Trayvon Martin's paranoia made him belligerent

I have interrupted this blog for several months because I have been busy with some personal business. In the meantime, I am inserting four articles about the case of Trayvon Martin being killed by George Zimmerman in February 2012. In the first of the four articles, I described Martin's addiction to Purple Drank, an intoxicating concoction of codeine, juice and candy. One common side-effect of such an addiction is paranoia.

By the end of June 2011, Martin became obsessed with Purple Drank. In that first article, I wrote:

Martin's fascination with Purple Drank began seriously at about the end of June 2011, when he subscribed to the YouTube log of Purple Drank addict Andy Milonakis. 

Martin’s subscription coincided roughly with Milonakis’s upload, on June 21, 2011, of a rap-music video that Milonakis himself had created. Milonakis's video is titled "Red Lean Purple Lean" and is illutrated by photographs of bottles full of Promethazine Codeine and drinking cups full of Purple Drank (aka Red Lean Purple Lean).

By November 2011, Martin became remarkably suspicious and belligerent. The contents of his cell phone's text messages provided a series of text messages, in which he explained to a female friend why he was engaging in various fights with other students, with a teacher and with a school bus driver.

[January 21, 2011] 

MARTIN: Cause man dat nigga snitched on me 

FRIEND: Bae [Babe] y you always fightinqq man, you got suspended? 

MARTIN: Naw we thumped [fought] afta skool in a duckd [duck-taped] off spot 

FRIEND: Ohh, Well Damee [damn me]

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 [from school] again, huh? 

MARTIN: Naw but he aint breed [bleed] nuff 4 me, only his nose 

===== 

[Nov 22, 2011] 

MARTIN: My mom just told me I gotta mov wit my dad

FRIEND: So what does that mean? 

MARTIN: She just kicked me out :( 

.... 

FRIEND: Why? 

MARTIN: Da police caught me outta skool 

.... 

FRIEND: So you just turning into a lil hoodlum 

.... 

MARTIN: Naw I'm a gangsta 

... 

FRIEND: Boy don't get one [a bullet] planted in ya chest 

MARTIN: Lol Im scared 

FRIEND: You should be 

=====

[January 4, 2012] 

FRIEND: What school you at today? 

MARTIN: Krop [Michael M. Krop High School] cause my dad outta town 

FRIEND: Wyd? [What you do?] 

MARTIN: In csi"/ [a school-intervention program?]

FRIEND: Lol for what? 

MARTIN: Caus I was watch a fight nd a teacher say I hit em 

=====

[February 14, 2012] 

FRIEND: Why you not in school? 

MARTIN: Suspended 

.... 

MARTIN: Fightn 

FRIEND: What you fighting fa?

On or before February 21, 2012, Martin received a tweet from his cousin, who remarked about Martin trying to hit a bus driver. The tweet said: “yu ain’t tell me yu swung on a bus driver”.

Perhaps this “swung on a bus driver” incident had coincided with Martin's suspension from his high school on or about February 14 (see the last text message, above). If so, then Martin tried to hit a school bus driver.

I think that Martin's paranoia -- about other students "snitching" on him and about being disrespected by teachers and school staff -- was caused basically by his addiction to Purple Drank.