1,000 Hoodies March to protest Trayvon Martin shooting lives up to its billing

A sea of hooded activists descended on the steps of City Hall Saturday morning to join the 1,000 Hoodies Walk to protest the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman in Central Florida in late February.

The shooting has sparked an international furor over racial profiling, catching fire on social networking channels and inspiring protests across the globe. The local event appeared to live up to its billing as nearly 1,000 people of all ages and racial and ethnic backgrounds turned out in Springfield.

The crowd convened at City Hall and Court Square before taking a route on foot throughout the downtown.

"It's ridiculous that a 17-year-old had to die to get the world to stand up and take notice," said 27-year-old Tomeka Ligon, of Springfield, before the march began.

The hoodie, a wardrobe staple of youth everywhere, has taken on new meaning in the context of the Martin shooting. Martin was unarmed, carrying a package of Skittles and wearing a hoodie when Zimmerman, 28, shot him in the Orlando, Fla. suburb of Sanford on Feb. 26.

The rally, sponsored by the Alliance of Black Professionals, was dotted with signs that read "Stop Racial Profiling" and "Justice for Trayvon," among other messages.

Pants on the Ground
Pants on the Ground
Lookin' like a fool With your pants on the Ground
With the gold in your mouth Hat turned sideways Pants hit the ground
Call yourself a cool cat
With your pants on the ground
Walkin' downtown with your pants on the ground! Giddy-up
Hey! Get your pants off the ground!
Lookin like a fool!
Walkin' talkin' with your pants on the ground!
Hey! Get your pants off the ground!
Lookin' like a fool
With your pants on the Ground
With the gold in your mouth
Hat turned sideways
Call yourself a cool cat
Pants on the ground!
Michelle ignore this change (repeats)

In a letter obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller on Monday, a family member of George Zimmerman ripped Seminole County, Fla. NAACP president Turner Clayton for a rush to judgment in the Trayvon Martin case.

“It’s time for you to end the race issue in this matter and call for cooler heads to prevail,” the letter reads. “If something happens to George as a result of the race furor stirred up by this mischaracterization of George there will be blood on your hands as well as the rest of the racists that have rushed to judgment. You need to call off the dogs. Period. Publicly and swiftly.”

George, the letter adds, “has been called a racist and a bigot and there have been very few that have stood up for him.” The letter was addressed to Clayton at the NAACP’s national headquarters in Baltimore.

The family member, whose identity TheDC has confirmed but is withholding out of concern for the Zimmerman family’s safety, said George Zimmerman “has been found guilty” in the court of public opinion “until proven innocent,” adding that the details of what happened on Feb. 26 — the night Zimmerman shot Martin in what he claims was self-defense — “will not be disclosed until the police report is made public.”

“Regardless of this fact, George Zimmerman has been hiding for his life because of the death threats made against him by the black community … all of our family is in hiding and frankly scared by the threats,” the family member wrote in the letter dated March 26, but shared with TheDC on Monday.

“There has been an unprecedented rush to judge George regardless of the facts. The black community as a whole has turned their backs and blindly followed the furor stirred up by self-proclaimed leaders of your community. These leaders have rallies and chant horrible things of a person they know nothing about.”

The letter also described how Zimmerman was one of “very few” in Sanford, Fla., who spoke out publicly to condemn the “beating of the black homeless man Sherman Ware on December 4, 2010 by the son of a Sanford police officer.”

“Do you know the individual that stepped up when no one else in the black community would?” the family member wrote. “Do you know who spent tireless hours putting flyers on the cars of persons parked in the churches of the black community? Do you know who waited for the church‐goers to get out of church so that he could hand them fliers in an attempt to organize the black community against this horrible miscarriage of justice? Do you know who helped organize the City Hall meeting on January 8th, 2011 at Sanford City Hall??”

“That person was GEORGE ZIMMERMAN. Ironic isn’t it?”

Sorry but there is not one person in their right mind that will not cross the street if they see a young black male in a hoodie walking towards them at night in an isolated area, even though innocently,that will not cross the street to avoid him. That includes liberals, Democrats, conservatives, Republicans,gays, straight, male, female, media people,latinos, asians and yes, even Jesse Jackson and other blacks with hoodies.Mental profiling exists because the human mind acts in a reactive fashion on a base level even though some may feel a sense of guilt after the fact.To march against profiling is to march against human nature.

And Springfield wonders why they’re in the list of the Top Five Dying Cities.

It’s a beautiful city. The home of Smith and Wesson, Springfield Armory, and the Birthplace of Basketball. Oh yes, the home of Dr. Suess and Sheriff Joe.

Now it’s just a battlefield between the Hispanics and the Blacks. And they can’t even get out more than 100 blacks to riot.

I bet they could get at least 300 out if they had a Foot Locker and a Best Buy store.

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