Angry Trayvon Smartphone Game? Capitalism Has No Limits

Days before the jury rendered the “Not Guilty” verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, deceased Florida teenager Trayvon Martin was being shamelessly profiled in a smartphone game as a gun-toting, hooded sweatshirt wearing thug running rough-shed over all that lays in his wake.

The "Angry Trayvon" app has since been pulled from all Google stores, but only after bubbling resistance to it and the launch of a Change.org petition demanding as much.

The game made no direct reference to Zimmerman, the then 28-year-old volunteer neighborhood watchmen who was the only one actually armed on the night the 17-year-old was returning to his father’s gated community home only to be confronted by an overzealous Zimmerman, who later told police he thought the teen suspicious because he was wearing a hoodie and leisurely walking in the rain.

"Trayvon is angry and nobody can stop him from completing his world tour of revenge on the bad guys who terrorize cities every day,” read the game’s Google Play description. “Use a variety of weapons to demolish Trayvon’s attackers in various cities around the world. As you complete a level, you will notice more bad guys coming at Trayvon at a faster pace. If you want to dominate the leaderboards across the world, make sure you collect the money the bad guys will drop once you kill them."

It's unclear how many people actually downloaded the app before it was pulled, but game maker’s still defend its manufacturing as not being racist. “Sorry for the inconvenience, as this was just an action game for entertainment,” TradeDigital company officials said in a statement posted on their Facebook page. “This was by no means a racist game.”

Au contraire, argues Change.org petition author T.L. Rower. "This application unnecessarily promotes violence and exploits the unfortunate death of Trayvon Martin,” he told the Washington Post. “The death of this young man is not a game. This developer is using the Google marketplace to exploit the death of an unarmed teen for profit while simultaneously promoting violence.” 

While Martin’s face was not detailed in the game, the character wore a gray hoodie similar to what he was donning on the night he was killed. Martin was in the Sanford, Fla. area that night visiting his father who was staying there with his finance.

A jury of six women, five of them Caucasians, found Zimmerman not guilty of both second-degree murder and manslaughter charges largely based on lax Florida gun laws. The verdict has sparked nationwide protests, including in such major cities as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

The U.S. Justice Department has now stepped forward to launch an investigation over the question of if Zimmerman may have violated the teen’s civil rights in racially profiling him. Zimmerman told police he worked to launch the neighborhood watch program after a number of area homes were burglarized “by young, black males.”

Records show in recent times he made as many as 46 calls to 911 dispatchers complaining about young, black males simply walking through the neighborhood.

Rev. Al Sharpton, President of the National Action Network, announced this week he plans to help organize “Justice for Trayvon” vigils to be held in 100 cities across the country on Saturday, July 20. Sharpton said the goal is to press the federal government officials to quickly launch and conduct their investigation.