TRAGEDY OR TRAVESTY? — The death of Trayvon Martin; the trial of Shomrim & the Werdesheims

 TWIN INCIDENTS OF ‘OVERZEALOUS BEHAVIOR’

2 Jewish brothers get their day this week in court;
shooter of Florida teen still has not been charged
 
By Alan Z. Forman
 
When the 20-something Werdesheim Brothers finally get their day this week in court for allegedly attacking a black teenager in November 2010 who they believed was up to no good, it is likely the neighborhood protection organization Shomrim will also be put on trial — if not in the courtroom, then in the hearts and minds of Northwest Baltimore residents and others for whom it exists to keep their communities safe.

The Werdesheims — Eliyahu, now 24, and his younger brother Avi, 21, both members at the time of Shomrim — are accused of beating a youth who had a juvenile rap sheet that included theft charges and whom they had identified as exhibiting suspicious behavior late in the evening as they were patrolling an Upper Park Heights area neighborhood.

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This week, stoked by activists and media, magnifying outrage over the killing of a black teenager in Sanford, Fla., by an overzealous neighborhood watch volunteer who, like the Werdesheims, claims he was attacked by the suspect, some are demanding yet again that Shomrim be disbanded.

The Werdesheims assert the 15-year-old youth in question attacked them with a stick with a nail and that they acted in self defense. The shooter in Florida also claims he was attacked, and that he shot in self defense.

He had a broken nose and grass stains on the back of his shirt when police arrived following the shooting. No charges have been filed against him; nor was he tested for use of drugs or alcohol, which is standard police procedure in most cases of homicide. Yet people at demonstrations around the country are calling him a murderer.  ............

READ THE FULL STORY ON VOICE OF BALTIMORE:      http://voiceofbaltimore.org/archives/3883