Trayvon Martin’s Parents: Our Son Was Victim Of Racial Profiling

WASHINGTON (WJZ) — Searching for justice. The parents of Trayvon Martin take their fight to Capitol Hill as protesters head to the nation’s capital to make their voices heard.

Meghan McCorkell has more on the case that’s caused a national uprising.

Martin’s parents told lawmakers they believe their son is the victim of racial profiling, and they want his killer behind bars.

The parents of Trayvon Martin appeared in front of lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

“He’s sadly missed and we’ll continue to fight for justice for him,” said Trayvon’s father, Tracy Martin.

“Of course my heart is broken, but it breaks even more to know we have not gotten justice yet,” said Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton.

Their 17-year-old son was shot and killed walking through a gated community in Sanford, Fla. The shooter, neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, followed the teen, saying he looked suspicious. He says he fired in self-defense.

Outside the Department of Justice, members of a Maryland church urged the attorney general to prosecute the case as a hate crime. They believe Trayvon was a victim of racial profiling.

“There’s a lack of confidence in the state and local officials to do the right thing here. We believe that the full force of the federal government needs to be brought to this case,” said Mt. Ennon Baptist Church Rev. Delmon Coates.

The Trayvon Martin case has sparked a renewed call for activism across the country. Here in Baltimore on Monday, hundreds took to the streets, calling for justice. Organizer Rev. Cordly C.D. Witherspoon says the rally was just the first step in a greater movement.

“If we, as a community, come together, we can really make a difference and we can prevent our young people from being the next Trayvon Martin,” Witherspoon said.

A lawyer for the Martin family says they are pleased with the rallies and marches in support of their son. They just want to make sure the protests remain peaceful.

According to a leaked police report, George Zimmerman claims Martin punched him and bashed his head into the sidewalk before the shooting. Witness accounts support that story.

Trayvon Martins Parents: Our Son Was Victim Of Racial Profiling

http://rollingdownrodeo.wordpress.com jesco b. ignatius

looking for truth in this tragedy

http://rollingdownrodeo.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/trayvon-martin-enjoyed-basketball-and-so-do-i-or-the-difficulty-with-inaction/
american

Balony, every time something happens to a black person its racial. Thats why it it is always going to be there. If you are in this country you are supposed to be an american. Blaming it because a person is black is old news. If he was unarmed the guy should get at least manslaughter. I think if the man who shot him was worried he should have called in the real police right away. Let the police take care of it and push them if they are not. The truth will come out.It is sad for anyones son to be killed. This familly is causing an uproar and the evidence is not in yet. Now it is giving young black children a reason to swarm stores and break the law. No good out come on this one.

rdnkkkgrl

EXACTLY # 1 WHAT WAS HE DOING IN A GATED COMMUNITY AND HOW DID HE GET IN THATS WHY ITS CALLED GATED DUHHH. #2 WHY WAS THE TEENAGER WEARING A THICK WHITE HOODIE WITH THE HOOD UP IN THIS HOT WEATHER IN FLORIDA THATS THE 1 MAJOR SIGN OF DRUG DEALING AND GANG RELATED SIGNS.AND # 3 THERE WAS WITNESSES THAT SEEN THAT BLACK KID PUNCH THE SECURITY GAURD AND RAM HIS FACE INTO THE SIDE WALK. NOW I DONT NO ABOUT FLORIDA BUT I DO NO MARYLAND DOES NOT ALLOW VOLUNTEER SECURITY NIGHT WATCH CARRY A GUN…THERES DEFINITLY ANOTHER PART TO THIS STORY WERE NOT HEARING!!!

The city that clearly does not read

you’re a moron. amusing, yes, but a moron nonetheless. I am a white woman in a hoodie…wore one in Tampa all the time. I was a martial artist and, frankly, I liked my hoodies. still do, especially my ancient A&F. I had black students in my martial arts class that wore their hoodies all the time…not gang members or criminals. Oh, I see… you’re making generalizations. I suppose coming from a dumb red neck, that’s to be expected. (come on, red neck, surely you see the irony… no, irony doesn’t have anything to do with wrinkled clothes…yes, there is a “th” in the word “clothes”)… red necks are so stupid…everyone knows that.
a chance here

You are very I G N O R A N T You obviously don’t read and have not kept up with the constant and various sources of information. If you live in Maryland, you are a disgrace to the multi-cultural environment in the MD VA & DC areas. You really need to read because of the way you misspell in your comments.

1-0-3-0 WITHERSPOON

the media and bad info and judgement calls, and it’s all over with now. THE TRUTH SHALL REIN
W.S

wish the media would stop trying to keep this going and stop showing pics of the kid when he was much younger… try putting of pics of the kid that was suspended for drugs with his “grill”

Beth St Clair

right…because marijuana and gold are worth losing your life for. stupidity at its best…
rdnkkkgrl

WOW WARED YOU SEE THOSE PICS AT???

Detention for you!

Geez! WARED? English, please! If you’re going to comment on here, at least type or speak so that the reader has at least an idea you are able to speak on at least a second grade level!!!

Cal

the parents should be arrsted for the hate crime they are pursuing across the country.
MD VOTER

A group of Black Panthers are in Florida offering a reward for Zimmerman. Where is the Justice Department and Eric Holder. It is against the law what these people are doing. According to news sources some are convicted felons and carrying guns, again against the law. If this government is not going to enforce the law then we will be back in the old west. The politicians are so afraid someone will scream racism and cost them votes. PC is killing this country. The media is doing nothing to help this situation. If they are not going to protect the citizens then we must protect ourselves.

rdnkkkgrl

ISNT THE BLACK PANTHERS THAT GANG OR WHATEVER THAT SUPPOSEDLY HELPS BLACKS BUT THEY REALLY DO STUPID STUFF LIKE SMUGGLE STUFF INTO JAILS AND WHAT NOT???…….AND DIDNT ZIMMERMAN GET ARRESTED????????/.WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM DID HE GO AWOL OR SOMETHING???

FED UP

The Black Panther group is offering A $10,000 bounty for the capture of Zimmerman dead or alive. Where is Holder and the President? The Panthers should be arrested for “putting a contract” on someone, but this is not going to happen. The Justice Department under Holder is a scam. His parents on Capital Hill was nothing more than a politicial move by this administration.
saywhat

It was probably troublemaker profiling. If you look like a troublemaker you get treated like one.
Mike

The race card, coming to a city near you. Proudly sponsored by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.
Jarhead

What’s the differnt between Zimmerman killing the young black, and a young black killing another black. who is worser. You decided
Be Careful

I dont understand the Racial Profiling issue. This was a private citizen, not a police officer. There were break-ins and I believe I read the suspect were black teenagers. Zimmerman sees an unknown black teenager in his neighborhood and calls police. The events of the shooting are in question as the news media left out that Martin allegedly attacked Zimmerman and are totally seperate issue. So where did the profiling occur, if there is a description of a suspect and he fit the description how is that profiling? If the description is in accurate or there was no descrption of a suspect then I understand.

D King

This is a key point Be Careful. It was reported that several break ins had occurred in the past year that were perpetrated by young black males. So, as you said, if Trayvon is walking the neighborhood and fits the description of the previous perpetrators, well OF COURSE the neighborhood watch guy is going to be on alert. He would be stupid not to be.

girl fight

The problem is that George Zimmerman’s legal authority to pursue Martin was questionable at best. First of all, Martin’s “suspicious” behavior that Zimmerman reported to 911 – “he looks like he’s high on drugs or something” – hardly sounds like Martin was casing houses for break-ins.

Zimmerman’s role as an unauthorized law enforcement volunteer ended when he called 911 and reported Martin’s so-called suspicious behavior. Zimmerman’s decision to follow Martin with a loaded gun in his possession was an invitation for disaster.

The 911 call suggests that Zimmerman’s actions were unwarranted: he was told that his pursuit of Martin was “not necessary,” yet he continued to do so. What did he intend to do to Martin once he caught up to him? Arrest him? Hold him at gunpoint?

Trayvon Martin – as best as we can tell – was unarmed and was coming back from a trip to 7-11 after buying skittles and iced tea. A stranger lurking on the street in a car confronts him and asks him what’s he doing there (uh, walking down the street, minding his own business). Did Trayvon Martin have any obligation to assume that Zimmerman was not up to no good and instead was serving as a neighborhood watchman? No. Was Trayvon Martin just supposed to “surrender” to a stranger pursuing him not knowing what he was up to? Martin wasn’t confronting and pursuing Zimmerman; Zimmerman was confronting and pursuing Martin. At this point Martin had a legitimate reason to fear Zimmerman and defend himself against Zimmerman, not the other way around.

All Zimmerman had to do after calling 911 was stay in his car – which is what neighborhood watchmen are supposed to do – and none of this would’ve happened. Pursuing Martin with a loaded gun in his possession based on Martin’s vague “suspicious” behavior was reckless endangerment at best and manslaughter if not murder at worst.
D King

You know what girl fight, I agree with everything in your post. HOWEVER, I still think the racial profiling accusation is BS and it sickens me that Trayvon’s parents and pretty much the entire black community jump to that conclusion right off the bat just because Zimmerman is NOT black.
girl fight

It’s unclear how much race entered into Zimmerman’s perceptions of Martin’s behavior, but Martin’s behavior – as described by Zimmerman to 911 – does not sound “suspicious” to me Was he trespassing, breaking into cars, loitering outside someone’s house? No. He “looked like he was high on drugs.” Really?

Zimmerman may have been well-meaning, but he took the law into his own hands without any legal authority to pursue someone whose “suspicious behavior” hardly sounds like a matter of urgency to warrant such a pursuit.

I think some of the racial aspects of this tragedy are overblown (the mainstream media and the like don’t shy away from stirring the pot) but Martin’s death was brought about by the overzealous behavior of George Zimmerman, whose claims of self-defense are undermined by his own 911 call, during which he was discouraged from pursuing Martin. I think it’s possible that what Zimmerman found suspicious about Martin’s behavior may not have been seen as suspicious had he not been black, but to me what is more disturbing is how Zimmerman’s actions of pursuit and shoot are not seen as criminal.

The second amendment doesn’t give citizens the right to pursue unarmed people on public streets based on nebulous claims of suspicious behavior. We have police departments that are supposed to handle such matters, and his call to 911 should have been the end of his involvement in this “criminal” matter.

Had Zimmerman come across someone engaged in life-threatening criminal activity then he may have had some justification for using his gun, but there’s no evidence to suggest that Martin was engaged in any kind of criminal activity the night he was killed.

RavenLude

exactly…..a group of know it all liberals who dont know what they are talking about. racial profiling doesnt mean a community watch person patrolling his neighborhood and dialing 911 to inform them that there is a suspicious subject who happens to be a black male in his late teens.
rdnkkkgrl

IT’S NOT WHAT IT IS THEY TRY TO CLEAN UP THE NEIGHBORHOOD MOST OF THE TIME AND IN DRUG INVESTED PLACES THEY PUT UP THOSE BIG BLACK WROUGHT IRON FENCES AT THE FRONT, IN BETWEEN THE HOUSES AND WHAT NOT SO WHEN THE POLICE CHASE YOU YOU HAVE NO WARE TO RUN AND UNLESS U LIVE THERE YOU WOULD NEED A CODE OR CARD TO GET IN SO THEREFOR THAT KID WOULD OF HAD TO JUMP THE FENCE TO GET IN NOW I COULD BE WRONG BUT IM BEGINNING TO THINK MAYBE ZIMMERMAN CALLED THE GUY FOR A DRUG DEAL WHEN THE KID GOT THERE HE MAY HAVE TRIED TO RIP ZIMMERMAN OFF AND ZIMMERMAN WENT AFTER HIM UNLESS OF COURSE HE WAS ALREADY JONSIN AND SHOT HIM FOR HIS DRUGS AND MONEY I DONT SOMETHING ON THE LINES OF THAT………JUST SAYING!!!

MrObvious

Funny how all these people are so outspoken against Zimmerman and are so involved in protesting white/Hispanic/Asian/etc-on-black crimes but they are nowhere to be found each and every time a black person is killed by another black person. It’s basically saying we don’t really care about black-on-black crimes (which consist of the majority of crimes) but the few times someone outside the race does the same thing we get vocal. Sounds a bit hypocritical.

Stupidity Rules

You cannot sceam racism with black on black crime. That is why you do not hear anything about it. They are just zeroing in on this because the media keeps fueling the fire and trying to produce more news about it.

ok MD

I’m sure Ben ‘useless’ Cardin is investigating those Black Panther allegations……

DHarri

Ben is a coward liberal apologist.

cms827

The media needs to put an updated photo out, this photo is decieving, lets show the real kid. He is not all peaches and cream as his parents want us all to believe. It is all unraveling now and his parents want to keep all that under wraps. Where is his prom picture isnt that usually the picture that gets plastered all over the news when something like this happens. His parents are out to make a buck, and Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson need to crawl back under their rock, two worthless pieces of trash that have no real job doing anything but are millionaires. They make money off of other peoples misfortune.

Alex

So true!

Dale

Needless to say, a young man has been killed. It does not matter whether or not it was racial profiling at this time. However, it is of most importance to find out why Zimmerman would leave the shelter and protection of his vehicle to confront “anyone” that was seemingly suspiscious.

Al Sharptan

Zimmerman was not in a car. He was on foot patrol.

done

I hold the kis responsible if he wasn’t suspended from school for drugs he would not have been there acting suspicious. Maybe if he was in jail for his poscession of CDS where he belonged as a crimnal he wouldn’t have been shoot. It’s not a racial sterotype if it fits. Want to stop it then stop acting like it

Beth St Clair

WOW what a dummy you are…think back to your teenage years, were they innocent years in which you didn’t experiment and never got in trouble? This young man didn’t deserve to die PERIOD. He was walking home from the store unarmed and minding his business…

robertryan

This is all media drive for the ratings & the fool plantation blacks are lapping it up as if anything is going to really change. The parets are positioning themselves for a future big “Payday” or they think. Maybe when the mindset of blacks who are raised to rely on government handouts, no self respect for work & family changes, then we can make some progress. This Martin Kid brought all this on himself when he messed with a man & a gun, the fool.

rdnkkkgrl

@ROBERTRYAN LOL U R WAY TO FUNNY THAT JUST CRACKED ME UP!!!

The city that clearly does not read

god, every time you post something you just swim in your own stereotype… LOL!!!!! dumb redneck… ah sher ayam, yuck yuck yuck… HA!

robertryan

Hey, I can post a picture of myself when I was a altar boy in church @ 14. I’m now 18 & a Marine & don’t look anything like that pic of 14. Same goes for the spoonie who broke Zimmermans nose & cracked his head but the greedy parents are looking for the big payday…..Surprise surprise, they should be arrested the phoney’s.

Beth St Clair

Might wanna check out the video that shows NO bruises or bleeding or broken noses etc etc etc

SpecialEd

Zimmerman should go to jail for whatever crime he committed. If he attacked the kid and ended up shooting him, then at best it’s manslaughter.

As far as trying to turn this into a hate crime though, I have yet to see anything that shows that Zimmerman was hunting black people are committing premeditated crimes against black people. Yeah, he got scared because he saw a black person, but thats not a hate crime, thats ignorance, and he should be held accountable for that..

I’m calling it now though that this is going to end up just like the Duke Lacrosse case a few years ago where the media and black leaders tried to make a media spotlight out of something, and its going to end up biting them in the a$* and setting racial relations back another few decades.
shelly

where’s the story on Obama’s open mic promised to russia. shouldn’t this be a bigger story?

The city that clearly does not read

yes, but that article has its own comment section… ehh…. common sense.

DomesticGoddess

Wonder how much money Tray’s mama has made so far. Anyone want to join me in a protest over this:

http://themadjewess.com/2012/03/24/elderly-woman-raped-beaten-to-death-by-black-man-in-okhusband-in-critical-condition/
Alex

A 13 year old white boy was set on fire by two black 16 year olds in Kansas City. They told him “you are getting what you deserve white boy”. Where is the racial and/or justice rally for him? Why isn’t this a hate crime?

D King

Now that IS a hate crime. They assaulted the boy simply because he was white. This Trayvon case IS NOT a hate crime. It very well may be a crime, I’m not sure since all the facts aren’t out yet, but it was not racial profiling. If that neighborhood had been repeatedly burglarized by white dudes wearing cowboy boots, then wouldn’t you expect the next white dude wearing cowboy boots roaming the neighborhood would be under great suspicion? Of course!

Alex

Exactly – this case is getting ridiculous. I know if it were my child I would be curled in a fetal ball not blabbing out to every news agency and getting on TV with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum (AKA Jackson and Sharpton). This was not a “nice” young man and Zimmerman made a very poor judgement call to get out of the car. What a mess!
D King

“Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum (AKA Jackson and Sharpton)”

– LOL
rdnkkkgrl

I SERIOUSLY DOUBT IF THE NIEGHBORHOOD WAS SERIOUSLY BURGLARIZED BY WHITE BOYS WEARING COWBOY BOOTS CAUSE FOR 1 THERE TOO LOUD AND MAKE WAY TOO MUCH NOISE WHEN WALKING, 2 YOU CANT RUN FAST ENOUGH IN THEM AND DUHHH DONT BE STUPID ITS KANSAS CITY 99.9.9.9% OF THE PEOPLE THERE WEAR BOOTS.
D King

rdnkkkgrl — you’ve got to be kidding. You cannot be that much of a dimwit. You took my post way too literally. I chose the white guy/cowboy boots description at random. Pick any other description of your choice in it’s place and the argument remains the same.

SPICEY

WHY OH WHY HASN’T ANYONE PULLED THE VIDEO OF THE INCIDENT WITH TRAYVON MARTIN…JUST PLAY THE DAM TAPE AND BE DONE WITH ALL THIS MADNESS…IF NOT, THEN WHY NOT? WE GOT CAMERAS EVERY FREAKIN PLACE…THIS IS A GATED COMMUNITY…ARE YOU TELLING US…THERE WAS NO VIDEO PLACED NEAR THE DEVELOPMENT…COME ON NOW, IN 2012 BIG BROTHER DOESN’T MISS NOTHING….
The Mad Jewess

This is bs.
They called Zimmerman a “white Hispanic”
The racial profiling was directed at ZIMMERMAN
happyjack

In the end the porch monkey is dead & that is a good thing. He was not a nice boy, he was a thief, liar, scammer & a stupid student. Bon Voyage to hell Travyon the tree jumper.

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Trayvon Martin’s Parents: Our Son Was Victim Of Racial Profiling

March 27, 2012 11:17 PM

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