New facts are emerging in the tale of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin. Mr. Zimmerman is the volunteer security patrolman who shot Mr. Martin, a black teenager, to death in Florida. It turns out that Mr. Zimmerman is at least half Hispanic, that Trayvon Martin had been suspended from school three times in connection with a record that reportedly included graffiti and having in his possession an empty marijuana bag and pipe, a screwdriver ("burglary tool") and 12 pieces of women's jewelry, and that before being shot, Martin, with a single punch, reportedly "decked the Neighborhood Watch volunteer ... climbed on top of [him] and slammed his head into the sidewalk several times, leaving him bloody and battered."
None of this justifies the death penalty without a trial for Trayvon Martin, which is what he got. Let me say that again: None of this justifies the death penalty without a trial for Trayvon Martin, which is what he got. But it does counteract the rush by many in the press and many politicians to fit the story, initially, into the familiar stereotypical pattern — racist redneck Southerner kills innocent black youth. It's not just southern security guards, in other words, who are susceptible to reflexive and thoughtless stereotyping.