The world is full of people who’d do just about do anything to make a buck. Steal toys for underprivileged kids to sell on the street; rob thousands of their life savings and pensions; even steal candy from a baby. It happens all the time. I get it: it’s the American way to go out of your way to make a quick buck. The flesh eating bacteria of our society.
However, using the image of Trayvon Martin for target practice?
According to reports, and unidentified ‘entrepreneur’ in Florida was selling Trayvon Martin targets for gun ranges. The paper targets feature a silhouette of a hoodie along with a bag of Skittles hanging out of one pocket. Once local news reports started to surface about the target posters the seller took down his site but not before contacting the local press enquires with an email stating: “My main motivation was to make money off the controversy.”
There are always going to be ghouls out there willing to make a buck off of a tragedy, that can’t be stopped. And unfortunately it’s not like the Martin Family can trademark hoodies or Skittles to prevent anything like this from happening again. Although one wonders what’s happened to sales of Skittles, Arizona Iced tea and hooded sweatshirts since the shooting. As a matter of fact, sales of Skittles have soared since the outrage began, with the mood at Wrigleys and parent company Mars – the holding companies that own Skittles – being very subdued about it. They did the right thing by issuing a statement in March that “it [was] inappropriate to get involved or comment further as we would never wish for our actions to be perceived as an attempt of commercial gain following this tragedy.”
This is ghoulish enough that there’s not a whole lot to say or write about it. We can talk all day about what the world is coming to and how much people have lost their collective minds. It’s just wrong. However, there has got to be some incredibly talented Internet investigator out there that can find out who these mysterious sellers are and bring their names to light. If you’re going to try to profit from tragedy then it is only fair that you face financial and social consequences when your spot is blown. You did it – so why hide from it?
This article originally appeared online at Politic365.com.