Justice for Trayvon Martin

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Trayvon Martin, a seventeen year-old Miami resident, was murdered and the reasoning for his death by the shooter is unreliable and evident that the shooter is not only racist but guilty of stereotyping and committing a hate crime against Martin. On February 26, 2012, Martin was visiting his father in Sanford, Florida, a small town North of Orlando, when Trayvon Martin was shot by twenty-eight year old, George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was a volunteer neighborhood watchman of the gated community, where the shooting took place. Martin was walking back from 7-Eleven during the NBA All Star game halftime to get Skittles and an iced tea, when Zimmerman had confronted him. According to various news reports Martin was dressed in a baggy grey sweatshirt, and had a bulge in the front pocket. Zimmerman had stated that he had shot Martin in self-defense, but on the other hand, neighbors had claimed that they heard the first gunshot as a warning fire, then they heard Martin plead for his life, then a second shot was fired, and finally saw Zimmerman stand above Martin’s body lying in the grass face down. He was right away held in trial but claimed not guilty until sixty-days later, when he was finally charged with second-degree murder. The shooting of Trayvon Martin had taken place not because Zimmerman was assaulted, but because Zimmerman had racial profiled Martin due to his age and appearance the night he was killed. The Trayvon Martin case is proof of the stereotyping and racial profiling of African Americans, which makes this case a prime example of a hate crime in present day. On the night of February 26th, Trayvon Martin was walking through Retreat View Circle, on his way home from a local 7-Eleven after purchasing some snacks. He was wearing a large grey sweatshirt that had a bulge in the front of it due to the can of iced tea that he had bought from the convenient store.

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