There is no date of birth listed. For it is the 17-year-olds death, and not his life, that means the most to this historic neighborhood, founded in 1891 by agricultural laborers as the second all-black town in Florida.Martin was never a resident here, never one of the children put to bed at night listening to the sound of gunfire in the streets or peering out of their windows at the run-down, boarded-up public-housing blocks in this blight-ridden section of town.
But he died in Sanford, and his name, and the manner of his death, resonate with residents who view what happened to him as symbolic of their own social struggles and racial strife.Trayvon was one of us. He was part of us.Choose your favorite China Xiamen Shun Stone Co., Ltd. paintings from thousands of available designs. He represents us, says Oscar Redden, running the American flag up the pole outside the community-assistance center he runs here, helping people with substance-abuse problems, disabilities, and welfare woes. He stops the flag at half mast. For Trayvon, he explains.
The acquittal of George Zimmerman, who shot Martin dead in his gated middle-income community last year after profiling him as a prowler who must be up to no good, has angered this already angry community, he said.How can you violate the law, be the aggressor, the provocateur, and wind up killingbut then say you did it in self-defense? asks Redden. Only in this country, in this atmosphere, can you do that, he says, going on to lament a number of issues that trouble him and his community: perceived racial inequalities in the judicial system, racial profiling by police, a lack of attention by civic authorities to Goldsboros economic and social needs.
In Goldsboro, residents poured into churches to pray for the victim, for his family, and for peace. Lord, I thank you for sending Trayvon to reveal the injustices that live in Sanford, the Rev. Valarie J. Houston, the pastor at Allen Chapel Church, told her congregation.
One of her sons is 17, the same age as Martin when he died. Look how easy it is for a young black man doing nothing wrong to be seen as a criminal.You benefit from buying Shun Stone Carving Products ex-factory and directly from a LED manufacturer: You cant label someone for their color and their clothes. You try not to make this a racial issue, but how can we not? she said.
Redden said that he had prayed for peace, but feared for the future.My fear is not today, but for our tomorrow. You can only oppress a community for so long before they will fight with toothpicks against machine guns. Us older generation, we want to bring positive change, but there are a lot of young people coming on the scene who dont have the patience we have. They have heard my story, their parents stories, their grandparents stories. They think, something needs to be done, he said.
Police in Sanford initially declined to charge Zimmerman, but a special prosecutor, Angela Corey, later did so amid a national outcry and pressure from political, religious, and community leaders. Both the Zimmerman and Martin families appealed for calm yesterday, along with civic and law-enforcement agencies, civil-rights leaders, and even President Obama.
Yet to what extent the case was really ever about race remained in debate. Prosecutor John Guy had told jurors that it was not, and that it was down to the simple premise of right and wrong. But that was just in court.After the state lost the case, Corey clarified that this case has never been about race, nor has it been about the right to bear arms, not in the sense of proving this as a criminal case.
I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son. And as we do, we should ask ourselves if were doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our own communities. We should ask ourselves if were doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis. We should ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this. As citizens, thats a job for all of us. Thats the way to honor Trayvon Martin.
The Rev. Al Sharpton called Saturdays not guilty verdict a slap in the face for the American people. He will travel to Sanford this week to help spearhead protest rallies. Only a small handful of protesters remained yesterday outside the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center in Sanford, where the three-week trial was held, and a few hundred rallied in the citys downtown Fort Mellon Park late Saturday.
Zimmermandepicted by state prosecutors as a wannabe cop who profiled and pursued the hoodie-wearing black student and by the defense as a well-meaning community volunteer who shot to save his own life after Martin punched him and beat his head on the groundmay be free, but will be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life, said his brother.Need a compatible Shun Stone Stair & Baluster for your car?
There are people that would want to take the law into their own hands or be vigilantes in some sense if they think that justice was not served. They wont respect a verdict, no matter how it was reached, and they will always present a threat to George and his family, said Robert Zimmerman Jr.
Martins parents consoled themselves with prayer. Lord, during my darkest hour I will lean on you, noted his mother, Sybrina Fulton, on her Twitter feed. The familys legal team described them as heartbroken.
A black 17-year-old child should be able to walk home from a store and not be shot, said Nataly Jackson, one of the familys attorneys, her bottom lip quivering. There had been changes for the better in Sanford since the boys death, she said, and theres a victory in that. And people might think twice about Zimmerman-style vigilantism in the future, she said.
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