3 Years Since the Murder of Trayvon Martin—
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FINDS NO FEDERAL CRIME IN THE MURDER OF TRAYVON MARTIN!
February 28, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Statement by the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, February 25, 2015
The federal Department of “Justice” (DOJ) announced February 24 that it will not indict George Zimmerman, the vigilante who murdered Trayvon Martin 3 years ago on February 26, 2012. In announcing this decision the DOJ said, “... the independent federal investigation found insufficient evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges against George Zimmerman for the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida.”
Trayvon Martin
Think about this—Zimmerman saw a Black youth walking through a housing development, decided he was a “thug” and “up to no good,” pursued him, confronted him and shot him to death. Yet the feds found “insufficient evidence” to charge him with violating Trayvon Martin's civil rights. The legal system in Florida initially refused to even charge Zimmerman until thousands of people marched all across the country demanding Zimmerman be brought to trial. After being forced to try Zimmerman, the prosecutors forgot how to prosecute, and Zimmerman walked free. Now with this DOJ decision, the legal system has given this vigilante murderer a complete pass. And think about how the DOJ chose to announce this decision on the eve of the anniversary of Trayvon's murder. This is a huge slap in the face to his family and to everyone who was saddened and angered by his murder.
THE WHOLE DAMNED SYSTEM IS GUILTY!
When the court in Florida found Zimmerman not guilty, many people looked to the feds to come in and provide justice. In the face of case after case of police killing people and getting a pass from district attorneys and courts locally, many raised that we should look to the federal government to provide justice. It's time to wake up to reality.
The DOJ is put out there as the hope to get justice when police get away with killing somebody. This is a myth, and it's meant to lure people out of the streets and back into the normal channels of the system and keep people accepting the legitimacy of this system. The authorities do this because they fear people breaking out of these channels and disrupting the normal routine of society. The DOJ never brought a single indictment in the thousands of cases where white mobs lynched Black people between the 1870s and the 1960s. Since then the DOJ has done investigations in hundreds of cases where cops (or racist vigilantes) got away with killing someone, and they have almost never indicted any of them. It's like Malcolm X said, you can't rely on the federal “foxes” to deal with the hell the local “wolves” inflict on you. We have to stand up and say NO MORE to these horrors. The Shut Down day called for April 14 is the way to do that.
Letting this killer walk is a criminal act by a criminal system. It comes down to the system declaring that Black youth have a target on their backs in this society, that they can be harassed, brutalized and even murdered by cops, and by racist vigilantes, and the system will do nothing to punish them! This is racist, illegitimate and unacceptable!
From Ferguson to New York City to Los Angeles and everywhere in between, a cry rang out from those who took to the streets saying NO MORE to the horror of police wantonly murdering Black and Latino people and getting away with it: Indict, Convict, Send the Killer Cops to Jail, the Whole Damned System is Guilty as Hell! This decision by the DOJ, like the verdict in this case in Florida, the exonerations of the cops who murdered Michael Brown, Eric Garner and many, many other victims of murdering cops—they all point to how that slogan is right on time.
And it points to the need to get back out in the streets, mobilizing wave after wave of even more powerful resistance to the system giving a green light to cops, and racist vigilantes, to murder people at will. This is exactly what will be done on April 14, 2015—a day of NO WORK, NO SCHOOL—a day of DISRUPTING BUSINESS AS USUAL; because business as usual in this society includes the murder of Black and Brown people by those who are sworn to protect and serve.
JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON AND ALL VICTIMS OF KILLER COPS AND RACIST VIGILANTES!
APRIL 14—#ShutDownA14—DISRUPT BUSINESS AS USUAL!
More from the Stop Mass Incarceration Network at www.stopmassincarceration.net
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