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Jim Hoft Says Man Arrested For Gunning Down Innocent Black Men Was 'Understandably Upset'

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lawhawk4/09/2012 12:03:30 pm PDT

FWIW, Sanford FL has a long history in having poor race relations and one of the more prominent examples deals with Jackie Robinson before he joined the major leagues. He was in the farm system and was in Florida at the time:

The enormity of the challenge of crossing baseball’s color line, accentuated by the awful trip to Florida, had become crystal clear to Jackie. His four-letter career as an athlete in college at UCLA and his World War II service as an officer in the U.S. Cavalry would carry no weight. There was no practice scheduled for Sunday, but Jackie and Rachel had to travel another 40 miles that day to Seminole County. Because there was an overabundance of postwar talent and Rickey had to work through nearly 200 prospects, he decided to keep the Dodgers in Daytona Beach and move the Royals to rural Sanford, Florida’s celery capital. Rickey had arranged for them to stay with Mr. and Mrs. David Brock, a prominent black couple, at their large home, with its wide veranda. The team’s lakefront hotel, the Mayfair, would not accept them.

Sanford, Florida

Anxiously, Jackie Robinson suited up in his Montreal Royals uniform for the first time on Monday, March 4, and reported to the park at 9:30 in the morning along with Johnny Wright. They were immediately stopped by reporters who largely ignored Wright but peppered Robinson with questions. When asked, “What would you do if one of these pitchers threw at your head?” Jackie replied, “I’d duck!” Dodgers scout Clyde Sukeforth then introduced Robinson to the Montreal manager, Clay Hopper. After two days of practice, Rickey and Hopper decided to switch Robinson’s playing position to see if he could work out as a first or second baseman, rather than a shortstop where he was experienced.

Jackie’s concern about competing with veteran players to remain on the Royals was interrupted when racism intruded. Branch Rickey had miscalculated the degree to which Jim Crow was entrenched in Sanford. As an example, an inanimate object, a second-hand piano, purchased in 1924 from the courthouse for use in a segregated school in nearby Oviedo, was filed as a “Negro Piano” in the school board’s record; living human beings challenging segregation certainly would not be tolerated. A large group of white residents had met with the mayor of Sanford and demanded that Robinson and Wright be run out of town. At dinnertime on March 5, Sanford officials informed the Royals that black and white players would not be allowed on the same playing field together. Fearing that a mob might threaten them at the Brock house, Rickey sent Wright and the Robinsons immediately back to Daytona Beach. Deeply disturbed by the situation, Jackie talked about quitting and returning to the Negro Leagues, but Smith and Rowe again persuaded him to hang on.

[emphasis added] A colleague pointed this out to me when we were discussing the matter.

Seems that some longstanding issues have not been resolved in Sanford, and it’s going to take more than a state attorney handing down an indictment against Zimmerman to make things right here. The DOJ investigation is likely to bring a whole host of civil rights charges against officials who blocked/thwarted the investigation at the early stages and therefore denied Martin due process and equal protection rights.

Moreover, when one looks at the SYG issue, one person who deserved SYG is the one who is now dead - Tayvon Martin. With Zimmerman following Martin around and had he survived, Martin could claim that he was in fear for his own life and safety and therefore under no duty to retreat. It goes back to the precipitating incident - namely that Zimmerman was the one following Martin around, not the other way around. Zimmerman and his lawyer would love if everyone focused on Martin and his conduct, but we would have to ignore what Zimmerman did to initiate the incident with Marin. With the investigations thwarted by the local PD, it brings back all the ugly history from decades ago - reopening old wounds.