Florida officer fired after bringing Trayvon Martin image to target practice

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In a statement, Ben Crump, lead attorney for Martin’s parents, called it “absolutely reprehensible that a high-ranking member of the Port Canaveral Police, sworn to protect and serve Floridians, would use the image of a dead child as target practice.”

“Such a deliberate and depraved indifference to this grieving family is unacceptable. The citizens of Port Canaveral deserve better,” Crump said.

King’s firing comes less than two weeks after another Florida police officer was forced to retire early after saying all blacks should be “drowned at birth,” allegedly during a shift meeting in February to discuss the city of Winter Park’s preparations for possible protests on the anniversary of the shooting.

Racial wounds still go unhealed

Lt. Ron Johnson, a 27-year-veteran of the police department, located near Sanford, retired with full benefits while under investigation over the remark by the department.

Martin’s death has brought an undercurrent of racial tension with it almost from the start. Many supporters of Zimmerman accused Crump and other attorneys associated with the case of making race the central focus. Zimmerman is half Hispanic and Martin was African-American. Martin’s death has ignited a national conversation about young black men and profiling.

More recently, Zimmerman’s brother apologized after he ignited a firestorm online by tweeting a comparison between Martin and two black teens accused of shooting a baby during a robbery in Brunswick, Georgia, citing that case as “the reason [people] might think blacks might b[e] risky.”

Follow Joy Reid on Twitter at @thereidreport.