~PT
If you haven’t heard or seen the coverage on the killing of Trayvon Martin then you are clear to come out from under your rock now. The coverage of the fatal and seemingly senseless shooting of this young man wearing a now iconic “hoodie,” has garnered national and international attention.
What we do know is a murder occurred, a teenage boy will not grow to shine brightly as a man, and a mother and father have to bury their son.
Check out some of the visual images across the United States.
Young Boy Supports Trayvon Martin
Young Urban Profiling
Million Hoodie March | NYC | March 21, 2012
New York Senators
Congressman Bobby Rush
Woman Supports T. Martin in her Hoodie
Do You WATCH with a Gun?
School Aged Children Support T. Maritn
Singer Chaka Kahn
On Sunday, February 26, Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17 year old African American young man (6’3″, 140 lbs) was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, a 28 year old mixed Peruvian and White neighborhood patrol watchman (5’9″, 250 lbs) at The Retreat at Twin Lakes Community in Sanford, Florida.
Both Zimmerman and Martin made calls during the incident leading to Martin’s death. Martin told his girlfriend he was being followed but was going to walk fast and not run. Zimmerman called 911 non-emergency and claimed Martin “looked suspicious, was on drugs and had something in his hands…these assholes, they always get away” he stated to the dispatcher. After Zimmerman told the dispatcher he was following Martin, he was told by the dispatcher “we don’t need you to do that.” The unidentified items in Martin’s hands turned out to be a bag of skittles candy and a can of iced tea.
Armed with Skittles and Ice Tea, really?
Minutes after these calls Martin was fatally shot. Zimmerman claimed self-defense, yet the police video released on Wed., 3/28/12, showed no bruises as he claimed. The state attorney’s office overturned the lead homicide investigator’s attempt to charge Zimmerman with manslaughter and after being detained for a short period he was released. Perhaps the connection between the police of Sanford and Zimmerman’s retired Supreme Court Magistrate Judge and father, Robert Zimmerman Sr., or his Peruvian mother, Gladys Zimmerman who currently works as a court clerk should be investigated?
There were a plethora of neighbors that called 911 reporting screaming and gun fire. Since the incident character accusations have begun. Zimmerman exposed as a profiling, trigger-happy racist. And Martin represented as a marijuana using teen with a habit of school suspensions.
Tonight, Friday, March 30, 2012, at 8:00pm, CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien will host a one-hour special townhall “Beyond Trayvon” on this controversial event that has gripped the nation to dig deeper into the case.
44 days after Martin was killed, on Tuesday, April 10, 2012 the world will find out next steps when a Seminole County grand jury will investigate the case.
Official and Civic leaders from President Barack Obama to Reverends Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson, to Pastor Bob Bixby have spoken out about this shooting. (see Bixby’s recent article on the “Whites Should be Suspicious about Trayvon Martin’s Death.” Pastor Hicks of Metropolitan Baptist Church has declared April 1, 2012, Palm Sunday – “Hoodie Sunday.” There are reports of Klu Klux Klan efforts and the Black Panther Party putting a 1 million dollar bounty on Zimmerman’s head.
RIP Trayvon Martin
To date, no arrest has been made in Martin’s death, but it has sparked a tsunami of age-old concerns about racial profiling, inequitable treatment under the law, and overall racial strife in the United States.
