The February 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martion might never have happened if school officials in Miami-Dade County had not instituted an unofficial policy of treating crimes as school disciplinary infractions. Revelations that emerged from an internal affairs investigation explain why Martin was not arrested when caught at school with stolen jewelry in October 2011 or with marijuana in February 2012. Instead, the teenager was suspended from school, the last time just days before he was shot dead by George Zimmerman.
...
Both of Trayvon’s suspensions during his junior year at Krop High involved crimes that could have led to his prosecution as a juvenile offender. However, Chief Charles Hurley of the Miami-Dade School Police Department (MDSPD) in 2010 had implemented a policy that reduced the number of criiminal reports, manipulating statistics to create the appearance of a reduction in crime within the school system. Less than two weeks before Martin’s death, the school system commended Chief Hurley for “decreasing school-related juvenile delinquency by an impressive 60 percent for the last six months of 2011.” What was actually happening was that crimes were not being reported as crimes, but instead treated as disciplinary infractions.
In October 2011, after a video surveillance camera caught Martin writing graffiti on a door, MDSPD Office Darryl Dunn searched Martin’s backpack, looking for the marker he had used. Officer Dunn found 12 pieces of women’s jewelry and a man’s watch, along with a flathead screwdriver the officer described as a “burglary tool.” The jewelry and watch, which Martin claimed he had gotten from a friend he refused to name, matched a description of items stolen during the October 2011 burglary of a house on 204th Terrace, about a half-mile from the school. However, because of Chief Hurley’s policy “to lower the arrest rates,” as one MDSPD sergeant said in an internal investigation, the stolen jewerly was instead listed as “found property” and was never reported to Miami-Dade Police who were investigating the burglary. Similarly, in February 2012 when an MDSPD officer caught Martin with a small plastic bag containing marijuana residue, as well as a marijuana pipe, this was not treated as a crime, and instead Martin was suspended from school.
When we strip away the hand wringing, here are the facts of the case:
Person A moves into the apartment complex in Sanford to stay with his father's wife or whatever. Person A, we now know, had a history of burglary and vandalism.
Person B, who has a criminal record adequately clean to secure himself a concealed weapons permit, is the neighborhood watch captain or whatever. On the lookout for potential burglars and vandals, he immediately alerts on someone we now know was a burglar and a vandal. Apparently he can birddog himself a troublemaker.
Person A doesn't like being followed. He jumps Person B, who got a bloodied face and who, the police report indicates, had grass and such all over his back, indicating that he was flat on his back on the ground.
What happened here was that a known burglar and vandal started what turned out to be a gunfight with his fists and lost.
Who cares?
And further, the facts of the case don't even contemplate race. Call it a stupid criminal story if you like, but it's nothing so dramatic as a hate crime.
It's one less loser criminal in the world, that's all. Can we dry our eyes and move on now?
