Posted on 07/25/2013 10:01:47 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
When police officers locked the doors to the state Capitol at the end of business Thursday more than 100 protesters remained inside. Among the group were about 30 high school students and young adults from Philadelphia and at least six pastors from across the state, all planning to spend the night with the Dream Defenders.
“We’re writing the story of our generation right now,” Gabriel Pendes, a Dream Defender organizer, told the group as it gathered around the Great Seal of the State of Florida for a pep talk and prayer, and to hear the rules of engagement. “We want to create a better world than the one that was handed to us ... a lot more love, a lot more hope -- that’s what the world needs.”
Thursday marked the 10th day of the Dream Defenders' sit-in. It started as a response to George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the Trayvon Martin case and as a protest of Florida’s self-defense law. The demonstrators want Gov. Rick Scott to call a special session of the Legislature to repeal the law's "stand your ground" provision. Scott has refused, saying he agrees with the law and most legislative leaders also support it.
Martin, 17, died after a confrontation with Zimmerman last year. His lawyers presented a self-defense argument to justify the use of deadly force. Protesters seized on the stand your ground law, saying it creates an environment where deadly force is an acceptable response to a provocation. During the past week, though, protesters have broadened the discussion to include zero-tolerance school discipline policies, what protesters call a school-to-prison pipeline and the role race plays in educational opportunities.
“If it is wrong we need to stand against it,” said Eddie Walker, pastor of In God’s Time Tabernacle in Orlando. “Until we stand and do something about it nothing is going to be done.” Walker is part of a delegation of pastors associated with PICO, a faith-based community organizing group, spending Thursday night with the protesters.
Also joining the group Thursday was a busload of high school students and young adults from Philadelphia. The Alliance for Education Justice organized a freedom ride among allied groups in cities stretching from Boston to Washington, D.C. to participate in a Friday rally in Tallahassee. A second AEJ bus didn’t arrive in time to make the 5 p.m. closing of the Capitol.
And a third group, the recently formed Gaston Justice Coalition, said it will bring 200 people from New Haven, Conn., and Polk County to the protest.
“This situation goes far beyond Trayvon Martin -- this law, stand your ground, needs to be looked at very seriously,” said Herron Gaston, a 25-year-old Polk County native and Yale University student. “We want our kids to be safe and to be able to walk down the street without having to feel threatened.”
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said Wednesday that the state has now spent nearly $46,000 on overtime since the protest began. That tab is likely to grow during the weekend. Singer and civil rights activists Harry Bellafonte is expected to participate in Friday’s rally. And a woman who identified herself as a cousin of Travon Martin said family members will be in Tallahassee this weekend to demonstrate solidarity with the protesters.
“We’re going to show this country that the youth has a voice and they are willing to unite,” said Ahmad Abuznaid, the 28-year-old legal and policy director for the Miami Dream Defenders.
Astroturfing season already?
Toss some dead fish upwind.
These people do not realize they are being used.
They should be told that the Florida law they’re so upset about is practically identical to an Illinois law sponsored by then Sen. Obama.
Read all about it: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3047451/posts?page=1
Play Lawrence Welk music. Loud. They’ll leave.
I should add, see post 6 in that thread for the Florida law.
Self defense is such a crime...!
They should have booted these dumbies out the first day.
Each day the Governor lets this go on it becomes more difficult and messy to bring to an end.
Philadelphia? Detroit By The Sea?
I hope the cops shoot some of them so they learn what it will be like to live in the country they want.
Florida needs to pass a law that makes it a crime to overtake a state capitol building like this. They can hold their demonstrations outside - not be allowed to use the bathroom facilities or anything else.
Where in the world is the governor and what is he doing about it?
Dream Defenders was set up by Vanessa Baden, an associate of Martin family attorney Crump. It is not the “spontaneous student group” that it bills itself as, it is astroturf.
Someone should probably also mention to them that the Stand Your Ground law they're protesting played little part in the Zimmerman trial and verdict.
Yeah. They’re clueless tools.
If I were in that area I might distribute some literature to them.
These policies most benefit good minority students. The majority of school infractions are committed by bad minority students. Bad minority students are almost always in schools that are majority minority, not majority white. That means that these troublemakers most impede other minorities from getting a solid education. But, hey, black people seem to have a thing for defending the dregs of their population even if it's at the expense of the good portion of their population.
Why are they allowed to keep doing this? How long do you think you would be allowed to do this?
The stand your ground laws protect people from the same people who are doing the protesting and want free reign to rob others.
LOL! You got it.
While I’m sure there are some clueless tools in the crowd, the driving forces know what they are doing...it’s a planned event that is being watched over and supervised by the DOJ’s CRS.
The goal is a media feeding frenzy when the local authorities finally tell DOJ “tough” and evict the squatters.
It’s astroturf, supported by Florida Dems and the Feds. Look for an incident in Florida about the same time that some juicy tidbit about one of the “phony” Obama scandals is ready to hit the news cycle.
Lock the building and set off 500 bug bombs
They say they want a kid to be able to walk down the street and be safe. Where? Chicago? Do they not want the kid to be allowed to defend himself?
This reminds me of the sixties when yankees came down south stirring up crap. Of course, the freedom riders were right but these people aren’t. Stand Your Ground has nothing to do with Civil Rights. obama just wants to use it to start a race war. A race war will not turn out well for anyone.
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