Free Republic

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...

Kobe Bryant, the world-renowned shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, admitted a position that is sure to irk liberals at a time when race relations in America remain incredibly low. At a time when black celebrities and political figures are routinely targeted by the left for any perceived lack of solidarity with leftist causes, Bryant recently sat down with The New Yorker to discuss a wide range of topics and admitted that he refuses to support Trayvon Martin simply because he’s black. According to News One: In the March 31 issue of the New Yorker, Kobe Bryant discussed life,...

Actually, my headline’s not right. It’s hard to be sure since the New Yorker piece that contains the money quote is behind a reg wall, but I don’t think he’s taking a position on the case. He’s taking a position on people who took a position on the case without having heard both sides. The reporter apparently asked him about this photo specifically: #WeAreTrayvonMartin #Hoodies #Stereotyped #WeWantJustice http://t.co/tH6baAVo— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 23, 2012 To which Bryant replied: “I won’t react to something just because I’m supposed to, because I’m an African-American,” he said. “That argument doesn’t make any sense...

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...

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,...

‘Let’s be honest, 70% of teams in NBA could fold tomorrow + nobody would notice a difference w/ possible exception of increase in streetcrime,’ tweeted state Rep. Pat Garofalo Sunday.A Minnesota state lawmaker is under fire after making comments about the NBA that many feel were out of bounds. Gopher State Republican Rep. Pat Garofalo tweeted Sunday that “70% of teams in NBA could fold tomorrow + nobody would notice a difference w/ possible exception of increase in streetcrime.” The offensive tweet was met widely with criticism: more than 1,200 people retweeted it and hundreds of others replied to the...

These results from Rasmussen poll done March 2-3 have got to be disconcerting for Obama. Obama’s voter base is unhappy with their life under Obama. President Obama is going to have to do a whole lot more than promise to make things better for young blacks under his new “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative, because 71 percent of voters in a new poll say life for the group is the same or worse than before he came into office. Rasmussen Reports reveals that just 16 percent of likely voters believe life for young blacks has improved since Obama’s 2008 election, while...

A judge has granted a temporary protective injunction against U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, after his wife filed paperwork accusing the Orlando congressman of shoving and injuring her during an incident this weekend. Lolita Grayson's petition for the injunction, dated Monday, says her husband pushed her against a door, causing her to fall to the ground, during a confrontation Saturday at their home on Oak Park Road, near Windermere. /snip After she refused, retrieved his mail and asked him to leave, Alan Grayson "then deliberately and with force pushed [Lolita Grayson] very hard against the front door, causing [her] to fall...

... 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.

Recently, Ted Nugent made the Authoritarian Left go into convulsions by calling our Jew hating Dog Eater in Chief, Barack Hussein Obama, a "mongrel" and "subhuman". Not one to rest on his laurels, Nugent also compared Obama's administration to the Third Reich. Needless to say, I completely agree with Mr. Nugent. The pile of human debris that has usurped the White House is indeed the lowest form of life on this planet. However, this column isn't about Ted Nugent or defending his comments. This column, like so many others that I've written, is about the utter cowardice of the Republican...

NEW ORLEANS —An Orleans Parish grand jury didn't return anything Thursday in the case against a Marigny homeowner who shot a teen intruder in the head in July 2013.Merritt Landry, 33, was arrested and accused of second-degree attempted murder in the shooting of 14-year-old Marshall Coulter. Police said the teen climbed a fence into Landry's yard in the 700 block of Mandeville Street at 2 a.m. on July 26. Landry fired once at Coulter, striking him in the head. The grand jury didn't take any action in the case as it convened on Thursday. The grand jury meets in six-month...

Less than a week after Michael Dunn was not convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of an unarmed teenager, a bipartisan group of Florida lawmakers passed a bill out of committee on Thursday that would expand the state’s controversial “stand your ground” law. Dunn, 47, was charged with murdering 17-year-old Jordan Davis outside a convenience store last year. Dunn said he feared for his life after he asked Davis and three other teenagers to turn down the music in their car. He claimed he saw a shotgun in their car and then fired 10 shots, three of which...

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.

A crisis in white masculinity is killing black teenagers and, history says, the violence is likely to continue. Why are so many white men like Michael Dunn angry? Dunn, the man found guilty Saturday on three counts of attempted second-degree murder for shooting into a car full of black teenagers at a Jacksonville, Fla., gas station after an argument over loud rap music—but not convicted of the murder of Jordan Davis, the 17-year-old slain in the incident—provides some answers. Like Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, Dunn’s case represents the rage felt by many angry white men in America. During his...

George Zimmerman on Monday accused President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder of making a “scapegoat” of him but that he does not know why they would do so. In an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, Zimmerman said he believes that in his trial for the killing of Florida teen Trayvon Martin he faced a “miscarriage of justice,” and he described himself as a “scapegoat.” “A scapegoat for [what]?” Cuomo asked. “The government, the president, the attorney general,” responded Zimmerman, who was acquitted in the trial. “I don’t know what they’re thinking or why they’re thinking it, all I...

As in the case of George Zimmerman, acquitted in the killing of Trayvon Martin, the public outrage was often directed or misdirected, at the Florida law. Many, including legal commentators who should know better, repeatedly citing the statute as a crucial issue in both cases. And yet neither defendant invoked the controversial aspects of Florida's law. In fact, both defendants argued basic self defense law that would have been similar in just about every state in the nation. The relevant portion of the law of self defense in Florida reads: "A person is justified in the use of deadly force...

And now, the man who once aspired to become a police officer tells CNN he's hoping to go back to school and pursue a career as a lawyer "to stop the miscarriage of justice." During his interview with CNN, Zimmerman's girlfriend and her young daughter wouldn't leave his side. In an interview that aired on the Spanish-language Univision network Sunday, Zimmerman said he was unemployed, had a personal debt of $2.5 million and wasn't receiving any government benefits.

George Zimmerman says his problems continue. He told a Spanish language television station he is now homeless, battling post-traumatic stress disorder, more than $2 million in debt and lives in fear for his life. Zimmerman opened up on the Univision television show "Aquí y Ahora" (Here and Now) that will air Sunday on the Spanish language station at 7 p.m. Zimmerman also discussed his well-known struggle with 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, an African-American teen who was walking in Zimmerman's neighborhood in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26, 2012. After he called the cops, the two got into a fight that ended with...

DENVER - Prosecutors have charged a 21-year-old man in connection with a shooting in Denver that left one person dead and two others injured. The Denver District Attorney's Office announced Monday that Tayvon Martin has been charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder for the June 22 shooting.