Free Republic

Florida is ground zero for the weird and unusual, but there are many people, places and events that Florida can point to with pride: Gov. Reubin Askew, our world-class beaches, beautiful wetlands, Disney World, Gasparilla and our universities’ title-winning athletic teams. But George Zimmerman is not something we’re proud of. For those people who have not listened to any form of media for the last few years, George Zimmerman is best known as the neighborhood watchman-turned-vigilante who shot and killed an unarmed 16-year old by the name of Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman played police, judge and jury, assuming Trayvon was “up...

Like the rest of the world, I was stunned to hear Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant argue that it was somehow an unecessary burden for a black man to stand in support of the late Trayvon Martin. If anything, the Trayvon Martin case brought black people together in ways that we haven’t seen since the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The case was clear cut: Trayvon had no weapon. He wasn’t bothering anybody. He was stalked out and murdered for appearing to look like a “thug.” George Zimmerman is a free man and later showed that he...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Now, you remember -- you may not remember it, ladies and gentlemen. On March 21st, ten days ago, we had a caller on this program, Siobhan was her name. She was from Columbia, Mississippi, and she was African-American. She said that she was ashamed of Obama. Well, guess what? In Houston, on the TV station KRIV, they played a replay of what happened on the radio. They found the local leader of the Black Panthers, the New Black Panthers, to comment on this woman calling this program and me. The woman's call was a long call and...

[Ed. Note—The opinions expressed during this conversation reflect the opinions of the participants and the participants only. This conversation does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Complex Media.] City Guide's Lauretta Charlton and Julian Kimble tackle the most controversial headlines about race that made the news. This month's discussion includes Lord Jamar, Kobe Bryant on Trayvon Martin, interracial dating and Kanye West's Vogue cover story. [NBA star Kobe Bryant told the New Yorker that he "won't react to something just because I'm supposed to, because I'm an African-American," referring to the Trayvon Martin case. Critics argue his comments are out...

Trayvon Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, speaks about her support to eradicate "stand your ground" laws. Enough is enough, says Rev. Dr. R.B. Holmes, noting the list of young Black people dead or in jail in states where “stand your ground” laws are in place. “Our young Black boys are being senselessly killed just for being Black teenagers,” said Holmes, who on March 25 announced the formation of the National Pastor’s Task Force, a nation wide coalition of 40 Black ministers who want to repeal or revise “stand your ground” laws. “We have begun the fight in Florida and pledge to...

*Civil rights activist Najee Ali, director of Project Islamic H.O.P.E., is calling for a boycott of all products that NBA All-star Kobe Bryant endorses. This includes his jerseys, and signature gym shoes. The call for the national boycott is in response to Bryant’s negative comments concerning the Miami Heat’s support of the Trayvon Martin family. In the March 31 issue of the New Yorker. Bryant discussed life and race with Ben McGrath. When McGrath asked Bryant’s opinion on the Miami Heat’s show of solidarity with Martin in the now iconic “hoodie” photo, the LA Lakers star stated: “I won’t react...

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder strongly hinted on Thursday that the government will soon determine if George Zimmerman will face federal civil rights charges in the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin. A self-appointed neighborhood watch patrolman, Zimmerman was acquitted by a Florida jury of murder charges last year and soon thereafter the federal government announced that the Justice Department would be probing the case for any civil rights violations that might have occurred. The 17-year-old Martin was unarmed and just steps away from the doorsteps of his father's gated community home when Zimmerman ignored a police dispatcher's stern advice to...

Ever since George Zimmerman gunned down Trayvon Martin in his Sanford, Fla., gated community, it’s become an article of faith that the rash of lethal shootings in public places—from the Florida moviegoer who was killed after a texting and popcorn-throwing incident to Jordan Davis, shot in his car at a Jacksonville, Fla., gas station to last week’s lethal shooting in an Arizona Walmart—is attributable to the “stand your ground” laws enacted over the past decade in 26 states across the country. Aggressive human interaction, post-Trayvon, now follows a painfully familiar pattern: An altercation occurs. Someone says he feared for his...

More than a thousand people marched on the state Capitol today demanding a repeal of Stand Your Ground legislation. When they left, they left with a threat. Led by the Reverend Al Sharpton, police estimate 1200 people came from as far as Miami with a common goal. “We’re trying to amend the Stand Your Ground law,” said Virginia Lawrence of College Park, GA. “Can you imagine all the injustice?” On stage, Congresswoman Corrine Brown (D-Jacksonville) called the state and Stand Your Ground “stuck on stupid.” Trayvon Martin’s mother said she would not let her son die in vain. “Right is...

We knew last year the diversionary activity around the Miami-Dade School Police Department (M-DSPD), which was coordinated, sanctioned and authorized by Miami-Dade School Superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, was illegal. Now, however – the entire School Board might be legally responsible for engaging in unlawful conspiracy which resulted from the internal investigation within the M-DSPD and the School Boards’ “willful blindness” to the actual finding(s). The District Public Information Officer, Rolando Martin, has admitted to us the current Records Request delay is a consequence of School Board Legal Counsel evaluating our latest FOIA request. [M-DSPD] officers within the department admitted, under oath,...

SANFORD — Former Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman says he's done fighting in court with Special Prosecutor Angela Corey. In paperwork filed at the Seminole County criminal courthouse Feb. 20, Zimmerman says he is giving up his promised fight to make the state pay his legal bills. He's also wants to put an end to his lawyers' fight with prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda, whom they had asked a judge to punish, alleging unethical behavior, including hiding evidence. If Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson agrees, that would clear the way for Zimmerman to move forward with his defamation suit against...

... The case highlighted Florida's "stand your ground" law, which makes it easier for individuals to use deadly force in self defense by removing the shooter's duty to retreat from a confrontation. She began her speech by noting that Connecticut law does not have a similar "stand your ground" provision. That, she said, is a good thing. "It does not work, it is not fair and that's the reason why my purpose, my life work, is to go around the country" and push for the repeal of such policies, she said.

ON THURSDAY afternoon, two couples sat stoically in a White House audience filled with those working to change the lives of black and Latino boys. That the parents of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, two boys whose shooting deaths outraged a nation, could reach through their grief to take in President Obama's vision for saving other sons speaks to their resilience. More importantly, it speaks volumes to all of us. It speaks to the fact that Obama's new initiative for boys of color, "My Brother's Keeper," will require much more than the $200 million-plus foundations will spend to effect change....

Northampton Community College students debating the merits of so-called stand-your-ground laws were so convincing, audience members seemed to forget the teams had flipped a coin to decide which position they'd take. Members of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and the college's Student Senate tackled the thorny issue Thursday as part of the college's celebration of Black History Month. The three students on the honor society team were deemed the victors by a panel of three judges. But as the judges deliberated in the hallway, the teams took audience questions and also were corrected a few times. Professor Vertel Martin...

I imagine you taller now. I imagine you ready for college or the armed forces, or sulking because the world isn’t kind to those who are fresh out of high school. I imagine you annoyed that the economy sucks and that tuition is high and scholarship opportunities are limited and the paperwork is endless. I imagine you unsure of your next steps and grateful for the anonymity that hoodies provide when you don’t feel like talking or being seen. I imagine you unafraid. I imagine you fearless. I imagine you scared of everything and hiding behind a scowl because hip-hop...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Two years and a day after their son’s death, the parents of Trayvon Martin visited the White House on Thursday and were in the audience as President Obama announced a new initiative designed to keep young minority men on the right path. The president mentioned Trayvon’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, during his speech, drawing applause from a crowd gathered in the East Room of the White House. The man who shot and killed Trayvon, George Zimmerman, was found not guilty of murder in a Florida trial last year. The prosecution contended that Mr. Zimmerman singled out Trayvon because...

President Obama announced a $200 million philanthropic commitment Thursday to catapult the lives of young men of color. The program, dubbed "My Brother's Keeper," will look to coordinate businesses and government "to give more young Americans the support they need to make good choices and to be resilient and to overcome obstacles and achieve their dreams, the president said. During the White House ceremony, he empathized with black and Hispanic men who believed they were facing impossible odds and were angered by absentee parents and harsh consequences. "I made bad choices," Obama admitted. "I got high without always thinking about...

Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old whose fatal shooting by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida set off a racial firestorm, will speak at UConn on Feb. 28, at 6 p.m., in the Student Union Ballroom.

College to award annual Trayvon Martin Award for Social Justice Jordan-Zachery wants to make sure the award effectively serves as a “memory of victims of racism and other forms of oppression in the United States.” The Providence College Black Studies Program e-mailed students, faculty, and administrators Tuesday to renew an award called the Trayvon Martin Award for Social Justice.

<p>Declaring that “Florida cannot defend black life against white fear,” Brittney Cooper, a liberal, race-baiting, African American writer for Salon.com, has made the not-so-subtle suggestion that perhaps it’s time for black folks to react with violence when a court of law doesn’t rule to their satisfaction.</p>