Gainesville, FL – Over 200 students, community activists and supporters rallied and marched from the University of Florida campus to the downtown FBI office on March 26, demanding justice for Trayvon Martin. Organizers of the rally brought forward two main demands: Arrest George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin and fire the police involved in the case for obstructing justice and covering-up the truth.
Protesters gathered in the blazing sun near Turlington Plaza on the University of Florida campus to begin the event and listen to speakers demanding justice for Trayvon Martin. Several local media stations filmed the activists and aired some of the more outstanding speeches. Speaking about the racism and oppression faced by African-Americans, Chief Steward Jose Soto of Graduate Assistants United said, “We are not one nation as our pledge suggests. We are many nations. We gather here today, just as we rallied for Kofi Adu-Brempong two years ago this month, to demand justice and self-determination for African American people.” Kofi Adu-Brempong is an African Graduate Teaching Assistant shot in the face, inside his own home, by a racist campus cop. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organized a campaign that led to the racist cop’s firing and a settlement for Adu-Brempong.
The rally chanted, “Arrest George Zimmerman! Justice for Trayvon!” Next the students marched to the nearby Institute of Black Culture. There, African American and other student speakers emphasized their demands for the killer and the police to be brought to justice in the Trayvon Martin case. The activists and their allies began a mile long march to downtown Gainesville to deliver their demands to the local FBI field office. Gainesville Area SDS member Skye Schmelzer led several chants: “Jail the killer, fire the cops, without Justice, we won't stop!”
Despite the intense hostility and best efforts of local law enforcement, the 200-strong chain of people stormed onto University Avenue, blocking an entire lane of traffic. Cops shouted at the protesters to get back onto the sidewalk, but the angry crowd ignored them. At one point, two police cars tried to block the road by turning sideways in front of the march, but Gainesville Area SDS member Conor Monroe bravely jumped out to keep the road from being closed. The police cars came close to trapping Monroe's leg in between the bumpers of their cars, but the way forward remained just large enough for the crowd to push on through the police cars.
After the mile-long march was over, the crowd arrived at the foot of the FBI Field Office in Gainesville. The main doors into the building were locked, but members of Gainesville Area SDS found a secondary entrance. A ten-person delegation made their way upstairs to the FBI Field Office, which was located inside a Wells Fargo bank. Meanwhile, the crowd chanted, “No justice, no peace, no racist police” outside.
Inside the FBI Field Office, the delegation demanded a meeting with a member of the FBI. FBI officials demanded that the delegation leave the building and claimed that the police were on their way. “The police followed us here as we marched in the streets, and they're standing around outside, what do you mean they're on their way? We want a meeting to present our demands to the FBI,” SDS member Cassia Laham shouted back.
Standing their ground, the activists pressured the FBI officials into taking their list of demands up to their superiors before they were satisfied enough to leave the building. The organizers called upon the crowd to continue the struggle to win justice for Trayvon Martin by joining them in Sanford, Florida on March 31 for a mass demonstration in the town of the Martin’s shooting.
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Arrest Obama
Peace and Blessings
Obama lost his soul after the skip Gates issue. When Rush Limbaugh called that White Girl ( I forgot her name) a slut on Wed and Obama called her by Friday! And your right on the shooting in Az He has failed and he gets a past NOT because he has earned it, but because the Black community as a whole is lost in the American Dream that has turned out to be an American Nightmare!
We are taught that our word must be our bond. When we break our word we destroy the life of the covenant or the agreement that we have made. It is absolutely necessary that as leaders we must build trust among ourselves. We can only build trust when we strive to keep our word, particularly a solemn agreement or covenant that we make with each other and with our people. Ever since our fathers set the soles of their feet in the western hemisphere, particularly since the ending of chattel slavery, many promises have been made to us as well as to others by the Government of the United States of America that have been broken because those who have given their word to us and the Native Americans had no intentions of fulfilling what they put on paper as a treaty or what they wrote as a law where we are concerned. Every gain that our leaders and their followers fought bled, and even died to give us, while we celebrated the success of the agreement or the law, the process began to erode and destroy the life of that agreement. Therefore, it is wise and prudent that we make a covenant among ourselves as leaders and make a covenant or solemn agreement with our people that we sign, and, in signing declare in our hearts and publicly that our word shall be our bond. In so doing, we as leaders can create the spirit of unity in our people. Then, we need not make a demand. Our unity will command our presence at whatever table, in whatever forum we decide to be a part of and gain for us whatever we desire for our people.
Our presence here is to bury the attitude of those who founded America in their short-sighted vision what will we leave our children if not a nation and land to build upon? We're not here to march. We're here to unite for the purpose to build a future. A new nation is coming in.
"We are at war! Our survival as a people is at stake. We all are going to be tested in this autumn. America is living on borrowed time. Time for talk is over! To be free sacrifice must be made! Blood must flow if we are to be free."
Now that is what is called Real Talk and where are the modern day John Browns to help bring this vision to a reality! Truth has come to you!
We should be arresting Obama,
We should be arresting Obama, for failure to get out there and tell everyone to knock off the blood rhetoric. He has been absolutely silent on this matter, with the exception of the one comment at the White House.
The black community should be incensed. Following the shooting in Tucson, the President gave his most meaningful speech. All kinds of nice words, telling folks that this was not something that we should allow to drive us further apart. Is the Trayvon Martin situation not worthy of the President's attention? Given the strain on race relations this incident has caused, Obama should be all over it. He is not, and the black community is giving him a bye.
He should be arrested for gross indifference. What's that? We cannot penalize folks for not getting involved if they choose not to? Isn't that what the individual mandate in Obamacare is all about? More leftist hypocrisy.
Marching for Trayvon Martin
Peace and Blessings Family what will we do after the Marching? If this case goes left what are we going to do sense we marched and that just says we are watching then what net?
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