Lynch Law

Trayvon Martin was lynched last month in Sanford, Florida. He was 17.

Trayvon's offense: he was in the wrong neighborhood. Oh, yes, he was black.

Trayvon's killer claimed he was acting in self defense. That might have ordinarily been hard to claim, since Trayvon Martin was unarmed, was walking on foot and George Zimmerman, Trayvon's killer, stalked him first in an SUV and later on foot, armed with a 9-mm pistol.

Zimmerman is apparently claiming self-defense under Florida's "stand your ground" law, passed in 2005. The New York Times' Andrew Rosenthal excuses Florida's lawmakers. "I doubt the legislators who passed Stand Your Ground," Rosenthal observed,  "had this scenario in mind, or at least I hope not." He quotes Florida state Senator Oscar Brayon, now demanding hearings into the law, who said: “I don’t think they planned for people who would go out and become vigilantes or be like some weird Batman who would go out and kill little kids like Trayvon.”

Excuse me? That's exactly what they had in mind. And it's been working. In the first five years of the law,  according to the Tampa Bay Times, "justifiable homicide" has tripled, and was invoked in 93 cases, involving 65 deaths.

It was the obvious intent of the law (though maybe not of everyone who voted for it) to empower private citizens to arm themselves and act as policeman, judge, juror and executioner with impunity. We should call such laws by their proper name: Lynch Law.

What's unusual in this case is that there is a recorded conversation between Zimmerman and Martin, heard over a cell phone, as well as recorded conversations over the 911 system. Still, it may be hard to get a conviction.

By the way, the code words surrounding this issue don't fool me. I grew up in the South. My grandparents' home in Holmes County, MS was a regular armory, with a loaded firearm behind every door. My grandfathers, at least one of them a KKK member, both took part in lynchings and race riots in the 1920's.

We need to get beyond our tribalism, our fears and insecurities, and be Americans.

I don't doubt that Zimmerman had worked himself into a state of apprehension, fear and anger. All the more reason to rely on professionals instead of vigilantes.