The media feeding frenzy surrounding the suspicious death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin continues, and yet more racially-motivated actors are climbing out of the woodwork. Last night, Al Sharpton invited the grieving parents and family attorney onto his show, and joined in venting rage against the Florida Justice system.
Whether or not the shooting was motivated by racial animus, groups with precisely that motivation are involved now. Enter the New Black Liberation Militia (NBLM), a militant group in the mold of the Black Panthers, headed by a man styling himself “Prince Najee Muhammad.“ The NBLM intends to march straight into Florida and perform a ”citizen’s arrest” on Martin’s shooter, George Zimmerman as a substitute for the arrest they believe should have happened. From the Associated Press story on this new development:
Members of a self-described black militia group will attempt a citizen’s arrest on a white neighborhood watch leader who has admitted to fatally shooting an unarmed African-American teen in an Orlando suburb, but has not been charged, a leader of the group said Thursday.
Members of The New Black Liberation Militia plan to take 28-year-old George Zimmerman to federal authorities this week since local police haven’t acted, said Najee Muhammad, a leader of the militia group.
“We’ll find him. We’ve got his mug shot and everything,” Muhammad said.
As to what means the NBLM plans to use to execute their would-be citizens’ arrest, a quick look at their website provides a good clue. Notice the following photos:
The NBLM is scarcely the first racially motivated group to attempt to make citizens’ arrests where they argue that the established criminal justice system has failed, especially in cases involving racial animus. Fortunately, the potentially violent consequences that usually happened in those cases may not have to be courted in this case. New evidence has come to light further suggesting that Martin may have been attacked, rather than the reverse. The Guardianreports:
In a dramatic press conference on Tuesday, the Martin family’s lawyer Benjamin Crump detailed how the unnamed girl – a minor who was so traumatised by Martin’s death she was taken to hospital at his wake – was talking to him on his cell phone in the minutes leading up to his death, and heard the altercation with his killer.[...]
“He says: ‘Oh, he’s right behind me. He’s right behind me again,’” Crump said the girl told him. “She says: ‘Run.’ He says: ‘I’m not going to run, I’m just going to walk fast.’
She then heard Martin saying “Why are you following me” and another voice saying “What are you doing here?” She told Crump they both repeated themselves, and then she thinks she heard Zimmerman push Martin “because his voice changes, like something interrupted his speech.” She heard an altercation and then the phone call was cut off, Crump said.
Phone records have confirmed that Martin was on the phone with the unnamed girl. Obviously, the call was not recorded, but in the absence of further evidence, this may be the breaking point that causes the Florida police to rethink their original decision not to arrest Zimmerman. In fact, at this point, even the authors of the bill that Zimmerman is using to defend himself are calling for his arrest.
March 22nd, 2012, 13:01
American Patriot
Re: Obama's 'Civilian National Security Force'
Seems to me... the guy shot an unarmed kid. Apparently the kid had a Coke and a candy bar in his hands....
While Trevon was out there "doing his job"... we used to have citizen patrollers back in Detroit when I was a kid. We worked hand in hand with the cops to the point we had a police radio for each team to call for assistance.
We didn't carry guns (I was a young fella then, about 16 when I belonged to the group, and wasn't "allowed" to be out there without one or more adults with me).
Truth is, the "Civil Patrol" actually stopped a lot of crime just by being there.
You all remember the Guardian Angels? We worked with them as well. Most people HATED them (I think because the majority of them in our area were black and half of them had some kind of gang connection) - but we ALL worked together to stop crime and it worked.
We didn't carry guns though. Only the bad guys did.
President Barack Obama weighed in Friday on the shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, calling it a national tragedy — and saying that the young man reminded him of his own children.
"When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids," Obama said in the Rose Garden. "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 pull together."
Obama has come under fire from some black leaders for failing to comment on a case that has become a major national story — and brought thousands of Americans into the streets for demonstrations calling for the arrest of Martin's shooter. One black leader even wondered why Obama called a Georgetown student who was attacked by Rush Limbaugh but not Martin's family. Obama's comments Friday represent the first time the president has addressed the growing controversy.
"My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon," Obama said. "All of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves."
"Obviously, this is a tragedy. I can only imagine what these parents are going through," Obama said. "All of us have to do some soul searching to figure out how something like this has happened."
The president was careful not to comment too extensively on an active investigation on both the federal and state levels, noting that as head of the executive branch, the Department of Justice reports to him. Earlier this week, under intense public pressure, the FBI and the DOJ joined the investigation into the Martin case.
Obama's answer also reflects a departure from usual precedent. The president, who was ostensibly announcing the nomination of a new World Bank head, usually does not take questions shouted by reporters at the end of his prepared remarks — but today, he made an exception for the Martin case.
Martin, a middle-class black teen with no history of trouble, was shot and killed in Sanford, Fla., a community just north of Orlando. His alleged assailant, George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain and criminal justice student, apparently killed him on Feb. 26 as the 17-year-old walked home from a convenience store near his suburban neighborhood to his father's house a few blocks away.
Before the shooting, Zimmerman, who has a weapons permit, told a police dispatcher there was "a real suspicious guy" who looked "like he was up to no good or on drugs or something" and looked to have "something in his waistband." Against the dispatcher's advice, Zimmerman chased Martin on foot and eventually shot him. Martin was unarmed, carrying only a bag of candy and an iced tea he had just purchased.
The case exploded into a national story after reports that the town's police department had not arrested or charged Zimmerman, who says he was acting in self-defense and pointed to a state law allowing him to respond with deadly force. On Wednesday, Sanford's police chief announced he'll take a voluntary leave of absence, effective immediately, to avoid becoming a distraction in the investigation. And on late Thursday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott appointed a new prosecutor to investigate the killing.
The White House had originally said not to expect Obama to stand at a lectern and speak about the tragedy anytime soon. Though staffers and Democratic operatives interviewed Wednesday said the shooting has been a hot topic inside the West Wing — and that Obama is monitoring the situation closely — they're wary of a repeat of the uproar caused by Obama's 2009 comment at a news conference that a Cambridge, Mass., policeman "acted stupidly" in arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
That remark, hailed by African Americans but condemned by some whites and many conservatives, unleashed a firestorm of criticism. The furor lasted for weeks and didn't subside until after Obama's awkward White House "beer summit."
The White House had said Obama wasn't likely to talk about the Martin case because — unlike the Gates arrest and the firing of Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod over video of what appeared to be racially insensitive remarks — the shooting is a law-enforcement matter still under investigation by local police as well as the Justice Department. And Obama was careful in his remarks to steer clear of specifics on the case.
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Jay Carney delivered the administration's official position on the case.
"We here in the White House are aware of the incident, and we understand that the local FBI office has been in contact with the local authorities and is monitoring the situation," Carney said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to Trayvon Martin's family but obviously, we're not going to wade into a local law-enforcement matter."
Attorney General Eric Holder announced late Tuesday that a team of investigators from the FBI and other Justice offices were headed to Sanford to investigate the case and monitor developments. But just before federal investigators departed for Florida, the Congressional Black Caucus called for the shooting to be investigated as a federal hate crime.
Martin's death "compromises the integrity of our legal system and sets a horrific precedent of vigilante justice," Congressional Black Caucus Chair Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said in a statement. "As a nation we cannot, should not, and will not ignore, Trayvon's brutal murder and the inconceivable fact that his killer remains free. ... Trayvon had a family, friends and a future all taken away because of the color of his skin."
Karen Finney, filling in for Martin Bashir, flat-out blamed the words of Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum for creating the environment that lead to the horrible shooting death of teen Trayvon Martin in Florida. 21 hours ago 170post a comment
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has been among the vocal voices weighing in on calls for justice for Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old who was gunned down last month while walking home in Sanford, Florida. On Wednesday, a march was held in New York City in support of the teen’s family, as federal and local authorities launch investigations into how the incident unfolded and why the state’s “stand your ground” law applied to the shooter in this case.
On Twitter yesterday and today, Farrakhan sent some curious tweets regarding peace, justice and retaliation that could be interpreted as a veiled threat.
http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/u...-farrakhan.jpg (Caption Information) Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, Leader, Nation of Islam is seen during his speech.Rosa Parks Funeral at Greater Grace Temple Church.Detroit, Mi, November 2, 2005, Detroit, MI. (The Detroit News/Clarence Tabb, Jr.)+
“Where there is no justice, there will be no peace. Soon the law of retaliation may very well be applied,” Farrakhan wrote, including the hashtag #Trayvon to clarify the subject of his angst. “Let us see what kind of justice will come for his bereaved family and our bereaved community,” he said in the previous social media message:
The text of his “justice” and “peace” tweet raises eyebrows. While one cannot know whether he is merely commenting generally on social responses to injustice or whether he is calling for the “law of retaliation,” the lack of clarity in his messaging raises questions.
While I think the guy who shot this kid was definitely in the wrong, I am only guessing. I'm not saying he shouldn't be arrested and investigated, but I can't say he SHOULD be either since there is no evidence either way other than guessing by everyone in the public.
The Police Chief didn't arrest him - and must have had damned good reasons for not doing so.
At this point, now the President is getting involved. The Federal Government is now involved. The Police Chief has "temporarily stepped down" and Al Sharpton is out there leading people with chants like "No Justice, No Peace!" Trying to rile up the blacks in America, ONCE AGAIN.
Students are walking off campuses.
This is setting up to be a horrible "racist" thing. George Zimmerman, the guy that did the shooting appears to have a Hispanic background - so he ain't some flaky white guy with a gun that hates blacks. No, that is what the public, in particular the black public is trying to make it into.
March 23rd, 2012, 18:02
American Patriot
Re: Obama's 'Civilian National Security Force'
Mr. Farakkhan needs to close his lying mouth before he finds out that people don't like him much.
Several South Florida schools marched Friday in a protest against the lack of arrest in the Trayvon Martin shooting. The participating schools included Miami Central, Miami Edison, Miami Norland, American Senior, William H. Turner Tech, Miami Jackson, South Miami, North Miami Beach, Homestead, Miami Northwestern, Miami Killian, Miami Carol City, Miami Southridge, Allapattah Middle,Country Club Middle and Blanche Ely High School.
March 23rd, 2012, 18:10
American Patriot
Re: Obama's 'Civilian National Security Force'
I guess this comes down to "inciting" the public if you ask me.
Yes, some dumb ass killed a kid - and likely had no reason to do so. No, the police have NOT arrested the guy - and likely had no reason to not do so.
But people like Sharpton and Farrakhan are stupid thinking they can incite the blacks to revenge.
If they do this, and people start dying then there'd better God Damned will be a judge who puts those two asses in jail.
http://www.timesnews.net/data/gnpics/2012/229464.jpg Protestors, Lakesha Hall, 32, of Sanford, center, and her son, Calvin Simms, 12, right, gather early for a rally for Trayvon Martin, the black teenager who was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch captain last month, at Fort Mellon Park in Sanford, Fla., Thursday, March 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Julie Fletcher)
SANFORD, Fla. (AP) - The investigation into last month's shooting death of an unarmed black teenager in an Orlando suburb is out of the hands of the beleaguered police chief and the county prosecutor with the Justice Department looking at possible civil rights violations and a grand jury perhaps considering charges.
Until admitted shooter George Zimmerman, 28, is led away in handcuffs, the parents of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and the civil rights activists and others who have rallied for their cause say they won't be satisfied.
"We cannot allow a precedent when a man can just kill one of us ... and then walk out with the murder weapon," said civil rights leader Al Sharpton, flanked by Martin's parents and a stage full of supporters at a rally in Sanford on Thursday night. "We don't want good enough. We want George Zimmerman in court with handcuffs behind his back."
Police Chief Bill Lee said earlier in the day that he was stepping down temporarily to try to cool the building anger that his department did not arrest neighborhood watch volunteer Zimmerman, who has said he shot Martin on Feb. 26 in self-defense. Hours later, the governor announced that the local state attorney, Norman Wolfinger, had recused himself from the case.
Martin's parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, believe Zimmerman should have been arrested. They claim he was profiling their son and acted like a vigilante. Zimmerman's father is white and his mother is Peruvian.
Tracy Martin told the thousands at the rally to keep his son in their minds.
"If Trayvon were here, he would have been here tonight," he said. "He was a people person. Let's get justice for your son."
The signs, chants and sentiments all came down to a demand for justice in the case. Another rally was set for the state capitol Friday and students at Martin's Miami high school planned to walk out in protest in the afternoon.
At Thursday's protest, some people carried signs that said: "100 years of lynching, justifiable homicide. Same thing." Others sold T-shirts that read: "Arrest Zimmerman."
"It's the norm around here, where anything involving black culture, they want to wipe their hands of it," said Shella Moore, who is black and grew up in Sanford.
The Justice Department and FBI have opened a civil rights investigation, and the local prosecutor before he quit the case convened a grand jury April 10 to determine whether to charge Zimmerman.
Martin was returning from a trip to a convenience store when Zimmerman started following him, telling police dispatchers he looked suspicious. At some point, the two got into a fight and Zimmerman pulled out his gun.
Zimmerman told police Martin attacked him after he had given up on chasing the teenager and was returning to his sport utility vehicle.
The shooting ignited resentment toward the police department in this Orlando suburb for not making an arrest. Civil rights groups have held rallies in Florida and New York, saying the shooting was unjustified. Of Sanford's 53,000 residents, 57 percent are white and 30 percent are black.
In a letter to Gov. Rick Scott, state attorney Wolfinger said that while he thought he could fairly oversee any prosecution that develops in the case, his recusal was aimed at "toning down the rhetoric and preserving the integrity of the investigation." Scott appointed Angela B. Corey, the state attorney for the Jacksonville area, to take over.
The chief's decision came less than a day after city commissioners gave him a "no confidence" vote and after a couple of weeks of protests and uproar on social media websites. Lee has said evidence supported Zimmerman's assertion that the shooting was in self-defense.
"I do this in the hopes of restoring some semblance of calm to a city which has been in turmoil for several weeks," Lee said.
The chief said he stood behind his agency's investigation.
"As a former homicide investigator, a career law enforcement officer and a father, I am keenly aware of the emotions associated with this tragic death of a child. I'm also aware that my role as a leader of this agency has become a distraction from the investigation," Lee said.
Martin's parents said the police chief's action wasn't enough, and that Zimmerman should be taken into custody.
"We want an arrest, we want a conviction and we want him sentenced for the murder of my son," Martin's father, Tracy, said to the fiery crowd of protesters at Fort Mellon Park.
It wasn't immediately clear how long the police chief would step aside. Some people said he should just quit.
"If they wanted to defuse a potential powder keg, he needed to resign," said pastor Eugene Walton, 58, who was born and raised in Sanford. "His inaction speaks loudly to the black community."
News of the police chief's decision to step aside spread quickly among the protesters, many of whom showed up more than two hours before the start of the rally. They chanted "The chief is gone. Zimmerman is next."
Dick Gregory, a comedian who uses humor to convey his civil rights message, said the steady pressure should be the goal going forward.
"All you have to do is be a turtle," he said. "Hard on the outside, soft on the inside and willing to stick your neck out."
March 23rd, 2012, 18:20
American Patriot
Re: Obama's 'Civilian National Security Force'
Quote:
"We cannot allow a precedent when a man can just kill one of us ... and then walk out with the murder weapon," said civil rights leader Al Sharpton....
Wait "one of us" who? Us "Blacks"? or Us "Americans"? or Us "kids"?
Come on Sharpton. Stfu.
One of US is about as RACIAL as it gets.
For the record a damned lot of white folks are murdered by black gang members all the time and they "walk out with their guns" all the time.
March 23rd, 2012, 19:34
Ryan Ruck
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
I went ahead and split this off onto it's own topic
March 23rd, 2012, 19:39
Malsua
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
I have no evidence either way, but it appears this white guy shot a black kid.
What's the big deal? Black guys shoot black guys and white kids at a much greater frequency. What makes this particular case any worse? If it's murder the guy should go to jail.
I suspect the white guy will kill himself.
March 23rd, 2012, 19:50
Ryan Ruck
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
What I find disgusting about this whole incident is that the standard race hustlers areout in force trying to turn this into some sort of racial issue when you can clearly hear on the police recording that this guy had no idea what race the individual was when the police initially asked.
On top of that the shooter is Hispanic and has black family members!
As for the shooting being justified, who knows.
From what I have read, the police say they did not arrest Zimmerman because of testimony and physical evidence. I have heard/read but can't corroborate that the physicial evidence includes wet grass on Zimmerman's back, a bloody nose on Zimmerman, and a injury on the back of Zimmerman's head consistent with the ice tea can.
Popular speculation is that Zimmerman, being 5'4" and 240, lost track of Martin since he's an athletic football player. As Zimmerman is heading back, Martin then circled around and jumped Zimmerman from behind.
A black political group offered a $10,000 reward Saturday for the killer of an African-American teenager, amid a nationwide uproar which has prompted a rethink of America's race issues.
The New Black Panther Party displayed a wanted poster on its website with a picture of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot Trayvon Martin, 17, last month.
"WANTED!!! For the murder of Trayvon Martin... ALIVE, not dead or harmed," the poster read.
Several dozen supporters of the group known by its acronym NBPP -- unrelated to the revolutionary Black Panther Party active in the 1960s-1980s -- meanwhile protested for the third time this week at the police headquarters in Sanford, Florida.
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," leader Mikhail Muhammad told the Orlando Sentinel. "We don't hate anyone, we hate injustice."
Activists had called for the mobilization of 5,000 black men to capture Zimmerman. And Muhammad said the NBPP was receiving donations from black entertainers and athletes, with a goal to collect $1 million by next week.
Thousands of demonstrators have marched in at least 10 US cities to express their outrage over the attack, with some of the anger directed at local authorities handling the murder investigation.
They have not arrested or charged Zimmerman because he claimed self-defense, which allowed him to benefit from Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law that lets state residents use lethal force when they are at risk of being killed or seriously injured by an assailant. Zimmerman had a permit to carry a gun.
In Washington, at least 1,000 protesters -- many in black hoodies, some with bags of Skittles candy like the one Martin bought before he was shot -- gathered at Freedom Plaza in the heart of the US capital to demand justice.
"This is bigger than you think it is," said comedian Dick Gregory, an icon of the Civil Rights movement, who suspected that the full story of Martin's death has yet to come to light.
"Don't waste your time with anger until you get the whole truth... Stop being emotional and start demanding answers," he said.
"We must change a society that thinks the black man is a problem," said Rashawn Davis of the Georgetown University chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Police at the scene estimated the crowd at 1,000, while organizers put the figure at around 3,000, a day after a vigil for Martin in the capital's low-income Anacostia district.
Sanford police told AFP they were ignoring the NBPP's call to capture Zimmerman, a white Hispanic.
Despite the racially charged nature of the case, Zimmerman's lawyer insisted his client was not racist.
"I asked him, 'Are you a racist? Do you have anything against black people?' and he said 'No,'" Zimmerman's legal adviser Craig Sonner told CNN on Friday. "I don't see anything that indicates to me that he's a racist."
Sonner said Zimmerman and his wife acted as mentors to two teenage African Americans, even after funding was cut for the program.
They have also helped at a fundraiser for an African-American church, according to the lawyer.
President Barack Obama has called for nationwide "soul searching" in the wake of the tragedy.
I think this has the potential to get nasty, especially if word comes down that the shooting was justified and Zimmerman isn't going to be prosecuted. And with the weather getting warmer, not just in Florida either...
March 25th, 2012, 01:37
Phil Fiord
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
Firstly, from the statements I have heard the mother and family of the teen want a full investigation with a just outcome. That is not calling for blood. It is the usual suspect race baiters who are using this shooting to further an agenda.
The usual race baiters have also drawn a line saying that anyone not with them is against them and a conservative. By doing so, those who are moderate or slightly left are included in this split. Unlike their claim, no true conservative is blaming anything here on race.
Also note who is making collections with a goal for 1 million. Who gets that? See what I mean? It is using a situation.
March 25th, 2012, 19:12
vector7
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan Ruck
New Black Panther Party Offers $10,000 For US Black Teen's Killer
I think this has the potential to get nasty, especially if word comes down that the shooting was justified and Zimmerman isn't going to be prosecuted. And with the weather getting warmer, not just in Florida either...
SANFORD, Florida (Isabelle Zehnder reporting) – The Sanford Police Department's handling of the shooting death of Trayvon Martin is under intense scrutiny, and many say “rightfully so.”
There appear to be many glaring errors on the part of the police department including, his parents say, the fact that police failed to identify their son more quickly.
Trayvon was reported missing by his mother, yet his body was left in the morgue for three days classified as “John Doe,” ABC News reports. This report conflicts with an interview PEOPLE did with Trayvon's father, Tracy Martin - see below.
According to the ABC News article, the family said officers didn’t bother to ask neighbors if they recognized Trayvon, who had been staying with his father who lives in the neighborhood where he was shot.
Police reportedly had Trayvon’s cellphone in their possession yet they alledgedly made no attempts to call his friends or family whose numbers could have been retrieved from his phone. According to his girlfriend, she and Trayvon were talking on the phone moments before he was shot and killed by 28-year-old neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman.
Zimmerman guarded the gated community where Trayvon’s father lives.
Trayvon was on his way to his father’s home the night he was shot, returning from a convenience store where he had bought a can of Arizona iced tea and Skittles.
On the night of Trayvon’s death, Zimmerman admitted to shooting him, saying he did so in self defense. There were witnesses who are speaking up saying they believe Zimmerman was the aggressor and that he pursued Trayvon – not the other way around.
The public believes grave errors were made by the Sanford Police Department and that Trayvon's killer, Zimmerman, should be behind bars. To date, he remains a free man and reportedly still has his concealed weapons permit.
Zimmerman was armed with a 9mm gun that he used to shoot and kill Trayvon last month, Trayvon was unarmed.
Local officials now say they have called for a full review of the investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department.
PEOPLE interview with Trayvon's father, Tracy Martin
Another article, written by PEOPLE, indicates Trayvon Martin's father reported his son missing the morning after he was shot and killed. According to the interview PEOPLE had with Trayvon's father, Tracy Martin, he was not concerned when his son didn't return home the evening he was shot because he thought he might have gone to the movies with his responsible older cousin. He went to sleep, and when he awoke to find his son gone he grew concerned. He made several phone calls, no one knew where Trayvon was.
Tracy Martin called the Sanford Police who came to his home the morning after the shooting. When he told police about his son's disapperance, police asked him for a photo of his son. Tracy showed the police officer a photo of Trayvon he had saved on his cellphone. The officer said he was going to show Martin a photo to see if it was his son. It was a photo of Trayvon's dead body.
It is unclear why ABC News reported that Trayvon's body was left in the morgue for three days, classified as "John Doe."
Some are skeptical and fear this will be another case like Caylee Anthony, the Florida toddler who went missing and was found dead. Her mother, Casey Anthony, was charged in her death but was found not guilty by a jury of her peers.
On February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin, 17, was walking home from a convenience store after purchasing an Arizona iced tea and Skittles.
Moments later he was lying dead on the ground, shot to death by volunteer neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman, 28.
Scroll down for more on this story and to leave your comments.
Follow this National Unsolved Cases / Missing Persons news writer:
YES. I have one. How is it the Black Panthers can put out a $10,000 bounty on someone – in this case George Zimmerman – without being interrogated? HERE
Guess it’s Open Season for bounties in America, huh?!
~snip~
Washington Post and CBS receive $2 million in ObamaCare Taxpayer subsidies: HERE
Unhappy public ‘not sure who to blame for high gas prices’: HERE
Trayvon Martin, left, 17, was fatally shot by George Zimmerman. A new witness has claimed Martin did attack Zimmerman before he was shot.
A new witness to the Trayvon Martin shooting has come forward, claiming the Florida teen did in fact attack neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, according to media reports.
Zimmerman has said he shot the 17-year-old in self-defense, though Martin was reportedly carrying only a bag of Skittles and an iced tea when he was killed. Despite a loud national outcry, Zimmerman has not been arrested or charged in Martin’s death.
According to Tampa Bay Fox affiliate WTVT-TV, what the witness says he saw could bolster Zimmerman’s claim that he shot Martin in self-defense:
“The guy on the bottom who had a red sweater on was yelling to me: ‘help, help…and I told him to stop and I was calling 911,” he said.
Trayvon Martin was in a hoodie; Zimmerman was in red.
The witness only wanted to be identified as “John,” and didn’t not want to be shown on camera.
His statements to police were instrumental, because police backed up Zimmerman’s claims, saying those screams on the 911 call are those of Zimmerman.
“When I got upstairs and looked down, the guy who was on top beating up the other guy, was the one laying in the grass, and I believe he was dead at that point,” John said.
On Friday night, Zimmerman attorney Craig Sonner appeared on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” and said he client sustained a broken nose and a head laceration on the night of the incident.
“His nose was broken, he sustained injury to his nose and on the back of his head he sustained a cut that was serious enough that probably should have had stitches…it was an injury that was done by Trayvon Martin,” Sonner said.
Among a few interesting items uncovered in trying to examine the facts behind the shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin without drawing any conclusions, was that a widely viewed photograph of Martin appears to have been altered, somewhat.
The one below has been observed in the media and at forums such as Democracy Now. Clearly, it has been lightened, or softened, somehow.
Along with other possible alterations, he looks far more, perhaps innocent is the right word, in the altered image. For the record, that has nothing to do with the guilt, or innocence, of anyone involved, but more to do with the reporting of the story, which is why I'm bringing it up.
The witness reports that George Zimmerman was on the ground and Trayvon is on top of him punching him. The witness says that George Zimmerman was screaming and yelling for help.
Police arrive and find Zimmerman bleeding on his face and the back of his head. He also has had grass stains on his back. All this confirms the story told by Zimmerman and the witness.
Police play the 911 tape for Trayvon Martin's father, who tells police that the voice screaming is not the voice of his son. Zimmerman was on the ground being punched when he shot Trayvon Martin.
The media also characterizes Trayvon as a "model student." In fact, he under a five day suspension when the shooting took place. That is why he was staying at a house so far from his school on a school night. A laywer for Trayvon's family has blocked access to his school records. However, you have to do something pretty bad to get suspended for five days.
A local news video report supports much of the above. It claims prosecutors advised police they did not have enough evidence to win a manslaughter conviction. Zimmerman claims Martin attacked him, while Martin's Father said the voice heard calling for help was not his son, Trayvon Martin. If accurate, it would have been Zimmerman calling for help.
The reports claims police also said Zimmerman's account was corroborated by witnesses.
Also, according to media reports, Martin was suspended for ten days, not five, for being in an unauthorized area on school property, not a violent behavioral issue, as the Miami Herald indicates he did have behavior problems of some non-violent type. Still, an Orlando Sentinel story quotes a teacher as saying he was suspended for being tardy and had no behavior issues.
Still, Trayvon had nonviolent behavioral issues in school, and on the day he was killed, he had been suspended for 10 days from Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School in North Miami-Dade. “He was not suspended for something dealing with violence or anything like that. It wasn’t a crime he committed, but he was in an unauthorized area [on school property],” Martin said, declining to offer more details. Before that, Trayvon attended Miami Carol City High School near his mother’s home in Miami Gardens.
He would be 17 for 21 days. He died Feb. 26, a bullet in his chest, shot by a neighborhood crime watch captain patrolling a suburban gated townhouse community in Sanford, 250 miles from his home, where he had gone with his father after a school suspension.
While certain facts may remain in doubt, or disputed, what's increasingly clear is that by climbing over one another to get the story, mainstream media journalists appear to be adding more confusion, than clarity, to the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. However, that did not stop Barack Obama from weighing in, claiming if he had a son, it would look like Trayvon Martin. That may depend on what photo of him he's seen, of course.
Is anybody else out there as sick and tired as I am of lynch mob racists like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (vide: Tawana Brawley, the Duke Lacrosse kids) who don the mantel of the “civil rights” movement to indict non-blacks in advance of the facts, and incite racial rage against them? Yet that is exactly what they – and scores of black leaders — are doing to an Hispanic individual named George Zimmerman. Along with a cast of thousands, they are holding him guilty of racism before the fact, justifying a hatred, as inflammatory as the hatred once spewed by southern crackers against blacks.
There is no evidence whatsoever that race was a defining factor in the tragic death of Trayvon Martin. Notwithstanding the absence of evidence, this unhappy incident is now the occasion for school shut-downs, mass marches and public death threats by enraged African Americans, displaying behaviors reminiscent of the lynch mobs that were once a scourge of their parents’ generation in a now rejected past.
The facts surrounding the death of Trayvon Martin have not been investigated and are still uncertain. But the lynch mob has delivered its verdict: George Zimmerman is guilty of a race crime; Trayvon Martin was killed because he was black. “Trayvon is the Emmett Till of our generation,” said one mob leader, referring to the 12-year-old who was murdered by white racists in 1955 for whistling at a white woman.
There is no verifiable evidence for this fact-challenged, inflammatory, claim. According to the lone eyewitness to come forward, it was Martin who attacked Zimmerman and was on top of him and beating him to a pulp when the fatal shot was fired. The fact that Zimmerman’s face was bloody when the police arrived, is an apparent corroboration of this version of the event.
Is this what happened? We don’t know. But it is a claim that should get tested in a court of law. Unfortunately to a lynch mob the evidence is irrelevant, the conclusion foregone.
If the demonstrators were merely calling for an investigation that would be proper. But the cries for retribution, and the accusations of racism, which dominate the public demonstrations are not. And that goes for the statement of the President as well. Not willing to be separated from his racial constituency, even when they are behaving badly, Obama has lent his prestige to the insinuation that the crime was inspired by the victim’s race. Otherwise there would be no reason to mention the fact that “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon.” Everyone who has a son should be concerned by the loss of this life. By making it racial, the president is establishing guilt without evidence, and indicting non-black America as well.
The display of racial outrage over this case is a national disgrace. It is a throwback to the past and a shameful repudiation of the values the civil rights movement once stood for but apparently does no longer.
Preaching before an estimated 1,600 people Sunday, the Rev. Jesse Jacksonsaid the death of Trayvon Martin could be a tragic moment or the beginning of a movement.
"How do we go from a moment to a movement that creates fundamental change?" Jackson told the capacity crowd at the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Eatonville. "If it's a moment, we go home. If it's a movement, we go to war."
He characterized Martin's death as a transformative event reminiscent of the killings of Emmett Till in 1955, Mississippi civil rights activist Medgar Evers in 1963 andMartin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
But Jackson was concerned that the hooded sweatshirt has come to symbolize Martin when Martin should instead be a symbol of racial injustice and civil rights. The unarmed teenager was shot to death last month in Sanford by a Neighborhood Watch captain who thought he looked suspicious.
"The danger of focusing on the hoodie is that he wasn't killed because of the hoodie. He was killed because he was black," Jackson said. "The issue is not the hoodie — it's race, registration and civil rights."
Demonstrators have started wearing hooded sweatshirts such as the one Martin had on when he was killed in Sanford on Feb. 26.
Rev. Raphael G. Warnock announced he would wear a hoodie for today's service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
"We are doing this not for show, but to send a message that all humanity is sacred. And by saying all, we are including African-American boys and girls, and men and women who reserve the right to wear a hoodie in the rain and not be racially profiled and killed because bigots think that their appearance is suspicious, or threatening," Warnock said in a statement posted on Ebenezer's website.
Jackson said he would like to see the black population turn its anger over the death of Trayvon Martin into an energy directed at voter registration, economic inequity and other issues of discrimination and racial injustice.
"I would hope that movement would turn into Trayvon Martin voter-registration rallies," Jackson said in a press conference following the Sunday service.
Jackson is in Orlando to attend the special Seminole County Commission meeting on the Martin shooting at 5 p.m. Monday in the Sanford Civic Center. Expecting an overflow crowd, loudspeakers will be set up outside the Civil Center. Martin's parents and theRev. Al Sharpton also are expected at the meeting.
Trayvon, who resided with his mother in the South Florida community of Miami Gardens, was walking from a convenience store to the home of his father's girlfriend in The Retreat at Twin Lakes, a private, gated community in Sanford. He was visiting his father.
George Zimmerman, a volunteer Neighborhood Watch captain in the community, told police he shot the teen in self-defense.
Jackson, who marched with King in the 1960s, said the hood was first used by the Ku Klux Klan to shield their identities while committing violence against blacks.
"Whether you are wearing a hood or a sheet, nobody has the right to kill anybody," Jackson said.
The civil rights leader extended his plea to end the violence beyond whites killing blacks, but also blacks killings whites and blacks killing blacks.
"Stop the violence. Save the children," Jackson said, leading the congregation in a chant.
Jackson said Martin's death was not so unusual, but what made it so exceptional is Martin himself. The 17-year-old did not have a history of drugs, violence or delinquency. He has the appeal of innocence and the power of a martyr, Jackson said.
"Martyrs have power," Jackson said. "He represents all of us."
Macedonia Rev. Willie Barnes reiterated Jackson's call to action that goes beyond Martin to all areas of racial injustice in Central Florida.
"There is power in the innocent blood of Trayvon Martin," Barnes said. "We are refreshed with this injustice."
The things Pres. Obama said are yet another sign that he is NOT your typical breed of American Politician, Democrat or Republican.
This is pure pandering to a bloc of voters that are by and large filled with an arrogant sense of entitlement and government dependancy-that is, taxpayer dependancy.....And this class of people in turn are shackled to an underclass of frankly psychopathic monsters, nurtured by a barbaric hip-hop/'Gangsta 'culture' only possible and tolerated by white liberal guilt.
Obama linking himself in some mystical way as being Trayvon's 'father' only reinforces this aforementioned entitlement/dependancy. He is THEIR Leader, THEIR President.
Wow, you'd think Obama spending 20 years in Jeremiah Wright's 'church' would convince people of this FACT?
Lakeland, Florida -- On Monday, Lakeland police said the man in a hotel surveillance video was the suspect in a brutal sexual assault Sunday at the Hyatt Lakeland Center.
It turns out that man -- all five-foot-seven, 215 pounds of him -- is a 14-year-old boy.
"It's just appalling to everyone," said Lakeland Police Capt. Greg Policastro. "I think it's a concern for everybody when you encounter violent crime for individuals that are that young."
Police identified the suspect as Corey Lee Sutton.
Sutton, they say, has juvenile rap sheet dating back to the age of 10 that includes felonies, but "nothing as serious as this," said Policastro.
Detectives say Sutton's own relatives saw the surveillance video on TV and called them. The 14 year-old, who'd been missing since Friday night, was then picked-up a short time later at a friend's home.
With his mother's permission, police say they questioned Sutton and got a full confession.
Sutton allegedly intended to rob a 24-year-old hotel worker on her break, but became violent by choking, beating, and sexually assaulting her.
"He demonstrated remorse, no question about that," said Policastro.
At Sutton's Lakeland home Wednesday, there were people coming and going, but but no one was willing to answer the door for a comment.
Patricia Peters, a neighbor who lives about three houses away, says she feels for the victim and Sutton's family.
"My heart kind of goes out to them because as a parent, it's hard when your child's done something wrong. You still love them. You just don't like what they've done," said Peters.
Expressing shock, neighbors say Sutton was the oldest of several kids who often played basketball in the front yard. They say he was mature for his age, but not always respectful.
Troy Burmeister, whose daughter plays with one of the Sutton's other children at a mutual friend's house, says despite the 14-year-old's past questionable behavior, he was shocked to hear about the charges.
"He's got a heck of a mouth on him. He likes to speak like he's grown," said Burmeister.
Police say the victim in this case has been released from the hospital and has been informed of Sutton's arrest. They say the state attorney's office will decide whether Sutton should be charged as an adult.
He faces charges of robbery, sexual assault, and attempted second degree murder.
Sen. Chuck Schumer is calling on the Justice Department to investigate so-called "Stand Your Ground" laws following the fatal shooting of an unarmed Florida teen.
The law, a version of which was enacted in Florida in 2005, allows for individuals to use deadly force -- even outside their home -- if they feel threatened.
Since the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, Republican leaders have called the killing a tragedy but argue that the law in question did not actually apply to this case.
Still, Schumer wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Sunday that the laws themselves should be investigated.
"These laws seem to be encouraging vigilantism by allowing individuals to use deadly force as a first resort," Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement.
Schumer asked Holder's department to probe whether the laws "are creating more violence than they are preventing," and whether potential murders are "going unprosecuted" because of them.
He estimated that 23 states have some form of this law.
Schumer cited statistics in Florida showing that before the law was approved, the state averaged 12 justifiable homicides per year. The average subsequent to the law's enactment was 33.
March 26th, 2012, 02:54
Ryan Ruck
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
Schmucky Schumer needs to mind his own fucking business and focus on his shithole state (sorry any sane person from NY reading) and look up what the hell Federalism is.
Quote:
The law, a version of which was enacted in Florida in 2005, allows for individuals to use deadly force -- even outside their home -- if they feel threatened.
I think that I won't say anything further in this thread. I'm from Detroit. Luckily I wasn't there in 1967-68 for the riots. We had moved down to Kentucky a few years before and I moved back in 68 just in time for the World Series. By that time riots were a distant memory, but the hatred blacks had for whites hadn't dissipated. I spent most of my next few years fighting someone or another because of names I was called or because I was physically attacked.
Except for one incident, NONE of the assailants were white. And yet today all these years later, I'm still not a racist, except that I'm a white boy .....
I guess that makes me a racist.
March 26th, 2012, 12:45
American Patriot
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
I think that I won't say anything further in this thread. I'm from Detroit. Luckily I wasn't there in 1967-68 for the riots. We had moved down to Kentucky a few years before and I moved back in 68 just in time for the World Series. By that time riots were a distant memory, but the hatred blacks had for whites hadn't dissipated. I spent most of my next few years fighting someone or another because of names I was called or because I was physically attacked.
Except for one incident, NONE of the assailants were white. And yet today all these years later, I'm still not a racist, except that I'm a white boy .....
I guess that makes me a racist.
March 26th, 2012, 14:35
Malsua
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Donaldson
I think that I won't say anything further in this thread..
And yet you felt compelled to say it twice.
March 26th, 2012, 15:13
American Patriot
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
I was... compelled. LOL
March 26th, 2012, 15:23
American Patriot
Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting
No, you're a racist if you're white, that's all I was saying.
See, the way the blacks see it, they can't be racists cuz they're black. Therefore... etc.