The Case Against Bureaucratic Discretion by Steven G. Koven

Author:Steven G. Koven
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9783030057794
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

3 Contemporary Police Controversies

3.1 Sanford, Florida

The shooting in Sanford, Florida, of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin raised a number of questions regarding the use of volunteers in law enforcement activity. A neighborhood watch guardian, George Zimmerman shot and killed Martin, a young African-American male, on February 26, 2012. The shooting brought national attention to issues of racial profiling, behavior of community volunteers, communities policing, and the reluctance of police to challenge deadly force in states that operate under “stand-your-ground” laws. The basic facts of the case note that Martin was walking back from a convenience store that was close to the home of his father’s girlfriend. Zimmerman was the neighborhood watch coordinator for the gated community he patrolled. Zimmerman spotted Martin and reported suspicious activity to the Sanford Police Department. Zimmerman ignored the advice of a police dispatcher to wait for the police and began to follow Martin on foot; the two engaged in an altercation. Zimmerman claimed that he used his weapon as Martin was beating him and that he feared for his life (Robertiello 2017, p. 255). The police did not charge Zimmerman with a crime at the time of the shooting; the Sanford Police stated that there was no evidence to refute his claim of self-defense. Prosecutors later charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder and manslaughter. A jury acquitted him of both charges in July 2013.

The shooting of Trayvon Martin generated a firestorm of media attention. According to the Pew Research Center, the incident received the highest level of sustained coverage with a major racial component for the period January 2007–May 2012. The case became the number one story in the mainstream press the week of March 19–25, 2012. It accounted for 19 percent of the space in print, online, and on radio and television. The shooting became the first story in 2012 to generate more coverage in a single week than the 2012 presidential campaign. Many in the media portrayed Zimmerman as a neighborhood watch “wannabe cop” that racially profiled and ultimately killed an unarmed, black teenager. Critics of this narrative, however, argued that there was more to the story of a frustrated would-be law enforcement officer gunning down a helpless child (Koven 2017).

With the shooting of Martin, concerns grew in the African-American community about stereotyping and shooting of young males by either regular police or neighborhood vigilantes. The shooting by a resident who was not a regular officer brought up memories of citizen lynching of the past. Pressured by the media, the US Justice Department began an investigation into the Zimmerman shooting. In February of 2015, the Justice Department closed its investigation without filing hate-crime charges against Zimmerman. After interviewing many witnesses federal investigators concluded that there was not enough evidence to prove that Trayvon Martin’s death was racially motivated. The Trayvon Martin shooting, however, heightened awareness of police abuse. Rallies, marches, and protests across the nation followed Martin’s death. In March 2012, hundreds of students at his high school held a walkout. An online petition calling for a full investigation and prosecution of Zimmerman garnered more than two million signatures.

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