A crowd of around 60 people came out tonight in Santa Ana, to express their anger over the Trayvon Martin verdict. There are similar marches and protests happening across the U.S. and are expected to continue at least through this weekend. Now that the jury has made their decision, as to “not guilty,” in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin by volunteer Neighborhood Watch captain, George Zimmerman, in Stanford, Florida, protesters are focusing their attention to get the “Stand Your Ground” laws changed. Twenty-two states currently have that law, which allows lethal force to be used if a person feels threatened by another, even if the person doing the shooting starts the altercation. Opponents say this verdict will open the door to many more such shootings.
Genevieve Huizar
Genevieve Huizar came to show her support. She is the mother of Manuel Diaz, who was killed by Anaheim Police last year. Police claimed that Diaz reached for his gun and had to use lethal force, but witnesses did not see it that way. No charges have been filed against the officers involved.
Opponents of the law claim that it favors whites over blacks, saying that if Martin were the shooter he would have been arrested at the scene if not shot by police. Neilson Hester, one of the protesters, said, “The Trayvon Martin’s killing is an extension of police brutality even though a volunteer security guard did the shooting. The police department backed Zimmerman up.”
Yesterday in Tampa, Florida a 71 year old Black man was found guilty of manslaughter after shooting his 41 year old white neighbor in self defense. Marissa Alexander of Jacksonville was sentenced to twenty years this week, for defending herself against her allegedly abusive husband, when she fired warning shots inside her home in August 2010. She claimed that the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law should apply to her, but a jury did not see it that way.
Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin have asked for people to remain calm, and so far protests have been peaceful, with only a few problems from some who show up with the intent of causing trouble. There was no police presence at the Santa Ana protest.
So are you obligated by law to retreat
Or stand your ground?
Jesus, somebody please clarify this ridiculousness.
“.. protesters are focusing their attention to get the “Stand Your Ground” laws changed.”
Why is STG relevant to the TM/GZ trial verdict? SYG was not brought into argument by either the defense or the prosecution.
Another thing – blacks have disproportionately benefited from SYG. in Florida.
Another thing – there have been over 600 murders in Chicago alone (mostly black victims) since this whole GZ/TM thing began. What kind of bullshit is this?
Skally, juror B37 brought up the SYG law in an interview with Anderson Cooper. It is very clear that the jurors used that law in determining their verdict.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/07/15/2306631/zimmerman-juror-says-panel-considered-stand-your-ground-he-had-a-right-to-defend-himself/
I doubt that there was any serious consideration by the jurors of SYG – if they would have done that they would have gone contrary to the judges instructions and the verdict would have been tossed out by the judge.
The judge can’t toss out a verdict of “Not Guilty.”
Skally, you can doubt all you want, juror B37 said it did in her own words. The SYG law appears to be what they focused on, even though they were not supposed to. They also seemed to not have a clear understanding about what manslaughter meant, because they asked the judge for clarification, which the judge refused to do.
Inge – It appears that SYG applied to BOTH parties in the mind of B-37.
Juror B-37 partly faulted Trayvon for his own death because he stood his ground and didn’t retreat: “Oh, I believe he played a huge role in his death. He could have… when George confronted him, he could have walked away and gone home. He didn’t have to do whatever he did and come back and be in a fight.”
Miami Herald –
Jurors were only given Zimmerman’s account of what happened. The whole trial seemed to say that Martin was the one on trial…oh, wait…he was. Juror B37 even admitted that she didn’t know much about Martin very much, but she knew a lot about Zimmerman.
I have a friend who is a cop and he told me long before the trial…we were talking about something else…he said…”jurors these days a dumb… they need their information to be spoon fed.” Not my words…his.
jurors are dumb yes see the o j jury . you got them saying things like ITS NOT A CRIME TO BE BLEEDING AT YOUR HOUSE .. OR FURMAN PLANTED THE OTHER GLOVE . . yeah right nicoles blood inside the truck how did that get there ?
. oh man dont get me started on that one .
according to SYG in Florida you do not have to retreat.
Another thing – there have been over 600 murders in Chicago alone (mostly black victims) KILLED BY OTHER BLACKS, since this whole GZ/TM thing began. What kind of bullshit is this? its true you wont hear about because if one white man is acused of killing a black its over the news, front page lead story ,. town hall race meetings , marches , meanwhile in chicago zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
One white man?
Were you referring to THIS white man?
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/18/wisconsin-man-76-guilty-in-fatal-shooting-13-year-old-neighbor/
Daily Kos put together petition to change “Stand Your Ground Laws”
http://campaigns.dailykos.com/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=491
I think is definitely a start…
two observations
1) sixty people together at one time in santa ana, isn’t that considered a gang war
2) charles barkeley has opined that the verdict in the trevon shooting was the correct verdict “nuff said”
Steel Pulse Releases New Song for Trayvon Martin
Grammy-Winning Reggae Band Steel Pulse make “Put Your Hoodies On [4 Trayvon]” available as a free download
BIRMINGHAM, UK, July 16, 2013 – Grammy-winning reggae band Steel Pulse has released Put Your Hoodies On [4 Trayvon], a song dedicated to Trayvon Martin.
Details [ here ]
Steel Pulse
Composed by lead singer David “Dread” Hinds, the song was released during the trial of George Zimmerman and is available as a free download at
http://steelpulse.com/Trayvon