It’s a sad sad day in America when a wannabe cop can profile, stalk, chase and gun down an unarmed kid and be found not guilty of his crime.
George Zimmerman murdered an unarmed child and got away with it. There is no such thing as equal justice for African Americans in this country. All the hope I ever had for the American justice system went down the tube after hearing that verdict. I am undone! Devastated. Heart ripped out. Soul crushed. The American justice system has spit in our faces.
(RT.com)People are expressing themselves on the streets from Los Angeles to New York following the ‘not guilty’ decision handed down in the court case, which has gripped the nation for the past three weeks.
New Thread up…
Trayvon Martin rallies intensify
http://3chicspolitico.com/2013/07/15/trayvon-martin-rallies-intensify/#respond
https://twitter.com/NMSyria/status/356884386924331011/photo/1
Why is everyone expecting Obama to press Holder into pressing hate crime or civil rights charges against Fatback?
Obama doesn’t care about black people and if anyone watched his appearance on the View several years ago he referred to African Americans as a mongrel people and to himself as a mutt.
Now he risked his second term by supporting same sex marriage because he needed those campaign donations from rich white gay men.
Trayvon is dead so can’t contribute to his campaign and Trayvon’s parents are lower middle income so they can’t either.
Obama isn’t any different from other politicians–the only time he recognizes blacks is when election time rolls around.
roderick, President Obama appointed AG Holder and it is his job to see that he is doing his job. Where is the logic in your comment about the president not caring about black people? I believe he’s married to a black woman and has black daughters.
And your comment about recognizing blacks when elections time rolls around is untrue and absurd.
@Nervana_1
“@pewresearch: 56% of blacks followed #Zimmerman trial very closely compared to 20% of whites http://pewrsr.ch/1bDnQr2 pic.twitter.com/7ETOhdSxSm
So according to David Sirota, President Obama and George Zimmerman are one in the same because Obama killed Awlaki and Zimmerman killed Trayvon, and so therefore, “we are all Trayvon”. SMH
http://www.salon.com/2013/07/15/after_zimmerman_verdict_we_all_are_threats_now/
WTF?! Leave it to these LIBTARDS to tie drones & spying into the murder of Trayvon Martin. These white men cannot stand NOT being the complete center of the fucking universe.
Ask this fucktard who initiated drones and spying? GTFOH with that bullshit.
Holder: Trayvon Martin’s ‘unnecessary death’ should spur dialogueBy William Branigin and Sari Horwitz, Updated: Monday, July 15, 1:29 PM
With the acquittal of George Zimmerman continuing to reverberate nationwide, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Monday he shares concerns about “the tragic, unnecessary shooting death” of an unarmed black teenager in Florida last year, and he vowed to pursue a federal investigation into the matter.
In a speech at the social action luncheon of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, Holder pledged that the Justice Department would “continue to act in a manner that is consistent with the facts and the law” and would work to “alleviate tensions, address community concerns and promote healing” in response to the case.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/national/holder-trayvon-martins-unnecessary-death-should-spur-dialogue/2013/07/15/d4f443a2-ed74-11e2-9008-61e94a7ea20d_video.html
Dumb question but is Sanford Fl near Miami?
About a 3 1/2 hour drive
http://www.travelmath.com/drive-distance/from/Miami,+FL/to/Sanford,+FL
Thank you, Ametia. I suppose that I could have looked it up. It is close to Orlando then. Been to Orlando for Universal Studios trip. Bit for some reason I thought that Sanford was close to Miami. Hmmm.
Hi vitaminlvoer. it’s in FLORIDA, and that’s close enough.
BOYCOTT FLORIDA!!!
Oh I will NEVAH go to that place again. When I was a teen I had never been because something about it creeped me out. Didn’t know why. Only went as an adult cause hubby and children wanted to. Guess it was just a gut check for me. I have learned to trust my gut. I know that when we did go that God was protecting us. To me the place has always been creepy.
We affect change with our purchasing POWER. Green always trumps Black, when it comes to racism.
It’s right outside Orlando.
This is the work
Monday, July 15, 2013 | Posted by Liberal Librarian at 8:02 AM
In every nation’s life, there come breaking points.
Breaking points are many. They’re points in the road where the great mass of humanity says “Enough”; things as they were are no longer good enough, no longer just enough, no longer decent—human—enough. A point of disgust is reached, where what went before will no longer suffice. Where, indeed, what went before was exactly the problem. Where what went before was a Gordian knot of injustice, unfairness, veritable evil.
We have reached such a point.
The election of a black president, buoyed by a coalition which didn’t conform to the lineaments of the previous holders of power, have made that old, decrepit, dying coalition erupt in one last blast of fury.
We saw it in Texas, in Ohio, in North Carolina, where legislatures have made it known that women are to be kept down, subservient, subject to the will of their betters.
We saw it in the halls of Congress, where the Republican House doesn’t pretend to care about immigrants, but is doing everything it can to stanch the coming tide, hoping that if it engages in one more bit of obstruction their power will be secure. But the future that is coming is as sure as that tide, and the leaders of that House haven’t the wisdom of King Canute, who displayed before his court that he was merely human, and had no power over nature, or the forces of history.
And we saw it, most heartbreakingly, in the verdict which decreed that one could shoot an unarmed black teenager in the street as nothing more than an animal, less than one, and walk away, freedom intact, rights preserved. (We have to ask how free Mr. Zimmerman will be; if he has any shred of humanity, his remaining life will be one of anguish and regret. But at the moment, I’m not feeling so charitable.)
The fury began at a low boil on January 20, 2009, and has done nothing other than increase in ire, in volume, in desperation, as the country it thought belonged to it in perpetuity began to slip away, bit by bit. Of course, the irony is that the country isn’t slipping from those who feel that fury; it is still their country; changing, yes, as all things human must change, hopefully for the better. But it’s their reaction to that change which has doomed them to be history’s handmaidens, sloughed off as so much chaff. There were two possible reactions to the change which was coming, which had been a generation in the offing: acceptance, and a joining to help shape the direction; or utter denial, and hatred, and fear. That the latter route was chosen should not be shocking; humans react badly to change. But it nonetheless should sadden us, and make us mourn for that sadness.
But that change is coming. Unless those who now cheer at a child murderer being set free have the courage to launch an insurrection, with all the guns they claim to love, their days as “masters” are numbered. The power has already slipped from them; their joy at Zimmerman’s emancipation is but the cry of those who have already lost, cheered by a temporary forward surge. The protests we’ve seen erupt across the country from people who will no longer put up with their hate, their anger, their evil, is where the country is heading. No, it’s where the country is. The future does not belong to those who have taken to Twitter and Facebook, “liking” posts which claim “Justice for George Zimmerman”. Their current hero will live a life of shame; they partake in that shame, and shut themselves off from the society which is already here, in spite of their best efforts, their herculean eruptions of hate and animus.
And that’s the rub: for all of their brave rhetoric, they are, at heart, cowards. They took to Twitter and Facebook to bray about their “victory”. Those who stood for Trayvon, and the women of Texas, and the poor, and the stranger, they took to the street. They made their voices heard not in the ether of the Internet, but in the blood and sinew of life, declaring that no, it was no longer good enough. Declaring that yes, things would change, regardless of what their opponents thought, regardless of the obstacles, regardless of petty people with their petty hatreds. They won’t start an insurrection, for their hearts are as coal, and they have no courage. They’re bullies; and as with all bullies, when confronted they retreat, claiming victimhood, crying to the universe, which doesn’t hear them.
Mourn for injustice with a demand for justice. Talk to your neighbors, get them involved in the great work. Never rest. The memories of the honored dead deserve no less.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2013/07/this-is-work.html
@HumanityCritic
.@ReignOfApril But April, Obama didn’t quote “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” in his statement! And, where is my fucking Pony?! lol
https://twitter.com/SherrieGG/status/356311486915813376/photo/1
Speaks volumes….
Hello ladies and gentlemen, I’m watching HLN and that Black Attorney Eric Johnson is laying it down and speaking truth to the power.
Hi Granny. Can you share a bit with us?
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/356621824391528449/photo/1
@TIME
Trayvon Martin’s mother paid witness to her son—and her Christian faith—through her tweets | http://ti.me/18Yzn4R
Ametia,
can you put this in postable form?
===================JOY REID ON FREEDOM & FEAR==========================
Joy Reid was the guest host for The ED Show on Sunday, July 14, 2013. In her closing commentary, Joy shares her thoughts on FREEDOM and FEAR in light of the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. This segment is beyond brilliant because it captures the cold hard truth in about three minutes. Please share far and wide.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45755822/ns/msnbc-the_ed_show/vp/52475626#52475626
We’ll get it posted in a bit. Nobody does SUCCINCT like Joy Reid.
@OrlandoLiberal
#Zimmerman Jury chosen by zip code. None came from the low income areas, all came from All white areas. The deck was stacked #J4TM
Ha. All we need now is a whistleblower to step and say who ordered that.
Michael Skolnik @MichaelSkolnik1m
juror who signed with lit agent called Trayvon “boy of color” and said there were “riots” in Sanford. I was concerned about her from get go
And I was concerned by the all white jury, because we know the 6th juror of mixed heritage was thrown in the mix PUN intended for shits & giggles.
And I suspect they knew she was not assertive and would go along with the others.
16 Moving Images From Trayvon Martin Rallies Across The Country
Thousands of Americans across the country protested the George Zimmerman verdict on Sunday, “chanting, praying and even fighting tears” after the jury acquitted the neighborhood watchman of all criminal charges for killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Though some pundits predicted race riots in the aftermath of a not
guilty verdict, the rallies proved overwhelmingly peaceful and deeply
moving:[….]
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/07/15/2299051/16-moving-images-from-trayvon-martin-rallies-across-the-country/
What the pundits should be reporting and predicting is when will America’s gun laws be reformed and when those dozen or more states abolish the SYG laws.
Damn!
MED: ““When the people who rig the definition and the litmus test have a bias to begin with, it’s not going to be proof positive for you when you come along testing whether race or bias exists,” Dyson began. “We don’t have to impugn [Zimmerman attorney] Mr. [Mark] O’Mara‘s character and integrity to say what you are talking about is on Mars and we’re on Venus.”
“We have to often tell people who get defensive about racism analogy, let’s make an analogy to terrorism,” he added. “So, you know how you felt on 9/11? yeah, that’s how we feel when it comes to race.”
JB20005 >
The majestic sounding “rule of law” has always been stacked in favor of white people in this country. It was under the “rule of law” that Chief Justice Roger B. Taney described Africans as:
“Beings of an inferior order, altogether unfit to associate with the white race” and that “they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect”.
The noble “rule of law” also gave us:
-The one-drop rule
-Separate but equal
-Anti-miscegenation statutes
More often than not, the “rule of law” has been wielded as a tool of oppression against disfavored groups.
JB20005
Also this morning, I’m about ready to offer a hot cup of STFU to my white lawyer friends, who never practiced in the criminal court system and keep prattling about how the “jury reached the correct result”.
Any lawyer who believes that the system would have found a 29 year old black man not guilty for shooting down a 17 year old white kid is f**king high.
Everything about the case would have different from the moment the police arrived on the scene.
White privilege is one helluva disease. But it’s only contagious when you fall for it, though,
My blood pressure spikes every time I read that “jury reached the correct result” horsesh*t. It is all based on “we can truly never know what happened” which is also horsesh*t or accepting Zimmerman’s false narrative(s). We know what happened. Every reasonably intelligent person is the country who is not a flaming, racist a$$hole or a celebrity “legal” analyst troll on TV or a professional leftie “legal” blogger knows what Zimmerman did to that child.
Liza,
It makes me sick too. The racists know the country has rejected the jury’s not guilty. It’s not just black people either. We’re talking blacks, whites, latinos, etc. This has gone international. People are tired of the racists. This is about right & wrong.
@StewartMoore
[personal Trayvon Martin atty] Crump: please refuse to remain silent. Sybrina and Tracy can’t do this by themselves. They need you to stand with them
We will NOT remain SILENT here at 3 CHICS.
I have emailed friends family and asked people from our Parish to sign the Petitions and so far everyone agreed. Whether they totally got it, they agreed no one should be able to kill a minor and claim self defense with non life threatening injuries. I will not shut up this woman is pissed.
— ☺Charlie Peach
@bretech2
A “White Supremacist Mind” killed Trayvon Martin & “White Privileged System” set his MURDERER free… #NoJustice #Trayvon #NoJusticeNoPeace
— -☺Charlie Peach
@bretech2
It took 45 days 4 Sanford 2 be forced 2 arrest GZ & only 16 hrs 4 their bias jury 2 find him NOT guilty. #NoJusticeNOPeace #Trayvon —
@GN192
@NAACP @BenJealous would be amazing if your petition included a call to donate $5 to the http://TrayvonMartinFoundation… . why doesn’t it???
Jealous is about as useful as a POTTED PLANT.
@BuzzFeedAndrew
George Zimmerman trial juror has signed a book deal http://www.mediabistro.com/gal… … (@BuzzFeedNews)
LET THE GAMES BEGIN.
REPORT: A George Zimmerman Juror Has Already Announced Her Plans To Write A Book- by Pamela Engel Jul. 15, 2013, 12:04 PM
Just days after a Florida jury handed down a controversial verdict acquitting George Zimmerman on second-degree murder charges, Juror B37 has reportedly signed with a literary agent and announced that she intends to write a book.
Mediabistro has this statement from Martin Literary Management president Sharlene Martin:
My hope is that people will read Juror B37’s book, written with her attorney husband, and understand the commitment it takes to serve and be sequestered on a jury in a highly publicized murder trial and how important, despite one’s personal viewpoints, it is to follow the letter of the law. It could open a whole new dialogue about laws that may need to be revised and revamped to suit a 21st century way of life. The reader will also learn why the jurors had no option but to find Zimmerman Not Guilty due to the manner in which he was charged and the content of the jury instructions.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/george-zimmerman-juror-announces-plans-to-write-a-book-2013-7#ixzz2Z8XMjK7Q
Teh Zimmerman defense are making the media rounds. O’Mara says Zimmerman getting his gun back is good, because he’ll need it now more than ever. Dangerous times, folks, DANGEROUS.
Americans angry at the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of black teen Trayvon Martin walk onto the 10 Freeway stopping highway traffic to protest the acquittal, in Los Angeles, California July 14, 2013. A jury in Sanford, Florida late Saturday found Zimmerman, a volunteer neighborhood watchman, not guilty of shooting dead Martin, a 17 year-old unarmed teen on the night of February 26, 2012. AFP PHOTO / ROBYN BECK (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)
MsKitty •
This Team Zimmerman media tour, wow. You literally got away with murder, why can’t you just be happy with that and get on with your life? No, you have to get in front of any and all cameras and portray Trayvon as sum who deserved nothing less than being wiped off the face of the Earth. To Trayvon’s family that has to feel like he is being murdered again Every. Single. Day. But their tears are like sweet nectar to you, and that you can cash in on book deals, speaking engagements, and piles of money, well golly gee that’s the absolute cherry on top. Another dead nigger and you get top turn a profit, win-win.
My anger has not subsided, in fact I think these actions just intensified it x1000. I should be appalled by the utter lack of humanity, but it’s not surprising because that is how they have rolled from the beginning.
Speak the truth, tell it!
http://ow.ly/i/2BNko
https://twitter.com/MzDivah67/status/356530763249893376/photo/1
Beautiful photo, and yet as a mother and grandmother, my heart aches for Sybrina.
https://twitter.com/CindySThomas/status/356419781701799936/photo/1
https://twitter.com/OLBLightBrigade/status/356615432133820417/photo/1
https://twitter.com/JWilliamJames/status/356410698429001728/photo/1
Succinctly written, Ms. Hooks.
CREEPY ASS CRACKAS; THEY ALWAYS GET AWAY
Bashir: “He might have worn gold teeth, WOW; call the police!
***much needed laughter***
A remorseless child killer is a free man today in Sanford Florida
July 14, 2013
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Despite overwhelming evidence of guilt, a jury of 6 women last night found George Zimmerman not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager who was walking home in the rain minding his own business talking to a girlfriend on his cell phone after purchasing Skittles and a can of Arizona iced tea at a 711. Zimmerman, a white cop wannabe and Neighborhood Watch captain in the gated community where Martin was staying, spotted the black teenager walking home. He did not recognize him and arbitrarily decided that he looked out of place and “up to no good.”
Zimmerman called the Sanford Police Department’s non-emergency number and reported what he saw. With a police officer en route, he followed the teenager first in his vehicle and then on foot after the teenager attempted to get away from him by running behind a building of townhomes. Muttering under his breath, “fucking punks” and “these assholes, they always get away,” he got out of his vehicle and took off after teen. Ignoring a warning from the police dispatcher not to follow the teen, he hunted him down and when he found him, he attacked and threw him to the ground. During the ensuing struggle, he sustained minor bleeding injuries to his nose and to the back of his head. With the responding officer less than a minute away, he pulled out his gun and executed the teenager at point blank range with a single shot to the heart. He killed him because Trayvon Martin struggled and would not submit to his authority.
Trayvon Martin died without knowing who attacked him or why he attacked him because at no time did Zimmerman identify himself by name or as a member of Neighborhood Watch.
The defendant told police that he killed the unarmed teenager in self-defense.
This verdict is shocking, unconscionable and indefensible. It’s an absolute outrage that should be condemned by every human being who cares about the safety of their children and every human being who believes in equal justice under law.
Because of this terrible case, no adult or child with brown skin in Sanford, Florida can go out for a walk without fearing that some crazy white freak with a gun is going to hunt them down and kill them just because they can.
….
Shame on the members of this jury. The stain of Trayvon Martin’s blood is now on your souls forever. Better get down on your knees and beg God for forgiveness.
And shame on Chris Serino and Doris Singleton for vouching for a child killer.
With the whole world watching, all of you have disgraced the community in which you live.
Behold Sanford, Florida: You are the ugly face of racism and lawlessness.
http://frederickleatherman.com/2013/07/14/a-remorseless-child-killer-is-a-free-man-today-in-sanford-florida/
You got it; The Florida laws, corrupt SPD, the courts and the jury allowed Zimmerman, the child murderer to roam free.
“Behold Sanford, Florida: You are the ugly face of racism and lawlessness.”
Good line from Leatherman and accurate as a laser.
White Privilege: Responding to Zimmerman Verdict with Paean to the Rule of Law
Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic is one of many pundits offering paeans about the rule of law today. Hello, White Privilege.
Cohen begins:
In the next few hours and days you’ll likely be inundated with analysis and commentary and solemn expressions of outrage or joy about what the acquittal of George Zimmerman means – to the nation, to its rule of law, to its politics, to its racial divide, to its deadly obsession with guns, to Florida’s ALEC-infused justice system, and to probably 100 other things I can’t list off the top of my head. This is what happens when a verdict comes down in a high-profile criminal trial – when life or liberty are on the line and the country is split, and angrily so, upon the wisdom and the justice of the outcome.
Read on
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/07/15/white-privilege-responding-zimmerman-verdict-paean-rule-law.html
I read Andrew Cohen at The Atlantic occasionally and some of his work really is good. But he is totally off his rocker with this: “The bad news is that no matter how many times Zimmerman is hauled into court, we will never know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about what happened that terrible night.”
Yes, it is true that we do not have videos from multiple angles that show every detail and every movement when Zimmerman confronted, attacked, and executed Trayvon Martin. What we do have are 911 calls, a 44 second death scream, and a cell phone witness who can verify that Trayvon was fleeing and Trayvon was approached. It’s a mighty short timeline and it isn’t very difficult to fill in the few obvious blanks that get you to the logical and only conclusion that makes any sense at all.
Indeed, it is white privilege that can afford to be so flexible in its analysis without regard for the enormous societal impact of the very wrong, very racist outcome of Zimmerman’s trial. People need to stop trying to turn the proverbial sow’s ear into a silk purse. It is what it is. The prosecution proved that Zimmerman did not act in self defense when he murdered a 17 year old kid. It was a simple case. But the Zimmerman-friendly corporate/rightwing media and six despicable, racist cowards set a killer loose.
And I’ll be hanged if I will ever know why. What in the blazing hell does this do for them?
It reinforces their rapidly dwindling, but pathetic sense of superiority to other races and people of color. We have never ceased to be 3/5 of a human being to them since the implementation of the institution of slavery.
Folks like Andy Cohen are part of the problem; and because of the things they write and say are shrouded in their whiteness, why, they can never see themselves as the PROBLEM.
There Was No Justice For Trayvon But We Cannot Be Silenced
[ 19 ] July 14, 2013 | Luvvie
This weekend, I was at a convening with 100 young Black leaders and activists, brought together from across the country by the Black Youth Project. We were there to talk about our advocacy work as well as issues affecting the Black community. And more importantly, we were there to talk about what we can DO about it and put some of those things to action. They called us the BYP100.
Yesterday, we had just wrapped day 2 around 8:35pm CST and everyone was ready to kick it. After 10 hours of work, we deserved it. And as our facilitator, Melinda Weekes dismissed us, someone said “The jury reached a verdict.” We weren’t ready to hear it and some of us kind of freaked out. I started shaking because I WAS AFRAID.
I’ve avoided watching the trial of George Zimmerman for his murder of Trayvon Martin because I honestly could not deal. I knew it wouldn’t be good for my psyche to watch it. Because I was already so angry. What I need to cope sometimes is avoidance. And that’s real.
Read on
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2013/07/justice-for-trayvon.html
What Athletes’ Response To The Zimmerman Verdict Says About Race And Class In America
By Travis Waldron on Jul 15, 2013 at 9:54 am
The Miami Heat wore hoodies to protest Trayvon Martin’s killing last March.Athletes were quick to react when a jury acquitted George Zimmerman on all charges in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin Saturday night, with many questioning both the ruling and the American justice system.
“How do I explain this to my young boys???” Miami Heat star Dwyane Wadetweeted after the verdict was read. “These tears right now in my eyes are for Trayvon’s family, for my nephews for my unborn son (God willing) this is so hard to bare!” the Chicago Sky’s Swin Cash posted. Former heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis ended a series of tweets with, “Some act like America is colorblind. The reality is its NOT. My son also looks like Trayvon and we also have a home in FLA.”
These are men and women who have supposedly reached the pinnacle of mainstream society: they are rich, they are famous, they endorse every day products aimed at both black America and white America. But at the end of the day, they are still black, and the entire Trayvon Martin episode proved to them – and should prove to us – that they haven’t been truly accepted at all. They still have to teach their children different lessons than their white teammates, and white parents, do. They still have to remember those same lessons themselves. Any of those men and women know that they could have been and could still be Trayvon Martin; that, at some point, their child could be too.
http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2013/07/15/2299431/what-athletes-response-to-the-zimmerman-verdict-says-about-race-in-america/
Ry Cooper @kingpin76661m
Had to eplain Trayvon Martin to my daughter, 17 year old cousin, and Nephew. My daughter asked “I’m not allowed to fight off a stranger?”
@literaryeric
We imprison a larger percentage of our black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. http://thkpr.gs/13c5jyr
Alma98 •
I don’t know about anyone else but it’s been eerily quiet in black neighborhoods that I drove by today. It’s like everyone is grieving and there’s this quiet simmering rage boiling up. My neck of the woods was the same and people are usually at the park across the street all day. Today the only thing going on was a little league game and a few parents watching their kids play. After the game was over there was nothing but silence. The same thing late last night, we usually get kids sneaking to the park at late hours but last night nothing. And it’s quiet again tonight. You can feel the difference it’s sad and hopeful at the same time. Sad for obvious reasons, but hopeful, because now poc that were comfortable with the status quot are getting it. Waking up to the reality that we have to fight for ourselves cause no one else is going to do it for us.
Yes; the feeling is here where I live too. Folks are TIRED, FUCKING TIRED. So; we’re processing the next steps, our strategies to keep moving FORWARD. We fight EVERYDAY, ALL DAY for the freedom to BE BLACK in America.
WE WILL NOT BE GOING BACK TO THE GOOD OLE DAYS OF JIM CROW
WE WILLNOT BE GOING TO THE BACK OF THE BUS.
WE WILL NOT BE QUIET
WE WILL NOT BE MOVED
WHAT WE WILL DO IS REMAIN BLACK. SO IF YOU CAN’T DEAL, GET BACK
The only relevant thing that came out of this “trial” is something many of us already knew – black life is expendable. To be disappointed in the verdict indicates that one expected a just outcome in the first place. That so many people of all walks of life are disappointed, and by extension expected a just outcome, is comforting in that it holds at bay the complete and utter despair that I would otherwise feel. Non-NeoConfederates in general, and people of color in particular, have been under intensified attack since November 4, 2008. The complete and utter hatred that these people have for us has driven them completely mad, to the point where not only will they block any and all laws that would benefit the American people, they will go out of their way to enact laws that would aggressively harm those citizens – including their own supporters. There is apparently no line they will not cross, no conspiracy they won’t embrace, no level of hell they won’t attempt to subject us to – all in the name of their false supremacy.
I fear that they are creating their own self-fulfilling prophecy. After all, If you continually put it to people that you consider them less than “real” Americans, less than decent people, less than human, and deserving of being shot down in the street with absolutely no consequences whatsoever, what do you think the eventual outcome might be?
rallies in Oakland and SF
itgurl_29
As I said last night, it’s time we give them back their problem! Racism is THEIR issue and it’s up to them to fix it. As black people, and people of color in general, we have bought into this notion that it is our responsibility to heal a wound we had no part in creating! We’re told it’s our responsibility to reach out and work with whites. To teach them what is and what isn’t racism. And we’ve gone along with that mess for too damn long. I’m sick of seeing black people demand President Obama talk about race and give his opinions on race, yet never demanded the same of all those white presidents. Why the hell should Barack Obama have to make statements about race every time white folks pull some bullshit? He didn’t create this problem. Black folk did not create this problem. White men and women did! Yet they want us, including the black President, to clean up their shit! Fuck that!
That’s why I was so damn glad when Mrs. Obama STOOD HER GROUND and straight up told that old Becky she was not here to entertain her bullshit! And I was so glad to see people stand with FLOTUS and defend her right to defend herself from a white woman’s nasty and rude behavior.
I could go on and on, but I totally agree with you. We need to stop placing the burden on black folk to make white folks feel comfortable. Those days need to be over. That old school idea that if you just look right and dress right and talk right, they’ll respect you. Well, there ain’t a greater example of black excellence than the family in the White House and look how these bitter ass 2520s treat them, including the children.
I gives no fucks about what they think and I will NOT allow them to put me in a position to teach them how to treat me and mine like a damn human being.
https://twitter.com/NerdyWonka/status/356549133173133312/photo/1
GOVCHRIS1988
Well, I’ve spent the whole day wondering what to write after the verdict. Can’t say I’m surprised, but we as black folks must be proactive. We have to stop waiting for these fairweather supporters to back us up. We waited while the oppressive hands gutted our voting laws trying to stifle our voices, bought out our economic struggle,succeeding in making us a permanent and throwaway underclass. And now, the Florida court has affirmed that my life and other black men’s lives are as worthless as a Enron investment. Were foreigners in our own country, where even the actual foreigners are treated better than us. We have to start this new movement. Women didn’t allow men to be the head of their movement. Gays and Lesbians didn’t allow straight people to be the head of their movement. We shouldn’t allow anyone white to be the head of ours. All we have is us. And we need to make sure it is us that keeps it going. No more outsourcing this.
And for all the white folks talking about why black people are not concerned with black on black crime, SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU IGNORANT SON OF A BITCH!!!!!! You, in your white elitist suburban enclaves do not know what grief we go through on black on black crime. You do not see us at every city council and ward meetings BEGGING the council members to extend after school programs to keep their kids off the streets. You do not see us rallying for stopping the violence and organizing gun turn in rallies and disbandment of streetgang rallies. You do not see us tell our children, ESPECIALLY our boys, our beautiful black boys that you must keep your head in the books. You do not see the black parents or parent working their asses off damn near killing themselves to ensure said child has the means to live like a normal kid and not a struggling refugee in his own country. No, what you see is on that media box where majority white pundits who have never in their lives lived in the sticks pontificate and opine profusely and stupidly on a subject they know shit about.
I’m tired. I’m TIRED. I’m 24, a graduate of college, achieved my paralegal certification, work two part time jobs (Hopefully I get this job as a front end processor at a law firm) never been arrested, never been suspended, never been in detention, never been written up, never gotten a speeding ticket, is friendly and caring and adoring, does not only have rap music as my only repitore of music, and yet, and YET, because I am a black male, my life is worth less than a dogs life to some in this nation. They let a 17 year olds killer get off because of that.
I’m tired of accepting every excuse from white people about what is and what isn’t racism. LIKE YOU KNOW!?? YOU DON’T!!!! Its why I laugh at this notion of “reverse racism” Its like the tooth fairy, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, IT DOESN’T EXIST!!!!!!! There hasn’t been one white person that was hung in a tree and left their for months letting the crows consume their flesh because they were white. There has never been an instance where because they were white, the man of the house was late at night accosted from his home, his wife raped, his children beaten and the man ends up strung up and hung while the rest of the family watches as their house burns down. There has never been an instance where a white person is tailed by police because he is in a nice car or lives in a nice neighborhood. Never an instance where a white person has REPEATEDLY been turned down for jobs because of his race. I said REPEATEDLY, not in the case of those firefighters where they weren’t hired because of a quota. My understanding of that was that they had other departments willing to accept them but declined because they wanted to work at THAT one. We, as black folks, had a larger problem. You have never had your women repeatedly called ugly and fat when you actually aren’t on both counts. You have never been accused of being dangerous just because you showed anger and raised your voice. You have never ever had to see a cop’s siren behind you and grip the wheel and slow to the speed limit and agonize until he passed. You have never had to think that your child going out into the world may cause him to end up dead or maimed or in jail because of being him. We do not need your lectures on racism, because it would be like me lecturing women about the affects and feelings of premenstrual cycles. WHAT THE FUCK DO I KNOW ABOUT IT!? I feel the same way toward this.
I’m tired that I have to stoop lower at times not to seem imposing to white folks. I’m tired of having to lower my voice or not show anger because it somehow frightens white folks. I’m tired of not being allowed to be human. I’m tired of having to hide my displeasure or voice my opinion because it makes white folks uncomfortable. I’m sorry, but I wan’t you uncomfortable now. I cannot do anything to assuage your discomfort. Black folks need to stop trying to make ourselves more palatable, more acceptable. Its not our problem you fear us. IT IS YOU!!! You have that problem, not me. You need to have that therapy session. Black folks, if these folks are frightened of you for no reason, it isnt your fault. If they can’t be in the same room without quaking, its not your fault. If they are having psudo-sexual fantasies about you raping any of their women, ITS. NOT. YOUR. FAULT. Its their problem, you can’t fix it.
Trayvon Martin couldn’t fix it either. He got suspended like a typical teenager. He cursed, he made sexual and crude remarks, he listened to hip hop, and wore hoodies like a. typical. teenager. In all those characteristics, he exudes the character of every male teenager on this earth, including a teenaged George Zimmerman. He was doing what he was supposed to do. Zimmerman wasn’t. Zimmerman was the one sick with the poison of bigotry, of disdain, of fear. Zimmerman got out of that car. Zimmerman approached him. Zimmerman shot and killed him and Zimmerman got off because he was able to stoke those fears of us to a panel of majority white women. My attitude is that maybe we shouldn’t give a damn about asuaging it anymore. Let them fear me. Let them fear what sleeping giant this court arose. Let the sermon on the mount ring in their ears every day white supremacy power wanes and the power of ALL people comes through……
3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
6“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
10“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.12“Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Been saying it forever and a day; RACIST white folks need to own their shit.
Paul Mooney Jr. Talks Trayvon Martin Verdict & Fruitvale Station
http://youtu.be/DEfJF0DblZw
Thanks for this. I’m looking forward to seeing “Fruitvale when it opens nationwide next week.
My husband and I are looking forward to it also! I have seen my husband cry twice in the 40 years we have been married. When our Son died and last night. Trayvon Martin has became like our lost Son. We are heart broken. We have seen many rallies today on the news and we are glad to see so many races coming together. Now if we could just boot the ignorant out and take our country back it would be a good day. We have a long way to go, but you all are not alone. Many people respect people of color it is just a shame the ones who don’t cant and won’t just stfu. It degrades our Country but they just do not care.
As far as black on black crime, really? Do we need to go through the list of school shootings, movie theater shootings, shopping mall shootings, child molesters, mommy’s killing their baby’s. No race is beyond violence on their same race. It seems since 9/11 our country has gone backwards. I have to walk away for the night. My heart just aches for all of us. Fortunately here we can join hands and just be together no matter where we came from or what we look like. I appreciate you all welcoming this old lady. :)
Trayvon Martin supporters take over Times Square in NY City.
http://www.ustream.tv/occupyeye?utm_campaign=twitter.com&utm_source=10589277&utm_medium=social
Great support. WE WILL NOT BE MOVED.
6 MILLION TRAYVONS: How the George Zimmerman mindset has rigged the entire justice system against young black men
http://thkpr.gs/13c5jyr
ZIMMERMAN UPDATE: Demonstrators are marching down Market Street in San Francisco.
Watch live stream here: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/live
Tennetta Foster cries after hearing the not guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman.
Kat Crowe, left, and Melinda O’Neal comfort each other in front of the Seminole County courthouse after learning George Zimmerman had been found not guilty late July 13 in the Murder of Trayvon Martin.
Darrsie Jackson reacts to the not guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman. Her her children are Linzey Stafford, left, 10, and Shauntina Stafford, 11
Tammy Haynes, left, Whitney Tillman and Crystal Haynes, right, react during a youth service at the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Sanford, Fla.
I know one thing without a doubt and that is I’ll be reading the labels on every single product I buy from now from food, clothes, and down to toilet paper and if it has Florida anywhere on it I will not be buying it. Trust me, I am a shopaholic. But now, I will be a readaholic and avoid Florida products like the plague and that goes for trips to Disneyland or whatever else they produce to make money. No way am I gonna help them finance saving black child killers from being held accountable for killing any black child and going to prison.
I hope those six white women on that jury can support Florida financially. And one thing about the black community word of mouth travels faster than a jet or rocket. Just one phone call to Big momma and Aunt Beulah and it’s a wrap!
I called my real estate agent in Florida and told her we were looking elsewhere for a condo for retirement. She sounded shocked. She asked why and I told her I have grand-kids. Even though we are white right is right and Florida is wrong. Done. Many other States to chose from.Plus I would be scared I could be a victim of a robbery and they can claim self defense and kill me. DISGUSTED!
Can we get a petition going to send this white afro-peruvian back to their homeland? I think I took care of all the races they claim to be. ;/
Can we get a petition going to send this white afro-peruvian back to their homeland? I think I took care of all the races they claim to be
:)
Hit them in the pocketbook, disappointed! Tha’t why we call putting your money where your mouth is.
Don’t mess with the color GREEN, when it comes to these folks. It’s the only color that trumps BLACK.
What do they make in Florida besides orange juice, sugar and real estate scams?
Hey guys!
Thank you all for being here last night when the verdict came in. I needed you guys for support. To hear the words “Not Guilty” was so devastating. I was in total disbelief. I am so glad you were here with me.
That’s what we’re supposed to do..stand by one another and support one another. We’re all upset right now and have every right to be, but like Maya Angelou said, “And yet, we rise!” This is not the first time, racist whites with those mythical superior attitudes have tried to obstruct, clamp down on, or take away our freedoms and as long as hate remains apart of and embedded in the whole structure of America’s institutionalized racist system.
Just remember this:
Ain’t gonna let nobody
Turn me around! Turn me around! Turn me around!
Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around
I’m gonna keep on a – walkin’ keep on a – talkin’
Marchin’ down to freedom’s land!
Ain’t gonna let injustice
Turn me around! Turn me around! Turn me around!
Ain’t gonna let injustice turn me around
I’m gonna keep on a – walkin’ keep on a – talkin’
Marchin’ down to freedom’s land!
Ain’t gonna let segregation…
Ain’t gonna let oppression…
Ain’t gonna let your jail cells…
Ain’t gonna let your violence…
Ain’t gonna let nobody…
* DON’T LET NOBODY TURN YOU
DON’T LET NOBODY TURN YOU AROUND!
I’M GONNA KEEP ON A WALKIN’, KEEP ON A TALKIN’
KEEP ON A WALKIN’, KEEP ON A TALKIN’,
KEEP ON A WALKIN’, KEEP ON A TALKIN’,
MARCIN’ DOWN TO FREEDOM’S LAND
“Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ’round”
I want to ask this, were Bernie and John Guy the real deal?
Liza, before trial I heard Bernie was a beast in court but I didn’t see it. He had so many opportunities to go in on the witnesses but he didn’t. So many missed opportunities. John Guy’s opening statement was fiery & powerful. But I think these jurors went in with an agenda and carried it out.
Bernie; a beast? Really? I totally agree about the jury having a set agenda.
SG2; please check your email. Thanks!
Bernie has a good record as a prosecutor and he’s won death penalty cases. I don’t know what happened here. Maybe Judge Nelson cut them off at the knees with not allowing the audio expert. The defense knew it was Trayvon screaming and that’s why they fought tooth and nail to keep the voice expert testimony out. How do they live with themselves for what they have done to the country?
@SG2 I postedd that presser with Corey, West, and Guy. Corey gives me the heebie jeebies!
She looked too happy. I muted the tv. I just couldn’t take it.
Thanks for all the feedback. I was really bothered by two major things: no black person on the jury and the exclusion of the State’s auditory witnesses. It seems those two things gave the Defense, lame as they were, a leg up they shouldn’t have had. I looked at the judge a little sideways when that Frye hearing decision went down.
Good question, Liza. Or where they ALL a part of the Sanford court defense theatircs?
Liza when I watched the Prosecutor’s press conference I honestly thought John Guy was going to cry or explode in anger. I believed he cared more than anyone knew. Trayvon was more than a job, imo.
I missed it. I was too hurt to watch anything. John Guy’s opening & closing statements were explosive.
@theferocity
For the last 24 hours, I swear the phrase “unforgivable blackness” has been ringing in the air at a pitch only black boys can hear.
Rhoda
That’s really what kills me about the trial: it’s all about putting black Americans back in that Jim Crow frame of mind. Not being out past sundown, not looking a white man in the eye, fearing that you might have your life taken and no one cares because your life is meaningless. Couple this with the tea party victories in ’10 and the Supreme Court stripping the Voting Rights act of section five and you can see; white folks who want to take their country back are taking this war seriously. Hopefully, Black America will wake up and create a new political reality.
Look at Latinos: they have the same issues but they are plugging away building their own media infrastructure, buliding their voting powers so that today they are a political force DESPITE voting below their representational margins. Meanwhile, we are watching black radio decimated. We are watching as black journalists fight to get into the white man’s club rather than fight for the black man’s rights. It’s sad and that state of mind is what we need to change; along with Dr. King we need to remember the legacy of Malcom and W.E Dubois too. We need to lift Black America up because we have achieved so much that is represented in the Obama’s; we can’t let the pain of the trial of Trayvon Martin dimish our power to act. We need to feel the pain and let it lift us up to better days.
Spot on Rhoda. We will NOT be going back. It’s going to take ALL HANDS ON DECK to Keep moving FORWARD with the progress that we’ve already made.
Sorry, I’m just checking in, but I’ve been TOO PISSED TO comment in a coherent fashion.
Will say this, though. I was out in DC Saturday nite when that verdict went down, and was at a rally for Trayvon and boycotting Florida within the hour. Still PISSED.
But Zimmerman may have got off, but he’s not FREE. His pathetic life is over, and he’d better contact Casey Anthony about living in HIDING. I think who ever jumps him will be some WHITE BOYS, instead of the Black Guys they expect to riot.
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/356526407238680576/photo/1
I’m not a fortune teller, but I have a feeling that things will not end well for Zimmerman. Even if there were no further legal actions taken, the man’s pretty much thrown his life away.
Zimmerman will now have to look over his shoulder every single day for the rest of his life. Whatever dreams he had of a law enforcement career are over. His prospects for any type of future employment are dim. Zimmerman will also have to be on his best behavior at all times. Imagine what would happen if he got arrested again.
At some point, Zimmerman’s going to run out of money. When his 15 minutes of infamy are up, those donations are going to stop coming in. Wonder how his family feels about having to support him and his wife for the rest of their lives. Of course, his wife may tire of all this and just get a divorce. I guess we can expect a “tell all” book from her if she’s looking to get paid. If she finally decides to tell the truth, all those former supporters will be running from him like the plague.
The court may have decided that Zimmerman is “not guilty,” but Karma’s going to have the final say on this one. It will not be pretty.
You are so in my head. Zimmerman got off, but he’s NOT FREE.
http://youtu.be/6mStv1F7FqM
ClinicEscort @ClinicEscort
There’s never in the history of the U.S.A. been a black man who admitted shooting a white man & the cops declined to arrest him for 6 weeks.
11:38 AM – 14 Jul 2013
Joy-Ann Reid, an MSNBC contributor, added that she too is afraid for her teenage African American sons “because everywhere they go, everything they are wearing, their demeanor, the way they walk, are they looking at you funny, everything about them is supposed to be suspicious.
“As soon as they are out of my custody, out of their dad and my care they are waiting suspects. Waiting to be arrested by police, followed around a store, made to feel uncomfortable in a store like they are not shopping, they are stealing, questioned about where they are, why are they there,” she said. “You always have to teach them these horrible lessons in 2013 that you need to be really careful about who is around you.”
Hey white people…its on us!
Last night I went on twitter when the Zimmerman verdict was announced…at least until I read the words of a father wondering WTH he was going to say to his black son. Then I started balling and the evening was basically over for me.
Surely every parent of a black child in this country has to grapple with teaching them some form of the Black Male Code. I remember the profound sense of what white privilege means hit me when one of my co-workers talked about how she had to make her son cut off his dreads when he was 13 so as not to make him a target. What mother of a white child has to think about those kinds of things? And what mother of a white child has to fear for their lives when they’re walking home from the store?
It looks to me like no perfect calculation of the Black Male Code could have saved Trayvon. That’s where we hit a brick wall. This is just no country for young black men. The randomness of these incidents is where the fear lurks.
What it all comes down to is that this is not a “black people’s problem” – even as it is their children’s lives at stake. Surely they will do everything they can to protect them. But the sad thing is that these kinds of things won’t stop happening until white people get their shit together. That realization sent me back to something my friend Robinswing wrote years ago: We Can’t Fix Ya!
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2013/07/hey-white-peopleits-on-us.html?spref=tw
http://youtu.be/2c7wMIaHoxQ
As a Black person, we’ve all had ‘ the talk’ with our parents when we get into high school.
Our parents, even the ones that usually ‘play’, are deadly serious with this ‘ talk’.
Us learning the lesson, as my mother told me..
could be the difference of me coming to pick you up at the police station vs. visiting you in the morgue.
there is no 6 degrees of separation for Black people knowing of an incident where someone – without the hint of a police record – winds up in the morgue for some sort of variation of ‘ resisting arrest’.
fundamentally, I don’t believe White people:
1. understand this
2. believe it
I’ve never once heard some White person tell me that they have the same conversation with their children…BECAUSE THEY KNOW IT’S A FLIP OF A COIN as to whether they will wind up going to the police station vs. the morgue.
because, when I’ve tried to have this conversation with White folks, they always want to go do , ‘ but they must have been doing something’.
um, no. they were BLACK…that’s all that they were doing.
So, to be told by White folks that we have to ‘respect the law’, and that the law can abuse us and our children is one thing….
The reason why the Trayvon Martin case cut so deep is because NOW, you’re saying that our Black children, have to grovel at the feet of some random White person, ‘ just cause’?
GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!
Do NOT let anyone abuse you for any reason! The color of your skin is NO excuse to allow or tolerate it. I do understand what you mean I grew up in the 60s and I think last night we hopped in a time machine right back to the 60s.. I do not have 60 more years to live but the time I do will be spent working to help people understand Trayvon Martin should not have been murdered, nor should anyone else at the hands of a p.o.s. want to be cop.
A Change For Trayvon
Beautiful, SG2. Thank you for this.
SG2,
just want to thank you again for providing us with a space where we can be honest and angry.
YVW, Rikyrah! After I heard the verdict last night, my heart fell down to the floor and took my breath away. I couldn’t speak. I was shaking. My spirit was devastated. My soul was crushed and undone. I have a long way to recovery.
JB20005
Michael Vick spent 18 months in prison for dog fighting.
George Zimmerman gets to walk away a free man after gunning down a 17-year old who wasn’t breaking any laws.
Justice, American style.
Miranda
−
The President only mentioned the VICTIM(s) of this tragedy….the only ones..Trayvon Martin and his parents. The not so subtle message of purposefully not mentioning Zimmerman’s name is not lost on me. Thank you Mr. President. The rest of us can damn sure call him and his punk ass attorneys and hateful family the spiteful mangy dogs that they are.
@eclecticbrotha
An old lady jumped on an old black blues player because he dedicated a song to Trayvon, but you Negroes are just too violent.
@docrocktex26
Your ancestors never gave up the fight, that’s why you’re here, chatting on twitter instead of picking cotton in the fields right now.
HOLLA!
I hope I am still welcome here. Not every white person agrees with this verdict. I am truly sick over these disgusting women’s decision. I will not step foot back in Florida. I have signed all the petitions and I hope someone will start one to get the attention of a musician to work on the 911 call with the death screams to isolate all the shit Zimmerman said from Trayvon’s screams and Trayvon saying I am begging you! Fogen said he hollered help or help me but nothing else, so I would love for at least the truth to come out. I know I hear fogen say f*cking kill you. I am sure there is more too. I still pray the real truth will come out.
diappointed, you are welcome here. This is a place for us to speak what is in our minds and in our hearts, UNCENSORED.
Thank you! Believe me as a older white lady, I am more than pissed off with this jury and their decision. That fat piece of shit needed to lose his gun and the only way to do that is to convict. He should have been convicted because he gunned down a child he scared for no reason other than he hates black boys. smdh Why does he get the right to self defense but our young children do not have that same right?
from lamh
lamh36
−
Hey guys this is not in response to POTUS statement, it’s something I’ve been wanting to write all day.
Yesterday after hearing the verdict, I was not really shocked, but I just felt this numbness. I was upset and just had a long time trying to get my mind settles enough to finally get to sleep. This morning I woke up and I no longer felt numbness, I felt anger. And not the normal kind of anger at stubbing your toe, or angry cause I’m broke, but this quiet, festering anger that just seemed to get stronger as the day goes by and as I read the reactions from both side of the divide and I just had to stop watching tv or reading twitter. That anger is still festering and simmering under the surface. To know me is to know that I’m not a volatile person. I’m pretty even-handed when it comes to the justice system, I don’t trust it, but I realize that we have to live within it. But as African Americans, I suspect that majority of us feel the same particularly when it comes to the justice system.
I’m angry. That’s it. I don’t feel violent, I don’t feel reactive, I FEEL ANGRY! And right now, I don’t want to hear anything about this being “the right verdict” or about “respecting the verdict” or “why are people so surprised”. I don’t want to hear anything about SYG, or about white on black crime or any other reasoning people have been using to create “calm”. Can Black folk just for right now be allowed to be damn angry and not RATIONAL and not LOGICAL, just ANGRY. without someone trying to calm us down.
I AM ANGRY. I damn I think we deserve at least the day to rant and rave in anger and not LOGIC. That way at least we can go to work on Monday in our probably majority white work place and public places and not feel the need to scream in white folks faces!
“I AM ANGRY.” SO AM I, LAMH.
And like I’ve said down thread. I’m DONE asking myself questions about hateful/racist behvior. Bigoted/racists white folks need to OWN THEIR SHIT.
On Saturday nite when that verdict went down, my friend and I were in a public place sipping a cool drink and waiting for the club down the street to start groovin. We’re watching closed caption TV and when I saw Zimmerman’s smirk, I KNEW he’d gotten off.
I have never been that DAMNED ANGRY in my life. So suddenly a bunch of white guys came in where my friend and I were, and I was watching them to see if there was any SCINTILLA of celebration about them over this verdict. They were wise enough to keep straight faces, order their food and GTFO of the place because Black folk outnumbered them. Some stayed and tried to eat their food, but the tension was so palatable, you could have cut it with two knives.
Finally, I said to my friend, “I need to get outta here” and she said “Let’s go.” As we passed the club we were supposed to head off to, I looked at her and said “I don’t even feel like getting my dance on – I’m going home.” As we headed to the U Street Metro station, my friend’s cell phone rang – her friend Chris, was calling her to head for a rally in protest of the verdict down in the Plaza on U Street, and that’s where we headed.
I am STILL PISSED and had to stay away from all forms of media until I calmed down. That is today, but I’m still pissed, and if Eric Holder’s Justice Department doesn’t do for Trayvon what Janet Reno’s Justice Department did in the Rodney King case back in 1992….do I need to finish this statement? This situation is no different for President Obama than it was for President Clinton in 1993. Say what you want, but one of Clinton’s first acts as POTUS was to order the Justice Department to bring Federal Anti-Discrimination charges against Stacey Koon, Theodore Brieseno and the other two LAPD officers for beating of Rodney King. While the State of California was quick to bring those cops to court, the all white jury in Simi Valley let them go, just like those six women in Florida.
An all white jury has their own agenda and that is to IGNORE THE EVIDENCE staring them in the FACE. Look, they let Emmitt Till’s murderers go free back in 1955, and in 2013, not a damned thing has really changed. Zimmerman needs to face a Federal Magistrate and some U. S. Attorney’s and see what happens to his fat ass.
Reverend Al Sharpton @TheRevAl1m
I am glad President Obama made statement on Trayvon and raised his families pain. The nation need to keep them in mind.
I haven’t stopped thinking about Trayvon’s family all day. They received a life sentence, they carry this burden forever, but Zimmerman goes free without any burden because he has no conscience. I
DNA evidence only count and is solid evidence when white folks that are murdered. According to the state of Florida and that lying azz Maio, Black folks DNA is magic and capable of disappearing. Smh!
It’s time to boycott and not spend any money in Florida. Don’t even buy their orange juice. I hope all you black celebrities that live in Florida move to another state because your taxes help pay to set black child killers free. Stop spending money with racist who will turn around and use that money to defend those who want to kill your children and get away with it. Warning, black folks do not hire any of those TV legal analyst that were cheerleaders for Zimmerman because they are the type of lawyers that will take your money and sell you out.
Crystal Wright, Jesse Lee Peterson, Clarence Thomas and all the rest of you azz kissers can kiss my black azz!
Btw, young black folks need to collect old school books written by African Americans and add them to their collection and review their history. Richard Wright should be at the top of that list. I’m just saying.
African studies should be required reading in every black household. Some of the southern states are removing books and replacing them with revisionist history, creationism, etc. They don’t want our children to know the truth about this country and the history, past & present of racism, and most certainly,about the continent of Africa.
Granny, nothing trumps the color BLACK like the color GREEN.
tell it Granny.
I’m giving up orange juice
Department of Justice says it will continue to evaluate if George Zimmerman can be prosecuted on a federal level.
DOJ: Federal prosecutors will determine if evidence reveals a prosecutable violation of any federal civil rights.
This is necessary, and they should get going with it ASAP. ALEC, FL, West & O’Mara are already saying they won’t win the civil case. Arrogant MOFOS.
Prayer vigil at Howard University tonight for TrayvonMartin. 8:13pm at the flagpole
The only thing they car about is money. Let’s take that! Somehow Seminlole County and the State of Florida need to pay higher taxes for their sins. Boycott Florida! Let them live in fear. Vote out the hate.
CarolMae; nothing trumps the color BLACK like the color GREEN.
I have a cousin living in Seminole County. I’ll explain in a new post in several minutes. I need to catch up, think and ask for your opinions.
Ok.
“No Justice! No peace!” chanting at Union Square
We still fight for Trayvon
George Zimmerman stalked and killed Trayvon Martin, and today, Zimmerman is a free man. In this time of national sorrow, let’s turn our pain and rightful frustration into action, and grow a movement to hold accountable a criminal justice system that fails Black Americans every day. And let’s demand better from a media apparatus that enables racial profiling and creates the conditions for the next George Zimmerman.
Please continue the fight with us and call on United States Attorney General Eric Holder to bring federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman, and urge the DOJ to demonstrate a commitment to protecting civil rights and ending racial profiling
http://act.colorofchange.org/signup/zimmerman_acquittal/?akid=2991.992356.ANseWN&rd=1&t=4
“We should ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this.”
We cannot prevent all tragedies, we know that. But we prevent future tragedies like the murder of innocent black children by putting their killers in prison, not turning them loose with a license to kill. The certainty of severe punishment forces would be killers to choose between their own freedom and a thrill kill. And, as a society with laws, we hope they value their own freedom enough to choose not to kill.
The system does not work, obviously, when we turn the killers loose and offer them book deals and money and a movie of the week and God knows what else. I can’t take it any farther than this. What else am I supposed to be asking myself?
Feeling you here, Liza. It’s fine to ask individuals to ask themselves these questions, but we already know a swath of the white population in America are never going to ask themselves these questions, as they are part of the PROBLEM and deny that there is a racial problem and unequal justice system in America., all the while invoking race at every turn through dog whistling and flat out racist behaviors.
President Obama can adddress the ELEPHANT in the ROOM. RACISM. I, for one am DONE asking questions of myself. Racist need to OWN THEIR SHIT.
His time is up.
Vitaminlover,
Those mothers on that jury didn’t give a damn about Sybrina’s child. So heartless and cruel. God help us!
You know what goes around comes around, Southern, It is so weird when that happens. Then they will be whining. The two points to convict this Zithead–1. he was told not to follow him. 2.he shot an unarmed kid.
Equal justice under the law is just words. I have no hope in the American justice system.
Understand your feelings totally, Southern. My youngest daughter feels the same way. This is why we must stand and keep going. Also always know God’s got this. I truly hate that this young man was unjustly killed. This event will be a catalyst We will prevail.
Well, the next time something happens to one of theirs, I hate to say this , but I might have to force myself to feel sympathy for them. I’m praying that God will take this out of my heart, but I’ve witnessed this from them too many times and way too long and I’m tired. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Ice melts and so does steel!
@SouthernGirl2:
^5 SouthernGirl2! Right on!
No they did not care about Sybrina or Tracy! They heard those screams and they knew it was Trayvon! They could hear him caling for his Mom and saying, “Help me! I don’t know them! I’m beging you!” They should have nightmares for the rest of their lives!!! I am also sorry to say this, but these women cannot identify with me or my having to raise black daughters and a black just turned 18 year old son in racist America! They canot even fathom the fear that I feel knowing that my 6 foot 3 black son can be profiled, detained by some madman and shot and be found, “Not Guilty” by a jury which does not represent him in any way! Not one black on that jury! They do not know how it feels to have my son stereotyped as “Criminally Inclined, prone to violence because he is black! They do not know how it feels to have my son perceived as a negative threat, with superhuman strength who is big and scary and attack because that is what black boys to….ATTACK!”
It is time for action people and we need to march and protest and start voicing our concerns again! We have not overcome or arrived by no means! Some of our young people have been to comfortable in America and they need to be reminded of the sacrifices of our parents and grand-parents who endured the racist caste system JIM CROW! Our families endured scorn and disrespect for many years. Black people were denied equlity under the U.S. government until civil rights laws were enacted! Black children need to look at what has tranpired in America, and that should motivate them to excell in school, continue to get a higher education and to get their acts together! There is much work to be done!
@Deborah. My heart sank the moment I heard the jury make up of 5 white women and an Hispanic-mixed woman. NOT ONE BLACK Person. That was pre-meditated.
@Deborah
Leading up to the Zimmerman verdict I had a talk with my boys about Jim Crows laws and the constant oppression of African Americans. My kids have no clue about the oppression we suffered under those hateful racists laws. I explained how I saw my parents treated …having to go through the back door to order a damn hamburger, seeing my mother having to sit all day in a waiting room with a sick child on her lap until whites were seen first,and here we are again. A child gunned down for nothing while walking back from the store and police let the killer go home. I told my boys…your mother is tired. I’m tired of having to fight for my rights every single day that I breathe air. I’m tired of the violence against our young black sons for walking in black skin. Young black boys can’t take a girl on a date without being harassed by the police. Young black boys can’t walk down the street without being the subject of someone’s assumptions. I’m tired of living in fear of the racist police and the George Zimmerman wannabe trigger happy cops in this fucking country. Enough!
Hi Vitaminlover. Yes! GZ’s time was up the moment he stalked, gunned down and murdered Trayvon.
No call for that at all. Even if Trayvon said something smart to him to get him away from him-that jerk did not have to follow him. I look at those beady, too-close-together eyes and that deadpan sneaky expression and could tell that he is no good. Also he has a past history of violence. If he thought that he was helping a ’cause’ well he is sorely mistaken.
Heads up, everyone!
Justice for Trayvon Martin: Day of Decision Protest – Dudley Square Station, Washington St at Dudley St, Roxbury, MA @ 6PM
PEACEFUL RALLY FOR TRAYVON SUNDAY in New York. 2pm. Union Square, Manhattan. 14th/Broadway.
Bring signs, your voices. @VibeMagazine
Sanford Florida… where lawlessness and racism runs amuck.
Please review and sign the following petitions for Justice4TrayvonMartin
NAACP
White House
Change.Org
ColorofChange.org
Thanks for these links, SG2!
@wyethwire
1 of my friends left South Carolina bar last night b/c people were celebrating Zimmerman verdict & screaming ‘Free at Last’ in an MLK voice
HAUNTING
Reblogged this on nicki's way and commented:
This is just wrong ,we all need to be afraid
What George Zimmerman Can Do Now
By Charles P. Pierce at 7:45AM
And, of course, this was Not About Race because nothing is ever About Race. The prosecutors even told us that it wasn’t About Race. The defense won its case because this was Not About Race. The sharp guys and pundits will spend all weekend explaining how Race was an element of the events that night, but that the case, ultimately, was not About Race. And because this case was Not About Race, nothing out of our history counts, because our history, here in the land of the free, is Not About Race, either. Because our history is Not About Race, a few weeks ago, when the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, what happened on the Edmund Pettus Bridge was not relevant.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_End_Of_The_Daily_Trayvon
This is what the white crackers want us to do, forget about centuries of slavery, jim crow and oppression. NOT.EVER.GOING.TO.HAPPEN. We will not be going back.
MJ Rosenberg @MJayRosenberg
ONLY issue in the Zimmerman trial is race. Trayvon is dead b/c he was a black teenager whose existence outraged the racist who killed him,
2:36 PM – 13 Jul 2013
Linda Kyambadde @globalcitizenln
watching ppl celebrate/defend d killing of Trayvon reminds 1 of photos of ppl in their Sunday best having a picnic @ a lynching #NoJustice
10:03 AM – 14 Jul 2013
Rise and Shine
By utaustinliberal
Shock. Anger. Grief. Confusion. These are all the emotions that ran through peoples minds when a jury of white women told the world that in their belief system, it is perfectly okay for a white man to stalk, attack, and murder a black child. The same emotion that ran through peoples minds when Troy Davis was executed even though the evidence was murky. We’re back here again. How could a jury of mothers not understand the fear Trayvon Benjamin Martin felt when a stranger with a gun accosted him on a dark rainy night for no reason except for the color of his skin? How could a black woman who fired shots into her ceiling because she felt threatened but didn’t kill anyone get 20 years in prison while George Zimmerman walked away with no consequences due to the “Stand Your Ground” law? How does a man who was told to stay in his car and not follow Trayvon Martin walk away free? The simple answer? Sanford, Florida is 80% white conservative gun owners. The other answer? Society doesn’t value a black life as they do a white one and it seems to want to break black people down every single time by saying “hey, you’re inferior….hey you’re worthless….hey the President of the United States is black and you will pay for it every single time you step out of your home because you share the same color of skin as he does.”
That’s what they want black people to believe. That’s what they want society to believe. From Sanford to Newtown they want us to believe that children’s lives have no value. They want us to believe that human life has no worth. That guns are more valuable than a living, breathing, full of possibilities human being. That the color of your skin should damn you for life. It hurts. It is painful. It makes my heart bleed that we are here once again. It makes me scream WHY!!! Why are we here again? Why is it a constant struggle for society to see black people as human beings? Why do we always have to prove our worth every second of every day? Why can’t society see that a black child deserves the same protections as a white child? That a black child deserves the same bountiful life as a white child? That when you look at a black child you see a child first because that is who he or she is and not a thug? It makes one want to throw up hands in the air and say I’m done. This is it. Why should I fight for your rights when you won’t fight for mine? Why should I regard you as a human being when you look upon me as thing? Why should I continue to have hope?
That is what they want. That is what the racists, bigots, ALEC, and the NRA want. Cynicism. Defeat. That is what they want. But you must not give in to them. You must never give in to them. The worst thing a civilized society can breed is cynicism and indifference. This fight is not over. I want you to look at Trayvon Martin’s family and have hope. They are not giving up. They are not broken (though they have every right to be). They are not defeated. They are out there continuing the fight for the Trayvon Martin’s of the country regardless of color. They are out there making sure that society realizes that dangerous laws such as ‘Stand Your Ground” must be stopped. Activists are out there making sure people know that ALEC is not your friendly neighborhood club but a poison to society. We cannot give up now. There are millions of lives counting on us. There are future generations whose lives we hold in our hands. We cannot give up now. I understand the rage, the pain, the hurt that you feel; especially if you are black. But you cannot give up now.
You cannot give up until a black child can walk the streets free of fear. You cannot give up until a black child is treated the same as a white child. You cannot give up until all human life is regarded as precious despite name, color, who they love, who they worship or don’t worship, and their socioeconomic level. The battle to change laws and society’s heart will be long, tough, and painful. But please, please, please, do not give up. There is a precious life out there in the world who is counting on you.
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/07/14/rise-and-shine-553/
3 Chics AMEN Corner:
Amen,amen, amen
@TheObamaDiary
Surprise, Greenwald interrupts his tweeting about himself to link to post that says #TrayonMartin “jury basically got it right”. Pure ugly.
Greenwald also thought that the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 was okay because he trusted the judgement of George W. Bush, his president.
Greenwald if full of sh!t. When are people going to stop listening to this hack?
Fuck, that ugly troll Greenwall.
Kennymack1971
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I’m really prepared to slap the living shit out of people parroting this “Why don’t y’all get this outraged about Black on Black crime?” talking point to try to discount Black peoples emotions about this case. Just shut the fuck up.
I’m wanting to slap the living shit out of well intentioned people who are saying this is about ALEC, and SYG, and Teapublican state legislators. They play a large part, to be sure. But yesterday, racism ruled the day. The rule of law, whatever it was, didn’t matter. The racist cowards who were on that jury intended to let Zimmerman go from the minute they occupied their seats in the court room.
Trayvon Martin’s murder was ALL.ABOUT.RACE.
AMEN!
I had a bad feeling after deliberations went past the 9th hour.
SG2; you and I know that jury didn’t review the evidence and use good common sense.
Like Vitaminlover said: 1. GZ told to stay in his vehicle 2. Trayvon shot & killed
THE FUCKING END!
“You are not a human being in their eyes.”
And the fact that these white womenn had children and heard the death screams of Trayvon Martin. AND THEY KNEW THE TRUTH, they knew it was Trayvon begging for his life. These WHITE WITCHES ignored that truth and let that MONSTER go free.
FUCK EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!
@Ametia:
My parents, who are now in their late 70’s, grew up during the Jim Crow era in South Carolina along with my other extended family members in and around the Charleston area. They are both alive thank god, and are grieved to know that nothing has changed in this society! Racism is alive and well! Momma and Daddy, remember the days when as children and teenagers, they had to show deference to whites by addressing them as Miss and Mr. or Sir, not looking at them in the eye ever! They also remember when they were not allowed to enter establishemtns through the front doors and when they couldn’t sit at dept. stor lunch counters, and daddy couldn’t sit on a park bench, or go to Folly Beach in Charleston, or they had to sit in the balcony in the movie theater, and they couldn’t try on clothes in the dept. stores or attend the public library, and they had to attend segregated schools, and they could not attend State universities or Colleges, even though their parents paid Stated taxes via their pay checks, so they had to attend HBCU or come up here to NYC to attend school. You stayed out of the way of whites and you didnt associate with them socially, If a white killed a black, his word was taken as gospel, adn the white individual was not even arrested. However, if a black indidividual was accused of a crime, he/she was immediately arrested, convicted and sent to prison or executed. (Lena Baker,George Stinney).
Those white women heard those screams just like you and I heard them but they ignored them. They ignored the evidence. No blood or DNA on TM’s clothes, sleeves or body. They knew the truth and chose to ignore the truth! How do they sleep at night? The fact that they are mothers has nothing to do with this case! They are not mothers of black children and they will and have never felt the sting of racism against their sons or daughters! During the lynching days of the 1900’s in the 20th century, we see photos taken as white men, children and white women stood around pointing at the lifeless body of a black male was hanging from a tree! White women were just as prominent as white men in their hatred, rage and anger at blacks and more so. They are all standing around as their children are playing and playing tag as if they are at an event!
I see Trayvon Martin depicted as the black male hanging from a tree, because that is what they did to him yesterday! He was demonized and catorgorized as black thug, with in human strength, criminally inclined, prone to violence as black males are stereotypes in this society. I am not surprised at this verdict and neither were my parents. My prayers are with you Sybrina and Tracy. Fogen will get his on the street! He will never be safe!
Go to professor Leathermans blog and sign the petition for GZ for Civil Rights charges to be brought up against GZ for violating the Civil Rights of Trayvon Martin. The DOJ needs can now fully investigate this case since the State case failed.
Hi Deborah. SG2, me, and our parents grew up in Jim Crow too. We know what it’s like. Our schools sytem were intergrated when I was in 6th grade. The parents fought against intergrating schools, and the board of education finally agreed to a compromise with white parents. Boys were seperated from Girls. The white father did not want their daughters in the same class as the black boys.
“The murder of Trayvon Martin feels like this generation’s 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.”
Good analogy.
@Ametia:
^5! So your parents and SG2’s parents had to endure the indignities of the Jim Crow era too! SMH! it hurts me to my heart when my relatives recount stories of what they endured during that terrible period in thier lives but finally it took Rosa Parks to get the movement started! I cannot imgaine the indignity of entering a bus through a front door, paying my fare, and then having to run to the side exit door, and entering that exit! I was told that sometimes the bus driver would take off if you were not fast enough, or if he was angry!
i wrote another post above, admonishing our todays generation get off their lazy assess and start marching! They have become to complacent with their way of life today! I was so trouble last night and I could not sleep. My husband was pissed off and my kids were sad and angry and they wanted to do sometthing positive to make a difference! We want justice for TM! I told them since they are all 18 and over, they can sign the petition to have Fogen investigated for civil rights violations against Trayvon Martin!
JB20005
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The other day I observed that Chris Rock once said something to the effect of a white person practically having to shoot Medgar Evers before the media would call them racist.
Poor Chris gave them way too much credit.
from Camille:
Please don’t ever let the actions of hateful men make you question God or His grace-
The deal with free-will means that we as supposedly evolved species get to make decisions – and God doesn’t always get to step in to stop us – or control the situation –
But all things will as promised end up working together for the good of those who believe–
Some are born angels – no matter how flawed or imperfect – angels
nevertheless – and their lives are meant as testimony to be used for the greater good–
No matter how hard it gets – and it does get really hard – we’ve got to believe, trust and hold on.
There is a God and he isn’t always dealing as we humans would have him – with all our very limited and myopic sense of humanity and being-
————————————————————————-
I ask myself why may times about many things. But then I’m reminded Jesus is still Lord and Savior. Praise God.
After Verdict Zman’s Brother Besmirches Trayvon on Piers Morgan (Watch)
After Verdict Zman’s Brother Besmirches Trayvon on Piers Morgan (Watch)
July 13, 2013
robert zimmerman (screenshot)*In the wake of a Sanford, Florida jury finding George Zimmerman not guilty for his killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, his brother Robert Zimmerman Jr. appeared on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Live.”
He was asked to describe his brother George’s reaction to the verdict:
“He is still processing the reality or notion of being a free man, of having what the judge described as no further business before the court.”
Zimmerman Jr. told Piers Morgan that despite hearing the words ‘not guilty’ Saturday night, his brother will be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life.
“There are factions, there are groups, there are people that would want to take the law into their own hands as they perceive it, or be vigilante’s in some sense,” he told Morgan during the live interview. “They think that justice was not served, they won’t respect the verdict no matter how it was reached and they will always present a threat to George and his family.”
And then there was this a-hole comment from Robert Zimmerman Jr:
“I want to know if it’s true, and I don’t know if it’s true, that Trayvon Martin was looking to procure firearms, or growing marijuana, or looking to make lean,” he told Piers Morgan and Don Lemon.
http://www.eurweb.com/2013/07/after-verdict-zmans-brother-besmirches-trayvon-on-piers-morgan-trayvon/
Zimmerman will be looking over his shoulder, unitl the day he leaves this earth plane. He will feel and know what it’s like to be STALKED like the animal/the murderer that he IS.
Exactly!!
@Ametia:
Let’s just say, if I hear that someone took him out, I would not be sad in the least bit! I have already heard that he is receiving death threats! Someone is going to pop him! When he least expects it, he will be relaxed and comfortable and what he did to Trayvon will be done to him.
I wish I could spit in his face.
JB20005 •
−
The biggest reason I ever became a lawyer, and practiced criminal law was because I had zero faith in the US criminal justice system, and thought I could make a difference.
Yesterday’s verdict reaffirmed my original beliefs in full. The deck is stacked, the system is corrupt, and it failed a 17 year old kid, who was executed for the crime of existing.
RIP Trayvon Martin, forever young. History will remember your name as a mark of everlasting shame on “the land of the free”.
…and the home of COWARDS.
JB20005, I agree with everything you said and those are my thoughts exactly, except this is “land of free”. This is not the “land of free”. It is the land of the oppressed, BS, lies, and hate.
gn
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Saw this: “Years ago Trayvon would’ve been killed for whistling at a white woman. Today we don’t even need reasons.”
MonieTalks
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And this is why I have no sympathy for this new generation of so-called 2520 activists who think they can break the law just because they feel like it and yet the mere of charges filed against them is an injustice.
GZ fought a cop. Nothing was done. He fought with a girlfriend. Nothing was done. This inaction led to him profiling and killing an unarmed teen. This sociopath should have never had a gun in the first place when he intersected with Trayvon that night and snuffed away his life.
*Cue the Ed Snowden’s a hero bullshit. We know damn sure this fool is NOT a hero to POC.
Keith Boykin @keithboykin8m
After being stalked, captured, enslaved, segregated, lynched, profiled, beaten, and killed, we’re told we’re the ones who are violent
SPOT on Keith! We’re supposed to be submissive, while good ole MASSA, cracks that whip. Rachel Jeantel’s sharing Trayvon;s words: “CREEP ASS CRACKA” How clairvoyant was Trayvon.
Tell it Keith! Tell the truth and shame the devil.
CamilleCamille
http://onlineathens.com/breaking-news/2013-07-13/florida-state-attorney-fires-information-technology-director-who-raised
This is not over yet–
It all seemed so suspiciously coordinated. We are going to find out that they were all in on it: Rick Scott, Angela Corey, Robert Zimmerman, O’Mara, Don West, The Jurors and probably even the bloody prosecutors and Judge Nelson — I trust no one at this point –
Something stinks.
But we can take comfort in the fact that there is no honor amongst thieves —
It’s only a matter of time now before this neat little packaged alliance, united in their racism and contempt, begins to unravel at the seams–
I posted this link and yes, IT STINKS! You’re inside my head CAMILLE.
Zimmerman verdict a ‘wake-up call’ for blacks in Atlanta
by Kunbi Tinuoye | July 14, 2013 at 1:04 AM
Stafford Mitchell has been glued to the television screen for the last three weeks.
The owner of a popular barbershop on the south side of Atlanta has been gripped by the wall-to-wall coverage of the George Zimmerman trial.
He says his customers, predominately African-American males, were equally fired up by the racially charged high-profile case. “It’s the main topic of discussion,” says Mitchell, who has run Executive Cuts & Styles for the past 12 years.
“It was as big as the O.J. Simpson trial. Everyone who came in iterated their opinion.”
Indeed, a small TV in the corner of the shop became a window for the live courtroom streams. The proceedings, commentary and in-depth legal analysis were the main focus for passionate and frank discussions, says Mitchell.
He says he’s been anxiously awaiting the verdict in Zimmerman case. But when he heard the not guilty verdict he felt angry and sad for the family of Trayvon Martin.
“Based on what I’ve seen [Zimmerman] was clearly in the wrong,” says Mitchell. “He didn’t follow the instructions of the 911 operator.
“He killed an unarmed man. They say it was self-defense but Trayvon Martin had no weapon.
“If anything Trayvon was defending himself: if someone’s following me I have a right to defend myself. This is a very sad day for America.”
“This is the justice system in America and we have to live with the system,” says Brian Weans, who regularly gets his hair cut at Mitchell’s barbershop.
“I am disappointed that the prosecution was unable to prove their case for the jurors to make an educated decision. It’s a travesty that they [Trayvon’s parents] have to deal with the death of their son and the fact that the killer gets to walk free.”
“It’s a wake-up call. We’ve got complacent because we believe that we are living in a post-racial society and obviously this verdict shows this is not the case,” says Armstrong Booker, a stay-at-home mom.
“It reminds us again that in this country black men and black boys can fall at the hands of white people and get away with it,” says Andrew Harris, of northeast Atlanta, who is the father of three, including a 15-year-old boy.
“I didn’t even watch the case,” says Harris, who is a commodities trader, “It didn’t even want to watch a case where another white man got away with killing a black man”.
“Not only can white men and the police kill an African-American man and get away with it. The verdict of this case shows they can kill African-American boys and get away with it,” he added.
“He hunted him like a predictor and prey and got away with the killing. In a town where the police were not willing to enforce the law how can we expect the jury to?”
http://thegrio.com/2013/07/14/zimmerman-verdict-a-wake-up-call-for-blacks-in-atlanta/
The Guardian, which will publish any diatribe by Greenwald, took down this column by Gary Younge. Someone had already copied it before they took it down
Open season on black boys after a verdict like this
Posted:Sun, 14 Jul 2013 07:25:00 GMT
Open season on black boys after a verdict like this
Posted:Sun, 14 Jul 2013 07:25:00 GMTPosted:2013-07-14T08:07:42Z
Calls for calm after George Zimmerman was acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin are empty words for black families
Let it be noted that on this day, Saturday 13 July 2013, it was still deemed legal in the US to chase and then shoot dead an unarmed young black man on his way home from the store because you didn’t like the look of him.
The killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last year was tragic. But in the age of Obama the acquittal of George Zimmerman offers at least that clarity. For the salient facts in this case were not in dispute. On 26 February 2012 Martin was on his way home, minding his own business armed only with a can of iced tea and a bag of Skittles. Zimmerman pursued him, armed with a 9mm handgun, believing him to be a criminal. Martin resisted. They fought. Zimmerman shot him dead.
Who screamed. Who was stronger. Who called whom what and when and why are all details to warm the heart of a cable news producer with 24 hours to fill. Strip them all away and the truth remains that Martin’s heart would still be beating if Zimmerman had not chased him down and shot him.
There is no doubt about who the aggressor was here. The only reason the two interacted at all, physically or otherwise, is that Zimmerman believed it was his civic duty to apprehend an innocent teenager who caused suspicion by his existence alone.
Appeals for calm in the wake of such a verdict raise the question of what calm there can possibly be in a place where such a verdict is possible. Parents of black boys are not likely to feel calm. Partners of black men are not likely to feel calm. Children with black fathers are not likely to feel calm. Those who now fear violent social disorder must ask themselves whose interests are served by a violent social order in which young black men can be thus slain and discarded.
But while the acquittal was shameful it was not a shock. It took more than six weeks after Martin’s death for Zimmerman to be arrested and only then after massive pressure both nationally and locally. Those who dismissed this as a political trial (a peculiar accusation in the summer of Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden) should bear in mind that it was politics that made this case controversial.
Charging Zimmerman should have been a no-brainer. He was not initially charged because Florida has a “stand your ground” law whereby deadly force is permitted if the person “reasonably believes” it is necessary to protect their own life, the life of another or to prevent a forcible felony.
Since it was Zimmerman who stalked Martin, the question remains: what ground is a young black man entitled to and on what grounds may he defend himself? What version of events is there for that night in which Martin gets away with his life? Or is it open season on black boys after dark?
Zimmerman’s not guilty verdict will be contested for years to come. But he passed judgement on Trayvon that night summarily.
http://pastebin.com/R3ugFqJW
But this verdict had to be.
The world was watching and they got to see that America is comfortable with her racism.
America has been on economic decline since Reagan took office and with this verdict it’s confirmed that America has no moral authority (as if all of the wars this country has started for no good reason left any doubt)
Now even the good white people who supported Trayvon especially those on the Leatherman blog understood the depth and depravity of American racism before this verdict.
Now they truly understand why African Americans call the U.S. Justice system the ‘Just Us’ system.
Ironically I believe if the verdict had been guilty (either murder or manslaughter) that would have put a band-aid on the festering wound that is American racism but now it’s all out in the open in all of it’s ugliness and putridity.
Got damn America or God bless America to do better?
It’s up to us.
Count me among the duped and the gullible. It was such a simple case. I actually believed the six women on the jury would have no choice but to return a verdict of manslaughter. All those b!tches did was wait for dinner and then acquit the murderer.
And I lived in northern Florida for 22 years. I know those redneck women are as bad as the men.
There are things that we hope for and we want to believe to be true, and then there is reality. The space between is filled with all of our sadness and suffering.
“And I lived in northern Florida for 22 years. I know those redneck women are as bad as the men.”
No doubt these women were supporting one of their own from Sanford, but I don’t have it twisted. There are some good meaning white liberals, so-called feminist who’djump on the same bandwagon.
I’ll bet money now that those redneck women do not think of themselves as what they are. They probably think that are good people with no racial issue whatsoever. They probably cried their eyes out when the children were massacred in Connecticut because they think they love and care about children.
It’s all well and good until they were put to the test. They were tested and they failed. I suspect that there’s a few self identified white liberal women we could paint with the same tar brush. Who really knows what they are until they are tested?
This is not over.
I’m wondering if Sybrina and Tracy have the strength right now to pursue wrongful death in civil court or if they are too emotionally drained. It would be good if Zimmerman were deprived of whatever financial gain he hopes to reap from this.
I hope they will.
And I hope GZ, and his cronies never know another day of peace in their lives.
I can’t even write what I hope for the Zimmermans.
@Liza. you most certainly can write whatever you want here about the murderer.
I hope they go forward with the civil case. Sometimes, money is the only language people understand. Zimmerman should spend the rest of his life broke, frightened, and miserable.
No; Rachel; it is never going to be over. We fight ALL DAY, EVERYDAY.
Michael Vick went to prison for killing a dog. Plaxico Burress went to prison for shooting himself. George Zimmerman murdered an unarmed kid and the racist jury set him free.
There is no equal justice for African Americans in this country. We are oppressed every day we breathe air.
Michael Vick went to prison for killing a dog.
One of Vick’s black teammates was recently accused of dogfighting. I guess they will literally crucify him like they did Christ.
speak that truth
Hat tip GrannyStandingforTruth
the 25 year old Black man wouldn’t have even made it to the Sanford Police Station – he would have been shot in the back ‘ resisting arrest’.
This; and if he’s try to tell the truth of what happened and went on the run, they’d hunt him down like a wild animal and FRY him in public like they did Christopher Dorner.