TRAGEDY IN SANFORD
Mass protests erupted over the tragic murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a Sanford, Fla. student, in March. Self-appointed community watch patrolman George Zimmerman allegedly shot the unarmed teen—who had stepped out to buy Skittles and iced tea at a local store—on the evening of February 26 after seeing him pulling the hood of his sweatshirt over his head and acting suspiciously, according to Zimmerman’s 911 call. Zimmerman disobeyed the 911 operator’s instructions not to engage Martin, and then became involved in a scuffle, resulting in Martin’s death. Though the details of the chain of events is still forthcoming, the incident sparked outrage from civil rights groups. The racial dimension of the incident (Martin was African-American; Zimmerman is of Latino descent), the fact that Zimmerman claimed self-defense under Florida’s controversial “stand your ground” law, and the initial lack of arrest ignited tense debate. (Zimmerman was eventually charged with second-degree murder.) A coalition of LGBT organizations issued an open letter declaring the case “a national call to action:” “Trayvon’s killing is a wakeup call to the enduring cancer of racism and racial profiling. The pain his family continues to endure transcends communities and unites us all. Every person, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, must be able to walk the streets without fear for their safety.”
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