The Killing Of Trayvon Martin

The shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida, and the price of “walking while black. "

Trayvon Martin was staying with his dad in a gated community north of Orlando, Florida.  Watching a basketball game on TV.  Went out to the 7-11 at halftime for Skittles and an iced tea.  Ended up dead.  Shot in the chest by a neighborhood watch volunteer who found the black teenager suspicious walking home with his candy.

It’s a story to chill any parent’s blood.  For many black parents, families, it’s the story that just won’t go away.  The lethal - racial - suspicion that clings and kills.  Now there is anger and anguish.

This hour, On Point:  the killing of Trayvon Martin.
-Tom Ashbrook

Frances Robles, reporter for the Miami Herald.

Mychal Denzel Smith, writer and social commentator, his work has appeared in The Guardian, Ebony, The Root, and more. You can find his article on the Trayvon Martin case here.

James McBride, writer and musician, author of the memoir "The Color of Water."

Nicholas K. Peart, student at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.  Author of the New York Times op-ed, "Why is The N.Y.P.D. After Me?"

The New York Times  "'He said that Tray was gone.' That’s how Sybrina Fulton, her voice full of ache, told me she found out that her 17-year-old son, Trayvon Martin, had died. In a wrenching telephone call, the boy’s father, who had taken him to visit a friend, told her that Trayvon had been gunned down in a gated townhouse community in Sanford, Fla., outside Orlando."

The Atlantic "With the drumbeat of attention coming forward, I would be shocked if Zimmerman wasn't arrested and charged. His decision to pursue Martin for, at the worst, walking toward his car, putting his hand in waist-band, and then running away was tragically reckless. And perhaps worse. We just don't know yet. "

The Miami Herald "But the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin left the boy’s family and attorneys convinced that the volunteer developed a twisted sense of entitlement, one that gave him a false sense of authority to enforce the rule of law in his tiny gated community. Trayvon’s family’s attorneys believe that led to racial profiling and murder."