http://www.nationofchange.org/walking-while-black-killing-trayvon-martin-133 2430878 Walking While Black: The Killing of Trayvon Martin By Amy Goodman <https://secure.nationofchange.org/?em=1> Na-tionofChange: March 22, 2012
On the rainy night of Sun-day, Feb. 26, 17-year-old Trayvon Mar-tin walked to a con-ve-nience store in San-ford, Fla. On his way home, with his Skit-tles and iced tea, the African-Amer-i-can teenager was shot and killed. The gun-man, George Zim-mer-man, didn't run. He claimed that he killed the young man in self-de-fense. The San-ford Po-lice agreed and let him go. Since then, wit-nesses have come for-ward, 911 emer-gency calls have been re-leased, and out-rage over the killing has gone global. Trayvon Mar-tin lived in Miami. He was vis-it-ing his fa-ther in San-ford, near Or-lando, stay-ing in the gated com-mu-nity known as The Re-treat at Twin Lakes, where Zim-mer-man vol-un-teered with the Neigh-bor-hood Watch pro-gram. The Miami Her-ald re-ported that Zim-mer-man was a "ha-bit-ual caller" to the po-lice, mak-ing 46 calls since Jan-u-ary 2011. He was out on his rounds as a self-ap-pointed watch-man, pack-ing his con-cealed 9 mm pis-tol, when he called 911: "We've had some break-ins in my neigh-bor-hood, and there's a real sus-pi-cious guy ... this guy looks like he's up to no good, or he's on drugs or some-thing." Later in the call, Zim-mer-man ex-claims, "OK. These a-holes al-ways get away. ... [Ex-ple-tive], he's run-ning." Sounds of Zim-mer-man mov-ing fol-low, along with a con-tro-ver-sial ut-ter-ance from Zim-mer-man, under his breath, con-sid-ered by many to be "[Ex-ple-tive] coons." The sound of his run-ning prompted the 911 op-er-a-tor to ask, "Are you fol-low-ing him?" Zim-mer-man replied, "Yeah," to which the dis-patcher said, "OK, we don't need you to do that." Na <https://secure.nationofchange.org/?em=1> -tionofChange is a 501(c)3 non-profit funded di-rectly by our read-ers. Please make a small do-na-tion to sup-port our work. One of the at-tor-neys rep-re-sent-ing the Mar-tin fam-ily, Jas-mine Rand, told me: "The term 'coon' on the au-dio-tape ... is a very ob-vi-ous racial slur against African-Amer-i-cans. We also heard the neigh-bors come for-ward and say, 'Yeah, in this par-tic-u-lar neigh-bor-hood, we look for young black males to be com-mit-ting crim-i-nal ac-tiv-ity.' And that's ex-actly what George Zim-mer-man did that night. He found a young black male that he did not rec-og-nize, as-sumed that he did not be-long there, and he tar-geted him." An-other 911 call that has been re-leased is from a woman who hears some-one cry-ing for help, then a gun-shot. Article image <http://www.nationofchange.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/article_main_i mage/trayvonmartin032212.JPG> Eye-wit-nesses Mary Cutcher and Selma Mora Lamilla both heard the cries, which po-lice say could have been from Zim-mer-man, thus sup-port-ing his claim, even though he had a gun and out-weighed Trayvon Mar-tin by 80 pounds. Cutcher said at a press con-fer-ence: "I feel it was not self-de-fense, be-cause I heard the cry-ing. And if it was Zim-mer-man that was cry-ing, Zim-mer-man would have con-tin-ued cry-ing after the shot went off. The only thing I saw that night-I heard the cry-ing. We were in the kitchen. I heard the cry-ing. It was a lit-tle boy. As soon as the gun went off, the cry-ing stopped. There-fore, it tells me it was not Zim-mer-man cry-ing." San-ford Po-lice Chief Bill Lee has de-fended his de-part-ment's de-ci-sion not to ar-rest Zim-mer-man. They bagged Mar-tin's body and took it away, la-bel-ing him a "John Doe," even though they had his cell-phone, which any-one, let alone law en-force-ment with a shoot-ing vic-tim, could have used to eas-ily iden-tify a per-son. They tested Mar-tin's corpse for drugs and al-co-hol. Zim-mer-man was not tested. Neigh-bors say that Zim-mer-man loaded things into a U-Haul truck and left the area. So, while the po-lice and State At-tor-ney Norm Wolfin-ger have de-fended their in-ac-tion, a de-mo-c-ra-tic de-mand for jus-tice has ric-o-cheted around the coun-try, prompt-ing a U.S. Jus-tice De-part-ment in-ves-ti-ga-tion and lead-ing Wolfin-ger to promise to con-vene a grand jury. The Rev. Glenn Dames, pas-tor of St. James AME Church in nearby Ti-tusville, has called Mar-tin's death "a mod-ern-day lynch-ing." His de-mand for the im-me-di-ate ar-rest of Zim-mer-man was echoed by the or-ga-niz-ers of the "Mil-lion Hoodie March" in New York City, named after the often racially stereo-typed sweat-shirt Mar-tin was wear-ing in the rain when he was shot. The Na-tional As-so-ci-a-tion for the Ad-vance-ment of Col-ored Peo-ple has called for the re-moval of San-ford Po-lice Chief Lee. NAACP Pres-i-dent Ben Jeal-ous, re-count-ing a mass meet-ing in a San-ford-area church Tues-day night, quoted a local res-i-dent who stood up and said, "'If you kill a dog in this town, you'd be in jail the next day.' Trayvon Mar-tin was killed four weeks ago, and his killer is still walk-ing the streets." With his gun. C 2011 Amy Good-man Dis-trib-uted by King Fea-tures Syn-di-cate Na <https://secure.nationofchange.org/?em=1> -tionofChange is a 501(c)3 non-profit funded di-rectly by our read-ers. Please make a small do-na-tion to sup-port our work. * * * From: kwazinkru...@aol.com [mailto:kwazinkru...@aol.com] -----Original Message----- From: Emilio Lacques <emilio.lacq...@gmail.com> To: occupythehoodla occupythehoo...@lists.riseup.net Sent: Thu, Mar 22, 2012 9:38 am OCCUPY THE HOOD LA ACTION ASSEMBLY DEMAND JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON MARTIN Public Event for Occupy The Hood L.A. Action Assembly SUNDAY, MARCH 25, 2012 2:00pm until 5:00pm GATHER AT EXPOSITION & CRENSHAW BLVD. MARCH TO LEIMERT PARK - RALLY Join Occupy The Hood and others as we Demand Justice For Trayvon Martin....and Demand that his killer....the coward George Zimmerman be arrested....tried....and convicted for this stolen life. On February 26, 2012, a 17-year-old African-American named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida. The shooter was George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old white man. Zimmerman admits killing Martin, but claims he was acting in self-defense. Three weeks after Martin's death, no arrests have been made and Zimmerman remains free. Here is what everyone should know about the case: 1. Zimmerman called the police to report Martin's "suspicious" behavior, which he described as "just walking around looking about." Zimmerman was in his car when he saw Martin walking on the street. He called the police and said: "There's a real suspicious guy. This guy looks like he's up to no good, on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around looking about... These a**holes always get away" [Orlando Sentinel] 2. Zimmerman pursued Martin against the explicit instructions of the police dispatcher: Dispatcher: "Are you following him?" Zimmerman: "Yeah" Dispatcher: "OK, we don't need you to do that." [Orlando Sentinel] 3. Prior to the release of the 911 tapes, Zimmerman's father released a statement claiming "[a]t no time did George follow or confront Mr. Martin." [Sun Sentinel] 4. Zimmerman was carrying a a 9 millimeter handgun. Martin was carrying a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea. [ABC News] 5. Martin weighed 140 pounds. Zimmerman weighs 250 pounds. [Orlando Sentinel; WDBO] 6. Martin's English teacher described him as "as an A and B student who majored in cheerfulness." [Orlando Sentinel] 7. Martin had no criminal record. [New York Times] . Zimmerman "was charged in July 2005 with resisting arrest with violence and battery on an officer. The charges appear to have been dropped." [Huffington Post] 9. Zimmerman called the police 46 times since Jan. 1, 2011. [Miami Herald] 10. According to neighbors, Zimmerman was "fixated on crime and focused on young, black males." [Miami Herald] 11. Zimmerman "had been the subject of complaints by neighbors in his gated community for aggressive tactics" [Huffington Post] 12. A police officer "corrected" a key witness. "The officer told the witness, a long-time teacher, it was Zimmerman who cried for help, said the witness. ABC News has spoken to the teacher and she confirmed that the officer corrected her when she said she heard the teenager shout for help." [ABC News] 13. Three witnesses say they heard a boy cry for help before a shot was fired. "Three witnesses contacted by The Miami Herald say they saw or heard the moments before and after the Miami Gardens teenager's killing. All three said they heard the last howl for help from a despondent boy." [Miami Herald] 14. The officer in charge of the crime scene also received criticism in 2010 when he initially failed to arrest a lieutenant's son who was videotaped attacking a homeless black man. [New York Times] 15. The police did not test Zimmerman for drugs or alcohol. A law enforcement expert told ABC that Zimmerman sounds intoxicated on the 911 tapes. Drug and alcohol testing is "standard procedure in most homicide investigations." [ABC News] The Martin case had been turned over to the Seminole County State Attorney's Office. Martin's family has asked for the FBI to investigate. In Solidarity, Emilio J. Lacques Youth Justice Coalition || Youth Organizer www.youth4justice.org <http://www.youth4justice.org/> Occupy The Hood Los Angeles http://www.facebook.com/OccupyTheHoodLosAngeles No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.1913 / Virus Database: 2114/4887 - Release Date: 03/22/12 No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.1913 / Virus Database: 2114/4887 - Release Date: 03/22/12 No virus found in this message. 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