Posted on 03/25/2012 2:29:15 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
As Philadelphia prepares for another demonstration over the shooting death in Florida of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, Mayor Nutter on Sunday characterized the teenager's death as "an assassination."
Nutter also joined the increasing calls for the arrest of George Zimmerman, the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who fatally shot the unarmed Martin in February.
Nutter's comments on MSNBC came one day before the one-month anniversary of the widely condemned shooting, which will be marked Monday night with a candlelight vigil in Love Park, the latest in a series of demonstrations that have been held in various U.S. cities. A march in Philadelphia Friday drew more than 2,500 participants.
"I've called this nothing short of an assassination," Nutter said on MSNBC. "This individual Zimmerman followed Trayvon for some period of time. Trayvon was not a threat to him.
"Clearly Zimmerman was told not to continue any kind of pursuit. In my view at least . . . he tracked [Trayvon] down. He followed him and then shot and killed him. It's incomprehensible to me why an individual would do something like this, unless he had something either in his heart or on his mind."
Public condemnation of how police in Florida have handled the case - they have not arrested Zimmerman - has been unrelenting. Critics have maintained that Martin's race - African American - played a factor in his shooting. Zimmerman's racial background is mixed, with a white mother and an Hispanic father.
The uprising over the police handling of the case has forced the temporary resignation of the police chief in Sanford, the small town where the shooting occurred. The U.S. Justice department has launched an investigation, in part to determine if a hate crime was committed.
On Feb. 26, Martin had been at a 7-Eleven and was walking back to his father's home in a gated community to watch a basketball game when Zimmerman started following him and ultimately shot him. Zimmerman has contended that he shot the teenager in self-defense, and was released by police after questioning.
Martin had been carrying a bag of Skittles candy and a can of ice tea.
The shooting has drawn international attention to Florida's so-called Stand Your Ground law. It allows someone to "stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force," if that person feels it is neccessary to prevent death or bodily harm.
Some of Zimmerman's friends have come to his defense saying he is not a racist and was prompted to pull the trigger because he feared for his life.
On MSNBC, Nutter said Zimmerman "based on all information, clearly should be in police custody. That's the first failing in the aftermath of his actions."
"There was a young boy who was minding his business, a young African-American male . . . good kid based on everything that we know, and this guy on his own shoots him down with no logic, no reason, and no response from the law enforcement officials down in Florida."
"People will not rest until there is some justice on behalf of that young man, Trayvon Martin, and many, many other young people across the United States of America, especially African American males," Nutter said.
therein lies the rub.
WOW! Looks like someone else agrees with santorum.
End the DNCs war on Hispanics.
I expected better from Nutter. @sshole!
He must of gotten the inside info from Santorum.
The mayor is appropriately named.
oh please..........What’s with this rhetoric?????????
An assassination??????????? Is this guy for real??????????
Philadelphia is a cesspool of racial violence against whites and this Mayor has the effrontery to jump on a Florida incident that is at worst a vigilante out of control, and a Hispanic one at that!
Shame on the media in all this and the politicians.....especially Obama.
I think CAIR is now involved.
Philly is an Obama stronghold...Nutter wants a nutter and better job??
Hey Nutter what happened to Reginald Denny?
Hey Nutter what happened to Reginald Denny?
The kid was NOT walking home to his fathers. His father didn’t report him missing until the next morning....probably when he couldn’t reach him by phone.
Is It politically incorrect to point out that a lot of black teenagers get shot by other black teenagers? And you never hear peep out of our political leaders.
“This individual Zimmerman followed Trayvon”
Little bias there? “This individual”? Last name vs first name?
IBD Editorials
Democrats Say Talk Radio Killed Black Florida Teen
Posted 03/23/2012 06:59 PM ET
Free Speech: Some want “hate speech” measures silencing talk radio’s voices of freedom. That would mean a chilling return to the left-leaning major media’s monopoly on the flow of information.
On MSNBC last week, Democratic Party strategist Karen Finney blamed talk radio king Rush Limbaugh for the fatal shooting last month of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch captain in a mixed neighborhood in Florida.
Limbaugh, along with Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, “reinforce and validate old stereotypes that associate the poor and welfare as criminal behavior with African Americans and people of color, calling us lazy, undeserving recipients of public assistance,” Finney said.
In the Trayvon Martin incident, Finney claimed “those festering stereotypes had lethal consequences.”
One might ask how Finney knows that Martin’s half-Peruvian killer, George Zimmerman (whose photo suggests he’s a person of color himself), listens to Limbaugh or has been affected by the candidates’ speeches.
As in ex-Rep. Gabby Giffords’ shooting last year, this is a case of a Democratic mouthpiece accusing foes of their big-government schemes of murder. So much for President Obama’s call for civility in political discourse.
.. of course back in the 1960s bumper stickers that read "Support Your Local Police" and "Support Law and Order" were condemned as racist by many. Here we go.. long hot summers and all? Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Awful lot of political “leaders” in this lynch mob.
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