If you are a young black male, such as Trayvon Martin and you make the mistake of walking home in a gated community in Orlando, FL, with bags of skittles concealed in your pockets, you will be shot and killed. Not by the police, mind you, but by the Captain of a Neighborhood Watch program, who made a 911 call regarding a "suspicious person" back on the evening of February 26th.

Before the police arrived on the scene, 17 year old Trayvon, who was visiting his father's fiancee and his step-brother, was already dead from a single shot to his chest, delivered from a gun carried by by George Zimmerman, a 28 year old white man, and the same individual who made the 911 call. Trayvon had nothing on his person except for 2 bags of skittles and a can of ice tea, which he had purchased at the local 7-11.

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Also, Trayvon Martin's parents offered the official explanation given by the Sanford police:

According to Tracy Martin, the Sanford, Fla., detective recounted this sequence of events: Trayvon Martin walked up to Zimmerman's vehicle and asked why he was following him. Zimmerman denied following the youth and rolled up the car window.

Minutes after Trayvon walked away, Zimmerman got out of his vehicle. Then came the second encounter, according to Tracy Martin's recollection of the detective's account. Trayvon Martin appeared from behind a building in Zimmerman's gated community, approached him and demanded, "What's your problem, homie?"

When Zimmerman replied that he didn't have a problem, Martin said, "You do now." The unarmed teenager hit Zimmerman, knocked him to the ground, pinned him down and told him to "shut the [expletive] up."

During the beating, Zimmerman pulled his gun and fired one shot at close range into Martin's chest. "You got me," the teenager said, falling backward.

This smells to high heaven. What I can't understand is why the police would offer this explanation, given that it's directly contradicted by the 911 tapes. What, precisely, is going on with the cops down there?

If the Sanford, Florida police department did not stink before, it positively reeks now. I’m iPad blogging and don’t have the time or energy to dig up each link, but today I learned that the cops coached witnesses to say that they heard the shooter crying for help, that someone has systematically leaked private information to smear the victim’s character and that the Martin’s body did not have any sign of the kind of hand and knuckle injuries that you get when you severely beat someone with your bare hands, especially someone with a hundred pounds of muscle on you. I learned that the morgue identified the young victim right away but filed him as a ‘John doe’ until much later when his father filed a missing persons report. I read that the Sanford city council asked the DOJ to step in after they were utterly overwhelmed by police racism complaints at their last meeting.

The Martin/Zimmerman police report said that the shooter had a broken nose and grass all over his clothes, and Zimmerman claimed that his victim banged his head repeatedly on the road. Now ABC news has video of the night when they brought Zimmerman in for questioning and – surprise! – his shaved head looks pristine, his nose looks fine and his clothes look like he just washed them. If the cops thought he might have blood on him then protocol requires them to touch him with gloves. They seem fine with bare hands.

Anyone care to explain how this does not stink as bad as it seems? Anyone?