Sunday, July 14, 2013

Justice for Trayvon Martin! People say George Zimmerman is guilty!


Trayvon Martin demo, SF
Trayvon Martin demo, SF Trayvon Martin demo, SF Trayvon Martin demo, SF
In response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin, the ANSWER Coalition immediately took to the streets around the country. In San Francisco, we picketed at 24th and Mission St. before marching to 16th and Mission St., up to Valencia St. and back to 24th and Mission. The march grew and grew, with eventually over 450 people taking the entire street from sidewalk to sidewalk, as the community came out of their homes and stores to stand for justice for Trayvon Martin.
On Saturday, July 13, George Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges in a second-degree murder trial. Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, a young Black man, in cold blood on the streets of Sanford, Florida, on February 26, 2012. After killing Martin, Zimmerman roamed free for 44 days before the angry response of millions of people forced the state to take action.
The sequestered jury of six women, all white except for one, came back with a not guilty verdict after only two days of deliberations. The verdict is a travesty, a continuation of the complicity of the racist, so-called criminal justice system that refused to treat the murder as a crime and has now left a vigilante free to roam the streets. The system of racist brutality carried out against poor people and people of color in communities from Florida to New York to California to Texas and elsewhere is on the offensive.
The acquittal of George Zimmerman means there will be more George Zimmermans. They have encouraged the growth of racist vigilante attacks on Black people. This is a pattern of racist violence that  allows the cops to get away with murders like those of Oscar Grant, Alan Blueford and Manuel Diaz and countless others.
 Demonstrations across the country:
San Francisco
Sunday, 4pm
Powell and Market
Oakland
Sunday, 4pm
Oscar Grant Plaza
Washington, DC
Sunday, 6pm
Malcolm X Park
New York City
Sunday, 6pm
Union Square
New York City
Sunday, 5pm
Borough Hall, Brooklyn
New York City
Monday, 7pm
Hunts Point Plaza, South Bronx
Boston
Sunday, 6pm
Dudley Square Station (Washington St. at Dudley St.), Roxbury, Mass.
San Diego
Sunday, 5:30pm
Highland Park in City Heights near Fairmont Ave and Wightman Street next to the library and across from the police station.
Sacramento
Sunday, 12 noon
Federal Building (5th and I Street)
Syracuse
Sunday, 2pm
Onondaga County Courthouse (401 Montgomery St.) 
Albuquerque
Sunday, 4pm
Civic Plaza
Washington, D.C.
Sunday, 6pm
Malcolm X Park