Trayvon Martin Shot And Killed

Trayvon Martin Shot And Killed, The parents of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teen killed by a Hispanic man claiming self-defense, says that police would have arrested the shooter if they themselves weren’t racially profiling him.

“I think, for whatever reason, Zimmerman profiled him,” said the teen’s father Tuesday night, referring to the shooter, George Zimmerman. “And then, even worse, I think the police profiled Trayvon Martin.”

The parents, in an appearance on “AC360,” reiterated that the Sanford, Florida, police investigation had been “botched from the beginning.”

“I don’t think he was (not) charged because they were trying to protect him,” Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, said of Zimmerman. “They didn’t understand how serious this was. They didn’t understand the value of my son’s life.”

Martin’s killing has touched a nerve across the nation, sparking calls for justice and Zimmerman’s prosecution.

But there also is support for Zimmerman from an unlikely source: an African-American friend, who says he has endured his share of unfair characterizations because of his race.

On Tuesday, Joe Oliver — a former CNN anchor who now works at WESH-TV in Orlando — defended his friend, saying he’s no racist.

“I understand completely the fear and anger that’s out there over this case. If I didn’t know George Zimmerman, I’d be right out there, too,” said Oliver.

Stand Your Ground Law

Stand Your Ground Law, The killing of Trayvon Martin was only the most infamous Florida homicide complicated by the legal inanity known as “Stand Your Ground.”

Police in Sanford, maddeningly hesitant in their dealings with the 28-year-old neighborhood watch zealot who shot young Martin, have been widely disparaged for citing the 2005 Florida statute that grotesquely altered the doctrine of self-defense.

But just last week, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beth Bloom bolstered the Sanford cops’ contention that state law now trumps common sense. She sprang another stand-your-ground killer.

Stand Your Ground, the way the law has been interpreted, has proven to be a wild misnomer. Like Trayvon Martin, Pedro Roteta was pursued down a city street by his killer.

On Jan. 25, Roteta had apparently been trying to steal the radio from a truck owned by Greyston Garcia, parked outside his apartment in southwest Miami. Truck burglary’s a crime of course, but not a capital case. Not before 2005.

Obama Trayvon Martin

Obama Trayvon Martin, Declaring that “if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” President Obama chose a highly personal way to join the heated national debate over the death of Trayvon Martin, the black teenager fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida.

Obama took care to voice no opinion on the conduct of the shooter, George Zimmerman, or any legal aspect of the case beyond a call for a thorough investigation. “The attorney general reports to me so I’ve got to be careful about my statements to make sure that we’re not impairing any investigation,” he said.

Yet his remarks Friday could have a powerful influence on how the public views the case. It was a rare White House moment — a president identifying himself with a victim in a racially-charged shooting. More broadly, it drew attention to the way young black men are seen by a predominantly white society.

Whether Zimmerman acted legally in the Feb. 26 shooting and whether the Sanford, Fla., police acted properly in declining to arrest him turn in large part on how the victim is viewed.

Zimmerman, 28, has claimed he shot Martin, 17, in self-defense after calling police to say he was following a person in his gated community who he believed was acting suspicious. Supporters of Martin’s family have said the high school student was merely walking to a relative’s home and that nothing about him could reasonably have been considered suspicious or threatening.

Martin’s parents appeared to acknowledge that Obama’s public identification with their son carried huge symbolic importance.

“The president’s personal comments touched us deeply,” they said. The remarks “made us wonder: If his son looked liked Trayvon and wore a hoodie, would he be suspicious too?”

Trayvon Martin 911 Call

Trayvon Martin 911 Call, The Florida police department handling the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen by a self-appointed neighborhood watch leader admitted to ABC News tonight that investigators missed a possible racist remark by the shooter as he spoke to police dispatchers moments before the killing.

The admission comes a day after the Justice Department announced that it has launched an investigation of the slaying of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman last month as a possible hate crime.

On a tape of one of Zimmerman’s 911 calls the night of the shooting, he is heard saying under his breath what sounds like “f**ing coons.” Seconds later he confronted Martin and after a brief scuffle shot him dead.

Trayvon Martin Case

Trayvon Martin Case, Responding to an international petition, celebrity tweets, and spreading public outrage, the U.S. Justice Department opened an investigation on Monday into the shooting of a black teenager by a neighborhood watch captain who escaped arrest.
More than 435,000 people, many alerted by tweets from celebrities like movie director Spike Lee and musician Wyclef Jean, signed a petition on Change.org, a social action website, calling for the arrest of the shooter, George Zimmerman.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the FBI announced they have opened an investigation into the Feb. 26 shooting in Florida of an unarmed 17-year-old, Trayvon Martin.

“The department will conduct a thorough and independent review of all of the evidence and take appropriate action at the conclusion of the investigation,” the department said.

The campaign to draw attention to the case is the third largest in Change.org’s history, and surpassed a petition of about 300,000 signatures credited last year with persuading Bank of America to drop plans for a $5 debit card fee, said Megan Lubin, a Change.org spokeswoman.

The victim’s family lawyer, Ben Crump, said public pressure was behind an earlier promise by the Justice Department to review the case. And some Florida legislators are moving to consider a change in the law to prevent a recurrence.

“People all over the world, more than 400,000 people, said we demand you make an arrest. That’s what is building pressure to look at it,” Crump said.

The Justice Department said its investigation would examine the facts and circumstances of the shooting, and noted that with all federal civil rights crimes, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person acted intentionally.

“Negligence, recklessness, mistakes and accidents are not prosecutable under the federal criminal civil rights laws,” the Justice Department said.

The shooting in a gated community in Sanford, Florida, when Zimmerman spotted Martin walking home from buying candy and iced tea at a convenience store.

Zimmerman, patrolling the neighborhood in his car, called the 911 emergency number and reported what he called “a real suspicious guy.”

“This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about,” Zimmerman told dispatchers. “These assholes. They always get away.”

The dispatcher, hearing heavy breathing on the phone, asked Zimmerman: “Are you following him?”

“Yeah,” Zimmerman said.

“Okay, we don’t need you to do that,” the dispatcher responded.

But several neighbors subsequently called 911 to report a scuffle between Zimmerman and Martin. While some of the callers were still on the phone, cries for help followed by a gunshot can be heard in the background.