From Wichita
Peace and Freedom Party Examiner;
A crowd gathered at
21st and Hillside to protest the verdict in the George Zimmerman- Trayvon
Martin trial yesterday. The march started at 5pm, and there were about 100
people. By 6pm there were about 300 and they were still coming.
The crowd gathered at the corner of the street and the crowd march past the police station located there and around a few blocks.
“What do we want—Justice!—when do we want it—now,” the crowd changed.
“Here in Wichita we have a racial profiling statute, 12 MO57822,” said Eddie Mending who spoke at the rally. “If a kid is running with a TV that is probable cause. If he simply isn’t white or is wearing suspicious clothes, the police can’t mess with them. In Florida the probable cause was what he was wearing. “
There were some Afro-American legislatures speaking at the rally.
“We’ve got to show up at the legislators,” said Kansas Representative Gail Finney, of the 84th district. “We’ve got to be there.”
“We’ve got to let the people and the powers to be know that we are not going to tolerate this,” said Rep. Roderick Houston, 89th district. “We got to do something about this. It’s Time for us to stand up and be counted.”
Many black parents, who were present, are complaining that this case seems to give gun toting vigilantes a green light to shoot kids they either find suspicious or get into arguments with. They are not sure what to tell their children when approached by someone who may be suspicious of them.
Rep. Finney said, “I don’t know why you are here, but I am here because I have black sons. I am mother, a grandmother and I am damn pissed off right now.”
George Zimmerman, a Florida neighborhood watch volunteer, was acquitted Saturday, by a jury, for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Martin was an unarmed teenager. Zimmerman chased him down for walking through his white neighborhood after police told him not to.
There have been protests all over the country. Most, as the one in Wichita, were peaceful. A few have been disruptive or violent. Many people feel this was a case of racial profiling by Zimmerman.
The crowd gathered at the corner of the street and the crowd march past the police station located there and around a few blocks.
“What do we want—Justice!—when do we want it—now,” the crowd changed.
“Here in Wichita we have a racial profiling statute, 12 MO57822,” said Eddie Mending who spoke at the rally. “If a kid is running with a TV that is probable cause. If he simply isn’t white or is wearing suspicious clothes, the police can’t mess with them. In Florida the probable cause was what he was wearing. “
There were some Afro-American legislatures speaking at the rally.
“We’ve got to show up at the legislators,” said Kansas Representative Gail Finney, of the 84th district. “We’ve got to be there.”
“We’ve got to let the people and the powers to be know that we are not going to tolerate this,” said Rep. Roderick Houston, 89th district. “We got to do something about this. It’s Time for us to stand up and be counted.”
Many black parents, who were present, are complaining that this case seems to give gun toting vigilantes a green light to shoot kids they either find suspicious or get into arguments with. They are not sure what to tell their children when approached by someone who may be suspicious of them.
Rep. Finney said, “I don’t know why you are here, but I am here because I have black sons. I am mother, a grandmother and I am damn pissed off right now.”
George Zimmerman, a Florida neighborhood watch volunteer, was acquitted Saturday, by a jury, for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Martin was an unarmed teenager. Zimmerman chased him down for walking through his white neighborhood after police told him not to.
There have been protests all over the country. Most, as the one in Wichita, were peaceful. A few have been disruptive or violent. Many people feel this was a case of racial profiling by Zimmerman.
Pix by www.facebook.com
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