Voices from Sanford, Florida
Opening Day of Zimmerman Trial: We are All Trayvon Martin! We Demand Justice!
June 17, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
June 10 was the opening day of the trial of George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin. A number of people gathered in front of the Seminole County Courthouse, including many who had protested in 2012 to demand the arrest of George Zimmerman. A team of Revolution reporters was there talking to people and the following are excerpts from some of those interviews and conversations:
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Cephus “Uncle Bobby” Johnson (uncle of Oscar Grant)
You came all the way from Oakland, California. Can you tell us what brought you here today?
Again, we're here in Sanford; one, to support the Trayvon Martin family and, as a family that has experienced the murder of my nephew at the hands of a racist cop on January 1, 2009 and going into the racist criminal justice system to experience the treatment that we encountered as a family in this system, we know how important it is that this family have the support that they need in order to get through this criminal process—as well as just the simple murder—not simple, but the heinous murder of their son Trayvon.
The video of your nephew's murder was caught on multiple cell phone cameras and was viewed by people around the country. People were outraged. Judging from your experience, what will it take to get justice for Trayvon Martin?
We cannot rely on the system in order for Trayvon to get justice and if by chance he gets justice, it was by design, to trick the community into believing the system works. The system is by design working the way it’s supposed to by not allowing us to get a fair trial or justice in this system. And so what we have to do as a community—as people across the United States—is to support this family and let the system know that there's a community out here that is saying NO MORE! You know... and we demand justice because we are Trayvon Martin...I am Oscar Grant. So with the community out here being strong, it has to be visual. It has to be outraged and it has to let the system know that we're not going to take this any more!
Of course we send our love out to Trayvon Martin’s family and again we're here to represent the Oscar Grant Foundation as well as connect with the Revolution and Stop Mass Incarceration Network team here—to speak to this issue of this heinous act of murder by George Zimmerman of Trayvon Martin. We will be here in order to get this justice—because we know how important it is—because we as a family experienced some of the most heinous acts within the system when it came to just sitting in trial.
Right, right, and in your case there was protest throughout the trial...both immediately after Oscar's murder and during the trial of the cop [who killed Oscar, Johannes Mehserle].
Right. What people have to realize is how important it was with the protests and the rallies in California, especially in Oakland, because it brought the first police officer in California state history to be charged, arrested, convicted and sent to jail! Though it was a slap in the face [the cop served only 11 months—less than half of his two-year sentence], it was the first time in [California] history that has ever happened. Since the murder of Oscar, there's been over 25 murders by police officers and not one single family yet has secured an officer being arrested, charged, convicted, and sent to jail.
So protest matters in Zimmerman’s case?
Protest matters in all these cases.
“Still Hurting”
I'm from Atlanta, Georgia. I got inspired by this movement because of what happened to Trayvon. Basically, I have a grandson, and I'm, as you say, we're all family and we're all one. So, I decided to go to the march on the capital in Atlanta (in 2012 to demand the arrest of Zimmerman) and I promised that I'd be down here for the trial.
So, you drove down here?
Yeah. I drove down here yesterday. I came by myself.
That's like some determination.
Oh, definitely. Definitely.
So, let's go back like a year and a half when you first heard about the murder of Trayvon Martin.
I dreamt about it a lot like as if I was there. I still hurt. I felt like it didn't have to go that way. It didn't have to happen that way. There were warning signs and, you know, he could have went the other way with it but he decided to take it into his own hands, take matters into his own hands. So, yeah, I was pretty hurt about it. I felt like I needed to do something about it.
And how did you feel when Zimmerman just walked into the front door of the police department and walked out the back?
Pissed. Yeah, you’re asking for emotions. Totally pissed. But what I was even more upset about was that, you know, so many people donated money to get him out.
You mean after he was arrested.
Yeah. After he was arrested.
But what about the fact that at first he wasn't even arrested?
Yeah. Now that's the spark that started everything. I think that actually got us going and got America thinking about, you know, are we still back in the '60s or the slavery days and all that stuff. So, I really think that him not getting arrested really woke us up, that it still exists and racism still exists and we need to go ahead and take care of it once and for all. We really have came a long way but we have went so far back.
I went out to the capital. That's what I was talking about. We had a protest, we had a march and everything. It was huge.
So how did you feel then when you found out Zimmerman had been arrested?
Relieved. I feel like it was my child that this had happened to and I felt the same thing the mother felt. I felt overwhelmed with joy. Because it took too long. It shouldn't have took a year and a half to have court.
You carried this sign from then to now?
Yeah, for a whole year and a half. The same sign.
The picture on it is a picture of your grandson? It says: “Could he be the next Trayvon Martin?”
Yeah.
How do you feel, what do you think it’s going to take to get justice?
Honest people. I have no faith in the justice system. That’s just being honest about it. I hope that honest people prevail, that they listen to the facts and they really look at the overtones of what its saying to people. People think they can walk around and shoot an innocent child. I just don’t get that. Just because he’s walking with a... they’re saying it’s not because of a hoodie, but in reality it IS because of a hoodie. He had on a hoodie and he looked “suspicious.” I’m just going by what was said.
“My hoodie does not mean I’m a criminal”
Your t-shirt, it says: “My hoodie does not mean I’m a criminal” and it’s got a picture of Trayvon Martin. Why don’t you start there.
Well, first of all, give it all to god. I’m here in support of the legal team for the case of Trayvon Martin. This is very important. This case has history behind it and also it is to eradicate illegal justice all over the world, really. It’s not just in Sanford, it’s all over. So that is why I have the shirt on that says, “My hoodie doesn’t mean I’m a criminal.” And you know that’s profiling. Just because someone is wearing a hoodie doesn’t mean they have mean intentions. No. So that’s why I’m wearing the shirt. And like again, I’m here to support the defense team for justice.
Now, when you say this has larger ramifications can you explain what you mean by that?
What I mean by that is that you have injustice all over the United States. You have Trayvon Martins that we have never even heard of all over the United States and it just so happens that we lost a young man because he was profiled, because he was wearing a hoodie, you know, he lost his life, for really nothing. Hopefully the outcome of this case will really somewhat kind of rewrite Stand Your Ground, if not get rid of it all along. Stand Your Ground is so vague and grey it doesn’t make sense. So that’s what I mean by larger ramifications, that if people do right and there is a guilty verdict I’m almost positive that you’re gonna see the law change as far as Stand Your Ground. And that’s what I mean by the bigger picture.
And what about the bigger picture outside the legal arena?
Well, I’m kinda hoping that all law enforcement all over the United States and the world really pay attention because there’s a large statement here that we’re proclaiming if George Zimmerman is guilty we’re hoping that everyone takes heed to that and sees that just because you’re wearing a badge and just because you have some legal authority behind you doesn’t mean you can be a crazy person or some kind of security guard thinking he’s superman or whatever. It’s a lot of things we’re hoping will come out of this and I’m quite sure it will.
“I Want to See Justice”
78-year-old white guy with a sign that says: “I wish I did not have to be here”
Take us back to the beginning, when you first heard about the murder of Trayvon Martin, how did you feel?
That one of our kids got murdered. You know, when I looked at it, to me, I say it was premeditated. He walked out of his apartment with a handgun. What are they made for? They are made for shooting people. And when he followed him, that is premeditation. So that’s my feeling, that it was premeditated murder. But you have to remember, Trayvon was “armed”—he had Skittles and iced tea. We’re gonna have to contact the Feds and tell them that before you can buy Skittles and ice tea you have to have a background check because that was what he had and so that’s dangerous, I guess.
Especially if you’re wearing a hoodie...You were here protesting last time before Zimmerman was arrested?
Yeah, there were 20,000 people here... and I had this same sign, “I wish I did not have to be here.” It took over a month after the murder to arrest Zimmerman. This country is racist, this central Florida is racist and I know more about racism than anybody here because I study it, I give lectures on it, I give speeches on it.... but I am prejudiced against bigots...and something I just can’t stand is sexism, racism, discrimination against same sex marriage and stuff like that, stuff like that just bother me.
Why did you feel it important to be out here on the first day of the trial?
I would like to be here every day. Because I want to see justice. And I don’t think you’re going to see justice if you don’t see demonstrators, you know because that’s what got him arrested. And what we want to see is justice.
Beatrice X, Director of the Oscar Grant Foundation
I am out here to support the family of Trayvon Martin and to support all the families who may have children that are Trayvon Martin. And we’re here because the state of California and families who have lost loved ones in the same manner of Trayvon Martin wish they could be here. I’m the Director of the Oscar Grant Foundation and now I’m married to Uncle Bobby, Cephus Johnson, the uncle of Oscar Grant.
Oscar was a young man, 22 years old, who had a daughter, who was murdered on the Fruitvale BART station on January 1, 2009. And he was murdered while he was lying flat with his hands behind his back. And he was a good guy, he was a young man, making his way through life, loved his daughter, wanted to marry his fiancée, and he was looking forward to a prosperous new year.
So when that happened, you got involved?
I did, because we saw the video. I have a son, at that time he was 14. And so to see that, Oscar was my son. And it was very painful, so that’s why I got involved. Because to see something like that and do nothing, that says a lot. As a community, to just lay down and watch a video like that and do nothing, if we had done nothing that would have said a lot. Nothing’s gonna change if we don’t change it. And so, that’s why I think, they had different kinds of people in slavery. I’m Black. So, you know what I’m saying? I would have been with Nat Turner, OK? I would have been with Harriet Tubman, OK? So, that spirit is very important. It’s very important, because if it doesn’t happen you can’t wake up other people. Even though a lot of people was like, oh they was scared, a lot of people was happy that something happened. And so when people do nothing, nothing happens. And we have to do something, we have to wake up. We have to wake up. Wake up people! I say that all the time. Wake up! We have it bad. What about our children and our grandchildren. I got two grandsons. I do not want, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, that this is the same plight. Something wrong with that picture.
When Trayvon was murdered people came out all over the country, including in the Bay Area. And two universal things came out. People said, “We are all Trayvon, that could have been me, that could have been my son.” And people brought up the memory of Emmett Till.
Because here we are, all these years later, the same thing. And that’s what I’m talking about. If we don’t wake up, wake up everybody—if we don’t wake up, then 50 years later, it’ll be the same thing. So that’s why Emmett Till came out. Because it’s the same thing, it’s the same thing. And if we delude ourselves then we’ll be the next family trying to seek justice for something that’s been going on for a long time. And we shouldn’t wait until it happens to us. That’s what we tell people, don’t wait until it happens to you to get involved. Because you don’t know when it will. We hope it never do. This is a group nobody wants to be in. No one wants to be in this group, OK, where you have lost your loved one, especially in that manner and then you get no justice for it.
Some say that now that the trial of Zimmerman has started we should wait and see what happens...
An activist don’t move like that, OK? An activist gonna get busy, that’s all there is to it. If you don’t stand up, if you see something you don’t like, then you gonna stand up for it, that’s what an activist do.... That’s what we do, if you’re a real activist. That means you’re activated for justice. That means you’re activated to fight.
What about those who say wait and see...
That’s because they’re in denial about this racist criminal justice system.
Speak to them.
What I would say is wake up! That’s all I can say. At this point, what I would say is wake up. There’s too much history. Wake the hell up.... Either you want something to change or you want it to stay the same. That’s the time we’re in. There’s no middle right now. Either you’re with it or you’re not. So there’s a time for everything. There’s a time to lay back and do nothing. There’s a time to do something. There’s no middle ground no more. We’re out of that time. We really are. But we don’t see. But we will feel the effects of not doing nothing. We are feeling the effects of not doing nothing. So all I can say is wake the hell up. Everything is out there, it’s on the news, you see it every day, you see it in your community, it’s in your family, you live it. OK? Because it’s there. But people choose not to deal with things. And if you want to live a surface thing and not deal with reality, then you’re going to get the consequences of not dealing with reality. And reality will slap you in the face, OK?
“We Don’t Feel Safe”
Young Black woman in her early twenties living in West Palm Beach, leaving the courthouse after paying a ticket inside.
My son is eight. He wears hoodies. Would you have shot my son if you had seen him walking from the store? ... If he's not found guilty [Zimmerman] with the evidence they have presented already... we're already in a messed-up time... it's gonna be worse, worse. It's gonna cause a whole other BOOM! ... As a family we don't feel safe living here at this time because we don't even feel like Zimmerman's going to be found guilty of this murder.
Sanford, if it's not drugs, they don't care ... that's point blank. It took them [the cops] almost 30 minutes to get out there to the scene where he [Trayvon] was shot at. There was another Black guy over there shot and killed ... two months and they closed his case ... they don't care who did it. Just another nigger dead. There's another killing every two weeks.
Reacting to B.A.'s Three Strikes quote on the back page of Revolution newspaper:
I'm not even trying to be funny. If they were to ever go back to this state of mind. Seminole County is already right here [points to picture of lynching]. If they were to change the laws today to go back to this... within two hours there would be somebody in this predicament here in Seminole County. Last week a guy went to jail for... he bought the beer. He hadn't opened the beer, but he had bought the beer and he didn't have an ID on him to say that he was 21. This cop came and picked him up by the shirt and threw him on the ground. We were right there! Then you got three cops, one guy he maybe 160 pounds, knee in his back. This was at Little Sammy's Store on 1792! That's why I say... there's really no justice. There hasn't been no justice in Sanford, Florida since god know how long. That's why I had to get my kids out of this town.
Hashtag for Trayvon Martin
I’m a 23-year-old African-American law student/freelance writer. I attend Florida A&M University, College of Law. I am here to offer support mostly to Trayvon Martin’s family and to take a stand for justice. I came down here with my little sister, I brought her with me but some of my other classmates and other colleagues will also be down here today to offer support.
A year ago, when this first happened, what happened when you first heard about the murder?
I cried, I sobbed. That could have been my brother, it could have been my father, it could have been me. It’s just kind of one of those universal injustices. And I pray that justice is served.
When you say it could have been you, it could have been your brother..., explain that.
I think it’s easy for people to make simplistic assessments about who they think a threat is, so sometimes a brown face with a hoodie on is an easy assessment for some people to make and is more than likely what happened here.
And what do you think about the fact that they let Zimmerman walk free at first?
Um-hum! That is just evidence of privilege, privilege and bias and whose values and whose lives are perceived as worthwhile in society and whose aren’t...
And so you were out there protesting to get Zimmerman arrested?
I protested more so on social media at that particular time, people tweeted, people Facebooked, they shared stories, they blogged about it, it was huge.
Some people are waiting to see what happens, others have come here today to make a statement....
It is early yet, I hope that more will come. But just because we don’t see their physical bodies here it doesn’t mean they’re not offering support. Again social media is huge, not just in this country, but in the Middle East, Arab Spring, all of that. People can do a lot of important things through technology. Look at the hashtag for Trayvon Martin, people are speaking out.
“This happens all the time”
I do commercials and music videos and I'm running a foundation taking care as well for the disabled and right now I'm trying to influence in a positive manner, for such awful things that's been going on.
Ok. So, give me your thoughts on this whole matter here.
If the races were switched over I feel it would have went down a lot different. Also, as well, most importantly, this is not even the first case nor the last case. But thankfully it got highlighted. But it just happens so much and it's horrible that it happens this much and there's not anybody doing anything about it and the system just wants you to sit home and don't worry about it and let them take care of it instead of people really giving their opinion...
When you say "This happens all the time," what do you mean by "this"?
I mean as in, the Black, Latino treatment; police force, the way the people perceive the actions on what's going on by the Black and Latino race and that's what I mean by "this"—and the way that it's handled after these type of things happen where there's a death or it's just treated in the wrong manner.
You live in Sanford?
No, I live in Orlando. But I've been through, not obviously to the extent of this, but I've been through a lot in my own lifetime.
Explain that. You mean being racially profiled by the police?
Yeah. Racially profiled by the police. I mean, right now I'm 29 years old, approximately around like 5'8". I give myself about 5'9" on a good day with some good shoes. But, um...
How many times have you been stopped?
I've been stopped, I'd say probably about a couple of times a month. But I'm used to it. But the worse thing is that I've been profiled as a 6'2" guy. I mean I'm almost 30 years old and I've never been six foot yet. So, I don't know how these things are happening. I've been stopped and arrested and heard over the cops' intercom that they'd found the perpetrator that's six foot two...
They were looking for a six foot two guy and they stopped you.
Yeah. And I got stopped.
But you were the “right color.” They were looking for a Black man.
Yeah. Basically. That's what they should have just said: We're looking for a Black guy... That's about where it goes, so, you know, I get tired of it.
But you're saying that you get stopped literally two or three times a month.
Easily. Easily. Especially because of what I do. I work nighttime, I do shows, I do music videos, I'm up late, I'm driving late, so I get pulled over. My tags are good. All my lights are good. You pull me over, Oh you’re.... I fit the profile.
And plus you never know. It could lead from this to that to that. You could be dead.
Exactly. Exactly. So, who's to say you're using your powers of justice and your badge to do whatever you want now. You know what I mean? To treat people how you see fit. Like you ARE the law. And this is not the law.
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