Free Republic

Benjamin Crump, the lawyer who skyrocketed to national prominence by representing the family of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Florida teenager who was followed, confronted and shot to death by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla., said that since the 4th grade, he always knew that he wanted to grow up and fight for the community. “The measure of a man is defined by the impact that they make on the world,” said Crump. “Everyday we have to get up and ask, ‘What impact are we going to make on the world?’ and we have to do it, because our children are...

Last month, the Department of Justice announced that it would not prosecute George Zimmerman for shooting and killing Trayvon Martin. Due to the skewering of Zimmerman by much of the media following the DOJ’s decision, he declined all interviews and press. However, Zimmerman did open up to his divorce lawyer on March 8th. And what he had to say included some choice words for President Obama. The Orlando Sentinel has more on what Zimmerman had to say: “The president should never have allowed the DOJ investigation and is guilty of ramping up racial tension when he said, “If I had...

Fanatics believe their opinions are unbiased and unassailable. Conservatives, who contemptuously ridicule everything Barack Obama, believe their opinions sacred and his ideas sacrilegious. They have not come to terms with the fact that a black person occupies the White House as president, and not as a cook. Many conservatives grudgingly admit that his Bloody Sunday speech in Selma was a great speech, but could not resist belittling it. He has been accused of fomenting strife, opening old wounds and politicizing the event. Bloody Sunday was politicized when the Congressional GOP leadership announced they would not attend. They were pandering to...

"In all criminal prosecutions," reads the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, "the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial." In its dangling of George Zimmerman over the pit of judicial hell for the last three years, the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) violated the spirit of that amendment for no better reason than to pacify the Democrats' increasingly bloodthirsty base. Finally, on Tuesday of this week, the DOJ announced that it had found insufficient evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against Zimmerman. A White House so seemingly appalled by torture had no qualms...

On the first day of winter’s thaw, I saw two teenage boys on the roof next door holding guns. I don’t know much about guns, except that they kill and that young black men holding them are likely to be killed. I called my husband, trying to keep panic out of my voice so as not alarm my own children. He looked out the window. “Jesus. Call the police”. After Michael Brown, John Crawford, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice - especially after Tamir - calling the police didn’t seem like the solution here. “Don’t you see who it is”? I told...

Many of us who did not vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election found some solace in the notion that Obama’s presidency, if nothing else, would ease racial tensions. The poll numbers suggested the same. In the month of Obama’s inauguration, 79 percent of whites and 63 percent of blacks held a favorable view of race relations in America, something of a high water mark in recent history. Those paying close attention, however, saw reason to worry. There were forces on the left, the White House included, that were prepared to use Obama’s presidency to drive the races...

The phrase “Black Live Matter” has emerged as a movement.A lawyer, Benjamin Crump the lawyer for the families of teens killed in police shootings responded to the Justice Department’s report surrounding the conditions which led to the death of Michael Brown. He stated with an interview on, Face the Nation that the Department of Justice cannot sanitize these shootings of unarmed colored people. Representing the families of Trayvon Martin, Michel Brown and Tamir Rice; Crump does not agree with the report not bringing civil rights charges against the officers involved in these shootings. The report only brings the conditions of...

Following the death of her 17-year-old son, Trayvon Martin, many things came as a surprise to Sybrina Fulton. The overwhelming amount of support from the public surprised the grieving mother and the sheer pervasiveness of racism in America was startling. The Department of Justice’s recent decision not to press any charges against the man responsible for her unarmed son’s death, however, was sadly the most predictable part of the aftermath. It has been three years since volunteer neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman fatally shot Martin as he made his way home from a Florida convenient store, yet emotions in the Black...

In an interview with The Daily Caller’s Ginni Thomas published on Sunday, Milwaukee Co., WI Sheriff David Clarke cautioned against making the likes of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown into civil rights figures, arguing doing so desecrates the legacy of figures of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, including Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.

A teacher describes how the death Trayvon Martin made ger scrap her lesson plan and work on something more relevant with students.Brit in the Bronx teacher created her portrait of Trayvon Martin using red Skittles wrappers and cream and turquoise Arizona drinks labels.Sometimes the people you teach and the events that change their lives can take you to places you weren’t expecting. In 2012, my students had a Hoods Up For Trayvon Martin day in protest against the failure to arrest former neighbourhood watchman George Zimmerman for killing the Florida teenager. They came to class with their hoods up, many...

“Holder whines that the bar is set “too high” for him to do his job.”Michael Brown’s family and the people of Ferguson, Missouri had better prepare themselves. At some point in the near future the Obama justice department will announce that there will be no federal prosecution of his killer. It isn’t hard to make this prediction. Trayvon Martin’s parents were just informed that the federal government won’t lift a finger to bring their son’s murderer to justice. It is particularly galling to watch Attorney General Eric Holder leave office being lionized as a civil rights champion when he has...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) When people are faced with overwhelming trauma in their lives, some become consumed by their difficulties, while others emerge stronger for it. In special circumstances, they may find their destiny, and seek to heal the world and make all of us stronger. Myrlie Evers-Williams and Sybrina Fulton are two great women whose achievements demand our attention. Although their personal stories are separated by five decades, these women share parallel lives. Thrust into a position of leadership for the greater good of society, they have used personal grief over the loss of a loved one to become agents for change....

Even though the shooter who gunned down Miami Gardens teen Trayvon Martin won’t face federal hate crime charges, the teenager’s parents vowed to keep his memory alive Wednesday through the foundation set up in his namesake. “I will continue to fight for my son, for your son,’’ said Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon’s mother. “We here in the United States are under a crisis when our young people cannot walk the street, cannot play their music, cannot stand in front of stores or go to the store without being threatened, without being followed, chased, pursued, profiled or murdered. I just feel we...

MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry said during an address at Cornell University this week that she hopes 17-year-old Trayvon Martin “whooped the s--t” out of gunman George Zimmerman during their fatal encounter in 2012. Harris-Perry’s speech, titled “We Can’t Breathe: The Continuing Consequences of Inequality,” was delivered during the university’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Lecture. She said the following of Martin’s death: “I hope [Martin] tried to stay alive. I hope he knew that he lived in a state with a ‘Stand Your Ground’ law.’ ” Zimmerman was acquitted in 2013 on murder charges. Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law was...

<p>The mother of Trayvon Martin says she's disappointed that federal prosecutors decided not to charge a neighborhood watch volunteer with a hate crime for killing her son three years ago.</p> <p>Speaking with The Associated Press on Wednesday before the third anniversary of her 17-year-old son's death, Sybrina Fulton says she still believes George Zimmerman got away with murder.</p>

<p>During a speech at Cornell University earlier this week, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry said she hopes Trayvon Martin “whooped the shit out of’ George Zimmerman during the fatal confrontation that led to Martin’s death in 2012.</p> <p>I hope [Martin] tried to stay alive. I hope he knew that he lived in a state with a “Stand Your Ground’ law. And I hope he whooped the shit out of George Zimmerman. And it’s not disreputable because he encountered a stranger who was prepared to kill him, and you know how I know? Because he killed him.</p>

On Tuesday, the Department of Justice announced it would not file civil rights charges against George Zimmerman for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Martin’s family described the decision as a “disappointment.” The federal government will now close the investigation for good. According to USA Today, the federal investigation did not find sufficient evidence in the Trayvon Martin case to meet the high standards for a civil rights violation. The announcement will close the federal investigation, but Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement that it should not end the dialogue and scrutiny over race relations in America. “The...

The Department of Justice announced today that it will not pursue a federal civil rights charge against George Zimmerman, arising out of his fatal altercation with Trayvon Martin. That was pretty much a foregone conclusion, but the Associated Press took the opportunity to revisit the case: George Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot Trayvon Martin in a 2012 confrontation with the teenager, will not face federal charges, the Justice Department said Tuesday. …Zimmerman has said he acted in self-defense when he shot the 17-year-old Martin during a confrontation inside a gated community in Sanford, Florida, just outside...

....ABC News has learned Martin’s family will soon be notified that the Justice Department will not be filing charges against George Zimmerman, who shot the 17-year-old after a confrontation in 2012. Thursday marks three years to the day since Martin was killed. Federal prosecutors concluded there is not sufficient evidence to prove Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman in Sanford, Fla., intentionally violated Martin’s civil rights, sources told ABC News.

On Feb. 26, 2012, supposed "Neighborhood Watchman" George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black man, as Martin walked home from visiting a convenience store in Sanford, Fla. The case ignited questions about racial profiling, vigilantism and Stand Your Ground Laws. On July 13, 2013, Zimmerman was acquitted of both the second-degree murder and manslaughter charges. Despite national and even international attention to the case, one has to wonder what has really changed in the three years since the murder of Trayvon Martin. The murder of black men by police or their wannabes has not stopped. This is...