Free Republic

The family of an unarmed black teenager who was shot dead by a police officer has hired the same civil rights lawyer who represents the family of Trayvon Martin. Michael Brown died after being shot multiple times by a police officer in Ferguson, a suburb of St Louis after an altercation involving the officer, Mr Brown and another man on Saturday. The killing has drawn criticism from some civil rights leaders, who have referred to the 2012 racially charged shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by a Florida neighborhood watch organizer who was acquitted of murder charges. Now it has emerged...

From voter ID laws to broken immigration detention centers, the U.S. is not the model democracy it fancies itself. Watching Israel’s brutal treatment of Palestinians in Gaza over our TV screens makes it easy to forget about the human rights abuses taking place right here on American soil. Sybrina Fulton and Ron Davis, whose sons were killed in what many believe were racially motivated attacks, are using their children’s deaths to remind Americans that human rights are being violated right here in the United States. More than a year after George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, Fulton felt the humiliating pendulum...

A new Trayvon Martin cartoon is causing controversy because it portray efforts to impeach President Obama as being similar to the actions of George Zimmerman. As might be expected, Republicans and conservatives were upset, but should even some Democrats and progressives be calling foul? In a related report by The Inquisitr, the civil rights movement led by the NAACP believes that so-called Trayvon Martin gun control laws should be implemented and the Stand Your Ground laws repealed even though Zimmerman’s defense team only used standard self defense. Zimmerman’s lawsuit against NBC is attempting an appeal, with his lawyers claiming...

The word stunned might best describe how U.S. citizens, particularly blacks, felt after hearing that a six-member jury, following two days of deliberation in a Florida courthouse last July, found George Zimmerman not guilty in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. One year later, with increased cases in which defendants have used the “stand your ground” law to avoid prosecution, civil rights leaders and activists have ramped up efforts to challenge a criminal justice system that often treats blacks and women as second-class citizens. “Blacks seeking justice must continue with protests, pressure and patience,” said Benjamin Crump, the civil...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)The father of Jordan Davis is turning his attention to the crisis on the border where thousands of children who are showing up without their parents are being detained. Since his son's death, Ron Davis, has been working the U.S. Human Rights Network. Davis left Monday to attend human rights tribunals in New Mexico and Arizona along with members of this group. "We are going to cross the border and we are going to let them know what their human rights are and we are going to advocate for them," said Davis. Davis, who lost his own son to gun...

Police: Acquitted killer was there 'as a friend'George Zimmerman, the man who shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford in February 2012, was in DeLand over the weekend, providing security for Pompano Pat's on South Woodland Boulevard, the DeLand Police Department said. And reports of his presence prompted threats of violence against the business and its owner, a store employee said. Pompano Pat's, which sells guns and motorcycles, is owned by DeLand mayoral candidate Pat Johnson. Johnson is challenging incumbent Mayor Bob Apgar in the Aug. 26 election. Three hours after the story broke online, Pompano Pat's issued a press release...

Trayvon Martin never lived to see his 18th birthday, but the slain Florida teenager is slowly becoming one of the most important figures in the modern civil rights era. Martin was walking to his home in a gated Florida neighborhood in 2012 when neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman mistook him for a burglar. After a brief struggle, Zimmerman shot and killed Martin, an act that a jury later deemed justified. The case aroused racial tensions and immediately became a cause celebre among activists who believed that police did not follow through on charging Zimmerman simply because Martin was a...

The controversial figure of Trayvon Martin is either a civil rights icon or a thug depending on who you talk to about the issue. With the one year anniversary of the George Zimmerman trial having just passed recently, some people fear these tensions could erupt into riots in major cities. In a related report by The Inquisitr, the name of Trayvon Martin was used as a slur by one woman, and she was arrested as a result. President Obama made a controversial remark recently when he talked about black people “acting white.” Last week, some people contended that the George...

A pencil-necked geek harasses thugs in the ghetto who in response gets beat up. This insane individual then does it again and again and again, despite how often and severe he gets beat up.

On Saturday, 200 people marched through the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles protesting racial profiling and gun violence on the first anniversary of the verdict acquitting George Zimmerman of murdering Trayvon Martin. The crowd, led by Trayvon Martin’s parents, carried banners and chanted, “What do we want?... Justice. What do we want?… Justice.” According to CBS2 Los Angeles, the rally was organized by the Trayvon Martin Foundation, which states on its website that its purpose is to “create awareness of how violent crime impacts the families of the victims and to provide support and advocacy for those families in response...

What may have started out as an ordinary evening in February 2012, ended with a dead teen-ager and a national controversy that is still unresolved. The fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and the subsequent not-guilty verdict of the shooter, George Zimmerman, on July 13, 2013, prompted citizens across the nation to question the "stand-your-ground" laws. Such laws, often criticized as being "shoot first" laws, make it hard to prosecute cases against people who shoot others and then claim self-defense. Kentucky, as well as the other states with such laws, should revise them so that the one who initiates a...

Though Obama had largely avoided talking about race, he reiterated a poignant comment soon after the verdict acquitting George Zimmerman.It’s been a year since Obama made his Trayvon Martin remarks. Who has been speaking up since?Saturday marks the year anniversary of when President Barack Obama took the White House podium, unannounced, to weigh in on the verdict in the Trayvon Martin shooting. His extremely personal remarks were notable, considering the president's well-documented tendency to avoid talking about race. But in the year since Obama's brief moment of candor and concern, the national discourse on race has gone back to business...

LOS ANGELES – Nearly 500 people are expected to converge on Crenshaw High School Saturday for the Trayvon Martin Foundation’s 2014 LA Peace Walk and Peace Talk, hosted by Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, organizers said this week. Local activists and civic leaders will join young people at the quarter-mile march that will honor “the right that all people should be able to walk safely on their streets,” says local organizer Vanessa Bolden. Martin, 17, was killed in February 2012 as he returned from a convenience after buying Skittles and a soft drink. George Zimmerman admitted killing Martin,...

One year after being outed as illiterate in the trial, Jeantel is a changed woman after graduating from high school. She hopes to get a college degree, too.She did it for Trayvon. One year after being outed as illiterate in the George Zimmerman murder trial, Trayvon Martin's friend Rachel Jeantel is a changed woman after graduating from high school. Jeantel underwent seven hours of tutoring a day after her reading skills were ridiculed when she testified during the Florida trial last year at age 19. At the time, she had a fourth-grade reading level. "Very, very, very tough," she told...

I remember growing up and always hearing my parents and their friends talk about one pivotal moment in their lives. They remembered exactly where they were at that point. Exactly who told them the news. Exactly how they felt once it all sunk in. When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, everyone who was alive during that time remembers. One year ago, today, was our generation’s moment. It was late on a Saturday night. Some of us were out to dinner. Some of us were home with our families. Some of us were still shopping. Some of us...

It’s been just over a year since the world was introduced to Rachel Jeantel, the friend of Trayvon Martin’s who testified on behalf of the prosecution in the George Zimmerman murder trial, but may have ended up doing more harm than good. CNN caught up with Jeantel this week, asking her if she blamed herself when Zimmerman went free. “A little bit,” she replied. Asked if she should have said something different or acted differently on the stand, she answered, “Act different.” Jeantel said the jurors in the case didn’t take her seriously as a witness, judging her for...

Via Variety: Spike Lee has been sued by an elderly couple in Florida, whose address he incorrectly identified as the home of Trayvon Martin killer George Zimmerman, according to court documents obtained by the Smoking Gun.

Life in modern America does not get more cruelly perverse than this: one major reason Judge Debra Nelson threw out George Zimmerman’s libel suit against NBC on Monday was because of Zimmerman’s public pursuit of racial justice. Yes, that George Zimmerman, the same “child killer” who shot black teen Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, in February 2012. In the way of background, Zimmerman had sued NBC for manipulating the substance of his famous call to a police dispatcher to make him sound like a racist. In firing two employees and apologizing publicly, NBC all but admitted its guilt. What saved...

<p>A Sanford judge today put an end to George Zimmerman's libel suit against NBC Universal.</p> <p>Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson ruled that the former Neighborhood Watch volunteer is entitled to no money from the media giant.</p> <p>She issued a summary judgment in the network's favor, meaning that unless an appeals court reverses her, the case is now dead.</p>

Judge rules against George Zimmerman in NBC lawsuit Zimmerman claimed defamation in edited 911 call SANFORD, Fla. - A judge on Monday ruled against George Zimmerman in a defamation lawsuit he filed against NBC Universal over edited 911 calls made after Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in 2012. In the ruling, Judge Debra S. Nelson said, "There are no genuine issues of material fact upon which a reasonable jury could find that the Defendants acted with actual malice."