Free Republic

We want to believe in justice for all, but when guns are in white privileged hands, blind justice remains impossible to expect.“I think it’s a vindication for justice.” Angela Corey said that. This is the same Angela Corey whose office failed, not so long ago, to secure a guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman for the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. But there was the Florida state attorney on Wednesday afternoon, having secured a guilty verdict – delivered by a mostly white-male jury in about five hours – that condemned Michael Dunn to a minimum of 25 years...

Few people thought they would, right? Holder’s teased friendly audiences from time to time with vague promises that “justice” would be done but even he’s been at pains to note that civil-rights cases are hard to win. I think that, ever since the Rodney King trials, the public has a hazy sense that if a state prosecutor can’t get a conviction in a racially charged case that’s gotten national attention, the feds will swoop in and file their own charges as a fallback option. It’s not a matter of law, it’s a matter of politics: If people are sufficiently...

The Justice Department is not expected to bring civil rights charges against George Zimmerman in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, according to three law enforcement officials, despite allegations that the killing was racially motivated. The federal investigation of Zimmerman was opened two years ago by the department’s civil rights division, but officials said there is insufficient evidence to bring federal charges. The investigation technically remains open, but it is all but certain the department will close it. …

Winston Churchill once said, “You have enemies? Good. That means you stood up for something in your life.” Is no instance is this quote more applicable than the tenure of Attorney General Eric Holder, who stepped down on Thursday after leading the Department of Justice for six years and in, turn, became a prime target for Republicans intent on destroying everything that both he and the Obama Administration stood for. Despite constant attacks, as well as deliberate misinformation by Republicans, Holder stood strong and for six years became a champion for civil rights, gay rights, and voting rights. Holder himself...

Mayor Kevin Johnson will convene a two-day forum of the U.S. Conference of Mayors this weekend in Sacramento that will include a session discussing the response to the violence in Ferguson, Mo. The attorney representing the family of Michael Brown, the young man killed by police in Ferguson in August, will be part of the panel discussion. Attorney Benjamin Crump also represents the family of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teenager shot in 2012 by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla....

I was stunned by the anger and sarcasm Harry J. Mallory directed toward a dead teenager, Trayvon Martin, in the Sept. 17 letters. It was over the top and then some (“Cartoon comparing Putin to Zimmerman case went too far”). His reasoning seems pretty easy to understand: Trayvon was black; blacks are thugs; so all George Zimmerman did was create a “dead thug.” Sadly, this sort of (racism) seems pretty common among the far right these days. Here’s what I remember: Trayvon Martin was simply walking home. George Zimmerman targeted him because he was black. Zimmerman followed Trayvon, even after...

ith a smile on his face, George Zimmerman spent Saturday afternoon posing for photos, sharing hugs and shaking hands with gun enthusiasts at a firearms expo in Lake Mary.. "It's so odd to me," said Zimmerman, about the celebrity treatment he receives in public. "[But] it is appreciated." In his first interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Zimmerman described life after his acquittal last year in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The former Neighborhood Watch volunteer shot the unarmed black teen in Sanford on Feb. 26, 2012. Now life for the 30-year-old is completely different. He's always moving. He's...

The explosive wave of reactions to the fatal shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri hasn’t lost its momentum just yet. Black student leaders have come together in support of racial equality with the formation of a multi-university group, the Black Ivy Coalition. The coalition dedicated to social change is comprised of members from all eight Ivy League institutions, with plans to gain student memberships from colleges across the nation, and was officiated with the release of a statement summarizing their motivations and ambitions (see full text below). Their tagline? “It is now time for our generation to...

Rapper Snoop Dogg and the League of Young Voters came together to host a panel about police brutality and the chaotic events that unfolded in Ferguson, Missouri, after 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot. In addition to Snoop Dogg, the panel also welcomed Michael Brown’s father, Michael Brown Sr.; Jordan Davis’ mother, Lucia McBath; attorney Benjamin Crump and Chuck Creekmur of AllHipHop. The panel, titled No Guns Allowed: Fallout From Ferguson, took place during the BET Hip-Hop Awards weekend in Atlanta. The group of panelists discussed what the African-American community needs to do to help solve issues of racism and...

Rather than waiting until specifics about the Michael Brown case are known — such as autopsy results, detailed officer reports, toxicology or other details regarding his death — some Ferguson residents, Brown supporters and various hangers-on decided to act. Learning nothing from the Trayvon Martin case, people took to the street with demands for “justice” and homemade protest signs. They were aided by a media seemingly excited about exploiting the narrative that Brown’s death was at the hands of a brutal and possibly racist cop in a militarized police force that cares little about black residents. Ensuing nights after the...

Taught by attorney for the Martin family.A JD student at the University of Miami School of Law–and a long-time fan of “The Law of Self Defense”–contacted me recently to share a notice he’d received from the school. It seems for the Fall 2014 semester they will be offering a “short course” (good for one credit) with a focus on the Trayvon Martin case, entitled “Legal Advocacy, Media and the Pursuit of Social Justice.” The first note of interest is that the course is being “taught” by none other than Jasmine Rand, an attorney with the firm of Crump & Park....

The mother of a teen slain at a Jacksonville gas station after he and his friends refused to turn down their music will be among the panelists at a seminar in Orlando about the controversial Stand Your Ground law. Jordan Davis' mother, Lucia McBath, will be among the experts examining whether there is racial disparity in the application or enforcement of Stand Your Ground laws. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is hosting the forum, which takes place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 17 in the grand ballroom of the Rosen Centre Hotel on International Drive. The forum...

America is pushing forward in a post-racial society, blind to skin color. That's the conventional wisdom. But the research of Jennifer Eberhardt, the Bay Area's newest and only recipient of the famed MacArthur fellowship, the "genius grants," has proved otherwise. She has found that skin color prejudices the perceptions of jurors, police officers and even the ordinary student who volunteers in research at Stanford University. Black people, especially those with very dark skin and kinky hair, are more likely to be linked to crime, handed stiffer punishments or even sentenced to death than lighter-appearing individuals, according to her research. Eberhardt...

In the weeks and months after Trayvon Martin was killed, his mother saw 50 different photos painting him as a thug.. It was as if portraying the slain 17-year-old as something he wasn't — a muscle-bound, tattooed rapper, or a young man wearing his pants low and flipping middle fingers with each hand — somehow justified his death, Sybrina Fulton said. "At first, I thought I was at fault myself. I thought maybe it was the hoodie," she said. But Fulton said she soon came to realize that even in 2012, she didn't have to look to her son's sweatshirt...

A little over a year ago the debate was fierce over whether Florida state prosecutor Angela “Tough on Crime” Corey assigned to prosecute George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin would dump the case. There was good reason for the debate. Zimmerman was not a police officer. But he was seen as the next best or worst thing to it since he had close ties with law enforcement and was a one-time neighborhood watch patrol officer. This automatically bestowed on him the shield that cops have from any charges of misconduct, especially in cases where the victims of their misconduct are...

I know, I know, I’m the guy that just keeps pointing out obvious truths but never offers any real solutions. Bear with me anyway. My freshman year, I took a classical fencing class through Cornell P.E. with Maître d’Armes Adam Crown. He said some very interesting things to us before he left. For example: 1.When it is not time to act, it is time not to act. 2.If you can call Obama a black president, you can also call him a white president. 3.America is exhibiting signs of becoming a fascist country. 4.In vino veritas (translation: “In wine there is...

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The mother of slain teen Trayvon Martin will be part of a discussion at Lehigh University Tuesday. As part of the University's MLK Committee, a "Rap Sessions' event discussion will be offered at 7 p.m. in Baker Hall. The panel will feature Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, and will be moderated by hip hop artist and activist Jasari X. Martin was a 17-year-old African-American high school student was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman in February 2012 in a Sanford, Florida, neighborhood. Zimmerman was acquitted of the crime in July 2013. Other...

This letter sent to the Saint Louis Dispatch by Benjamin Crump clearly showcases the growing sense of desperation. As with almost all things from the mind of the Crump it will also backfire. Benjamin Crump should leave the thinking parts to his sidekick Daryl Parks. First the Letter:Benjamin Crump is not the sharpest tack in the tool shed. You see, in the mind of the Crump the judge blocking the release of the Juvenile criminal records of Mike Brown equates to the non-existence of the records; ergo in Crump’s mind there is no risk of criminal conduct being exposed. BIG...

(93-PHOTOS-AT-LINK) Evidence photos released by the Fourth Circuit Court State Attorney's Office and the lawyers for George Zimmerman in the shooting death of teen Trayvon Martin. Sanford resident Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder...

FERGUSON, Missouri— It has been a month and a day since Michael Brown was shot and killed, his body left for hours in the street like strange, fallen fruit for his loved ones and neighbors to wail over. Protests, riots and violent clashes with the police have slowly cooled in the St. Louis suburb, but Brown’s family continues to languish under the weight of an uncertain investigation and the burden of mourning the death of their 18-year-old son – both privately and publicly. “Each day it seems to get worse for them,” Anthony Gray, a family attorney, told msnbc. “Because...