Ralliers unleashed a volley of Skittles on the steps of the Justice Center Monday afternoon to express their outrage at the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the murder of teenager Trayvon Martin. The 17-year-old Martin had bought a bag of Skittles from a nearby 7-Eleven before he was shot and killed by Zimmerman on February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida.
On Monday, the candies were a symbolic protest — those gathered wanted the lawyers and judges of Northeast Ohio to see how they were literally stomping on the rights of (in this instance) black America.
Though Zimmerman’s trial was also in Florida, local protesters invoked injustices closer to home to highlight ongoing prejudice.
One man’s sign invited a comparison with the recently convicted Raymone Clements:
“American Justice: Black man shoots dog, gets 23 years; White man kills black teen, walks free.”
Speakers proclaimed a laundry list of personal platforms —a lifetime NAACP member remembered Rodney King and urged universal respect; a young woman spoke with conviction about taking anger to the ballot; a teenaged boy donned a hoodie and likened himself to Trayvon Martin; a grandmother begged the crowd to pray for Trayvon’s mother.
Clevelanders are all too familiar with the issues surrounding race and the justice system. They arrived forcefully in November 2012, when a horde of Cleveland Police officers opened fire on the unarmed Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. “137 Bullets” was one man’s battle cry in the Monday sun.
Zimmerman’s violence and the “excessive force” of Cleveland Police personnel may in fact be deeply interlinked. Esquire’s Charles Pierce connected the dots in a persuasive blog post following Zimmerman’s acquittal:
“We live now in a vigilante culture. Our police forces are militarized and increasingly prone to rogue operations in which innocent people get killed. They are being encouraged to employ what can only be called vigilante tactics under the color of official authority…
“On the streets, we are being trained paradoxically to both submit to the authority of the police, and to take the law into our own hands, if necessary, because the police cannot possibly protect us from every danger. Stand Your Ground, though it played no role in the Zimmerman trial per se, is vigilantism hallowed by legislation. That’s all it is. This does nothing but produce a national schizophrenia about crime and fear and weaponry that we inevitably act out.”
Though Monday’s protest seemed to endorse change only in an abstract way, and presented what became a scattershot anti-authoritarian opposition — an extemporized decision to “boycott something” took most protesters by surprise — rage was the presiding sentiment.
Community Organizer Joel Solow would love to see protests like Monday’s galvanize a cohesive movement to make real demands of the existing power structure and develop a strategy “for dealing with the misery and suffering we tolerate in this city.”
Solow says he’s “agnostic” about what direction the movement takes, but that strategy needs to start with something specific.
“Most closely relevant to Trayvon Martin would be something that addresses the lack of trust for the police department (which in turn, supports a culture of violence),” wrote Solow in an email. “And something that addresses the totally inadequate system of education and wraparound support for youth, which also perpetuates violence.”
This article appears in Jul 17-23, 2013.
Moral of the story is: Don’t attack others or you may be shot.
I didn’t see in the article where Joel Solow stated the black community will take accountability for their actions. His remarks are pretty much stating the police and so called system are the problem. Isn’t the Chief of Police report to a black mayor? Other questions and comments about the Solow’s comments; Does the black community contribute to the “misery and suffering” he stated? If you don’t trust the police, don’t put yourself in a questionable situation that you would be involved with them. “Inadequate system education”, how about the parents or parent get involved in their kids education. If you want an inadequate school system, go to a 3rd world country in Africa. Inadequate system to support youth, how about stop having kids to unwed and teenage parents generation after generation.
JURY SYSTEM IS DEAD, NEED TO BE BURIED
Yes, our jury system has been dead long ago and now only ritual to bury is left. In serious and racial criminal cases like these; jury system is outdated because the attorneys can play social, religion and racial emotional drama rather than legal arguments to convince few partisan jury members, and these few members; like jury member B-37 in Martin case; can turn the table very easily in their favor. It is not that simple to convince legal minded and well experienced Judge, but so simple to change the mind of few members. Secondly; the jury members get easily exhausted in few hours or days, and more eager to get rid of the tension rather than check and re-check the truth before offering her/his vote. Thirdly; it is still more easy to convince female jury members (in case of Martin) rather than male; because females can be manipulated emotionally more easily than male.
JURY SYSTEM IS DEAD, NEED TO BE BURIED comment.
Jury system seemed to work for OJ.
Joel Solow here!
I think there’s plenty of recognition within the black community (which of course, isn’t monolithic) that there are both internal and external issues. Should black people stop killing black people? Duh. There are myriad community organizations and grassroots leaders doing a heroic job of working to fight that. This idea that ‘the black community isn’t taking responsibility for itself’ is a gross mischaracterization.
My concern is that calls for community responsibility often focus solely on members of the community, rather than the systems within which that community’s situation came up in. The black community in Cleveland has been devastated by disinvestment, segregation, mass-incarceration and a heap of other problems that were *not* internal. They were imposed upon them by primarily White power structures, which were then inherited by mostly Black power structures (and there’s absolutely a responsibility from black elected officials to do better in changing them). When you start the story of how an event happened at the moment a black youth pulls the trigger it’s very convenient: they messed up. But it’s incomplete, and fails to take into effect the complicated and systemic choices- made by many communities- that got them there.
Where was the White responsibility in the 60s up until now for race-hatred towards black residents? Where was White responsibility from then until now among the folks who fled the city en masse, starving it of resources that could have supported police, firefighters, teachers, and all the public services that could have prevented crime? Where was the White responsibility when redlining was occurring, and when Black folks were terrified for their lives in parts of the city, for fear that their children would be murdered- as we are now seeing black children murdered by fellow blacks as well as White police and citizens?
While I am not a blanket cop-hater, it’s perfectly understandable how folks’ lived experience, and major perceptions of the police are shaped by what they see as negligence and lack of care at best, and total animosity and murderous hostility at worse. The police *absolutely* bear some responsibility for the culture of violence, as it is allowed to persist by the lack of legitimacy the police system has allowed itself to develop. And that’s on them.
Again, I don’t see in Solow’s comments where the black community will take accountability for their actions and lives. You stated, “Where was the White responsibility in the 60s up until now for race-hatred towards black residents” Really? You don’t realize the black community bashes the white community from one side of their mouth and on the other side blame them for their issues? You don’t think enough assistance has been done with govt assistance, programs, affirmative action, and the continue to throw money at the problem without solving the issues.
Until the black community changes their culture of how to be a valued person to society, there will continue to be the same issue. This could include but not be limited to addressing, teen pregnancy, 2 parent homes, employed parents, learning values through say church, stressing education.
As far as your statement about police, aren’t there black cops? Every think about being a cop in the inner city and what they deal with? You think again, that maybe the black community is also part of the problem.