Protesters take to Broad Street for Trayvon Martin
Trayvon Martin March on Broad Street
Alvin Jackson, who along with others helped organize the protest, said Saturday that Zimmerman’s arrest is only part of a bigger issue. Jackson’s main goal now is to get Georgia’s “stand your ground” law overturned.
“There are many questions that have to be raised,” Jackson said. “And it took all this to get this far, so apparently it’s not over.”
More than a month passed between the death of Martin, who was shot and killed in February in Sanford, Fla., and the arrest. Jackson said he believes the investigation hasn’t been handled well since the beginning of the incident.
“We wouldn’t be here today if they’d arrested him in the beginning and done a thorough investigation. So that calls into question the police department’s handling of the case,” said Jackson.
Trenace Perkins, a rally attendee, said he fears that what happened in Florida could happen here in Georgia. He like others in the march donned hooded sweatshirts to show their solidarity with Martin’s family.
The wave of National Rifle Association-backed legislation that began seven years ago in Florida and continues to sweep the country has done more than establish citizens’ right to “stand your ground,” as supporters call the laws. It’s added second, third and even fourth chances for people who have used lethal force to avoid prosecution and conviction using the same argument, extra opportunities to keep their freedom that defendants accused of other crimes don’t get.
Martin’s shooting has unleashed a nationwide debate about the validity of these laws, which exist in some form in most of the country and which prosecutors and police have generally opposed as confusing, prone to abuse by criminals, and difficult to apply evenly. Others are concerned that the laws foster a vigilante, even trigger-happy mentality that might cause too many unnecessary deaths.
An Associated Press review of federal homicide data doesn’t seem to bear that out. Nationwide, the total number of justified homicides by citizens rose from 176 in 2000 to 325 in 2010. Totals for all homicides also rose slightly during the same period, but when adjusted for population growth, the rates actually dipped.
Ruth Demeter, who attended the march and has long promoted peace throughout Rome and Floyd County, said she can’t imagine the pain that Martin’s family must be going through.
“It scares me that I live in a state where this could happen,” she said. “I think all of us need to be scared. Because that could be my kid, or it could be Lavada’s kid.”
Rome’s Lavada Dillard said after the march that she believes people should not be so quick to rush to judgment.
“Any time you have someone in the neighborhood who sees something odd or different and arms themselves, and that person attacks another person for whatever reason, it’s because of fear,” she said.
Jackson reminded the gathered crowd that though Martin’s case represents a need to look at how justice is applied, no one should forget what the case is really about.
“The first thing you’ve got to do is think about Trayvon,” Jackson said. “Think about his family. Think about this young man at the age of 17 who will never see the light of day again. Think about how he died. Think about the circumstances.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
You are so right .
White people are victim to race hate crimes every day
in this country and the media just turns there head.
If such laws did not exist, then the family of the older black woman who was killed by Atlanta police officers a few years ago would not have been able to recover damages because she was pointing a gun at the officers when they came in the house and shot her. If you recall, the officers kicked in the door at the wrong residence without knocking, rushed in with their weapons, and the poor old lady was trying to protect herself with an old pistol when the shot her many times.
Without Stand Your Ground laws she would have been required to run to the back of her house and hide, and the fact that she stood her ground would have negated any law suit and exonerrated the incompetent officers.
Chew on that.
It was Zimmerman that was stalking Martin. 911 told Zimmerman to back off but he was afraid that Martin would get away(away from what?) He then jumped out of his vehicle and confronted Martin. Grabbed a hold of Martin(illegally) and when Martin resisted, fought back, then Zimmerman shot him. It was Martin who had the right to SYG.
Zimmerman admitted to following him but said that he lost him and when he was going back to his vehicle that he was attacked by Martin. This may or may not be how it happened but there hasn't been any reports that Zimmerman jumped out of his vehicle & confronted Martin then grabbed a hold of Martin and Martin resisted then fought back. The problem with this case is that the media and everyone else are making up their own details of that night. There are only 2 people that know what really happened that night and one of them is dead so we may never know the truth.
And for everyone wanting to overturn the SYG laws, you would have a different opinion if you were ever attacked and in the process of defending yourself, you killed your attacker. I'm not saying this applies to the Zimmerman/Martin case because I, like all of you were not there so I can't say who is right or wrong.
It would have exonerated cops who entered her house as intruders unannounced on an illegal no-knock warrant because...they had a right to stand their (or is it all her) ground?
No, what the woman did was attempt to defend herself and her home against home invasion, acts which are protected under Georgia's Stand Your Ground laws. Her family was successful in suing the police and all the officers were fired.
If she had been required to retreat, the OPPOSITE of SYG laws, then the officers would have been protected.
Mip, sometimes you're so overly-confident, you wind up flossing your teeth with your shoelaces.
People must live or die with bad decisions they make. When Martin decided to put the slip on Zimmerman then sneak up behind and attack him from the rear, he had no idea he'd be looking into the barrel of a 9mm pistol as he viciously attacked Zimmerman. If in fact it was Martin's voice heard whimpering or babbling it was when he realized his bad decision was about to cost him his life.
IF Zimmerman were black and Martin white, we would not be having this conversation and nobody would be marching. That's what causes the rotten core of race relations in this country.
@ Mr. Jackson and all of the other morons who oppose this law, I'll be listening for a different tune when you are attacked by someone and because you pushed for this law to be overturned, you are NOT LEGALLY allowed to defend yourself! If it returns to the previous law of a citizen must retreat as far away as they can and then AND ONLY THEN, after every other means is exhausted, is lethal force self defense, what will you say then? Oh yeah, you won't because most likely you will be dead.
Sorry, but EVERY person has the right to defend oneself at whatever cost! Period.
And before the Trayvon supporters start their bellyaching, I am not choosing a side either way on his case because enough FACTS have not been given. Everything in the media is, at this point, circumstantial and third party information. I will say this. If Trayvon was attacking Mr. Zimmerman, then he had EVERY RIGHT to do what he did. If not, then he deserves prosecution. But to remove a law that gives citizens a clear cut, legal right to protect themselves, is just ridiculous!
This is what happens when you make guns illegal...only criminals have them.
The lesson to learn is don't try a rob someone or don't jump someone. I live in Cartersville and I have a CCW. If attacked and I fear severe bodily injury or death, or if you are committing a felony I will proceed to shoot you.
I did notice blacks seemed to be the primary protestors.
Between 1976 and 2005, African-Americans, 12.6% of the population in the last census, committed 52.2% of all homicides.
That is, over the 30-year period, African-Americans committed murder at about 7.33 times the white rate. (Whites here include Hispanics.)
Of homicides committed by strangers, on average, 18.77% involved blacks killing whites, while in 5.08% of the cases, whites killed blacks. African-Americans were therefore nearly 3.7 times more likely to kill a white than a white to kill a black
To provide some raw numbers, in 2005, the last year for which the DOJ statistics are available, 10,285 African-Americans committed murders. As 8.8% of these were "black on white," there were, assuming only one death per murderer, 905 whites killed, almost 2.5 per day. In the same year, again assuming one killing per perpetrator, 267 blacks were murdered by whites (3.2% of 8,350 killings).
Crime is a young man's métier. The vast majority of the 52.2% of U.S. murders committed by African-Americans are the work of the roughly 2% of the population who are black males between the ages of 15 and 25.
Would these figures, courtesy of Eric Holder, surprise most Americans?