Trayvon Martin rally at Justice Center in Cleveland, Ohio at noon on Monday July 15 to go forward after Zimmerman not guilty verdict, local community activists outraged, Rev Al Sharpton upset too and called verdict "a slap in the face"
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| Trayvon Martin, left, and his killer George Zimmerman |
Cleveland, Ohio-Cleveland area community activists will rally at noon on Monday, July 15 in front of the Justice Center on Lakeside Ave. in downtown Cleveland for justice for Trayvon Martin, whose killer George Zimmerman was found not guilty of second degree murder on Saturday after stalking and gunning down the unarmed Black teen last year in a gated community in a Sandford, FL suburb. (For more information on the rally contact Al Porter at 216-704-5036).
"We want justice for Trayvon and we will rally here in Cleveland like activists in other cities across the United States of America," said community activist Al Porter, vice president of Black on Black Crime Inc. "As the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Closing arguments in the month long trial ended Friday and an all female jury composed of five White women and a woman deemed half Black and half Hispanic deliberated for 2 days before reaching a verdict Saturday evening that cleared Zimmerman of all charges.
An over anxious neighborhood watchman, Zimmerman, 29 and White, shot the 17-year-old Martin to death following a confrontation he initiated even after police dispatchers directed him to back off and to stop following the teen, who was passing through the neighborhood on the way to his father's girlfriend's house, trial testimony revealed.
The girlfriend resides in the upper middle class, predominantly White neighborhood on the outskirts of Sandford, a city that sits 20 miles northeast of Orlando that is roughly 57 percent White and 30 percent Black.
Zimmerman did not testified in his own defense and his lawyers argued at trial that it was self defense under the Florida stand your ground law.
Renowned Civil Rights activists such as the Rev. Al Sharpton and National NAACP President Ben Jealous have spearheaded national protests around the celebrated tragedy, sparking community outcries that forced law enforcement authorities to finally charge Zimmerman with Martin's murder.
Sharpton (pictured) and Jealous said at the time that the failure to initially charge Zimmerman was racially motivated.
After Saturday's verdict Sharpton was outraged. He released a statement calling the jury verdict "a slap in the face."
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