Was Trayvon Martin involved in a Fight Video?

I don't know what videos others have seen, but I've seen the one where someone calls Trayvon by name (it can still easily be found on Liveleak). However, Trayvon was neither fighting nor appeared to be refereeing in that video. About 30 seconds after the fight is over, the one presumed to be Travyon (and I can't tell if it's him or not) separates them from starting up again, but he doesn't look to be a referee (other than his striped shirt).

LambChop said:

MSM has no problem reporting other informationi that "reflected badly" on TM. Why would this video be different? Unless they were afraid of a lawsuit from parents of the other boys involved? I do think boys fight (girls, too for that matter). They did when I was a teen so I don't think much has changed. And people use to pay big buck-a-roni's to sit front and center during a boxing match. jmo

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It's not that it IS so bad or uncommon, it's just that it could be perceived that way, imo. This case is full of examples of relatively innocuous things that have been "misrepresented" to paint the most sympathetic picture of Trayvon and his family as possible. And, in the context of a case where the question of who was the physical aggressor is critical, Trayvon being involved in this kind of activity is certainly not the least of those, imo.

I can definitely see the family and their attorney not wanting this out there. I suppose it's possible that there was a different reason to pull it, but I think the far more likely explanation is that Crump and/or the family was responsible for it being taken down. If I'm honest, I can't say that I wouldn't do the same thing if it were my son. But, I can say, that if I knew he didn't have an aversion to fighting, I wouldn't claim that he did. From the video, though, all we can say is that, if it is Trayvon (which I do believe that it is), he was not averse to watching OTHERS fight. It remains to be seen whether he himself didn't mind participating. jmo

eta: It occurs to me that there may be others who are interested in the outcome of the case that may have flagged it to youtube. There are an awful lot of people out there with very strong feelings about it, and while I wouldn't get that involved at that level, others might. I mean just look at all of the people who comment on every news article, start fb pages and such -- and not only in this case, but lots of others.

Badlands said:

I don't know what videos others have seen, but I've seen the one where someone calls Trayvon by name (it can still easily be found on Liveleak). However, Trayvon was neither fighting not appeared to be refereeing in that video. About 30 seconds after the fight is over, the one presumed to be Travyon (and I can't tell if it's him or not) separates them from starting up again, but he doesn't look to be a referee (other than his striped shirt).

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There is more than one black male named Trayvon, as we discovered after the FB issue. Also, one poster stated that since the cars in the video had front license plates, it probably wasn't in Florida. If no one can be identified facially in this video, then there is reasonable doubt it is TM.

The guys in the fight were also wearing boxing type gloves so it was not a spontaneous street brawl. If TM wasn't fighting or refereeing but tries to separate the two fighters, I can't see how this reflects badly on him.

Unless all the participants can be found and sign waivers, I don't see this video showing up in court.

jaded cat said:

There is more than one black male named Trayvon, as we discovered after the FB issue. Also, one poster stated that since the cars in the video had front license plates, it probably wasn't in Florida. If no one can be identified facially in this video, then there is reasonable doubt it is TM.

The guys in the fight were also wearing boxing type gloves so it was not a spontaneous street brawl. If TM wasn't fighting or refereeing but tries to separate the two fighters, I can't see how this reflects badly on him.

Unless all the participants can be found and sign waivers, I don't see this video showing up in court.

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I think we must have seen a different video, or a different part of the same video. The boys fighting in the one I saw are not wearing boxing gloves and I think the participants, including Trayvon (if it's him) could be identified from it pretty easily. I don't know whether it will make it's way into the courtroom, but if it did, they would probably just blur out the faces of all the others. jmo

Just looking at the videos themselves, I can't make any conclusions. Videos are not of good quality and I can't make out the face.

I watched two videos (both w/out sound). One with two youths sporting boxing gloves on what appeared to be a "breezeway" strip of grass between a sidewalk and a street. There wasn't a caption or description around the video box that I can recall except that it indicated the video was of TM fighting. There were other youths around, thought I can't say how many. The two blokes with the gloves then begin doing what I want to call "sparring," but I'm sure that isn't the exactly more correct word, but generally "light boxing." The video quality was decent. My first impression was the the boy in the lighter colored top could be TM, but then there wasn't any more good shots of his face, because they seemed to move away from the camera, and then circle around so that when they were closer to the camera again, the guy in the darker top's face was what I could see better. I thought the guy in the darker top did not resemble TM in any way.

The site where I found the second video was clearly more blatant about their feelings about who was who and what was what in the video, and stated that the youth in the striped shirt was TM. So unfortunately, I went in to this one with that message fresh in my mind, which I suppose was the point. Anyway, the video quality seemed worse than the first video, although it seemed to be a brighter time of day than the first video. From what I could tell, there was a group of teenagers on an asphalt or cement surface, and my impression was it was outside of a school or in a schoolyard. These youths were not wearing gloves. It appeared there were two of them fighting or again lightly boxing, only not as light as in the first video. After a little bit, it appeared that the youth in the striped shirt and another youth pulled the two fighting guys apart. At the end of the video, a guy without a shirt walked over near the striped shirt guy, and put up his hands as if he was proposing a fight with a third boy, wearing a light shirt, who was standing near the youth in striped shirt. Light-shirt wearing guy turned around and it looked like he was reaching towards his back collar to pull his shirt off in a way that for some reason females rarely ever do (sorry, tangent). Then the video ended.

In the first video, the by-standers for the most part weren't shown well enough to decipher clear faces, and as for the sparring duo, the youth in the lighter shirt's face was only seen very briefly, as was the others, although his was closer to the camera. I would guess that people who knew the people in the video well would be able to recognize the two wearing gloves by their faces as well as body shapes, stances, gestures, mannerisms, etc.

In the second video, again the by-standers weren't seen well. I would guess that people who knew all the participants well would be able to recognize the shirtless guy near the end of the video, possibly, and possibly the guy in the lighter shirt, but only because their faces were near the camera and their lighter complexions made their features easier to see in the grainy video, if that makes sense. However, I couldn't decipher the youth in the striped shirt's face well enough to even see if he resembled TM or not. I would guess that people who knew him well would be able to recognize whether or not it was him probably relying solely, or at least primarily, on body shape, stance, gestures, mannerisms, etc.

So if TM's brother states that TM is not the one in the striped shirt, I'm inclined to believe him as he was familiar with TM's body shape, stance, gestures, and mannerisms.

I don't know if these videos are or should be of any concern to the prosecution--my guess is no. The defense might latch onto one or both of them, and get the video "cleaned up" a bit, maybe use some facial-recognition software? But that sounds like a ton of expense for a defense team.

And really, for what? To show that TM had a possible propensity to engage in planned sparring/fighting with his peers? Because I surely don't see him on video alone and attacking a lone adult. Nor do I see any indication any of the guys leaving those fights were looking remotely as beat up as Ed Norton or Brad Pitt did in "Fight Club."

It seems I've heard tell that back when children played outside for long periods of time, often unsupervised, they'd engage in wrestling matches and the like. I'm pretty sure it still occurs sometimes these days. So basically, I'm choosing to with-hold judgement on whether or not TM is in either video, and also on, if he is, what, if anything that means to the case. In short, I'd like a lot more credible information about the videos.

I've read over this thread several times to make sure I didn't miss anything, but unless I am mistaken no one has provided links to the videos being discussed.

Would someone please do so? TIA.

The parents denied the twitter account too, until it was proved to be his.

"The parents denied their son’s link to a Twitter account, in which he purportedly tweeted about smoking marijuana and made derogatory comments about women. “It’s an account that there’s tweets even after he is dead,” LINK

"By cross-referencing tweets from his account with those of people mentioned throughout, The Miami Herald was able to show the account was, in fact, Trayvon Martin’s." LINK

Izzy

It's on Live Leak