Obama's Most Dangerous 'Enemies' are Being Targeted
There
is a pattern emerging in the Obama Presidency. He is at war with
reality; his greatest enemies are facts. And he has been targeting for
years a small group of people whose duty is to expose the truth. Their
loyalty runs to the citizenry and not to Barack Obama. They are not
Republicans and they are certainly not journalists. And Obama has been
trying to muzzle them. One man stands in the way.
Inspectors General (IG) are government employees who are responsible for ferreting out mismanagement, fraud and corruption in the federal government. The Barack Obama presidency has provided them with a target-rich environment. They are responsible for uncovering a wide range of Obama failures. These include:
The Department of Justice's Fast and Furious Fiasco; Massive waste and corruption in the stimulus and "green energy" programs with an agenda to reward Obama donors and whose weatherization programs were rife with waste and fraud.
Deluxe spending of taxpayer money by GSA employees who clearly did not take their assigned duties (to save government money spent by others) seriously and mismanagement at the US Department of Agriculture;
The State Department's Inspector General is investigating the special internal panel that probed the Benghazi failures for its apparent whitewashing of the scandal behind the deaths of Americans.
The Special Inspector General, Neil Barofsky, of the Troubled Asset Relief Program reported that the Obama administration had engaged in 'Enron-like accounting" to hide its mismanagement (as covered below, he earned the wrath of the Obama hit squad).
Recently, of course, the normally lapdog press has been compelled to cover the controversy over the role of Treasury Department's meting out "special treatment" to conservative groups and donors to Republicans to neuter them as forces in the 2012 election has generated headlines. The IRS Inspector General's report triggered the planting of a question at an ACA meeting, and the public apology by Lois Lerner, which in turn ignited hearings and press coverage.
The list of abuses uncovered by the Inspectors General has been multiplying as rapidly as the national debt has under Obama. The government wastes billions by not listening to Inspectors General Obama wants to all but eviscerate them.
Inspectors General are career employees not political appointees. Obama's minions cannot dismiss their reports as being merely partisan attacks (many of them, such as Barofsky, are Democrats). They operate in obscurity, away from the klieg lights, diligently searching for malfeasance while protecting taxpayers. They do not profit from exposing wrongdoing; their credibility is rock-solid. Impure motives cannot be imputed to them-a favorite rhetorical weapon of Obama and his team.
There are very few unsullied heroes in Washington-very few people looking out for hard-working Americans. Among them should be Inspectors General.
They are threats to Obama's image and agenda and have therefore earned their place on Obama's enemies list. While Obama can't send the drones after them they do have targets on their backs.
Where are those missing Inspectors General?
Over the past few years Barack Obama has attempted to starve the beast by refusing to fill vacancies in the ranks of Inspectors General as they have arisen. The White House been routinely chided for years over its negligence. Timothy Smith of the Washington Post reported in May of last year that "there were 10 IG vacancies, including five at cabinet-level agencies. Four of them had been vacant for more than 3 years."
Congressman Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Government Oversight and Government Affairs Committee, stated that 'This administration's failure to fill inspector-general vacancies has weakened the effectiveness of the inspector-general community, thus exposing American taxpayer dollars to waste, fraud and abuse". Well...never let it be said that Barack Obama did not accomplish one of his most important goals. And it took so little work on his part.
The Project on Government Oversight (an independent, nonpartisan good government watchdog) has even launched a web page that tracks how long vacancies have been left open across the federal Inspector General system.
Obama has also attempted to slash the budgets of the inspector general for the Office of Management and Budget: one of the key Inspector General positions since the official has a broad mandate to focus on government spending. This from a man who never met a budget he did not want to expand or a person he did not want to put on the federal payroll. Yet, the one program he wants to slash (aside from the Defense Department) is the program that is designed to protect taxpayers. Incidentally, he did plan on a $30 billion dollar program that was uniquely designed to have no oversight by any Inspector General (i.e., a bigger slush fund than anyone ever cooked up in Cook County) but Republican resistance squashed his plans (for once).
Shocked?
Wet work, Obama-style
So what can Obama do with current Inspectors General?
Intimidation and character assassination are tools in the Obama armory. America's President is after all a man who bragged that he "brings a gun to a knife fight," and who confronted a fellow Democrat who was wavering on the Obamacare vote with the threat "Don't Think we're not keeping score, brother" (see The President is 'Keeping Score" : Chicago politics has moved into the White House" ). He also "joked" about IRS audits back in 2009-and, lo and behold, the IRS sicced itself on conservatives and others not long later.
Barack Obama's proxies have threatened Inspectors General on more than one occasion. Gerald Walpin ran afoul of the Obama team when he dared to report that a friend of Obama's was misusing government funds for personal expenses, meddled politically in a local election, and may have included hush money to women to keep them quiet about sexual harassment by him. What were Walpin's rewards for protecting taxpayers? His dismissal followed by heaps of personal abuse and accusations of mental illness
He has company.
The Inspector General at the OMB who reported on Obama's plans to slash his budget was told by officials there that they'd "make life miserable for him" if he complained about his budget being cut
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction reported that administration officials had pressured him to remain silent regarding the massive waste of funds and corruption associated with the program and that officials had tried to edit his report to remove anything that might embarrass the White House (presaging the Benghazi scandal). The abuse led to his resignation.
The aforementioned Neil Barofsky was subject to scathing personal attack for exposing and disclosing massive waste and fraud in the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the 2008 campaign who had become the deputy communications director at the White House, engaged in such personal vituperation that it shocked old Washington hands. She accused Barofsky of trying to generate "false controversy" to "grab a few cheap headlines" and then continued with similar personal insults of Barofsky.
Psaki has been rewarded for faithfully serving as an Obama attack dog by being promoted to the high-profile and prestigious spot as State Department spokeswoman (replacing the Victoria Nuland, who herself has been promoted despite of, or because of, her role in scrubbing Benghazi talking points). Professionals were surprised that someone so inexperienced in diplomacy and foreign affairs had been appointed to such an important and public post since a mistake by her could have international ramifications that could reflect poorly on America . They should not be surprised since her role the last few years has been to protect Obama's image, not America's image or standing in the world.
She will no doubt continue to perform the same role she has had for years: to protect her boss and trample anyone who may harm his image.
Issa and the Inspectors General
Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has been investigating the Obama administration for years (prompting severe political and personal attack by Obama allies). The White House saw the threat early and maneuvered to have faithful ally Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) placed on the committee, surprising some since another Congressman was in line for the spot. Cummings was thought to have better skills to run interference for Obama.
Issa has not been daunted and has relentlessly investigating the Obama administration for years. He has a special appreciation of the importance of Inspectors General and has relied on their non-partisan expertise to disclose the failures of the Obama administration. Issa wants to expand the reach and enhance the power of the Inspectors General. His goal was clear as early as 2010.
David Herszenhorn wrote in the New York Times (New Chairman seeks more power for watchdogs:
Issa knows that oversight of Obama will not come from the media who have become lapdogs. The true watchdogs have been Inspectors General who remain the unheralded heroes of Washington and whose war on them by Barack Obama another scandal the media has ignored.
Inspectors General (IG) are government employees who are responsible for ferreting out mismanagement, fraud and corruption in the federal government. The Barack Obama presidency has provided them with a target-rich environment. They are responsible for uncovering a wide range of Obama failures. These include:
The Department of Justice's Fast and Furious Fiasco; Massive waste and corruption in the stimulus and "green energy" programs with an agenda to reward Obama donors and whose weatherization programs were rife with waste and fraud.
Deluxe spending of taxpayer money by GSA employees who clearly did not take their assigned duties (to save government money spent by others) seriously and mismanagement at the US Department of Agriculture;
The State Department's Inspector General is investigating the special internal panel that probed the Benghazi failures for its apparent whitewashing of the scandal behind the deaths of Americans.
The Special Inspector General, Neil Barofsky, of the Troubled Asset Relief Program reported that the Obama administration had engaged in 'Enron-like accounting" to hide its mismanagement (as covered below, he earned the wrath of the Obama hit squad).
Recently, of course, the normally lapdog press has been compelled to cover the controversy over the role of Treasury Department's meting out "special treatment" to conservative groups and donors to Republicans to neuter them as forces in the 2012 election has generated headlines. The IRS Inspector General's report triggered the planting of a question at an ACA meeting, and the public apology by Lois Lerner, which in turn ignited hearings and press coverage.
The list of abuses uncovered by the Inspectors General has been multiplying as rapidly as the national debt has under Obama. The government wastes billions by not listening to Inspectors General Obama wants to all but eviscerate them.
Inspectors General are career employees not political appointees. Obama's minions cannot dismiss their reports as being merely partisan attacks (many of them, such as Barofsky, are Democrats). They operate in obscurity, away from the klieg lights, diligently searching for malfeasance while protecting taxpayers. They do not profit from exposing wrongdoing; their credibility is rock-solid. Impure motives cannot be imputed to them-a favorite rhetorical weapon of Obama and his team.
There are very few unsullied heroes in Washington-very few people looking out for hard-working Americans. Among them should be Inspectors General.
They are threats to Obama's image and agenda and have therefore earned their place on Obama's enemies list. While Obama can't send the drones after them they do have targets on their backs.
Where are those missing Inspectors General?
Over the past few years Barack Obama has attempted to starve the beast by refusing to fill vacancies in the ranks of Inspectors General as they have arisen. The White House been routinely chided for years over its negligence. Timothy Smith of the Washington Post reported in May of last year that "there were 10 IG vacancies, including five at cabinet-level agencies. Four of them had been vacant for more than 3 years."
Congressman Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Government Oversight and Government Affairs Committee, stated that 'This administration's failure to fill inspector-general vacancies has weakened the effectiveness of the inspector-general community, thus exposing American taxpayer dollars to waste, fraud and abuse". Well...never let it be said that Barack Obama did not accomplish one of his most important goals. And it took so little work on his part.
The Project on Government Oversight (an independent, nonpartisan good government watchdog) has even launched a web page that tracks how long vacancies have been left open across the federal Inspector General system.
Obama has also attempted to slash the budgets of the inspector general for the Office of Management and Budget: one of the key Inspector General positions since the official has a broad mandate to focus on government spending. This from a man who never met a budget he did not want to expand or a person he did not want to put on the federal payroll. Yet, the one program he wants to slash (aside from the Defense Department) is the program that is designed to protect taxpayers. Incidentally, he did plan on a $30 billion dollar program that was uniquely designed to have no oversight by any Inspector General (i.e., a bigger slush fund than anyone ever cooked up in Cook County) but Republican resistance squashed his plans (for once).
Shocked?
Wet work, Obama-style
So what can Obama do with current Inspectors General?
Intimidation and character assassination are tools in the Obama armory. America's President is after all a man who bragged that he "brings a gun to a knife fight," and who confronted a fellow Democrat who was wavering on the Obamacare vote with the threat "Don't Think we're not keeping score, brother" (see The President is 'Keeping Score" : Chicago politics has moved into the White House" ). He also "joked" about IRS audits back in 2009-and, lo and behold, the IRS sicced itself on conservatives and others not long later.
Barack Obama's proxies have threatened Inspectors General on more than one occasion. Gerald Walpin ran afoul of the Obama team when he dared to report that a friend of Obama's was misusing government funds for personal expenses, meddled politically in a local election, and may have included hush money to women to keep them quiet about sexual harassment by him. What were Walpin's rewards for protecting taxpayers? His dismissal followed by heaps of personal abuse and accusations of mental illness
He has company.
The Inspector General at the OMB who reported on Obama's plans to slash his budget was told by officials there that they'd "make life miserable for him" if he complained about his budget being cut
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction reported that administration officials had pressured him to remain silent regarding the massive waste of funds and corruption associated with the program and that officials had tried to edit his report to remove anything that might embarrass the White House (presaging the Benghazi scandal). The abuse led to his resignation.
The aforementioned Neil Barofsky was subject to scathing personal attack for exposing and disclosing massive waste and fraud in the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the 2008 campaign who had become the deputy communications director at the White House, engaged in such personal vituperation that it shocked old Washington hands. She accused Barofsky of trying to generate "false controversy" to "grab a few cheap headlines" and then continued with similar personal insults of Barofsky.
Psaki has been rewarded for faithfully serving as an Obama attack dog by being promoted to the high-profile and prestigious spot as State Department spokeswoman (replacing the Victoria Nuland, who herself has been promoted despite of, or because of, her role in scrubbing Benghazi talking points). Professionals were surprised that someone so inexperienced in diplomacy and foreign affairs had been appointed to such an important and public post since a mistake by her could have international ramifications that could reflect poorly on America . They should not be surprised since her role the last few years has been to protect Obama's image, not America's image or standing in the world.
She will no doubt continue to perform the same role she has had for years: to protect her boss and trample anyone who may harm his image.
Issa and the Inspectors General
Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has been investigating the Obama administration for years (prompting severe political and personal attack by Obama allies). The White House saw the threat early and maneuvered to have faithful ally Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) placed on the committee, surprising some since another Congressman was in line for the spot. Cummings was thought to have better skills to run interference for Obama.
Issa has not been daunted and has relentlessly investigating the Obama administration for years. He has a special appreciation of the importance of Inspectors General and has relied on their non-partisan expertise to disclose the failures of the Obama administration. Issa wants to expand the reach and enhance the power of the Inspectors General. His goal was clear as early as 2010.
David Herszenhorn wrote in the New York Times (New Chairman seeks more power for watchdogs:
The Republican who will lead the chief investigative committee in the House is planning to vastly expand scrutiny of the Obama administration by seeking new subpoena powers for dozens of federal agency watchdogs in hopes of using their investigations and his own in an aggressive push to cut spending and shrink the government.
Issa knows that oversight of Obama will not come from the media who have become lapdogs. The true watchdogs have been Inspectors General who remain the unheralded heroes of Washington and whose war on them by Barack Obama another scandal the media has ignored.
The Bullying Pulpit
By Thomas SowellWe have truly entered the world of "Alice in Wonderland" when the CEO of a company that pays $16 million a day in taxes is hauled up before a Congressional subcommittee to be denounced on nationwide television for not paying more.
Apple CEO Tim Cook was denounced for contributing to "a worrisome federal deficit," according to Senator Carl Levin -- one of the big-spending liberals in Congress who has had a lot more to do with creating that deficit than any private citizen has.
Because of "gimmicks" used by businesses to reduce their taxes, Senator Levin said, "children across the country won't get early education from Head Start. Needy seniors will go without meals. Fighter jets sit idle on tarmacs because our military lacks the funding to keep pilots trained."
The federal government already has ample powers to punish people who have broken the tax laws. It does not need additional powers to bully people who haven't.
What is a tax "loophole"? It is a provision in the law that allows an individual or an organization to pay less taxes than they would be required to pay otherwise. Since Congress puts these provisions in the law, it is a little much when members of Congress denounce people who use those provisions to reduce their taxes.
If such provisions are bad, then members of Congress should blame themselves and repeal the provisions. Yet words like "gimmicks" and "loopholes" suggest that people are doing something wrong when they don't pay any more taxes than the law requires.
Are people who are buying a home, who deduct the interest they pay on their mortgages when filing their tax returns, using a "gimmick" or a "loophole"? Or are only other people's deductions to be depicted as somehow wrong, while our own are OK?
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes pointed out long ago that "the very meaning of a line in the law is that you intentionally may go as close to it as you can if you do not pass it."
If the line in tax laws was drawn in the wrong place, Congress can always draw it somewhere else. But, if you buy the argument used by people like Senator Levin, then a state trooper can pull you over on a highway for driving 64 miles per hour in a 65 mile per hour zone, because you are driving too close to the line.
The real danger to us all is when government not only exercises the powers that we have voted to give it, but exercises additional powers that we have never voted to give it. That is when "public servants" become public masters. That is when government itself has stepped over the line.
Government's power to bully people who have broken no law is dangerous to all of us. When Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department started keeping track of phone calls going to Fox News Channel reporter James Rosen (and his parents) that was firing a shot across the bow of Fox News -- and of any other reporters or networks that dared to criticize the Obama administration.
When the Internal Revenue Service started demanding to know who was donating to conservative organizations that had applied for tax-exempt status, what purpose could that have other than to intimidate people who might otherwise donate to organizations that oppose this administration's political agenda?
The government's power to bully has been used to extract billions of dollars from banks, based on threats to file lawsuits that would automatically cause regulatory agencies to suspend banks' rights to make various ordinary business decisions, until such indefinite time as those lawsuits end. Shakedown artists inside and outside of government have played this lucrative game.
Someone once said, "any government that is powerful enough to protect citizens against predators is also powerful enough to become a predator itself." And dictatorial in the process.
No American government can take away all our freedoms at one time. But a slow and steady erosion of freedom can accomplish the same thing on the installment plan. We have already gone too far down that road. F.A. Hayek called it "the road to serfdom."
How far we continue down that road depends on whether we keep our eye on the ball -- freedom -- or allow ourselves to be distracted by predatory demagogues like Senator Carl Levin.
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2013/05/28/the-bullying-pulpit-n1607149/page/full
Obama Does Not Understand Warfare
... No doubt one of the reasons President Obama does not want to recognize warfare as a condition distinctive from both peace and war is that it impacts many of the most fundamental aspects of politics: liberty, identity, custom, tradition, law, and rights. Focusing on finding, capturing, killing and trying "terrorists" is a way to avoid the challenge because terror is only a tactic. What is important is motivation of individuals -- but the president does not want to recognize what motivates Islamists.President Obama said: "We will never erase the evil that lies in the hearts of some human beings, nor stamp out every danger to our open society. But what we can do -- what we must do -- is dismantle networks that pose a direct danger to us, and make it less likely for new groups to gain a foothold, all the while maintaining the freedoms and ideals that we defend." While this can be done in peace with law enforcement methods, in warfare it requires means inappropriate for peace. The conclusion: he does not understand warfare.
The fundamental questions President Obama failed to address are the nature of warfare and how the Third Jihad is to be neutralized. The core of al-Qaeda has been reduced, U.S. conventional war forces are being withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan and the expensive "soft power" efforts are being cut back, but the president offered no ideas on how to be successful in warfare against the Third Jihad. Those who want to weaken the Great Satan are just as determined as they were in 1979 when the Shah was overthrown by Islamists lead by Ayatollah Khomeini, and in 1998 when a fatwa was issued by Islamists declaring war against America and its allies.
Islamists are frustrated because the West is rich, technologically superior, and powerful and because it is -- in their eyes -- materialistic and corrupt. They want to weaken and destroy America and Europe. The Islamists believe they can combine the fervor of true believers with Muslim piety to regain stolen wealth. They see Americans as "infidels" that have caused ills in Muslim countries.
However, it must be recognized that all Muslims are not Islamists who support the Third Jihad -- even though millions do. Many Muslims have little interest in establishing a Great Caliphate, and they are neither hateful, infantile, nor irrational. The West can only win this ideological struggle if Muslims who want to live in peace with Western Culture neutralize the Islamists. However, this will require a transformation of Islam, similar to -- but much more difficult to realize -- that which took place in Christianity after 1500. It will require Muslims to reject those parts of the Qur'an that require the submission or killing of all nonbelievers, and many of the behaviors of Muhammad.
The Islamists cannot be neutralized if the policies of the West start with the naive notion that money and rhetoric can win minds, hearts, and stomachs and thus turn people against the Islamists. All ideological struggles are a test of wills -- and this one is also. Economic, military, or legal means rarely change the inner compass of individuals, yet it is the inner compass that establishes and maintains wills and motivation. The inner compass determines what a person considers good or bad, right or wrong, and virtuous or evil.
The leaders of the Third Jihad recognized the frustration engendered when people give up their traditional cultures for dreams of Western Culture. The gap between what they observe in Europe and America and what they observe in their own countries obliges them to blame the West for all of their ills -- even as they long for the material benefits of the West. Moreover, there is always a gap between expectations and reality. The leaders of the Third Jihad motivate Islamists through manipulation of such feelings.
President Obama has failed to recognize these realities.
New Evidence Shows Trayvon's Life Unraveling
This past Thursday, George Zimmerman's attorneys released new evidence relevant to the upcoming trial of their client on a second-degree murder charge for the shooting of Trayvon Martin.The Martin family attorneys say the evidence is irrelevant. They are wrong. It is damning. The text messages and photos from Martin's cell phone tell a story wildly at odds with the one the State of Florida and the media have been peddling for more than a year, but one altogether truer and sadder.
In the way of recap, in February 2012, Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain in Sanford, Florida, shot and killed the seventeen-year-old Martin.
Taking their cue from the Martin family's attorneys, Reuters ran the first national article on the shooting ten days after it happened. Zimmerman was a "loose cannon." He profiled Martin, stalked him, and shot him, disregarding police instructions. Martin, by contrast, was a "good kid." He had hoped to be a pilot. He was simply bringing the soon-to-be iconic iced tea and Skittles home to his "little brother."
This story was pure fable from the beginning, and the attorneys knew it. Even before going public, they moved to seal Martin's school records, and with good reason. Consider this exchange between Martin and a female friend on November 21, three months before his death. After he told her he was "tired and sore" from a fight, she asked him why he fought. "Bae" is shorthand for "babe."
MARTIN: Cause man dat nigga snitched on me
FRIEND: Bae y you always fightinqq man, you got suspended?
MARTIN: Naw we thumped afta skool in a duckd off spot
FRIEND: Ohh, Well Damee
MARTIN: I lost da 1st round :( but won da 2nd nd 3rd . . . .
FRIEND: Ohhh So It Wass 3 Rounds? Damn well at least yu wonn lol but yuu needa stop fighting bae Forreal
MARTIN: Nay im not done with fool..... he gone hav 2 see me again
FRIEND: Nooo... Stop, yuu waint gonn bee satisified till yuh suspended again, huh?
MARTIN: Naw but he aint breed nuff 4 me, only his nose
As his social media accounts show, Martin was a student of mixed martial arts. The fight followed the MMA format. A day later, he would tell a friend that his opponent "got mo hits cause in da 1st round he had me on da ground nd I couldn't do ntn." As his girlfriend complained, Martin was "always" fighting. He was also something of a sadist. His opponent, after all, did not bleed enough. Why might this be relevant?
Witness #6, the best of the eyewitnesses to the shooting, told the Sanford PD that a there was a "black man in a black hoodie on top of either a white guy ... or an Hispanic guy in a red sweater on the ground yelling out help," and that black man on top was "throwing down blows on the guy MMA [mixed martial arts] style."
Martin was not the innocent little boy that the media relentlessly and corruptly portrayed him to be. At the time of his death, he was five feet, eleven inches and weighed 158 pounds. To put this in perspective, legendary boxer Tommy "The Hitman" Hearns was six feet, one inch and 145 pounds when he first won the world welterweight title as a twenty-one-year-old.
Before leaving for Orlando on February 21, 2012, Martin had already missed 53 days of school that year and been suspended three times, most recently for possessing drug paraphernalia, the time before that for getting caught with women's jewelry and a burglary tool. Why might this be relevant?
When George Zimmerman first spotted Martin near the shortcut into a community plagued by burglaries and home invasions, he told the dispatcher, "This guy looks like he's up to no good. Or he's on drugs or something." Zimmerman might have been right on both counts.
Had the school district police not been ordered to suppress crime statistics, especially for black males, Martin would likely have been arrested at least twice, and that might have snapped his parents out of their fog. Instead, as the new evidence reveals, he was allowed to live out his increasingly angry, aberrant life as though he were merely a bit mischievous.
On November 22, the day after the MMA-style fight, Martin told a friend that his mother "just kicked me out" and that he had to move in with his father. When the friend asked why, Martin answered, "Da police caught me outta skool."
"U a hoodlum," said the friend. "Naw," said Martin. "I'm a gangsta." Incredibly, his death would transform this wannabe gangster into a saintly little boy, or, in the words of Florida State Attorney Angela Corey, a "precious victim."
On December 21, 2011, Martin told a friend, "dam I just got in trouble 4 sum sh** I aint even do." His mother, Sybrina Fulton, was dismayed. "Pack up your clothes now," she texted him. "I love u but I think u being w/ ur Dad is best."
Martin lived with his mother only intermittently and spent even less time with his father, who was then living with a sister in the Miami area.
On December 22, Martin confided to a girlfriend, "I got in trouble." She asked, "What did you do now." As was typical, Martin took no responsibility. "I aint do ntn . . . . call me." The friend had other priorities: "I'm about to get my nails done so you gotta wait a few."
On the day before Christmas, Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, texted him: "I'm concerned about u but I'm praying for u and I want U to pray for yourself EVERYDAY, ok." She was texting the son she used to know. The Trayvon who was about to turn seventeen, she knew next to nothing about.
On January 6, 2012, Martin got into trouble at school again. When asked why, he told a friend, "Caus I was watcn a fight nd a teacher say I hit em." Said the friend, "Idk how u be getting in trouble an sh**." By this time, Martin's mother had thrown him out of the house for "fightn," and he had moved in with his aunt and uncle.
The multiple texts about "weed" and the photos of marijuana plants confirmed his interests in drugs -- a friend called him "weedhead" -- but the new photos pointed to an even more dangerous new hobby -- namely, guns. Indeed, one of the photos of Martin's showed a hand, likely Martin's own, on a pistol.
On February 21, 2012, Martin took the bus for Orlando to stay with his father's girlfriend, Brandy Green. He was free to travel because his school had suspended him for marijuana. The bust did little to sober him up. "I hid m weed," he confided to a female friend, afraid that they might have searched him on the bus. He texted later that day, "I got weed nd I get money Friday."
The saddest messages among these texts come from the parents who indulged him. They had all but lost control of their son but chose not to see how far out of control he had spun. Like so many divorced parents, they were torn between punishing him and appeasing him.
The father, Tracy Martin, texted his son during this trip to Orlando. "Show much respect to [Green] and adjust to my Lady & [her son]. Show them you a good kid and you want positive things aroud you." His mother texted him as well: "R u comfortable on the bus?? Go to sleep n u will be there soon."
In between these texts, Martin was negotiating to buy a handgun with a friend. "U wanna share a .380?" he asked. Guns excited him. "U got heat??" he enthused earlier upon learning that a friend had access to a gun.
Upon leaving Miami, Martin seemed to be growing angrier. On February 21, he texted a girlfriend who was pouting about another girl, presumably in Sanford. Wrote Martin, "f*** u cuz I neva text ha 2 day I made dat sh** up so u leav me df alone bout it."
Two days later on February 23, a friend tried to warn Martin off some behavior that troubled even the friend. "I ain't ya parent," he texted him, "but gsh** thro it away." Martin was not in the mood to be lectured to. "Y u gotta knock my hustle??" he shot back.
On February 26, bored and likely high, Martin was in no mood to be challenged by some small "white" guy who was trying to maintain a visual on him until the police arrived.
"As I headed back to my vehicle the suspect emerged from the darkness and said, 'You got a problem?'" Zimmerman would tell the Sanford PD. When Zimmerman answered, "No," Martin said, "You do now." As it turned out, both of them had a problem. Martin's proved fatal.
Martin's parents failed him. The school system failed him. The sad vestiges of the civil rights movement betrayed him, and the media betrayed America. This all comes at a cost, and the piper has yet to be paid.
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