"March on Washington": Mentions of Trayvon Martin

Shirt "sold by vendors in D.C. today as America commemorates the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 'I Have a Dream' speech."

From Martin Luther King III:

“The task is not done, the journey is not complete.  The vision preached by my father a half-century ago was that his four little children would no longer live in a nation where they would judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.  However, sadly, the tears of Trayvon Martin’s mother and father remind us that far too frequently the color of one’s skin remains a license to profile, arrest, and to even murder with no regard to the content of one’s character."

From Fox News:

Performers also included Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey, their voices thinner now than when they performed at the original march as part of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. They sang "Blowin' in the Wind," as the parents of slain black teenager Trayvon Martin joined them on stage and sang along. . . .

From the beginning of a piece in the LA Times:

The struggle continues.  So said many of those who turned out Wednesday for the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, saying they were there to mark the historic occasion but also to call attention to causes ranging from joblessness to "justice for Trayvon Martin." . . .

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley told the crowd:

"still too much apathy when the lives of people of color are too often valued less than the lives of white people." 

From the Huffington Post:

The most memorable moment of the march occurred when Trayvon Martin's family walked within feet of where I was standing. I wanted so badly to say something to them -- but nothing I could conjure up in a few seconds could convey the anger, grief, and helplessness I felt towards the tragedy of their loss. Trayvon's presence was felt throughout the entire event, making me question how much progress we've truly made in these 50 years. If I still share Dr. King's dream in 2013, what have we accomplished? . . . .

The Chicago Teachers' union issued this statement:

A mass email sent out to the Chicago entire Teachers Union’s mailing list urges union members to attend the march to protest foreclosures, the Second City’s recent rash of school closings and, of course, the verdict in favor of George Zimmerman, a Hispanic man who shot a black teenager during an altercation. 

“The attack on the working people of Chicago and the country — school closings, high rates of unemployment, evictions and foreclosures, mass incarceration of our youth, lack of access to affordable health care and clinics — highlights the structural racism in our society,” the email beseeches. “We are marching for Trayvon, for jobs, for schools, for health care, for justice and for dignity.” . . . 

From WBUR: 

[Rep. John] Lewis said he never thought 50 years later that some of the same issues would be back on the table."I thought we had completed the fight for the right to vote, the right to participate in the democratic process. I thought we were in a process of reforming the justice system. But when I see something like what the Supreme Court did, or what happened to Trayvon Martin, it tells me over and over again that we're not there yet. We have not finished."
(Lewis was referring to the verdict in the killing of unarmed black teen in Florida, and the Supreme Court's decision in June striking down a key part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.) . . .

In some parts of the country, the rally was billed: "MARCH ON WASHINGTON/JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON MARTIN." (Richmond, VA)

From Fox News:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, AUG. 24) JULIAN BOND: We march because Trayvon Martin has joined Emmett Hill in the pantheon of young black martyrs. We march because the United States Supreme Court has eviscerated the voting rights act for which we fought and died. We march because every economic indicator shows gaping white/black disparities. We march for freedom from white supremacy.  (END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: . . . Juan, I'll start with you. You know, a lot of people, there have been numerous high-profile cases that the American people are following. For example, the president spoke out on the Cambridge police acting stupidly, spoke out about Trayvon, but yet has not spoken out publicly -- I know he sent a letter to the family earlier today -- about the Chris Lane case, an 88-year-old World War II veteran beaten, a Florida bus beating, three kids, black kids against one white kid. And some people question why these civil rights leaders, why the president are selective in the instances in which they speak out on?
JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you can't speak out on every crime in America, Sean, I don't think by the way that the racial cover you would put on those is always the case. Certainly not in Oklahoma where you had one kid who was white and another who's biracial involved in that shooting. I think that there are criminals of all colors and types.
But I think a lot of this is now sort of popular and it worries me that we are inflaming racial tensions by trying to voice this interpretation --
HANNITY: You mean like the Trayvon case? Was there inflaming racial tensions there?
WILLIAMS: Sure, I think that -- I think there are people who tried to exploit it. I happened to think that the verdict was an injustice to Trayvon Martin's family because I think there's a dead child there.
HANNITY: Oh, good grief.
WILLIAMS: But that's my feeling.
HANNITY: All right, Larry, weigh in.
LARRY ELDER, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, the so-called black leaders don't like to talk about the fact that when you're talking about black/white violent crimes, most of the time it's a black perpetrator and most of time it's a white victim. It's much easier to talk about the rare instance when a white person does something violently to a black person.
The fact is that the criminal justice system is not a racist criminal justice system. In 1994, the Justice Department examined 75 major metropolitan areas to find out if it's true that blacks got longer sentences for the very same sentences because of racial reasons. They found out nothing like that, this is 1994 under Bill Clinton.
And yet, the mantra continues that race and racism remain major problems in America. It just isn't true, we've elected and re-elected a black president. 
We've had back to back black secretaries of state. If black America were a separate country, Sean, it would be the 15th or 16th wealthiest country in the world. . . .

On a related note, former Secretary of State Colin Powell commented on the Trayvon Martin case this past Sunday.  He called the jury verdict "questionable."  Interestingly, I found a post noting that Powell had a different view of the OJ Simpson verdict.

“People will try to suggest that because there were nine blacks on the jury, it was a racial judgement. I think that’s unfair. These are people who can understand the facts put before them.”

The crowd in 1963 was about 250,000 people.   The crowd on Wednesday was only about 20,000.

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It must be obvious to everyone now that since Democrats can't completely ban guns, they want to tax them out of existence

In March, I wrote an op-ed about how the common theme in Democrats push for gun control is to impose taxes on purchases or transfers of guns.  Who do you think that such taxes primarily prevent from obtaining guns?  The poor, and since a greater percentage of blacks are poor, these taxes primarily tend to disarm poor blacks.

Just in case that push to disarm poor blacks wasn't obvious to everyone, a new bill to tax guns and ammunition is being pushed by two Democrats in the House.

A pair of Democratic lawmakers are proposing steep new taxes on handguns and ammunition, and tying the revenues to programs aimed at preventing gun violence.Called the “Gun Violence Prevention and Safe Communities Act," the bill sponsored by William Pascrell, D-N.J., and Danny Davis, D-Ill., would nearly double the current 11 percent tax on handguns, while raising the levy on bullets and cartridges from 11 percent to 50 percent. . . .

Why do Democrats so fear poor law-abiding blacks from having guns? The taxes don't stop poor criminals from getting guns because they aren't going to be the ones paying these taxes.

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Newest piece at National Review: "Obama’s Racial Imbalance: He professes outrage when there’s little evidence of bias against blacks, but ignores attacks on whites."

My newest piece starts this way:

Racism should make people pretty angry. But for that very reason charges of racism should only be leveled carefully. 

George Zimmerman wasn’t motivated by race in confronting Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman, a Hispanic, was himself one-eighth black. The prosecution in his case produced no statements by Zimmerman showing any racial bias. 

Alas, most people didn’t have time to follow the trial’s day-to-day testimony, and obviously didn’t know that. They got summaries presented by the mainstream media. NBC selectively edited a 9-1-1 call to make Zimmerman sound racist. President Obama pronounced the killing as racially motivated, first personalizing the case by comparing Trayvon to a hypothetical son of his, then his younger self, and then suggesting Trayvon was followed because of his race. Naturally, Jesse Jackson claimed the case meant “blacks are under attack.” Martin’s parents surely believed the tragedy was about race. 

Now, race appears central in the recent murder of Australian Christopher Lane in Oklahoma, but the discussion seems to be about almost everything else, especially gun control. . . .

Here is a related shocking statement here by Martin Luther King III, MLK's son:

"However, sadly, the tears of Trayvon Martin's mother and father remind us that, far too frequently, the color of one's skin remains a license to profile, to arrest and to even murder with no regard for the content of one's character," he said, calling for "stand your ground" self-defense laws to be repealed in states where they have been enacted. . . .

Fox News has a related discussion here.

UPDATE: Oklahoma's governor, Mary Fallon, makes an argument that implies that if Obama were to say anything about Trayvon Martin or Christopher Lane case, it should be about the Lane case.

“I think it would be a nice gesture for him to do that, especially since the country of Australia has expressed its sentiments as to the murder itself,” Gov. Mary Fallon (R) said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday. . . .

Jesse Jackson views the Trayvon Martin and Christopher Lane cases as dramatically different.  Jackson would only say the Lane case was one that should be "frowned upon."

During an interview on MSNBC, Jackson was asked whether he thinks that “some on the right are making a false equivalency” between Martin and Lane, a young white baseball player allegedly killed Friday by three black teenagers. 

Yeah,” he said. “They want to connect what happened in the Trayvon Martin case with these three young men on this foolish rampage killing this ballplayer.” 

Jackson said a better comparison was a case in Oklahoma last year when two white men shot five and killed three people in a black community. Jackson said conservatives “seem to have forgotten” about last year’s slayings. 

“That’s really more of an equivalent,” Jackson said. “But there are no winners in any of this sickness.” 

On Thursday, Jackson denounced Lane’s killings in far stronger terms than he did over Twitter on Wednesday, when he was mocked by some on the right for saying the actions of Lane’s killers should be “frowned upon.” . . . 

UPDATE: Others think that race relations have gotten worse.

Asked whether the overall trajectory of race relations has been positive or negative in recent years, the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) paused for a moment. 

“Right after the election of the president, I would have thought it was going in a positive direction, but I am not so sure anymore,” she said.  

“I think we have lost ground as it relates to our tolerance of people who are different or people who we believe have not worked hard enough. You hear the language all the time on talk radio — the buzzwords, often primarily directed at low-income people and communities of color.” . . . 

Possibly I should also have mentioned that the Obama administration helped fund anti-Zimmerman demonstrations.

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Was the shooting of the Australian in Oklahoma a hate crime? Was it a revenge killing for Trayvon Martin?

I have collected a number of previous cases where blacks have killed or beaten whites or Hispanics in revenge of Trayvon Martin's death (see here, here, and here).  Now there is another case involving the Australian who was killed in Oklahoma.  The difference here is that the death is extremely high profile and you would think that the general media would have to finally acknowledge the impact that the racial angle in the Trayvon Martin case (a racial angle that the media has constantly been pushing).  From the Washington Times:

. . . James, who is black, was arrested along with his friends and suspected accomplices, Michael Dewayne Jones, 17, and Chancey Allen Luna, 16.  James and Chancey were charged with first-degree murder. Michaelwas arrested for using a vehicle to facilitate the discharge of a weapon—  the suspects allegedly fired on Lane from their car as he jogged down the street — and on charges of being an accessory after the fact of first-degree murder. 

Some of James‘ tweets are proving enlightening. 

One: “90 percent of white ppl are nasty. # HATE THEM.” 

Another: He brags he “knocked out 5 woods since Zimmerman court.” The word “woods,” The Blaze said, is a term to describe white people in a derogatory manner. 

Another, on Aug. 13: “With my niggas when it’s time to start taken life’s.” 

And his Facebook account — before it was deactivated — wasn’t much tamer, The Blaze reported. One posting from April 19 read: “At the end of the day it’s all about the kill.” . . .

In 2008, President Obama campaigned on bringing Americans together.  Many whites voted for Obama on the hopes that it would be the ultimate way of helping heal some of the country's racial wounds.  Instead, Obama has done things such as personalizing Trayvon Martin's death and emphasizing the racial aspects of it.  This is what he said on July 19th:

You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son.  Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.  And when you think about why, in the African American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it’s important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away. 

There are very few African American men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store.  That includes me.  There are very few African American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars.  That happens to me -- at least before I was a senator.  There are very few African Americans who haven't had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off.  That happens often. . . .

In reading this quote from Obama, it sure seems as if he is indicating that Trayvon was being followed because of his race.  If so, Obama sure seems to imply that the shooting was racially motivated.  To put it slightly differently, when Obama refers to Trayvon as some who could have been his son or that he could have been Obama, isn't Obama saying that could have been the case because Obama is black?  Here is something that John Kass wrote in the Chicago Tribune.

Obama pronounced the killing as racially motivated, though he didn't use the words. He didn't have to, such is his prowess. It was so smooth that few noticed. He put the killing in a racial context, and that was enough. 

"You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago," Obama told reporters at the White House on Friday, addressing last weekend's acquittal of Martin's shooter, George Zimmerman. 

Could Obama have been Trayvon Martin 35 years ago?  Perhaps. If so, then any of us could have been Trayvon Martin. And I could have been Trayvon Martin. Racial motives weren't established at trial. And reportedly, the FBI still hasn't found racial motives in George Zimmerman, who is Hispanic. . . .

These types of comments go back to the Louis Gates case in 2009.  The transcript shows:

. . . My understanding is at that point Professor Gates is already in his house. The police officer comes in, I'm sure there's some exchange of words, but my understanding is, is that Professor Gates then shows his ID to show that this is his house. And at that point, he gets arrested for disorderly conduct -- charges which are later dropped. 

Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that, but I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge Police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there is a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact. . . .

President Obama made this inflammatory by claiming Gates showed his ID to show that it was his home.  In fact, that isn't what happened (click on the text below from page 2 of the police report to make it larger):

President Obama and his supporters have helped contribute to this racial tensions in other ways.  Every policy disagreement with Obama seems to be interpreted as motivated by racial animus.

And the polls show clearly that racial relations have deteriorated both nationwide and in Florida where the Zimmerman trial occurred since Obama first took office.

A Viewpoint Florida poll of 900 people asked: Question #5: “In your opinion, have race relations in the United States gotten better or worse since Barack Obama took office almost 5 years ago, or have they stayed about the same?” 53 percent answered that race relations have deteriorated since Obama’s inauguration, with only 10 percent saying they’ve improved.

From the Washington Post:

In a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center titled “King’s Dream Remains an Elusive Goal,” only 26 percent of African Americans said the situation for black people has improved in the past five years, and 21 percent said things have gotten worse. In a 2009 poll, 39 percent saw improvements, Pew said. Today, half said the picture is essentially unchanged.
Whites had a much more positive opinion of black progress, with 35 percent saying things have gotten better in the past five years. Even among whites, however, that share has fallen from 49 percent in 2009.
In the fifth year of the Obama presidency, Pew researchers and scholars of race relations attribute the pessimistic outlook among African Americans to the fading glow of Obama’s first term and the lingering struggle to emerge from the recession. Pew said sentiment is approximately where it was before the recession and Obama’s election. . . .

Why is it that the Post would never consider Obama's racial rhetoric in discussing worsening racial relations? 

Gun control

CNN: "A chart in the Washington Post, using data from The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, shows Australia to have among the lowest gun-related killings in the developed world. The United States had the highest. Former Prime Minister John Howard told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in March that gun control laws instituted after a mass shooting were responsible for the low number."

Christian Science Monitor: "Also getting prominent airplay were comments by former Australian Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer that Australian tourists should boycott the US to send a message about gun control. “I am deeply angry about this because of the callous attitude of the three teenagers [but] it’s a sign of the proliferation of guns on the ground in the USA. There is a gun for almost every American,” Mr. Fischer said.  The comments reflect the view of most Australians that lax gun laws in the United States are behind the country’s high murder rate and string of shocking massacres such as last year’s mass shooting at Sandy Hook school in Connecticut."

From Alan Colmes:

UPDATE: Another case in Memphis might have also been a Trayvon Martin revenge killing.

“The first and foremost question in De Diago’s mind: If this was a robbery, why did his brother-in-law still have his wallet, car keys, and cell phone? Nothing was taken from him. And witnesses confirm that,” the Blaze reported.
“Miguel also says the police told him that the 9mm shell casing was found 10 feet from the body — an indication to him that the shooter was not at close range as would typically happen with a robbery.”
The family source told the Blaze that he tracked one of the alleged shooters, Mario Patterson, through his Facebook account, which no longer exists.
“He said the page had numerous photos of Trayvon Martin, and he wondered if it’s possible the shooting was a revenge killing for the Zimmerman verdict,” the report said. . . .

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Comedian Tim Allen has some interesting thoughts on the use of the N-word

Entertainment Television has some interesting remarks from Tim Allen available here.

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Yet another attack in revenge of Trayvon Martin's death, this time in DC

I have compiled previous revenge cases here and here.  Most of these cases seem to involve blacks against whites, not Hispanics even though Zimmerman is Hispanic and 1/8th black.  Here is another case from Washington, DC in the Washington Times:

“This is for Trayvon Martin.” 

That’s what one of three black men told a white man as they approached him early Saturday in Washington before committing what police are saying may be a hate crime, according to Metropolitan Police Officer Anthony Clay. 

The men kicked the man, who was not identified, as they took his iPhone and wallet, the officer said Sunday, according to CNN. The victim suffered minor injuries and refused medical treatment. 

There have been no arrests, but police are investigating the incident as a hate crime, the officer said. 

“There is no pattern in these types of crimes. These attacks are outrageous; we are doing everything in our power to see that they certainly don’t occur. If they do occur, we are going to aggressively investigate them and bring people to justice,” Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Araz Alali said. . . .

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Black Congresswoman thinks that Zimmerman trial shows America treats blacks as inferior to whites

From Fox Nation:

“The tragic death of our young man, Trayvon Martin, followed by the acquittal of the man who pursued him and killed him, has reminded us that although it may seem as if African-Americans and other minorities have achieved full equality in our civil society, we are still victims of racial profiling in violation of our laws and our morals,” Ms. Clarke said, from the House floor, The Hill reported. 

She continued: “The lives of black men and women are not accorded the same value as the lives of white Americans. This is a reality for far too many black Americans.
Ms. Clarke is Democrat from New York. . . .

The New York Daily News has this reaction from Rep. Clarke to the Zimmerman verdict.

REP. CLARKE: “We know that Trayvon Martin would have been living today if George Zimmerman had not pursued him with a firearm. I am disappointed that the laws of Florida have failed to secure justice for Trayvon and his family. Our children are not safe if private citizens have the authority to act as vigilantes. My prayers are with the parents of Trayvon Martin, who have demonstrated extraordinary courage in this awful tragedy."

Here is Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) discussion of what Brooklyn was like in 1898 (start at 3:04 into the video).

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John Kass has a tough evaluation of Obama's Trayvon Martin speech on Friday

I would add the fact that President Obama also raised the point about him being racially profiled when he was younger.  In addition, after the Obama administration has been saying this past week how inappropriate it would be to speak out on the Zimmerman case while DOJ was trying to decide whether to prosecute Zimmerman, he goes and speaks out on the case. 

Q    Even though the jury in this case has spoken, the Justice Department is still considering whether to file criminal civil rights charges.  Does the President feel like that decision needs to be made quickly in order to have some kind of finality to this case?
MR. CARNEY:  This is a decision made by the Justice Department, by career prosecutors, and all questions about how that process is undertaken should be directed there.  And that is not something the President involves himself in.  As the Justice Department said yesterday, they first acknowledged last year that they have an open investigation into Trayvon Martin’s death and they are continuing to evaluate that evidence.
Q    But since the President did speak about this case last year in pretty personal terms, did he have any personal reaction to the verdict?  Does he have any personal feelings on the need for the Justice Department to make a decision on this quickly?
MR. CARNEY:  Well, he has no opinion to express about the disposition of how the Justice Department would look at this.  He did speak about it in personal terms, and I think his statement yesterday reflects how the loss of a young person is a source of great anguish and pain for the parents of that person, for the community where that person lived -- that young person lived, and for the whole country, because the loss is greater when a young person dies because the potential of that life is so unfulfilled.
So I think that’s how the President viewed it then and views it now. . . .

John's piece has this, but the whole piece is worth reading.  From the Chicago Tribune:

. . . He stood in the White House briefing room, and through the magic of his own silky rhetoric and skill with metaphor, he was able animate the body of a slain African-American teenager, Trayvon Martin.
Obama pronounced the killing as racially motivated, though he didn't use the words. He didn't have to, such is his prowess. It was so smooth that few noticed. He put the killing in a racial context, and that was enough.
"You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago," Obama told reporters at the White House on Friday, addressing last weekend's acquittal of Martin's shooter, George Zimmerman.
Could Obama have been Trayvon Martin 35 years ago?
Perhaps. If so, then any of us could have been Trayvon Martin. And I could have been Trayvon Martin. Racial motives weren't established at trial. And reportedly, the FBI still hasn't found racial motives in George Zimmerman, who is Hispanic. . . .

A transcript of Obama's appearance can be seen here.

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More attacks by blacks to avenge Trayvon Martin

I previously had a long list of such attacks available here.

From the Baltimore Sun.

Baltimore police say they are investigating a witness account that a group of black youths beat a Hispanic man near Patterson Park Sunday while saying, "This is for Trayvon." 

A witness posted the account on a community Facebook page, and police confirmed they are looking into whether the suspects' reaction to the verdict in the Florida trial of George Zimmerman played a part in the incident. A police report on the beating does not mention the alleged comments. . . .

From Oakland, Ca.

For more than three hours, protesters had complete control of 14th and Broadway near Oakland City Hall, preventing any cars from getting through. 

At about 8:30 p.m., police opened the intersection to traffic. But it quickly deteriorated when demonstrators surrounded frightened drivers who found themselves trapped. The crowd forced them to turn around. 

Oakland police officers that had been near the corner retreated, leaving the helpless drivers without police protection. It's unclear who gave that command. . . .

Here is a threat in Philadelphia:

Police in Chester County, Pennsylvania are investigating an act of vandalism with racial overtones, possibly connected to the fallout from the verdict in the George Zimmerman murder trial.
Photographs obtained by Action News show what firefighters found Sunday night when they responded to a fire at ProSigns, a company that manufactures commercial signs for businesses, in the 200 block of Boot Road.
You can clearly see the words "Kill Zimmerman" painted in red paint on the front wall. . . . 

A CBS Reporter and Photographer were attacked in Los Angeles:

A CBS2/KCAL9 photographer and reporter were assaulted Monday night while covering a George Zimmerman protest in Crenshaw. 

Reporter Dave Bryan was conducting an interview around 10 p.m. when the suspect tackled him and his photographer, the station confirmed. 

“All of the sudden, this guy came up from behind, he had a hood, and he knocked David on the head and he pushed the camera guy down. The camera guy went down, the camera went down, David went down,” witness Joseph Deguerre, said. “I was in shock.” . . . 

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