He killed my son … He killed my son. He couldn’t control himself.Tracey Martin • Speaking emotionally while listening to 911 tapes describing exactly what happened when his son, Trayvon Martin, was allegedly killed by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman. Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, ran out of the room halfway through the airing of the 911 calls. “It’s surprising. It’s shocking,” the father later said. “It lets me know that justice is just not being served here. All we want is justice for our son. We’re not asking for anything out of the ordinary.” During the clip, Zimmerman suggested Trayvon might be on drugs; in reality, he went to a local convenience store to get some snacks. Zimmerman hasn’t been arrested in the case.
As the father of two black teenage boys, this case hits close to home. This is the fear that seizes me whenever my boys are out in the world: that a man with a gun and an itchy finger will find them “suspicious.” That passions may run hot and blood run cold. That it might all end with a hole in their chest and hole in my heart. That the law might prove insufficient to salve my loss.
That is the burden of black boys in America and the people that love them: running the risk of being descended upon in the dark and caught in the cross-hairs of someone who crosses the line.
Blow references a video, recorded by a 13-year-old black male witness to the case for the Orlando Sentinel, which features this line: “I just think that sometimes people get stereotyped, and I fit into the stereotype as the person who got shot.” That’s what many fear when hearing about stories like Trayvon Martin’s.
The department will conduct a thorough and independent review of all of the evidence and take appropriate action at the conclusion of the investigation. The department also is providing assistance to and cooperating with the state officials in their investigation into the incident.Justice Department spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa • In a statement on the Trayvon Martin case, promising that the DOJ would take a close look into the controversial shooting of a Florida teen. The department will also send its Community Relations Service to Sanford, Florida, in an attempt to defuse tensions in the city. The city has faced growing calls of frustration that it has mishandled the incident, in which the gunman, volunteer neighborhood watch employee George Zimmerman, has not been charged with a crime.
State Attorney Norm Wolfinger this morning released a prepared statement, saying he would have a county grand jury hear evidence April 10.
His office, with the help of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, is reviewing and collecting evidence in the case, his statement said.
“I respectfully request that the public remain patient as this process moves forward,” said his statement.
It appears that public pressure is working to encourage that something get done in the case.
Over the last few weeks, the Trayvon Martin shooting has thrust itself squarely in the public spotlight. It’s obviously touched, devastated, and outraged many people, often in equal measure. One person to be counted amongst those in a profound state of grief – Martin’s girlfriend, a 16-year-old who was speaking to him on the phone moments before the fatal shooting. The phone records were released by the attorney representing Martin’s family, Benjamin Crump, who says the teen is now “traumatized beyond anything that you can imagine.” source
My mother, Ada Sharpton passed in the early hours of this morning. She was my all. I hope God will give her now, PEACE. I love you, Mom.The Rev. Al Sharpton • In a tweet earlier this morning revealing his mother had died. Despite this sad news, he still chose to travel to Florida to attend a rally against the shooting of Trayvon Martin: ”I am on the flight to Florida and will move forward with our plans to protest the killing of Trayvon Martin. My MOM would have wanted me to,” he tweeted a short time later.
“I can only imagine what these parents are going through,” Mr. Obama said from the White House Rose Garden, “and when I think about this boy, I think about my own kids, and I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together, federal, state and local, to figure out how this tragedy happened.”
Mr. Obama said he is glad the Justice Department is investigating the shooting and that Florida Gov. Rick Scott has formed a task force to investigate the incident as well. The president suggested he was sympathetic to the notion that the shooting was racially motivated.
“You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” Mr. Obama said.
“All of us have to do some soul-searching to figure out how does something like this happen,” he continued, “and that means that we examine the laws and the context for what happened as well as the specifics of the incident.”
Obama’s comments come at a time when interest in the case is growing and leading to significant changes in the Sanford, Fla. police department. Florida Gov. Rick Scott has assigned a task force to review the “stand your ground” law which has come into question in recent days.
I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was.Geraldo Rivera • He continued:, saying that “every time you see someone sticking up a 7-11, the kid is wearing a hoodie. Every time you see a mugging on a surveillance camera or they get the old lady in the alcove, it’s a kid wearing a hoodie.” Geraldo eventually concluded that, Million Hoodie March aside, “you can not rehabilitate the hoodie.” We predict that these comments won’t be controversial at all. source (via • follow)
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Speaking to Anderson Cooper on CNN, the lawyer for George Zimmerman, Craig Sonner, stood behind his client’s claim that he acted in self-defense, saying Zimmerman suffered a broken nose and a head laceration from Trayvon Martin before killing him. He also touched on a specific inaction or inattention that’s inflamed anger directed at the Sanford Police Department’s handling of the case – Sonner has only spoken to Zimmerman on the phone, and admits he doesn’t know precisely where he is, though he assumes he’s “still in the area.”
(Source: mediaite.com)
It sounds pretty obvious to me. If that was a racial epithet that preceded the attack on Trayvon Martin, we definitely have a hate crime.Drexel University law professor Donald Tibbs • Suggesting that, if George Zimmerman, the gunman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, used a racial slur to describe Martin (as has been suggested by many who listened to the 911 tapes before Martin’s shooting), the federal government could charge Zimmerman with a hate crime. Others disagree on this sentiment, but the Justice Department could decide this depending on what evidence they find. Or, depending on whether the state of Florida chooses to charge Zimmerman themselves, they may not act at all. Zimmerman’s attorney claims his client, who is half-white and half-Hispanic, acted in self-defense and was injured in the incident.
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If you think Politico commenters could find nothing to get angry about in regards to the Trayvon Martin story, you’d be wrong. HyperVocal has some pretty shocking lowlights.