corruption, and debate over the role of fame in criminal trials. As Charles Blow noted in his recent New York Times piece drawing a link between the Simpson trial and the Martin case, more black people than white believed that the jury had made the right decision. Now, more black people than white believe that Martin was the victim of a murder. Though the comparison is “a bit loaded”, given that Simpson, a black man, was the accused in that case and Martin is the victim here, Blow noted, “there is an important, if strained, commonality between them: the issue of equal treatment by the justice system.”
Rodney King. On March 3 1991, Rodney King was dragged from his car and savagely beaten by four Los Angeles police officers before being arrested, suffering a fractured skull and internal injuries. The incident was caught on video by a man who lived nearby, and, once it played nearly constantly on local then national news, lead to assault charges being brought against the officers. But just over a year later, in April 1992, the officers were acquitted – igniting riots that engulfed south Los Angeles in flames and violence. King himself has drawn the comparison between the Martin case and his own: In a statement released through his publicist, King said, “The horrifying sound of a young black male screaming for his life on a 911 call reminded me of my horrifying scream on a videotape 20 years ago” (It is unclear at this point whether the scream was Martin’s, as several forensic experts have claimed, or Zimmerman’s, as he claims). King continued, “I am grieving, like the rest of us, for this young man and his family… And now that charges have been filed against George Zimmerman, I am waiting, like the rest of us, to get to the facts and carefully, thoroughly, get to the truth.”
“I am grieving, like the rest of us, for this young man and his family,” Rodney King said at the arrest of George Zimmerman.
Amadou Diallo. On February 5, 1999, West African immigrant Amadou Diallo he was killed as he stood in the doorway of his Bronx apartment by four New York City police officers who claimed that they believed the 22-year-old was carrying a gun. They had stopped the Guinean because, they said, they thought he matched the description of a man wanted for rape; when he reached for his wallet to pull out his identification, they thought he was reaching for a gun and fired 41 shots. The officers were charged with second-degree murder and other charges, but were later acquitted. Singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen has made explicit the link between the killing of Martin and Diallo, playing a song he wrote for Diallo, “American Skin (41 Shots)”, on tour and dedicating it to Martin.
Bruce Springsteen sings “American Skin (41 shots)”
Emmett Till. Dismissing comparisons to other young black men killed by police, Mark Thompson at Vibe’s Uptown magazine said plainly, “Trayvon is Emmett Till.” In August 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was kidnapped from his uncle’s home in Money, Miss., brutally beaten, shot in the head, and his body dumped in a river, all because he supposedly whistled at a white woman. The two men accused of the murder were acquitted. Explained Thompson, “Emmett was accused, wrongfully, of course, of whistling at a white woman, and, thus, violating a white supremacist social more of that era. What did Trayvon do? Nothing. He was just there. Trayvon was killed simply for Being While Black.” (Note: This article claims that Zimmerman muttered the words “f*cking coons”, an offensive slur against black people, in the 911; subsequent reports claim that Zimmerman actually said “f*cking punks”.)
More on Trayvon Martin
- Zimmerman arrested: Can he expect a fair trial?
- America’s racial divide after Trayvon Martin
- George Zimmerman launches website
- Rep. dons hoodie for Trayvon
- Trayvon Martin: Controversy grows