Lessons in Lessening

I don’t know too much about the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin incident.  The straightforward language of the police report written at the time indicates that Zimmerman was physically injured with a bloody gash on the back of his head, a bloody nose, and the back of his jacket wet and grass-stained.  Zimmerman also told the police at the time -- as stated in the report – that he, Zimmerman, was calling for help, and no one came to his assistance. 

I question the media portrayal of Martin as a child.  Possibly he was, at the time of his death, a skinny, little kid who looked more like thirteen than seventeen.  Possibly, though, older pictures are deliberately being used to garner additional sympathy.  A black seventeen-year-old who physically attacks another man, punches him in the face, knocks him to the ground and gets on top of him does not sound too sympathetic, especially if the young man looks more like an adult.

It is also clear that we are probably not going to get much honest reporting on this case, as the political manipulators seek to gain an advantage.  Expect the faces of Trayvon Martin and Barack Obama to morph seamlessly into one another as the election draws ever nearer.  To vote against Obama will be to pull the trigger on Trayvon. 

But, what I am about here is prudence.  It is a good thing to have neighborhood watch programs.  It is a good thing to be on the alert for the suspicious and out-of-place.   Zimmerman was not being “racist” by taking notice of and calling the police with regard to a person whose face was obscured by a hoodie and who did not appear to be a resident of the neighborhood.  In fact, Zimmerman was doing exactly, at that point, what neighborhood watchers are supposed to do.  The idea is to let those casing a neighborhood know they have been observed.  Had the police arrived a little sooner and contacted Martin, he would be alive today.   If Martin had chosen to ignore Zimmerman following him rather than confront him, he would be alive today. 

Nevertheless, in my estimation, Zimmerman did make an imprudent decision to leave his car and follow Martin on foot.  First, Martin was doing nothing obviously illegal.  He was merely walking along the street.  That he had his hood pulled up is suspicious but not against the law.  Martin was not apparently trespassing or seeking to gain entry to any houses.  He was not carrying anything stolen as far as Zimmerman could tell.   The right approach, at that point, would have been to let the police handle the situation.  Most likely, they would have passed through the neighborhood long after Trayvon Martin was gone, but that would have been acceptable.  Someone intent on burglary or other criminal activity would have still possibly been hanging around.  The innocent would not be loitering. 

Another point is to always have a sort of worst-case response in mind.  I doubt that Zimmerman thought there would be any confrontation, or he thought it would take a markedly different flavor.  He did not expect Martin to turn on him and begin questioning his actions.  If you can’t think fast and improvise in an encounter, try your best to stay out of situations where you might have to.  I can almost guarantee that if I had been in Zimmerman’s shoes, there would have been no fight and no shooting.  I would have done my best to turn the whole thing into a joke.  The inability to find humor in a situation once again proves fatal. 

Always try to stay loose and be open to adjusting to the dynamics of the circumstances.  We should not allow ourselves to be pushed into a response or course of action unnecessarily.  They call it a “chain of events” for a reason:  it can be broken.  All one of the parties has to do is step back and take a different tone.  In many ways, the Martin/Zimmerman case is a tragic accident, and it could have been avoided.  Sadly the solution to such tragedies has little or nothing to do with the racial elements which are being emphasized, and everything to do with the tunnel vision that comes with the natural, human flight-or-fight instincts.  This is especially true of young males – Zimmerman is only 28.  The right kind of training will help us overcome that instinctive response. 

Any kind of formal training with the right kind of stresses is good.  Anyone who has been through military or law-enforcement camps and courses learns to deal with stress and the physical responses it elicits in a positive way.  Outside of that, merely thinking through scenarios and mentally envisioning the maintenance of a calm demeanor can be helpful.  As prudent individuals we need to work at overcoming instinctive reactions that lock us into a chain of increasingly negative results while developing new “instincts” that will help us spiral in a positive direction.  

• Refuse to “tense up” in uncomfortable situations.
• Keep your vision wide and relaxed rather than narrow and focused.
• Take a deep breath, a step back, count to ten, whatever mental anchor point allows you to return to a more relaxed, though alert state.
• Keep all your options, including retreating, apologizing, using humor, etc., open as long as possible.
• Be aware that you may be seen as a threat to someone you consider a potential threat, and do your best to defuse that perception.
• Be aware that a person may be angry for no reason related to you personally.  Do not allow an angry retort or answer to create anger or fear in you.
• Do not interfere unnecessarily with people who are causing no immediate or objectively observable harm.  Most of the time such people are indeed harmless, though possibly seeking attention and entertainment.

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To update this slightly, several reports seem to indicate that Zimmerman says he was on his way back to his vehicle when he was attacked from behind and knocked to the ground by Martin who then got on top of him and began to pummel his face.  Thus, if that does turn out to be the case, I would not have been able to avoid a fight had I been in Zimmerman's shoes.  And, if that was the case, it was a matter of pure self-defense and a completely justifiable homicide.  The only apparent contradiction to Zimmerman's story, which is consistent with the observations of the police, would be the cell phone conversation between Martin and his girlfriend as related by the girlfriend.  

Also, in fairness, I should note that Trayvon was about 6 feet tall and weighed around 160 pounds -- a skinny kid.  His recent pictures are roughly comparable with his pictures as displayed by the media, except for the prominent gold teeth and tattoos.  Martin was on a suspension from school though the cause appears to be unclear.  

Finally, the media keeps repeating the adjective "unarmed".  Unarmed does not mean without the power to do harm.  I am not a particularly large person.  Nevertheless, I always figured that, in a confined area, I could kill about 75 percent of the people I meet bare-handed.  The percentage has no doubt gone down as I have gotten old and slow, but the point remains.  Humans are born with lethal weapons.  All guns or other tools do is make us all a little more equal.