HIP-HOP COMMUNITY, STAND UP!!! AND SUPPORT #Trayvon Martin

Sion · March 2012

*supports*

BlackGerald · March 2012

shit makes me mad as fuck

waterproof · March 2012

Thanks to all that's showing support to the family of Trayvon Martin, even Al Jazeera is reporting on this issues now.

http://www.change.org/petitions/prosecute-the-killer-of-17-year-old-trayvon-martin

waterproof · March 2012

Justice Department Investigation Is Sought in Florida Teenager’s Shooting Death

MIAMI — Nearly three weeks after an unarmed teenager was killed in a small city north of Orlando, stirring an outcry, a few indisputable facts remain: the teenager, who was black, was carrying nothing but a bag of Skittles, some money and a can of iced tea when he was shot. The neighborhood crime watch volunteer who got out of his car and shot him is white and Hispanic. He has not been arrested and is claiming self-defense.

Beyond that, however, little is clear about the Feb. 26 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, 17.

As criticism of the police investigation mounts, so too do the calls for swift action in a case with heavy racial overtones. Protests grow larger each week, and lawyers for the family are now asking the Department of Justice to intervene. The case also brings into sharp focus Florida’s self-defense laws, which give people who feel threatened greater latitude in defending themselves than most states.

The police in of Sanford, where the shooting took place, are not revealing details of the investigation. Late Friday night, after weeks of pressure, the police played the 911 calls in the case for the family and gave copies to the news media. On the recordings, one shot, an apparent warning or miss, is heard, followed by a voice begging or pleading, and a cry. A second shot is then heard, and the pleading stops.

“It is so clear that this was a 17-year-old boy pleading for his life, and someone shot him in cold blood,” said Natalie Jackson, one of the Martin family lawyers.

The police maintain that under state law they cannot arrest George Zimmerman, the 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer who was licensed to carry a concealed weapon, without probable cause. They turned the case over to the Seminole County state attorney this week.

A few neighborhood residents who say they heard a disturbance were interviewed by the police. But now two witnesses are coming forward to say their interviews were cursory, a charge the police department denies.

“The evidence doesn’t establish so far that Mr. Zimmerman did not act in self-defense,” Chief Bill Lee of the Sanford police said this week, responding to why Mr. Zimmerman had not been arrested. He said he would welcome a federal investigation. “We don’t have anything to dispute his claim of self-defense at this point.”

Florida’s self-defense law, known as Stand Your Ground, grants immunity to people who act to protect themselves if they have a reasonable fear they will be killed or seriously injured.

“Stand Your Ground is a law that has really created a Wild West type environment in Florida,” said Brian Tannebaum, a criminal defense lawyer in Florida. “It allows people to kill people outside of their homes, if they are in reasonable fear for their lives. It’s a very low standard.”

For Trayvon’s parents, the situation does not add up. They want Mr. Zimmerman arrested and the normal criminal justice process to begin.

“Everybody is outraged,” said Tracy Martin, Trayvon’s father. “There is no justice in this. The public is outraged because my son only had snacks in his pocket, no weapon whatsoever, not even a fingernail file. For him to be murdered by someone who weighs more than 100 pounds than him, more than 10 years older than him, this is an outrage.”

Echoing a view held by many blacks in Sanford and elsewhere, the family’s lawyer, Benjamin Crump, said the police appeared to be protecting Mr. Zimmerman.

“Had Trayvon been the person who was the triggerman, they would have arrested him from Day 1 and they wouldn’t have given him bail and he would be sitting in jail,” Mr. Crump said. “Zimmerman is free and sleeping in his own bed at night.”

Frustration also grew after the parents said they had been told by detectives that Mr. Zimmerman had a “squeaky clean” record. They knew this, the detectives said, because Mr. Zimmerman told them. But Mr. Zimmerman had been arrested in 2005 on charges of resisting arrest with violence and battery on a police officer. The charges were later dropped.

The police said it took them some time to run the check.

“A criminal background check was conducted within 12 to 24 hours after we got the call,” Sgt. David Morgenstern said.

Mr. Zimmerman lives in the predominantly white gated community where the shooting took place. A criminal justice major in college, he often patrolled the streets in his car. In the last 14 months, Mr. Zimmerman had made 46 calls to the police, officials said, reporting everything from alarms and disturbances to reckless driving and, most commonly, a “suspicious” person.

That night, he saw Trayvon, a tall Miami high school junior, shortly after 7 p.m. with the hood of his sweatshirt over his head, the police said. Trayvon had returned from a convenience store and was headed for his father’s girlfriend’s house, where he was staying.

Mr. Zimmerman trailed Trayvon in his car and placed a call to the police. The dispatcher told him to stay in his car and said the police would be on the way. But Mr. Zimmerman got out.

The two got into a struggle that was partly overheard by a few neighbors. Mr. Zimmerman wound up with a bloody nose and a cut to the back of his head. Trayvon was shot in the chest.

Mary Cutcher and her roommate said they heard Trayvon pleading. Then they heard a gunshot. They rushed outside and saw Mr. Zimmerman standing over the teenager. Ms. Cutcher said she did not think it was self-defense and added that the police took only a brief statement, despite her efforts to go into detail.

In a statement Thursday, the police said her statement to them matched Mr. Zimmerman’s.

Washington_Red · March 2012

I signed this yesterday.

Not to make the situation any worse than it already is, but check this out:

Monizzle14 · March 2012

the other course of action is making sure this sad tragedy stops in our own communities because many kids like trayvon get killed in the midst of gang violence or someone killing the wrong person. We can get people to stand up against a boy innocently killed for holding a bag of skittles. But every year there are are a handful of innocent boys and girls killed in my area (hartford/new haven connecticut) that are just trying to be kids and are caught in the middle of gun violence.

waterproof · March 2012

Monizzle14 wrote: »

the other course of action is making sure this sad tragedy stops in our own communities because many kids like trayvon get killed in the midst of gang violence or someone killing the wrong person. We can get people to stand up against a boy innocently killed for holding a bag of skittles. But every year there are are a handful of innocent boys and girls killed in my area (hartford/new haven connecticut) that are just trying to be kids and are caught in the middle of gun violence.

Yes you are right there's hundreds of Trayvon dying in our own communites and Trayvon died in his own community that was gated, so that's tells us that we have to protect our children at all cost because nobody else will

H-Rap 180 · March 2012

:smh:Neighborhood Watch Shooting of Trayvon Martin: Probe Reveals 'Questionable Police Conduct' - ABC News
link to original story

link to audio

911 call: yelling & gunshot heard in background - OrlandoSentinel.com

how this guy get off with nothing??

this and casey anthony...smh fl..[/QUOTE]

beattycoon wrote: »

Cold-blooded murder. Dude killed that kid with no mercy. Here are all of the calls, including the initial call Zimmerman made:
Trayvon Martin Case: 911 Audio Released Of Teen Allegedly Shot By Neighborhood Watch Captain (AUDIO)

Cain1 · March 2012

(407) 688-5070 this is the number to the police station. Call and let your voice be heard and let them know that that fuck shit isnt gonna slide under rug.

waterproof · March 2012

It's sad that it take a death of a young brother to make me look at myself and my son and to be politically and socially active again, this death spark something in me that i haven't felt in a long time. And that the struggles still continues for justice!!

waterproof · March 2012

Jasiri X releases new 'TRAYVON' song

http://jessemuhammad.blogs.finalcall.com/2012/03/jasiri-x-releases-new-trayvon-song.html

PROPS to Jasiri X for being the first hip-hop artist to drop a song for Trayvon, LET'S GO HIP-HOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND EVERYONE WHO STAND FOR JUSTICE

waterproof · March 2012

Reverend Al Sharpton · 51,205 like this

NATIONAL RALLY FOR JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON MARTIN TO TAKE PLACE IN SANFORD, FLORIDA, THIS THURSDAY FEATURING KEYNOTE REMARKS BY REVEREND AL SHARPTON ALONG WITH SPECIAL GUEST HOST MICHAEL BAISDEN

WHO:
Parents of Trayvon Martin
Attorney Benjamin Crump & lawyers for the family of Trayvon Martin
Reverend Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network
Michael Baisden, Host of the Michael Baisden Show

WHAT:
National Rally for justice on behalf of Trayvon Martin-- the unarmed African-American teenager who was shot and killed in a gated community in Florida late last month by a white neighborhood watch captain. The watch captain, George Zimmerman — a 26-year-old college student who has admitted to police that he shot the young man — still walks free.

WHERE:
First Shiloh Baptist Church
Sanford, FL 32771

WHEN:
Thursday, March 22 - 7:00 p.m.

waterproof · March 2012

College students rally at courthouse for Trayvon Martin

SANFORD – Florida college students, angered by the shooting death of black teenager Trayvon Martin, held a rally outside the Seminole County criminal courts building today, demanding that his killer be arrested.

Inside that building is the State Attorney's Office, where prosecutors will review the case and decide whether to file criminal charges against George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot him to death.

An estimated 75 protesters, dressed in black, gathered near the building's front door, singing, "We Shall Overcome" and chanting, "We want justice now!"

They demanded a meeting with Pat Whitaker, chief of operations at the State Attorney's Office and the person now in charge of the case, and they got it.

For an hour, Whitaker sat down with four protest leaders, including Shelton Marshall, a student at Florida A&M University's college of law.

He emerged saying, "Are we satisfied? No. We appreciate the gesture."

Whitaker told them the investigation would take weeks and that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is working with his office to determine whether Zimmerman's claim of self-defense is viable.

That, though, was not good enough for Ese Ighedosa, one of the students who sat down with Whitaker.

He and Sanford police, she said, appear to be defending rather than prosecuting Zimmerman.

"It seems all the people are on Trayvon's side. The government is on Zimmerman's side," she said

The rally was organized by members of the Black Law Students Association of FAMU College of Law, who are calling for Zimmerman's arrest.

The shooter, 28-year-old Zimmerman, has not been arrested and that has set off a firestorm of public outrage.

Sanford police say they cannot arrest him because evidence supports his self-defense claim, including witness accounts and what officers saw then they arrived: Zimmerman with a bloody nose.

Critics say Trayvon, 17, was a victim of racial profiling.

"Not only are we angry," said Ighedosa. "We're afraid."

If Trayvon can be shot dead just for walking through a neighborhood, so can any black person, they said.

The shooting of an unarmed black person, "is not acceptable," said Jason Reed, 25, a FAMU student. "There was a time when this was acceptable. That time is not now."

Near the end of the rally, Sanford City Commissioner Velma Williams sat down tiredly on a bench. "Lord have mercy, I haven't slept in two or three nights," she said. "This has brought shame to our community."

What began as a fatal shooting Feb. 26 that drew almost no news coverage has now mushroomed into a cause célèbre and generated national headlines.

Williams said she tried to convince Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee Jr. several days ago to do something to quiet the growing calls for Zimmerman's arrest.

"There's a train coming down the tracks at 75 mph, and it has no brakes," she said she told him. "Now the train is coming at 150 mph, and it has no brakes."

At least two other rallies are scheduled later this week:

On Thursday activist Al Sharpton is to appear at Sanford's First Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, and on March 26, Baltimore evangelist Jamal Bryant returns for a protest outside Sanford City Hall.

His rally last week at a Sanford church drew 400 people.

City officials hope to sit down Tuesday with an official of the U.S. Justice Department, an agency with a civil rights division and a record of taking on race-charged criminal cases.

On Monday, FBI Agent Dave Couvertier said his agency is monitoring the matter.

"We have been in contact with the Department of Justice, which is normal protocol," Couvertier said.

U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown on Friday asked that agency to get involved, something Sanford Mayor Jeff Triplett also has been working toward.

The embattled police chief has said repeatedly that he welcomes a federal review of his agency's investigation. His officers, he said, conducted a thorough and fair investigation and are not guilty of racial bias or of favoring Zimmerman.

The night of the Feb. 26 shooting, Zimmerman called police to report a suspicious person walking through his gated community - Trayvon.

Zimmerman then stepped out of his SUV, while still on the phone with police, and followed the teenager on foot. The phone call ended, but the two somehow came face to face on a sidewalk; there was a fight, and Trayvon wound up dead on the ground, a single gunshot to the chest.

When police arrived, they found Zimmerman standing near him, blood coming from injuries to his nose and the back of his head, according to a police report. The back of his shirt also was wet and had grass clippings on it.

A 911 caller described the fight as two people wrestling. A 13-year-old boy who witnessed part of the fight said he saw Zimmerman on the ground and heard someone calling for help.

Zimmerman told police that was him. Lawyers for Trayvon's family say it was the high school junior

waterproof · March 2012

The Trayvon Martin Killing, Explained

How did a kid armed with Skittles and an ice tea get gunned down by an overeager neighborhood watch captain? And why didn't police detain shooter George Zimmerman?

—By Adam Weinstein

| Sun Mar. 18, 2012 10:42 AM PDT

On the evening of February 26, Trayvon Martin—an unarmed 17-year-old African American student—was confronted, shot, and killed near his home by George Zimmerman, a Latino neighborhood watch captain in the Orlando, Florida, suburb of Sanford. Zimmerman has not been charged with a crime. Since Martin's death and the release of more details, the case has garnered national media attention and sparked a host of public debates over racial tensions, vigilantism, police practices, and gun laws.

What happened to Trayvon?

Martin, a Miami native, was visiting his father in Sanford and watching the NBA All-Star game at a house in a gated Sanford community, the Retreat at Twin Lakes. At halftime, Martin walked out to the nearby 7-Eleven to get some Skittles and Arizona Iced Tea. On his return trip, he drew the attention of Zimmerman, who was patrolling the neighborhood in a sport-utility vehicle and called 911 to report "a real suspicious guy."

Read about how the NRA pushed for the right to pack heat anywhere in America.

"This guy looks like he's up to no good or he's on drugs or something," Zimmerman told the dispatcher. "It's raining, and he's just walking around looking about." The man tried to explain where he was. "Now he's coming towards me. He's got his hand in his waistband. And he's a black male...Something's wrong with him. Yup, he's coming to check me out. He's got something in his hands. I don't know what his deal is...These assholes, they always get away."

After discussing his location with the dispatcher, Zimmerman exclaimed, "Shit he's running," and the following sounds suggest he left his vehicle to run after Martin.

"Are you following him?" the dispatcher asked. Zimmerman replied: "Yep."

"Okay, we don't need you to do that," the dispatcher warned.

Several minutes later, according to other callers to 911 in the neighborhood, Zimmerman and Martin got into a wrestling match on the ground. One of the pair could be heard screaming for help. Then a single shot rang out, and Martin lay dead.

Are the 911 recordings available to the public?

Yes. After public pressure, the city of Sanford played the tapes for Martin's family, then released the audio recordings. Here are some excerpts:

What happened to the shooter?

So far, not much. Zimmerman told police he'd acted in self-defense. ABC News reports that he had wanted to be a police officer, and Sanford police didn't test him for drugs or alcohol after the shooting (such tests are standard practice in homicide investigations). He was licensed to carry his gun, and police initially told Martin's father that they hadn't pressed charges because Zimmerman was a criminal justice student with a "squeaky clean" record.

That wasn't entirely true, however; in 2005, Zimmerman was arrested for "resisting arrest with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer"; those charges were dropped. Media investigations and Martin family attorneys suggest that Zimmerman was a vigilante with "a false sense of authority" in search of young black men in his neighborhood. Police records show Zimmerman had called 911 a total of 46 times between Jan. 1 and the day he shot Martin. (Florida guidelines for licensed gun owners state: "A license to carry a concealed weapon does not make you a free-lance policeman.")

waterproof · March 2012

How are Florida's self-defense and "stand your ground" laws key to this case?

Zimmerman may have benefited from some of the broadest firearms and self-defense regulations in the nation. In 1987, then-Gov. Bob Martinez (R) signed Florida's concealed carry provision into law, which "liberalized the restrictions that previously hindered the citizens of Florida from obtaining concealed weapons permits," according to one legal analyst. This trendsetting "shall-issue" statute triggered a wave of gun-carry laws in other states. (Critics said at the time that Florida would become "Dodge City.") Permit holders are also exempted from the mandatory state waiting period on handgun purchases.

Even though felons and other violent offenders are barred from getting a weapons permit, a 2007 investigation by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found that licenses had been mistakenly issued to 1,400 felons and hundreds more applicants with warrants, domestic abuse injunctions, or gun violations. (More than 410,000 Floridians have been issued concealed weapons permits). Since then, Florida also passed a law permitting residents to keep guns in their cars at work, against employers' wishes. The state also nearly allowed guns on college campuses last year, until an influential Republican lawmaker fought the bill after his close friend's daughter was killed by an AK-47 brandished at a Florida State University fraternity party.

Florida also makes it easy to plead self-defense in a killing. Under then-Gov. Jeb Bush, the state in 2005 passed a broad "stand your ground" law, which allows Florida residents to use deadly force against a threat without attempting to back down from the situation. (More stringent self-defense laws state that gun owners have "a duty to retreat" before resorting to killing.) In championing the law, former NRA president and longtime Florida gun lobbyist Marion Hammer said: "Through time, in this country, what I like to call bleeding heart criminal coddlers want you to give a criminal an even break, so that when you're attacked, you're supposed to turn around and run, rather than standing your ground and protecting yourself and your family and your property."

Again, the Sunshine State was the trendsetter: 17 states have since passed "stand your ground" laws, which critics call a "license to kill" or a "shoot first" law. The law has been unpopular with law enforcement officers in Florida, since it makes it much more difficult to charge shooters with a crime and has regularly confounded juries in murder cases; many Orlando-area cops reportedly have given up investigating "self-defense" cases as a result, referring them to the overloaded state attorney's office for action. A 2010 study by the Tampa Bay Times found that "justifiable homicides" had tripled in the state since the law went into effect.

Why is the history of the Sanford Police Department in question?

Sanford PD's officers have suffered a series of public missteps in recent years, according to local reporters. In 2006, two private security guards—the son of a Sanford police officer, and a volunteer for the department—killed a black teen with a single gunshot in his back. Even though they admitted to never identifying themselves, the guards were released without charges. In 2009, after an assailant allegedly attempted to rape a child in her home, the department was called to task for sitting on the suspect's fingerprints, delaying identification and pursuit of the attacker.

Perhaps the most significant incident occurred in late 2010: Justin Collison, the son of a Sanford PD lieutenant, sucker-punched a homeless black man outside a bar, but officers on the scene released Collison without charges. He eventually surrendered after video of the incident materialized online. The police chief at the time ultimately was forced into retirement. "Bottom line, we didn't do our job that night," a police department representative told WFTV of the incident. The TV station later learned that the Sanford patrol sergeant in charge on the night of Collison's assault, Anthony Raimondo, was also the first supervisor on the scene of Trayvon Martin's shooting death.

As a result of these incidents and their initial handling of Martin's death, the Sanford police department has been under increased scrutiny. Martin's parents have suggested they might call for Police Chief Bill Lee to resign.

waterproof · March 2012

What has been the reaction to the case?

The case garnered national attention thanks in large part to the reporting of Huffington Post's Trymaine Lee, who kept on the story since it broke. It caught major national media attention last week, when the police tapes were released, and the New York Times Charles M. Blow and The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates argued that the case deserved greater scrutiny. Celebrities like Russell Simmons, John Legend, and Jamelle Monae have taken to social media to comment on the case. A petition at change.org was recently posted demanding that Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, the local state attorney, and Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee prosecute Martin's killer. The petition currently has more than 350,000 signatures, and had been averaging more than 10,000 signatures per hour.

The local state attorney's office, which has the option of pursuing a case against Zimmerman, said this weekend that it received so many emails—more than 100,000—demanding prosecution, that the office's servers temporarily shut down.

Has anything like this happened before?

The case bears faint echoes of the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, whose case gripped Florida for nearly a year in 2006. Anderson, an African American who was attending a boot-camp-style detention center run by the Bay County Sheriff's Office, died during physical training that January; the initial autopsy said he'd died of complications from sickle-cell anemia. But after civil rights groups alleged bias by the white officers running the camp, further investigation revealed Anderson had been physically abused and forced to inhale ammonia.

The boot-camp officers were eventually acquitted of manslaughter at trial, but Florida lawmakers shut down the boot camps, and incoming Gov. Charlie Crist signed an order paying $5 million to Anderson's family. The commissioner of Florida's top law enforcement agency, was ultimately forced to resign after making racially insensitive remarks in connection with the case.

Could the federal government step in?

That's a distinct possibility. Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the Martin family, has written a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting federal involvement. "I feel betrayed by the Sanford Police Department and there's no way that I can still trust them in investigating this crime," said Martin's father, Tracy Martin, said in a Friday news conference.

ABC News contacted an FBI spokesman who said, "We are aware of the incident, we have been in contact with local authorities and are monitoring the matter." A representative of the Justice Department's civil rights division, which usually investigates police matters, declined to comment on the case to Reuters Sunday.

If the state attorney's office declines to file charges against Zimmerman, that means federal authorities might step in to file any number of charges, including a hate crime. They might also investigate allegations of police misconduct, including a charge by one eyewitness that an officer on the scene of Martin's shooting told her to change her story. The witness says she stated that Martin had been screaming for help before he was shot, but that the officer "corrected" her and insisted it was Zimmerman who'd called for help, according to ABC News.

Have the governor or attorney general said what they'll do?

So far, neither Gov. Rick Scott nor Attorney General Pam Bondi, both pro-Second Amendment conservatives, have referred publicly to Martin's death. Nor has Jeb Bush, the ex-governor who signed the controversial stand-your-ground law, gone on record about the case. But Bush is slated to appear with the Rev. Al Sharpton on an upcoming episode of MSNBC's Morning Joe, and it's likely he'll be asked his thoughts on Trayvon Martin's killing then.

GSonII · March 2012

Sad that this dude is not locked up already

GSonII · March 2012

gma.yahoo.com/video/news-26797925/florida-teen-killed-by-community-watch-member-28656689.html

Front page of yahoo. Hopefully, they get this killer of the streets. If it were the other way around they would be looking for other victims saying that this perp acts like he has done this before.

waterproof · March 2012

Trayvon - Jasiri X

idoitforhiphop10 · March 2012

Signed the petition. May god bless Trayvo and his family justice.

waterproof · March 2012

The National March for Justice is planned for Monday, March 26. Pastor @jamalhbryant is one of the lead conveners. 4 pm. Sanford, FL City Hall #trayvon

Sweet Dick Willie · March 2012

i signed

bigev240 · March 2012

Signed...they need to get this dude off the streets before somebody will.

poindexter2 · March 2012

I'm sorry but the only way i'd be at ease for this is if zimmerman dies. fuck jail fuck an indictment Real Talk

poindexter2 · March 2012

blacks arent even citizens anyway, and dont give me that 14th amendment bullshit because its loopholes in that too

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HIP-HOP COMMUNITY, STAND UP!!! AND SUPPORT #Trayvon Martin

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