In recent weeks, some reporters and columnists have asked why the hazing death of FAMU drum major Robert Champion hasn’t triggered the same large public demonstrations as the Trayvon Martin shooting. These questions ignore the big contrasts between the two homicides.Martin, 17, died in Sanford, Florida on Feb. 26 after being shot to death by a self-declared neighborhood watchman named George Zimmerman. Zimmerman, a 28 year-old white Hispanic, saw the African American teenager walking alone and called 911 to report him as a “suspicious” person. He then decided to follow Martin against the request of the 911 dispatcher.
When Sanford police arrived at the scene, Martin’s body was lying in the street. Zimmerman told the officers he fired on the unarmed high schooler in self-defense.
Champion died after being hazed in the parking lot of the Orlando Rosen Plaza Hotel on Nov. 19. While Champion and Martin’s deaths are both tragic, they are also very different. This is why the public responses to them have not been identical.
Authorities never made any excuses for Champion’s killers
The Sanford police declined to arrest Zimmerman after he gave them a self-defense excuse based upon Florida’s “stand-your-ground” law. The “stand-your-ground” law permits individuals to use lethal self-defense when they perceive that their lives are in danger. It does not require them to try and leave the situation, first.
The rallies launched in response to Zimmerman’s release from custody all demanded that criminal charges be filed against him. There were simply too many disputed facts and unanswered questions for Zimmerman to be automatically exonerated based upon his word. That’s why the protesters asked the authorities to book Zimmerman and permit the judicial process to sort out what happened. The rallies helped pressure Gov. Rick Scott to assign a special prosecutor to Trayvon’s case. Now, Zimmerman has finally been charged with second-degree murder.
No law enforcement official ever excused the actions of Champion’s killers. The Orlando County Sheriff’s Office began a criminal investigation immediately after it found evidence that hazing was involving in his death.
There is no need to hold rallies to demand charges against Champion’s killers because the state attorney has already indicated that he intends to do this. He has already assigned a chief prosecutor to the case.
Martin’s killer has admitted to taking his life
No one has come forward and admitted to striking the blows the killed Champion. Detectives and prosecutors have to sort through the accounts of dozens of suspects and witnesses.
If a group of individuals had publicly confessed to beating Champion to death and then walked away without any criminal charges, there would have been rallies to demand their arrests.
Racial profiling is a one-sided problem. Hazing is typically a two-way street.
No person has ever asked to be racially profiled.
Zimmerman started following Martin because he thought he looked suspicious. A black teenager’s decision to wear a hoodie or walk alone in a mostly white neighborhood should not be reasons for suspicion.
The completely unfounded suspicions against Martin led to the confrontation that took his life. Zimmerman’s unfounded suspicions about Martin were a one-sided problem.
Hazing is a much different problem than racial profiling. It is two-sided in most cases because it typically involves voluntary perpetrators and voluntary victims.
Marching 100 member Keon Hollis, a drum major who went through the “Crossing Bus C” initiation on Nov. 19, told ESPN that he and Champion voluntarily submitted to the hazing ritual.
If Hollis’ account is true, then it would show that he and Champion deliberately broke the university-level anti-hazing rules that were in place to protect them. Both men knew that FAMU prohibited students from taking part in any form of pledging because it wanted to avoid a hazing death like the one the University of Miami experienced in 2005.
Martin never did anything to contribute to the problem of racial profiling. But according to Hollis, Champion made a decision to contribute to FAMU's hazing problem. There are also published reports that Champion was a member of the Red Dawg Order. That information suggests that Nov. 19 might not have been the first time Champion supported hazing.
Champion and Martin should both be mourned. But the problems that led to their deaths were very different. That’s why different public responses are justified.