There are times when you read something in the media so completely flawed in its construction that a response is demanded.
It takes a remarkably highly toxic injection of obtuse to drag me back into the Zimmerman V. Martin conversation, but this recent article by Leonard Pitts Jr hits just the right formulation to require such a response.
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Trayvon Martin or George Zimmerman – who’s the real thug?
Pitts writes “[…] a conservative movement which argues with airy assurance that American racism died long ago, disproves its thesis with its actions“; as he outlines how, in his perspective, any attempt to deconstruct the false media narrative around the Trayvon Martin shooting is evidence, by itself, of racist intent on behalf of the deconstructor.
In order to totally miss the point, completely avoid the actual motive of the critical engagement, and allow himself to assign racist intentions, Mr. Pitts continues this level of critical race analysis by saying:

“[…]  Why did some of us need Trayvon to be an angel in the first place? Why did they feel such a pressing urgency to magnify — and manufacture — his failings? Why was it so important to them to make him unworthy of sympathy?” (link)

Your question can be answered in one word Mr. Pitts, honesty.

Why – honesty?   Because from the outset the framework around the Trayvon Martin shooting was based on fabricated media presentations of both the person shot, and the person who did the shooting.
The shooter, George Zimmerman, was intentionally first presented as a 27-year-old, white, 258 lb, neighborhood watch captain/vigilante with a prior arrest record.  The architect of this presentation was a media consultant for the Martin family, Ryan Julison.

The person shot, Trayvon Martin, was intentionally first presented as a black, 5’6″, 140 lb, 12-year-old child on his way home carrying Skittles and Iced Tea.  An honor student in school who was, according to the Miami Herald, “majoring in cheerfulness”.
Once again, the descriptions, the pictures, the entire framework was sold by a media consultant, Ryan Julison, and purchased without question by a monolithic media complex more than willing to buy-in.

Neither presentation was accurate, but the media, your media, was ‘all-in’;  and was willingly assisted by congressional recordings of “Trayvon being racially profiled and hunted like a rabid dog”.
A self fulfilling race baiting prophecy spawned from an entirely false narrative.  Heck, it wasn’t even Iced-Tea, it was Watermelon Fruit Juice.
Reluctantly, after George Zimmerman was arrested, 6 weeks post shooting, a few in the media did correct his height to 5’8″, his race to Hispanic -the new White-Hispanic- and his weight to 170 lbs.    But that was after a solid month plus of 24/7 false media coverage.

Conversely, few, if any, in the media ever willingly corrected the inaccuracies of Trayvon Martin’s identification.    No-one in the media ever admitted Trayvon was 160 lbs, 5′-11″ to 6′-2″ (the latter being his mother, Sybrina Fulton’s, height estimation), and it took over a year just to get the reality of his size, his 17-year-old structure, to be recognized.

To this day if you were to show either of the above most recent pictures to a random audience they probably would not know who it was.   Why is that?
But if you showed them the now infamous Hollister T-Shirt picture – oh yeah, that’s that Trayvon Martin kid.   Why is that?
The only reason I outline this physical aspect is because you spent so much time pondering why was the description of Trayvon Martin important.  It was important because it was a lie.
Yet even today, in the numerous post trial discussions and on-going issues, you cannot find an accurate optical depiction of what Trayvon Martin “looked like” on 2/26/12.
Ask yourself, why is that?

What is it about the truth behind the true physical appearance that bars the mainstream media from outlining, or even admitting, the reality?
Is it white racism that hides the truth?  Or is it the fear of black racism which demands it?
But it doesn’t stop there.  Oh-no, that’s just scratching the surface of what the media choose to keep from public consumption.
An “A-B Student who majored in cheerfulness – and aspiring astronaut“?
If only you were willing to use those keen powers of observation to actually observe.  If so you would find out:
Trayvon Martin was initially suspended from school for burglary.  No, not pretend or possible burglary, not the “maybe burglary” – ACTUAL BURGLARY.    The criminal kind.
Miami Dade Burglary Report (PD111021-422483) with the jewelry from Trayvon Martin’s backpack sitting on a shelf in the Property Room listed as (2011-11477 “found items”).
According to his own Krop Senior High School, Miami-Dade School Police Resource Officer, Daryl Dunn, (in a sworn affidavit under oath) officer Dunn admitted to falsifying criminal activity to keep Trayvon out of the Juvenile Justice System.
Falsifying Criminal Activity – Not once – TWICE.
First in October of 2011 for the burglary event, where Dunn falsified the stolen merchandise report, (this was school year suspension #1); and again in February 2012 where Dunn falsified the narcotics report that Trayvon was found in possession of (same school year suspension #3).

[*Note – Suspension #2 was for fighting in school with another student and turning his anger toward a teacher.  They combined this one with excessive tardies and absences.]

Officer Dunn admitted to doing this at the instruction of his Police Chief, Charles Hurley, who was trying to stop black males from being arrested.    Hurley told his school officers to “falsify incident reports“, “hide criminal conduct“, and “divert black males” from law enforcement criminal consequence toward school discipline.

Both Officer Dunn and Police Chief Charles Hurley admitted as such in an internal M-DSPD investigation that took place in the summer of 2012 as a result of the Trayvon Martin shooting, and ironically reporting from the Miami Herald, your employer.
But Mr. Pitts we never saw you write about that aspect even though it was your employer’s initial inquiries who initiated the investigation in the first place.    That’s not irony – that’s intentional covering up of information.
That’s also why the so called “conservative noise machine” took exception to your intentional obfuscations.
Do you really think schools are equipped to handle burglary cases, drug possession cases, drug deals, violence and gun sales on school property?   Do you?
Apparently Miami-Dade Public Schools Superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, does.  Do you?
Apparently former M-DSPD Chief, Charles Hurley, did.   Do you?
You see, the events that followed the Martin shooting, and the conservative push back you label as the “conservative noise machine” had nothing to do with race, it had everything to do with media fraud, your fraud.
If you do not consider yourself complicit in this fraud, perhaps we will see an outline from you in the Miami Herald about how a short-sighted, well intentioned, albeit illegal, diversionary goal from Miami-Dade School Superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, ended up with profound unintended consequences for one student, Trayvon Martin.

Perhaps you  will write that outline before Broward County follows through on their recently advertised intents to deliver on the same statistical results as Miami Dade.

How many Trayvon Martin’s are you willing to hide from consequence only to find them later dead in the street because no-one was willing to embrace them and teach them right from wrong.
Not to teach them by hiding their behavior, but to actually correct it.

Right is right even if no-body does it, and wrong is wrong even if everybody does it. 

How many Police Chief’s, just like interim Chief Kitchell will look at their computer screens and shout “oh my god”, when they realize one of their extreme diversionary program (Crisis Intervention Team) kids, is the Trayvon Martin the victims are calling a “thug”.
How many more black boys have to die while you try to run avoidance, formulate excuses, or act like a fixer as you clean up imagery in the wake of their behavior/funeral ?
How many Mr.  Pitts?
How many?

Here, I’ll even make it easier for you to cite.   These are their sworn affidavits attesting to the validity of every single word in this post.  Sworn statements from inside the Miami-Dade School Police Department:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/135564937/Sergeant-William-Tagle-Internal-Affairs-Investigative-Report
https://www.scribd.com/doc/135684004/Steven-N-Hadley-Sr-affidavit-and-investigation
https://www.scribd.com/doc/135692728/Affidavit-From-Commander-Deanna-Fox-Williams
https://www.scribd.com/doc/136164820/sergeant-Lourdes-Hodges-Sworn-Statement-Affidavit
https://www.scribd.com/doc/136392330/Sworn-affidavit-of-Detective-Gylamar-Ochoa-MDSPD
https://www.scribd.com/doc/136642019/Sergeant-Bradley-Rosh-MDSPD-Sworn-Affidavit
https://www.scribd.com/doc/150467487
https://www.scribd.com/doc/150467522
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/11/10/broward-county-florida-schools-institute-the-trayvon-martin-standard-for-studentpolice-avoidance/
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/07/15/understanding-the-real-profilers-of-trayvon-martin-it-was-not-george-zimmerman/
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/05/01/m-dspd-cover-up-the-curious-case-of-trayvon-martins-backpack-with-stolen-jewelry-and-burglary-tool/
And if you need more.  We have dozens more sworn statements uploaded at the scribd account.
However, I have a feeling this won’t fit your ideological agenda.   Then again, you can always prove me wrong.  After all, me being part of the “conservative noise machine”, you would probably enjoy proving me wrong.
Strange thing is, I would enjoy being wrong more than you would enjoy proving it.
Go figure.