The Hole in the Fence

The “Front Gate”

I’ve not lived in a gated community, but I visited my brother who did.  For a gate to matter, the entire complex needs a fence.   This place I suspect is typical – in that it has two gates – one is normally kept open during the day [important point], and the other is kept closed at all times.    Access to the “Back Gate” is done via keycard, and [probably] during the day the main gate is left open, but secured after the sun goes down.

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Things to pay attention to:
1)  There is an actual gate, but not a “manned” guard house – this complex is too small to afford to pay a full time guard, hence it relies on volunteers and its residents to watch for unknown people.
2)  There is a keycard reader to open and close the gate.   A post in the midle divider has two cameras camera pointed away from the street that are recording the license plates of vehicles that go through the gate and maybe being remotely monitored to allow the gate to be opened in the event of a problem.
3)  The sidewalk gate is closed even during the day
4)  There is a “Neighborhood Watch” sign at the gate warning people they are being watched by residents
5)  If you pan around, you’ll see a sign indicating units are for sale “from the 120s” and there is an arrow directing people to the model unit

The “Back Gate” gives you a better idea what the Front Gate looks like when/if it is secured:

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You can see more clearly how the gates close, another Neighborhood Watch sign, it’s a little more clear that the walkway gate has a mechanism to allow it to be opened. You have the cardreader for vehicles to open the gate (going out is usually us activated by a motion detector or ground pressure sensor). A big warning sign on the gate that isn’t legible, but probably stating “This is private property, any person not authorized to be here will be prosecuted”.

So everything is really tight and safe and secure. Not so fast. Enter the “Hole in the Fence”

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There is a strip of land between this complex and the gated community next door – probably the intent is someone wants put a street in here and build something back by the lake – so there is no fence here, only the pretense of one – some trellises that are probably intended to be holdling some really unpleasant vines with sharp thorns. But there are no bushes, and several pieces are broken off allowing people to enter and exit, bypassing the gates. Given the state of the condo market, it’s likely that at least some of the residents of this place are Section 8 renters, not owners.

So Travyon left the house to do whatever it was he intended to do at or after sunset. By the time he returned, it was solidly dark. [Begin speculation] – If he went to the main gate, he probably found it was closed and locked, and it’s not likely he had a keycard issued to him, so now he’s locked out. His father and girlfriend are out for the evening and won’t be back until the morning (hence why Trayvon wasn’t reported missing until the next day). He wasn’t carrying an ID (otherwise the police would have known who he was right away, although maybe not connected him to someone living in the community).

He’s an urban punk from Miami, not used to rules and gates. The smart thing to do realizing he was now locked out would have been to call to the house, where his dad’s girlfiend’s children were still watching TV and get them to let him in, or maybe call his father or his father’s girlfriend (unless he had been told not to leave the house after dark!) or maybe call his Mom in Miami and ask what to do. Instead he called his girlfriend (presumably in Miami). Maybe he could have even called the Sanford police himself and explain what his problem was and ask them what he should do.

But the hole in the fence is an obvious solution. Just slip in and nobody will know or care – except that Mr Zimmerman was watching the Hole in the Fence since that’s where people trying to sneak past the gate typically try to do it.

Trayvon knowing that he didn’t have a keycard and just slipped in through the hole realizes he has been seen and is about to get in trouble, so rather than stopping and explaining the situation to the [white] Hispanic man, who surely would have asked if he knew he was on private property and did he have a reason to be there…. could have answered that he was staying with his father’s girlfriend down the street, and Mr Zimmerman could have confirmed the story by going with him to the house and having someone vouch for him – and then explain how things work… that if he is going to be living there for a while, he needs to go to the office on Monday and get a keycard issued to him and have his picture taken – so if anyone else doesn’t know who he is he can just show the keycard to let everyone know he has a right to be there and it’s OK.

Instead Trayvon took off running, which is a strong indication that he knew he had just done something wrong. The end result was a volunteer security person with a gash on his head and a dead 17 year old.

Since it’s clear the media have no interest in finding out the actual facts, here are a list of questions I would like answers to in order to form a more reliable opinion about the truth:

• Is Brandy Green an owner or a renter?   Is she employed or on public assistance?  How long has she lived there?   Does Mr Zimmeman know her?   Have there been any other contacts with people living in her house?
• Trayvon’s father was described as a “truck driver”.  Is he employed?  By whom?   Is he a long haul trucker who would be gone for days at a time or a local driver who is home every night?   Does Trayvon’s father have any known current or past gang affiliations or criminal record?
• His mother (in Miami) said he sent him to Orlando because they had better schools.   Who has legal custody of Trayvon?   The parents were divorced when Trayvon was 4 years old.
• What color was the hoody Trayvon was wearing?   Presumably “White Hispanic” Mr Zimmerman has some familiarity with identifying gang members – was the color and/or writing suggesting that Trayvon was in a gang?
• Where did the “Ice Tea and Skittles” detail come from?   Trayvon wasn’t reported missing until the next day.   Was this something stated by the family after the fact (“he said he was going out to get ice tea and skittles”) or was that what was found on his body by the police at the crime scene?
• Does Mr Zimmerman have any known connection to any Hispanic gangs?
• What is the procedure for securing the main gate at night?   Who issues keycards?   Did the management know that Brandy Green had an out of town “guest” who maybe was becoming a permanent resident in her house and attend school there?
• Is there  a process by which Mr Zimmerman would  be informed of new people who had been authorized to used the gates?

This is all  very unfortunate, and nobody would want this kind of thing to happen, but it’s not unheard of when an urban kid suddenly winds up in suburbia and doesn’t know “the rules” and/or chooses to ignore them.

I wold never live in a gated community.  The irony is they are often populated by “good liberals” who use the gate to avoid dealing with their own racial attitudes.   Just add in a real estate market in free fall and suddenly the people the gate was intended to keep out are living on the inside, and the tensions start.

*** addendum ***

After I wrote that, I looked at the main gate from the side – there is a sign next to the keycard reader with instructions that if you need to get in, call this toll free number. Trayvon had a cell phone.

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