What a pathetic excuse for rioting!! One tiny little fire? No cars? No KFC? Sheesh.
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
-- Theodore Roosevelt
Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog Sunday, July 14, 2013
If you live in Chicago, New York or Los Angeles, you know that it's only a matter of time until an incident between a law enforcement officer, or more rarely a civilian defending himself, and a member of a minority group flares up into citywide grievance theater complete with angry reverends on the steps of City Hall, women with stony faces holding up banners calling for justice and a media driven debate about police tactics and racism.
This sort of thing happens with depressing regularity in cities where even the most liberal residents have to choose between police overreach and being murdered. It never leads to meaningful debate or a resolution, instead it peters out with the best actors in the grievance theater picking up money and influence, the media selling a few more papers or ads for allergy relief on the drive time news and everything going back to the way it was.
The grievance theater is never really about the specific case, the specific shooting, it's about the links between the social problems of the black community, the compromises of civil liberties necessary to keep entire cities from turning into Detroit and the inability of the media to address the sources of crime as anything but the phantoms of white racism. It's about a black leadership that is more interested in posturing as angry activists and shaking loose some money than in healing the problems of their own communities.
Grievance theater has been going national. It's no longer just extraordinary cases like Bernie Goetz's Death Wish moment on the number 2 train that briefly catch hold of the national conversation. The obsessive coverage of the so-called Jena 6 case, an incident of so little internal meaning, signaled that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would no longer just be able to drive a local controversy, they now had the freedom to drive national controversies any time they wanted to.
Trayvon Martin was their big moment with grievance theater being used as part of a presidential campaign on a national level.
The fortunes of too many black politicians have been tied to white guilt and black rage. The worst sort of black politician channels black rage to score points with black supporters while playing on the guilt of white voters promising to heal the social conditions that bring out that rage and protect them from its ravages. But never before has that game been played out of the White House.
The current occupant of the White House is a veteran of the corrupt urban political machine where there are only two games in town and when the money runs out, this is the one you play. The money is running out and accordingly we have been treated to an episode of grievance theater, with the man in the White House playing the familiar Sharptonesque role of healer and inciter.
What does it say about America that what was once a form of political theater rising out of the grimy urban blocks of failed cities is now a national art form? A local dysfunction has become a national dysfunction, not because every city has become New York and Chicago, but because the people at the center of power know urban politics, community organizing and racial consciousness theories and little else. Like some Third World communist backwater, we are being governed by men and women with no understanding of anything practical, but a thorough grounding in Marxism-Leninism.
Our national government has begun to look like our urban governments. America is starting to look like Chicago and Detroit.
Detroit is dangling at the edge of bankruptcy. Chicago nearly went bankrupt in 1930. New York nearly went bankrupt in 1975. States have bailed out cities and the federal government has bailed out states. When there isn't enough money to keep the dysfunctional political machine built on corruption and subsidies going, there's always some larger entity to foot the bill.
The problem with this current government is that it's operating at the federal level and there is no longer any larger entity to foot the bill. All the shopworn radicalism, the cries about making the rich pay their fair share, are old hat. The rich and the upper middle-class can pay more, but there's no amount of money that will cover a government that spends money as if there is no tomorrow.
That is the lesson that has yet to be learned from the cities whose dysfunctional politics have been transplanted to the national government. Along with the politics has come the grievance mob, the outrage machine, the outpourings of self-righteousness, the class warfare fought by corrupt pols and the rest of the bread and circuses show that has blighted the American city.
Grievance theater isn't about race, it's not about slavery, police brutality or separate lunch counters, it's about power and money. Black politicians are not fundamentally different from white ones. They have more in common with their white colleagues than they do with their own communities. The only difference is that they are playing with the race cards they have been dealt.
The ghetto didn't evolve naturally, it was created through a web of national and local government regulations that played with real estate, social welfare, voting districts and the manufacturing sector to achieve the desired results. We don't have to have ghettos, we have them because at one point they were convenient for a number of political interests and because they were the unintended side-effect of a number of government policies.
The ghetto farms black communities for votes and more importantly for subsidies. For every dollar that is taken to help minorities, a penny goes to the problem and ninety-nine cents goes to the hucksters, the administrators, the bureaucrats, the wives of influential pols hired on massive salaries to oversee some aspect of the program, the experts who monitor compliance, the affirmative action contractors who charge four times as much to build a school or provide meals, the unions who have the exclusive right to service the program, the slumlords who administer affordable housing and finally the politicians who have the money kicked back to them by all of the above.
When you look closely at where the school property tax money goes, why health care is so expensive and why so much money has to be spent on housing, a big chunk of it goes here. It's the hole in our budget ozone layer and it can never be filled, because it is designed never to be filled. For a sizable number of influential people, both black and white, the black community's social problems are a cash cow. The grievance theater is their way of collecting protection money and making sure that no one pays too much attention to what's really wrong.
The problem isn't limited to the black community. The same phenomenon crosses over different minority communities and some white ones as well, but the race card is still the best card in the deck. It carries too many emotional triggers, too much guilt and too much hope not to use it over and over again. The moral power of the civil rights movement still isn't exhausted as long as hopeful white people smile at the sight of a black man in the White House as if his political power testified to their innocence.
But the power can only be retained through constant indoctrination in the rituals of guilt, through repetitions of the grievance theater which reminds us that national bankruptcy is a small price to pay for peace and that we are a better people and a better nation when we vote for Obama against our own economic interests. Grievance theater takes many forms, but its elemental form is the street production that the Trayvon Martin case has brought us.
The local productions of grievance theater have gone national and we are all compelled to watch them play out. The country has been turned into unwilling participants in a national drama that places a distorted idea of race at the center of our identity for the benefit of the same hucksters and politicians who have destroyed the city and are hard at work destroying the country.
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(CNN) – Leaders at the nation's oldest civil rights organization have spoken with senior members of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's team at the Justice Department about pursuing federal civil rights charges against George Zimmerman, NAACP president Ben Jealous said Sunday, though Holder himself has noted the high bar for establishing a hate crime.
Speaking to chief political correspondent Candy Crowley on CNN's "State of the Union," Jealous said he hadn't yet spoken with Holder himself, but that in conversations with Justice Department officials, he had pressed the federal government to continue investigating the death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin.
"We are glad what they began months back continues, which is a serious reviewing of everything that came out in this case, everything that was known before this case," Jealous said.
Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot Martin in February 2012, was acquitted by a jury late Saturday on state criminal charges. A federal civil rights investigation was previously opened in the case, and on Saturday a Justice Department spokesman told CNN the agency "continues to evaluate the evidence generated."
Yet in order for federal charges to be brought against Zimmerman, the Justice Department would need to establish that a hate crime was committed, a legal burden Holder has said in the past would be a challenge to meet.
"For a federal hate crime we have to prove the highest standard in the law," Holder said in April 2012. "Something that was reckless, that was negligent does not meet that standard. We have to show that there was specific intent to do the crime with requisite state of mind."
President Barack Obama, who spoke in personal terms about Trayvon Martin in the aftermath of the teenager's killing more than a year ago, did not publicly react to Saturday's verdict. A White House official referred to the Justice Department's statement when asked about the NAACP's calls for federal civil rights changes against Zimmerman.
On "State of the Union," Jealous argued those charges were a necessary step, given certain factors in the Zimmerman case.
"They will make a choice about whether or not they will pursue criminal civil rights charges. We are calling on them to do just that," he said. "When you look at (Zimmerman's) comments, when you look at his comments about young black men in that neighborhood, about how they felt specially targeted by him, there is reason to be concerned that race was a factor in why he targeted young Trayvon."
Speaking later Sunday on CNN, Robert Zimmerman Jr., the brother of George Zimmerman, contended the federal investigation had yet to produce any evidence of racism.
“We welcomed, actually, that investigation through the FBI when they originally started investigating George,” he said. “They've investigated, I think, about three dozen of his closest friends and acquaintances. And there is not any inkling of racism. In fact, there's evidence to show the opposite.”
Groups like the NAACP need to “cool their jets, give everyone some time to kind of process what's going on,” Zimmerman said. “Agitation doesn't help us. It doesn't do anybody any good right now.”
On Saturday, Jealous and the NAACP released a statement saying they were "outraged and heartbroken" over the not-guilty verdict, which the group's leader explained further in the CNN interview.
"We're upset with the situation in this country. As black parents raising black boys and black girls in this society, it feels so often that our young people have to fear the bad guys and the good guys," he said. "The robbers and the cops and the self-appointed community watch volunteer who thinks he's keeping people safer."
Politicians from both parties weighed in on Saturday's verdict during appearances on television Sunday morning. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, calling Martin's death a "tragic event," said he respected the jury's decision.
"Although there may be people on either side of this that don't agree how this came out, the fact is we have the best judicial system in the world and we respect it," he said on CNN. "It's my opinion that a very thoughtful case was made by each side, the jurors made the decision, and we will live with that."
Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he accepted the verdict as fair.
"I don't always agree with what the jury does, but that's the system," said the Nevada Democrat. "And I support this system."
On "Fox News Sunday," Rep. Steve King of Iowa, an outspoken Republican, blasted Obama's administration for becoming involved in the Zimmerman case, arguing it had been turned into a political issue instead of a legal matter.
"The evidence didn't support prosecution and the Justice Department engaged in this. The president engaged in this and turned it into a political issue that should have been handled exclusively with law and order," King said.
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As I had said in a couple posts, I did work a half day today. Well, a little more than half really, 6 hours.
Well, one hour into my day a co-worker arrives to loudly shout the verdict and then go on a tirade about the bad ruling and how Martin was just a normal 17 year old. "All 17 year old stick their middle fingers up and smoke some weed" he said. All. Um nope.
His rant was peppered with all the media and twitter opinions. He even said there was evidence of grass stains on the front of Zimms pants. Now, I do not watch much tv at all, but I read volumes online and off. In this case I read every bit I saw. I do not recall grassy knees for Zimm. It could be, but not in the trial anyway. Even so, what would that prove? Maybe when they first fell he was on his knees rather than falling straight back. It seems rare for anyone to actually fall straight back. Most crumple in a way instead.
Anyway, he continued his rant that it is no different than a pedophile priest. ??? What?
So, there I was in my office looking out. I interjected that what the jury saw for evidence was different than what media opined. In other words the facts and not opinion. In view of that the jury did the right thing. He retorted angrily, "Are you a Zimmerman supporter??!" To which I said, that case does not effect my life one bit, so my view is not in support of a person or side. I furthered the case never should have been tried and being it was, the prosecution should have done a better job presenting their case, oh wait, they did a good job, the facts actually dictated the outcome.
He was furious and went on a tack of no one should have guns. To that another coworker agreed. I said, "I own several guns and know how to use them." The other coworker said, "well you don't go walking around waiting to kill an innocent." I agreed. I do not do that, but added,"nor do most all legal gun owners." I pointed out the real tragedy here. The fact guns are held illegally by some who kill each other.
The original coworker insisted racism is rampant. I said, "No. Think about it. In the early 2000's people pretty much went about their lives. In the last few years there has been a concerted effort to fan the flames and that is indeed why we have perceived racism."
It went like this off and on all day and at one point I told the ranter, "Chicago is overrun with black on black murders and the media does not report it. That makes this case way overspun." I added,"the NBP leader even put out a public notice for blacks to murder whitey in the suburbs if it was an innocent verdict." He replied, some indistinct thing about black on black and its different, but on the NBP matter he said only the idiots listen to that." I agreed there but added, "there are a lot of idiots agreeing to do just that."
Anyway, that was my day. There was much more, but you certainly get the gist.
There is no difference. Black on Black, White on White, anyone on anyone is the same problem. Allowing a pass as if its different is like saying its ok. Those who ignore that particular issue foment the perceived racism.
Africa... they kill each other day in and day out over there.
Someone on the hannity show last week, a black ban, stated clearly that "that's the way we are. We always get up in each other's faces" or some words to that effect.
White people in America do NOT in general kill one another randomly. Yes, there are murders, yes there are robbers who do bad things. Yes there are rapists and I would say that whites and blacks are NO DIFFERENT in that manner.
But, there seems to be a LOT MORE black on black crime in some areas of this country than should be considered "normal".
Libertatem Prius!
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Protesters have taken to the streets in the US as black community leaders demanded that the authorities pursue a federal civil rights case against George Zimmerman, who shot dead Trayvon Martin but was acquitted of the teenager's murder.
In New York, hundreds of protesters marched into Times Square on Sunday night after starting out in Union Square, zigzagging through the streets to avoid police lines.
Marchers carried signs and chanted "Justice for Trayvon Martin!" and "No justice, no peace!" as tourists looked on. Beyoncé called for a moment of silence for Trayvon during a concert in Nashville, Tennessee, while rapper Young Jeezy released a song in Trayvon's memory. Protests have been relatively small in scale so far, easing fears that violent unrest would follow the widespread outrage over the verdict.
Benjamin Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) – the US's largest black advocacy group – said the case in which Zimmerman, who is of mixed white-Hispanic parentage, followed then shot Trayvon dead met the benchmark for an inquiry by the department of justice.
Although the jury in Sanford, Florida, accepted Zimmerman's argument that he acted in self-defence when he killed Trayvon on 26 February last year, he was caught on a recording of a call to police using the words "fucking punks" and "these assholes, they always get away".
Jealous said: "When you look at his comments and when you look at comments made by young black men who lived in that neighbourhood about how they felt especially targeted by him, there is reason to be concerned that race was a factor in why he targeted young Trayvon."
Jealous released a statement immediately after Saturday night's not guilty verdict, which followed more than 16 hours of deliberations by the six-strong jury.
"We are outraged and heartbroken over today's verdict. We will pursue civil rights charges with the department of justice, we will continue to fight for the removal of stand-your-ground laws in every state, and we will not rest until racial profiling in all its forms is outlawed," the statement said, referring to Florida's self-defence legislation used in Zimmerman's case.
Jealous said on Sunday that he had spoken to senior members of attorney general Eric Holder's team and expressed hope they would continue the work of FBI investigators last summer who reviewed elements of the case.
"They will review all that comes out in that, and then they will make a choice about whether or not they will pursue criminal civil rights charges," Jealous said in a CNN interview.
"The reality is in these types of cases, where there are very serious questions, we know there will be a state phase, there will be a civil phase almost assuredly and then there will be a federal civil rights phase."
Jealous added: "We're upset with a situation in this country where as black people, as black parents, it feels so off that our young people have to fear the bad guys and the good guys, the robbers and the cops and the self-appointed community watch volunteers who think they're keeping folks safer," he said.
In Washington, the justice department said it was evaluating whether it had enough evidence to support Zimmerman's prosecution in federal court after his acquittal in the Florida state court.
A justice department spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday: "Experienced federal prosecutors will determine whether the evidence reveals a prosecutable violation of any of the limited federal criminal civil rights statutes within our jurisdiction and whether federal prosecution is appropriate in accordance with the department's policy governing successive federal prosecution following a state trial."
President Barack Obama said on Sunday that Trayvon's death was a "tragedy" but added that the jury had spoken and its decision should be met with calm reflection.
In a statement, the president said: "I know this case has elicited strong passions. And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher.
"But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken. I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son."
A number of peaceful rallies and church gatherings were held in Miami, Martin's home town, and in Sanford, one of which was attended by Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton. Trayvon's parents were not in court on Saturday night to hear the jury's verdict.
"Obviously they were devastated by the verdict itself but they are preparing to move forward," said Daryl Parks, the family's attorney.
"You can't allow this jury's decision to decide their move tomorrow. They'll move forward to defend the legacy of their son; they won't allow George Zimmerman's bullet to silence Trayvon.
"There was always a possibility that this jury could do the unthinkable. Although we accept the verdict, we find it to be socially illogical and that's why so many people have outrage. No decent thinking person would ever believe that an armed person should ever be allowed to shoot an unarmed child."
Court officials said the six women members of the jury – five of them white and one Hispanic – wanted to protect their right of anonymity and had no immediate plans for media interviews.
The controversial case, which tapped into national debates about race, civil rights and the proliferation of guns, was decided on several key issues, not least whether Zimmerman acted in self-defence.
Zimmerman did not testify during the three-week trial but his lawyers said Trayvon was the aggressor during the fatal confrontation, breaking his nose with "a sucker punch" and smashing his head on a concrete pavement.
Prosecutors sought to portray Zimmerman as an angry vigilante who was "fed up" after a series of burglaries at the Retreat at Twin Lakes gated community and who wrongly assumed that Trayvon, who was wearing a hooded top, was a criminal who was "up to no good".
Despite the not guilty verdict, Zimmerman will continue to be hounded over the case, members of his family have said.
"He's going to be looking around his shoulder for the rest of his life," the acquitted man's brother, Robert Zimmerman Jr, told CNN.
Libertatem Prius!
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Zimmerman could bring his OWN lawsuits over how his case was handled, his lawyers say - as they reveal they plan to move 'asap' against NBC for editing 911 calls
NBC edited call 'to make it look as if Zimmerman was racial profiling'
By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 07:30 EST, 15 July 2013 | UPDATED: 07:42 EST, 15 July 2013
George Zimmerman's lawyers have revealed that the former neighborhood watch volunteer could bring his own lawsuits following his not guilty verdict.
Speaking on Good Morning America on Monday, attorney Don West said that Zimmerman, who was cleared of murdering 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, is considering taking action over how his case was handled.
'If you look at this case and take away the emotion of the loss of Trayvon Martin's life... and look at what happened, we have a lot of political and social pressures that [we] normally would not... and there may be compensation for something like that,' West said.
He added that they could potentially take legal action over the way Zimmerman was prosecuted, who decided to bring the charges against him 'and everything that's happened to George Zimmerman'.
Speaking out: Attorneys Mark O'Mara (left) and Don West (right) said Zimmerman could bring his own suits following his not guilty verdict on Saturday. They said that he now lives in fear
The charges and subsequent witch hunt came despite the Sanford Police initially choosing not to charge him because of a lack of evidence, he said.
It comes as the attorneys said they would now be pursuing action against NBC for how it edited the 911 calls Zimmerman made to dispatchers the night of February 26, 2012.
The edited tapes depicted Zimmerman as a racial profiler after he came across the teenager walking through a Sanford neighborhood to his father's home, armed with nothing but a bag of sweets.
On March 27 last year, NBC aired a version of the tapes which said: 'This guy looks like he's up to no good. He looks black.'
In fact, the full tape showed Zimmerman had only said Martin was black when asked by a dispatcher.
Anger: George Zimmerman, pictured with West in court on Friday, could seek for compensation over how he was treated following Trayvon's death, his lawyers have said
HOW DID NBC EDIT THE 911 CALL?
George Zimmerman's call to 911:
Zimmerman: 'This guy looks like he’s up to no good. Or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about.'
Dispatcher: 'OK, and this guy - is he black, white or Hispanic?'
Zimmerman: 'He looks black.'
NBC version, aired March 27, 2012
Zimmerman: 'This guy looks like he's up to no good. He looks black.'
'This guy looks like he’s up to no good,' Zimmerman said on the tapes. 'Or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about.'
The dispatcher asked: 'OK, and this guy - is he black, white or Hispanic?'
Zimmerman said: 'He looks black.'
He sued NBC for defamation over the editing last December, but the case was put on hold pending the outcome of the trial.
NBC maintained that other media outlets had also highlighted the racial angle of the killing, and said that if he was convicted, this would show Zimmerman's loss of reputation was his own doing, rather than that of any media outlet.
With no conviction brought, Zimmerman is now ready to move forward with the suit, one of his lawyers told the Washington Post.
'We’re going to start in earnest asap, we just have to get the stay lifted which is a ministerial act,' James Beasley said.
Outrage: Averri Liggins, 22, of Atlanta, holds a picture of Trayvon Martin during a protest over the verdict
He added that the verdict had shown the jury did not believe Zimmerman was a racial profiler and now 'it's simply time for us to start the case and hold accountable anyone who was irresponsible in their journalism'.
Zimmerman's lawyers said on GMA that due to the charges, Zimmerman's life is forever changed. Following the verdict, protests have erupted across the country and their client is now fearful.
'I think he's aware of [the anger against him], he's been aware of it for 16 months,' Mark O'Mara said. 'He’s become the focus of a lot of people's dismay, disgust, anger about the event that happened that night.'
Asked if Zimmerman was scared, O'Mara added: 'Absolutely. He's been scared for 16 months and with anger like this I think he has good reason to be worried.'
Protest: Throngs of marches arrive at Times Square in New York City on Sunday in protest of the verdict
Rage: A man shouts during a protest march against the acquittal in Los Angeles, California on Sunday
West dismissed calls for Zimmerman's gun to be seized - because now he needs it more than ever.
'I don't know how he could not lawfully carry a gun at this point since he has been lawfully allowed to carry one,' he said. 'This is the worst time in his life isn't it?'
Protests have spread across the country in the wake of the sensational not-guilty verdict.
Demonstrations - from Florida where the trial took place to Atlanta, DC and New York - remained largely peaceful, though Los Angeles protesters managed to shut down an entire freeway and thousands of New Yorkers mobbed Times Square and blocked traffic for an hour.
Emotional crowds screamed 'Justice for Trayvon' and carried signs that likened the struggle of the slain teen and his supporters to that of the original civil rights movement.
Video of Vancouver riots being passed off as Miami after Zimmerman acquittal
Clip of 2011 Stanley Cup riots erroneously shared on social media following verdict in Trayvon Martin case
Scene of the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots in 2011. Photo: youtube/screencapture
Published: July 14, 2013, 2:01 am
Updated: 1 day ago
Many people worried there would be widespread rioting in American cities if George Zimmerman walked out of a Florida courtroom a free man. And some were all too willing Saturday night to spread that fear.
Following the not guilty verdict in the Trayvon Martin case, in which neighbourhood watch captain Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder charges, a misleading video made the rounds online apparently depicting a riot in progress in Miami.
The video, first uploaded to YouTube and later reposted at World Star Hip Hop, was shared tens of thousands of times on Saturday night. However, the video actually depicted part of the 2011 Vancouver riots, which shook that city following the Vancouver Canucks’ loss to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup finals.
Most Canadians would have recognized the video’s location immediately since whoever shot the original footage mentions Vancouver’s Granville Street, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and suggests the police should go “all Dziekański” on the rioters — a reference to the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekański, whose death at the Vancouver airport in 2007 made national headlines.
The video going around of riots in Miami is FAKE. There are NO mountains in Miami. It is from Vancouver, Canada in 2011 after Stanley Cup.—
Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) July 14, 2013
But to an American listener, those cues may well have gotten lost. Shot from a distance, the only thing clearly visible in the video is a sea of people clogging a street as a fire burns in the distance. The narrator’s suggestion that “hopefully the police are cracking skulls tonight” and insistence that “this is one of the only times that I approve of police brutality” would also have enraged many Americans who feel the verdict was unjust.
Although some people on Twitter tried to point out the truth, many others continued to spread the false rumour that there was a riot in Miami. There were no Zimmerman-related riots reported in any American cities as of this writing.
It's amazing to me how even the facts laid out systematically mean nothing to those in dissent of the court's ruling. It is truly incredible how ignorant the masses are in this particular case. It's representational of the populace as a whole. Same folks who voted for Obama twice.
This thing is not over yet. Too much time and money has gone into this for it just to fizzle out like a dud firecracker.
Last edited by MinutemanCO; July 15th, 2013 at 14:49.
No, you're absolutely correct it "isn't over yet".... and here's the proof.
Because the MEDIA is stirring the pot, fanning the flames and planting thoughts in the minds of the uneducated masses out there:
Verdict doesn't end debate in Trayvon Martin death
By Michael Pearson. Holly Yan and AnneClaire Stapleton, CNN
updated 10:39 AM EDT, Mon July 15, 2013
Trayvon Martin supporters take to the streets
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Zimmerman supporters take to social media to celebrate verdict
Those angry about the verdict take to the streets
Most protests are peaceful, but tensions flicker in Los Angeles
Obama urges "calm reflection," asks Americans to reflect on toll of gun violence
(CNN) -- They took to the streets, to radio call-in shows, to social media to vent their frustration. George Zimmerman not guilty? It can't be, they said.
"Only white life is protected in America," one protester in Washington shouted Sunday, a day after a Florida jury found the Hispanic former neighborhood watch volunteer not guilty of second-degree murder in the 2012 death of African-American teenager Trayvon Martin.
But, as with all things surrounding the divisive case, not everyone shared the view that Martin was the victim, that the verdict was wrong.
While few, if any, Zimmerman supporters held rallies celebrating the verdict, on the "George Zimmerman is Innocent" Facebook page, fans were hawking T-shirts and stickers hailing Zimmermanand posting messages of encouragement.
Photos: Reaction to Zimmerman verdict
Reaction to Zimmerman's acquittal George Zimmerman found not guilty
"Thank God the jury got it right and found George not guilty," Facebook user Pete Habel posted Monday on the page.
Sunday's protests against the verdict were largely peaceful.
Analysis: The race factor
In Washington, protesters chanted "No justice, no peace" and "Trayvon was murdered" as they marched, freelance photographer Michael Kandel told CNN's iReport.
In New York, demonstrators marched across Manhattan and filled Times Square.
"This is what democracy looks like," they chanted.
And just steps away from the courthouse where a jury acquitted Zimmerman, Sanford, Florida, demonstrators vowed that their fight wasn't over.
"Nationwide protest to demand justice," protesters chanted.
In Los Angeles, a demonstration against the verdict grew tense late Sunday and early Monday.
Some protesters hurled flashlight batteries, rocks and chunks of concrete toward police, Los Angeles police spokesman Andrew Smith said. Police responded by shooting bean bags at protesters. Police arrested seven people, according to Officer Norma Eisenman. Five were arrested for failure to disperse, one for battery on a police officer and one on marijuana possession, she said.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson called for protests to continue, but to remain peaceful.
"There will be protests, but they must be carried out with dignity and discipline," he told CNN's "New Day."
"What will happen if there, in fact, are riots, it gives sympathy to Zimmerman, and discredits Trayvon. Trayvon deserves sympathy. Zimmerman and his school of thought does not."
Many of the protests, including those in New York and Los Angeles, drew demonstrators from a wide variety of races. But many expressed the same belief: that Martin's death was spurred by racial profiling and that Zimmerman's acquittal was unjust. Martin's parents react to verdict Father, son react to Zimmerman verdict
Protesters demanded that the government investigate further, Kandel said.
"They believe that this is a civil rights issue that must become the topic of a national conversation in the coming days," he said. "They did not believe justice had been served."
The attorney for Martin's family, Benjamin Crump, renewed his call Monday for such an investigation. He said Zimmerman racially profiled Martin because he superficially resembled African-American youths who had been arrested for recent burglaries in his neighborhood.
"That's profiling," Crump told CNN's "New Day." "And there's a big question whether that's allowed, and so I think the Justice Department should look at that."
The other side
Conversely, Zimmerman supporters -- speaking mostly through social media channels -- argued that the jury's verdict was correct.
"If Zimmerman was black, would people act the way they they're acting now? The facts found him innocent, the 'people' are the racist ones," Facebook user Ben Biller posted on the "George Zimmerman is Innocent" page.
On Twitter, user ElDonJuanDiaz posted: "George Zimmerman is a national hero. To you liberals and black people who believe everyone is racist keep crying." Why this verdict?
Zimmerman's friend and former next-door neighbor, Jorge Rodriguez, said he always expected an acquittal.
"This is so far from being racial, it's not even funny," he told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day."
"Just because he has a white last name and an African-American was dead, automatically everybody assumes racial. This is far from being race. This is just a bad situation that happened."
Tony Johnson, who is black, said he was disturbed by the "outbursts from people who didn't know the facts of the case, yet (were) still screaming about an injustice."
"I'm actually glad the verdict was not guilty," he told CNN's iReport. "Only based on the evidence that was presented in court, it screams self-defense.
"This wasn't about race," Johnson continued. "It was about a man's rights to defend himself. It's not a crime to follow anybody; therefore, the fact that they got into an altercation and George Zimmerman was forced to use deadly force, it's not a crime. Our Constitution states that."
Mark O'Mara, Zimmerman's defense attorney, said he was surprised by some of the protest.
"I'm a bit surprised that there is outrage because we had hoped that everybody would look at this case as being a very fair trial where both parties were represented well," he said. Pushing for peace President Barack Obama called for peace Sunday and acknowledged the Zimmerman case has stirred strong emotions.
"I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son. And as we do, we should ask ourselves if we're doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our own communities," he said.
"We should ask ourselves if we're doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis," Obama said.
One critic of the verdict, Terri Weems, said the trial was a referendum on race that confirmed what she said Martin supporters knew all along.
"That's our society," she said as she headed into church in Washington on Sunday. "We expected not to be given justice. We haven't been dealt justice all this time. ... It's very disheartening."
NAACP President Benjamin Jealous told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that the largely peaceful protests were a positive sign.
"I think we should, frankly, right now be celebrating the fact that we've seen a generation of young people respond by using our system, raising their voices, but not using their fists," he said. Zimmerman could still be held responsible for Martin's death
Libertatem Prius!
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Re: Trayvon Martin Shooting - George Zimmerman
Originally Posted by Ryan Ruck
Haha! Beat you to it!
Speaking out: Attorneys Mark O'Mara (left) and Don West (right) said Zimmerman could bring his own suits following his not guilty verdict on Saturday. They said that he now lives in fear
Anger: George Zimmerman, pictured with West in court on Friday, could seek for compensation over how he was treated following Trayvon's death, his lawyers have said
Outrage: Averri Liggins, 22, of Atlanta, holds a picture of Trayvon Martin during a protest over the verdict
Protest: Throngs of marches arrive at Times Square in New York City on Sunday in protest of the verdict
Rage: A man shouts during a protest march against the acquittal in Los Angeles, California on Sunday
Photos: Reaction to Zimmerman verdict
Reaction to Zimmerman's acquittal
George Zimmerman found not guilty
Martin's parents react to verdict
Father, son react to Zimmerman verdict
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