Justice For Trayvon: Thousands Demonstrate In More Than 100 Cities Across USA
By Countercurrents.org
21 July, 2013
Countercurrents.org
To demand justice for Trayvon Martin, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in more than 100 cities across the US on July 20, a week after George Zimmerman was cleared of murdering unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin.
Reports by media including Reuters, AP, The Guardian, cbcNews, RT said:
The protesting citizens marched in the summer heat to rally at federal courthouses in New York, Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, Oakland demanding justice for Trayvon and an end to racial profiling that they said was at the heart of the case. They marched to vent their anger over the acquittal in Florida of the man who shot Trayvon Martin to death and to call for federal charges in the racially tinged case over the February 2012 incident.
The rallies came one week after a Seminole County, Florida, jury returned verdicts finding Zimmerman not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter in the February 2012 death of Martin.
In the "Justice for Trayvon" rallies and vigils, people stood in the rain at the base of the federal courthouse, with traffic blocked on surrounding downtown streets.
Chants rang out across the rallies. "Justice! Justice! Justice! ... Now! Now! Now!" ''We won't forget." ''No justice! No peace!" Many also sang hymns, prayed and held hands.
And plenty of participants carried signs: "Who's next?" "I am Trayvon Martin." ''Enough Is Enough."
The nationwide protests against the court's decision were organized by the National Action Network, headed by civil rights activist the Reverend Al Sharpton.
"We are not coming out with violence, we are coming to denounce violence. The violence that was perpetrated on an unarmed, innocent man named Trayvon Martin," Sharpton told at a rally in New York.
Sharpton told supporters on July 20-morning that he wanted to see the scrapping of "stand your ground" self-defense laws, such as that in force in Florida. Sharpton has said he hopes continued public pressure will force the US department of justice to bring federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman.
In New York, scene of one of the largest rallies, roughly 2,000 protesters, some carrying "Boycott Florida" signs or wearing T-shirts with Martin's picture, were led by an emotional Sybrina Fulton, the slain teenager's mother. She appeared with veteran civil rights leader, the reverend Al Sharpton.
Al Sharpton began his address at the foot of police headquarters in New York City with a chant; "I am Trayvon Martin". The crowd before him, numbering well into the hundreds, immediately repeated his words.
"We're standing up today for justice for Trayvon Martin," Sharpton said. He said he would join a march to Washington DC next month in support of a wide range of racial justice issues, saying demonstrators would number "tens of thousands".
Sharpton recalled the moment he first heard of the shooting that left Trayvon Martin dead.
"I'd never heard of Sanford," he said, referring to the town where Martin died. "But I heard too many times of stories where people are killed and treated like they are worthless, and it was a sense of justice that we said that this man should not be let go."
Sharpton introduced Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin's mother, who took the microphone with her remaining son, Jaharvis, standing nearby.
"We love you," a woman yelled. Others cheered and applauded.
Fulton went on to describe how she felt her son was portrayed in the trial that acquitted his killer, Zimmerman.
"Trayvon was a child," Fulton said. "I think sometimes it gets lost in the shuffle because as I sat in the courtroom, it made me think they were talking about another man. And it wasn't. It was a child." "He was always a child. He acted as a child. He behaved as a child," she said. "And don't take my word for it, he had a drink and candy."
"Not only do I vow to you to do what I can for Trayvon Martin," she told the crowd. "I promise you I'm going to work hard for your children as well."
"Today it was my son. Tomorrow it might be yours," Sybrina, told the crowd. "Trayvon was a child," she said. Fulton burst into tears as members of the crowd shouted: "We love you!"
She was joined at the event by hip-hop mogul Jay Z and his wife, pop star Beyonce, along with New York City mayoral candidate Christine Quinn.
The protesting people in repeated chants of "no justice, no peace" and "I am Trayvon Martin".
Following the main event in New York some 800 people made a boisterous but peaceful procession over the Brooklyn Bridge, pausing outside the federal courthouse in Brooklyn before moving on.
About 2,000 people endured a downpour in Atlanta to hear speakers talk of the need for justice for Martin and other black youths.
The Trayvon Martin Prayer Vigil and Rally, in downtown, began with chants of "no justice, no peace," and "Trayvon, Trayvon, Trayvon" before speakers urged the crowd to register to vote and to seek repeal of Georgia's stand your ground law.
Martin Luther King III urged the audience to go to Washington, D.C., on August 24 for the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and his father's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. "It's marching time, ladies and gentlemen," he said.
At a rally in Miami, Martin's father, Tracy Martin, told supporters that after the acquittal he has "come to realize Zimmerman wasn't on trial - Trayvon was on trial."
Tracy promised to do "everything we can to make sure there's change." He added: "That's our promise to our son's memory". Singing the civil rights protest song "We Shall Overcome," a crowd gathered around Tracy Martin. Tracy spoke about his son.
"This could be any one of our children," he said. "Our mission now is to make sure that this doesn't happen to your child." "I will continue to fight for Trayvon until the day I die," he said.
About 500 people converged on the federal courthouse in Los Angeles with signs saying "Open Season on the Black Man" and "This Should Not Be OK in 2013 America." Helicopters hovered overhead the rally. "Why am I here? Because for 500 years black men have been objectified, raped, beaten, murdered, tortured, enslaved, robbed of their language. They've lost their intrinsic value and have been treated like animals. That's why I'm here," said Tony B Conscious, an artist based in LA.
In Chicago, some 500 people rallied across from the federal courthouse. "We are standing up here today to say to our young people, 'we value your lives,'" said Chicago Urban League Chief Executive Officer Andrea Zopp, who has a 17-year-old son. "The civil rights movement is not over." Rapper MC Lyte told the crowd: "When the verdict was read, I felt like we lost Trayvon Martin all over again."
In Oakland, a crowd of up to 150 people demonstrated peacefully in the city's downtown, occasionally singing "We Shall Overcome" before dispersing in the late afternoon.
Across the bay in San Francisco, about 100 people gathered in front of the Federal Building.
Reverend Arnold Townsend, 70, vice president of the local NAACP chapter, vowed to "bring to light this incident (and) let black children know the system has them under attack."
In Washington DC, the rally was a passionate with successive speakers taking to the podium on the steps of the district courthouse to call for justice over Martin’s death. There were repeated chants of “No justice, No peace”, and “Boycott Florida” from the bustling crowd, some of whom were forced to stand on walls to hear the roster of speakers that ranged Dr E. Faye Williams, chair of the National Black Congress of Women, to Dick Gregory, the black comedian and civil rights campaigner.
Around two thousand people gathered for peaceful demonstrations in Washington DC.
Many people in the predominantly black crowd said they felt emboldened by Barack Obama’s decisive intervention yesterday. “Yesterday, you saw an example of superlative leadership,” said Pastor Lennox Abrigo, to loud applause. “It is the first time we have heard in our country, from the leader of the free world, and entirely black perspective.” Obama’s declaration that “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago” was repeatedly taken up as a chant, as the crowd yelled “I am Trayvon Martin”. At the rally, James Teal called his country one of the 'most racist countries in the world.'
At the New Orleans rally, La'Monte Johnson shared some of the same experiences.
The California native said he's been stopped multiple times by police and handcuffed "because I fit the description of someone they were looking for," though he noted charges were never filed against him. “You can be the greatest black guy around, but you can't get away from it," he said. "You're not equal."
In Indianapolis, the Rev. Jeffrey Johnson told about 200 attendees that the nationwide effort is about making life safer for young black men. Johnson said young black men still are endangered by racial profiling, and he compared Zimmerman's acquittal to that of four white officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King in 1992.
"The verdict freed George Zimmerman, but it condemned America more," said Johnson, pastor of the Eastern Star Church in Indianapolis and a member of the board of directors of the National Action Network.
House Democrats
A number of House Democrats are lining up behind Jesse Jackson's threat for an economic boycott of Florida. The lawmakers, all members of the Congressional Black Caucus, are fierce critics of the process that led to Zimmerman's acquittal.
Exerting pressure on Florida's economy as Jackson is suggesting, they said, could help overturn the state's controversial stand-your-ground laws that many contend contributed to the tragedy.
"That's probably the best strategy, because people understand dollars and cents," Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) said on July 19. "And they understand, if there's a significant drop-off in revenues – at conventions, at Disney World and Universal Studios – that that will get the attention of the powerful."
The boycott will almost certainly not happen, of course, but it shows the level to which the debate over Zimmerman's acquittal has reached.
The civil rights campaigner and former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson told the Guardian in a video interview that black Americans "are free, but not equal".
Jackson criticized Florida's controversial stand-your-ground law, which he said "lends itself to massive interpretations because it is so subjective. It is an incentive to shoot rather than a deterrent."
Zimmerman remained free for more than six weeks after killing Martin because police in Sanford, Florida, accepted that he had acted in self-defense. That ignited protests and cries of injustice across the United States as the case shone a spotlight on issues such as race, profiling and vigilantism.
Critics contend Zimmerman, who is white and Hispanic, wrongly suspected Martin of being a criminal because he was black. The neighborhood watch volunteer called police to report Martin, then left his car with a loaded handgun concealed in his waistband.
A fight ensued in which Zimmerman suffered a bloody nose and head injuries before he shot Martin once in the heart.
Federal prosecutors say they are investigating whether Zimmerman violated civil rights laws. But lawyers have said they think new charges are unlikely.
Although Florida's stand your ground law was not cited by Zimmerman's defense team, the jury was instructed that under the state's 2005 statute he had the right to use deadly force if he reasonably believed it was necessary to do so in self-defense.
“Could have been me”
In an unexpected press call, the US president Barak Obama said very few black men in the US had not experienced racial profiling. The nation's first black president said he had both experiences before he rose to social and political prominence. Obama said the US was not a "a post-racial society".
The US president admitted on July 19: Many black men in the US experienced racial profiling.
At the White House, Obama sided with those who say the shooting need not have happened, expressing sympathy to the Martin family. He said the case was properly handled by the court in Florida but questioned "stand your ground" law.
Obama said the pain that African-Americans felt around the case came from the fact that they viewed it through "a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away".
"When Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago."
He shared his experiences of being racially profiled in the past, such as being followed while out shopping.
"There are very few African-American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars.
"There are very few African-Americans who haven't had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she has a chance to get off," he said.
"There is a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws," the president said.
"A lot of African-American boys are painted with a broad brush," he said. "If a white male teen was involved in the same kind of scenario ... both the outcome and the aftermath might have been different."
US Attorney General Eric Holder cited the case as he urged a nationwide review of the "stand your ground" laws, which permit the use of deadly force if a person feels seriously threatened. At least 33 states allow use of deadly force if citizen believes it is necessary "to prevent death or great bodily harm" or "imminent commission of a forcible felony", according to Association of Prosecuting Attorneys. It provides that people who fear for their lives can use deadly force to defend themselves without having to flee a confrontation.
Comments are moderated
