Trayvon Martin was murdered, no doubt. Its appalling that the police didn't arrest his killer. George Zimmerman, a paranoid racist, had called 911 because Martin looked suspicious in his mind. Martin, a young black man visiting his father, was wearing a hoodie on his way home. Zimmerman, a self appointed neighborhood watch man, decided to chase Martin after the 911 dispatcher told him not to. He hunted him down and murdered him. The police decided not to arrest Zimmerman, siting Florida's self defense gun laws. But they weren't expecting this to blow up so big via the internet. News of Martin's murdered became so huge via the internet it blew up in the mainstream media.
And already there have been huge political consequences in Florida. Chief of police Bill Lee has already "temporarily" resigned. Seminole county state attorney Norman R. Wolfinger has removed himself from the case, and Governor Rick Scott of Florida has decided to create a task force to review the case. Both federal and state agencies are investigating Seminole County's response to this matter, and Governor Scott is considering change's to Florida's Stand Your Ground Law.
Trayvon's murder was horrifically tragic, but at least the outcry surrounded it will have consequences that will help prevent others like him from dying so senselessly. And even in a conservative state like Florida, it checked the bloodlust that often overwhelms politics (demagogues use fear to manipulate the public, often fear of blacks and other non whites).
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