Beware the
Neighborhood Watchman
By Gary
I was recently discussing the Trayvon Martin /
George Zimmerman case with David Marc, who is known for his books in the communications, but is also
an astute political observer. We were
lamenting the fact that the legal case in Florida, and most of the media
conversation, has focused almost exclusively on the question of whether
Zimmerman acted in self-defense. In a
court of law in a state which has adopted “Stand Your Ground” legislation and
the balance of justice is heavily tilted toward the person who pulls the
trigger, this should not come as a shock.
But in the media, writers, reporters, and editors are not limited by the
narrow prescripts of the law. Their conversation
need not be so blinkered; they are free (even obligated) to entertain broader
concepts such as justice, ethics, and history.
David noted
that in all the commentary regarding Martin’s murder (let’s call it what it
is), no one, not even Al Sharpton, raised the history of Neighborhood Watch
groups. Zimmerman was not just a passing
bystander; the sole reason for his presence on that Florida street was in the
role of neighborhood watchman. He was,
in other words, looking for trouble. In
his armed defense of his turf, Zimmerman was following in the footsteps of the
most notorious neighborhood watch group in U.S. history: the Ku Klux Klan. Just like George Zimmerman, Klan members felt
themselves to be protecting the safety of their neighbors and extending the arm
of law and order. And, just as many in
the community have rallied to Zimmerman’s defense, the Klan was a fraternal
organization that enjoyed broad support for much its history. After a period of decline, which came after
Jim Crow laws institutionalized the intimidation of Blacks, the Klan revived in
the 1920s as a powerful anti-immigration, anti-Semitic, anti-civil rights group
with an estimated 4 million members nationwide, many of whom participated in a
massive march on Washington in 1925. Only
after decades of murder and mayhem did the Klan come to be seen by a majority
of Americans as the terrorist organization that it was.
But is the
Klan an extreme outlier, or merely the foremost example of a strain of violent
vigilantism that runs through the history of the country? There has always been a thin line in the U.S.
between the reflex for self-preservation and self-determination on one side,
and a faith in law and law enforcement on the other. Anyone who has participated in a protest or
committed an act of civil disobedience has crossed that line. But such acts are borne of a profound (perhaps
naïve) belief in the power of organized citizens to make things better by
putting strategic pressure on the prevailing powers. Amazingly few of such actions have been
violent. Protesters generally wish to
improve the law, not take it into their own hands. In other words, a protester may be an outlaw,
but he/she is not a vigilante.
What is the
difference? The outlaw is driven to act
by intolerable circumstances and takes only those measures which will restore
the balance of fairness and justice. Driven
more by need than greed, he/she is likely to be an anti-war or environmental activist,
a whistleblower, or just a shoplifter of food and clothing, but not a
gun-toting bank robber or revolutionary, despite frequent media portrayals to
the contrary. He/she acts out of conviction
or desperation, not fear. The vigilante,
by contrast, takes extra-legal action because he/she has allows fear of “the
other” – someone of a different color, caste, or ethnic group – to overcome all
restraint and empathy.
The great
tragedy in the Martin/Zimmerman affair – beyond the murder of a teenager – is
that Stand Your Ground, both the law and the mentality, has legalized and
institutionalized vigilantism. Stand Your Ground follows a long-established American
tradition in which punishment is preferred to forgiveness, incarceration is
stripped of opportunity for rehabilitation or redemption, and more energy is
spent blaming victims than seeking social solutions. It is a bold step toward a brutal, dystopian
society in which fear and hatred are protected, and guilt or innocence is
irrelevant.
But it is
crucial to recognize that this is not an inherent human condition, a kind of
survival of the fittest in which “fitness” is defined by who the quicker
trigger finger. Stand Your Ground doesn’t
make our streets safer – quite the opposite – and it isn’t really intended
to. It is part of a larger campaign that
seeks to maximize corporate profits, minimize public resources that cannot be
monetized or exploited for competitive advantage. Technically, Stand Your Ground is an
extension of the so-called Castle Doctrine, which allows a person to use deadly
force to defend their home. But this law
makes a radical leap. This law is not about
giving families the right to protect themselves, but creating a right for any
White person with a pretext to shoot first and (maybe) ask questions later.
This break
with legal and ethical tradition did not come as the result a grass roots
movement, but is the product of a concerted campaign driven by an unholy
alliance of three forces: gun manufacturers, the National Rifle Association
(NRA), and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Seizing the opportunity afforded when
Republicans established majorities in many state legislatures, ALEC drafted
model Stand Your Ground legislation and, supported with millions of dollars
from gun manufacturers and other ALEC member businesses, joined the NRA in
lobbying for its adoption. In a
remarkably short time, Republican officials in 22 states adopted the law, often
word-for-word, from the ALEC template.
Usefully, The Tampa Bay Times has conducted an
extensive case review of Stand Your Ground claims. Their research points unequivocally to the
fact that the Zimmerman defense, which played shamefully on racist fears of
young Black males, is consistent with most Stand Your Ground cases that come to
court (remember, law enforcement wasn’t even going to bring charges against
Zimmerman until there was an outpouring of outrage). When the shooter is Black, conviction is
likely; when the perpetrator is White, much less so. In America, a young Black man is simply not
free; even if he is minding his own business, he can be gunned down and then
portrayed as a perpetrator. As one
blogger put it, Trayvon Martin was put on trial for his own murder…and found
guilty.
If fear is the animating force behind most
vigilantism, the truly scary thing is that race-based fears are so broadly
shared and widely condoned. The
Zimmerman case is not an isolated incident; the violence is not the result of personal
vendetta, but of tribal warfare. The
Southern Strategy, perfected by staunch segregationists such as Strom Thurmond
and Jesse Helms, and adopted almost whole in recent decades by the Republican
Party, is based on planting fears among White Americans that their tenuous
standing in society is threatened by Black people, immigrants, Jews, Muslims,
or other “others.” Recent demographic
shifts only exacerbate these fears. New
voter suppression laws, which purport to fight a voter fraud problem that does
not exist, are desperate attempts to maintain White supremacy by
disenfranchising minority, immigrant, and student groups.
One might
view these draconian laws on a superficial, Republican vs. Democratic,
level. But Stand Your Ground, Voter ID,
and other so-called reforms aimed at reducing health care, privatizing education,
or rolling back environmental and workplace protections, are part of a bigger
power grab. In each of these cases, the
victims are either poor or sympathetic to those in poverty. This divide, between those entrenched,
moneyed powers (the 1%) who impose austerity, and the working stiffs (the 99%)
who cling to their dreams of democracy even as their economic and social
security is decimated, is a global problem that poses just as great a threat to
the survival of the species as climate change.
Whether the agent is the Republican Party, the Tea Party, or the Klan, they
are all doing the grunt work for the plutocrats. From their ranks will
inevitably emerge vigilantes like George Zimmerman, a home-grown terrorist.
