USA - caso Trayvon- Zimmermann - Outrage and Protests Around the Country

As Zimmerman Verdict Released...

Outrage and Protests Around the Country

July 14, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Immediately after the verdict of "not guilty" was announced for Trayvon Martin's killer, people took to the streets that very night in cities across the country in protest against this outrage. And more protests were called for. We will be posting reports of these actions here as we receive them from readers. Send reports, photos, and calls for further protests to revolution.reports@yahoo.com.

Posts updated Juy 14, 11 pm

Los Angeles

July 13, evening: People of all nationalities and ages began gathering in Leimert Park in the Crenshaw area of Los Angeles within an hour of the verdict. Anger/disbelief/grief/gut-wrenching pain poured out. A mother and daughter showed up and marched all night, who only a few hours earlier had been crying on the street when they ran into a revolutionary and learned there was something they could do, together with others, to send a message to the world.
Young people from many different backgrounds, especially young Black masses, as well as people of all ages and backgrounds took to the streets chanting "Trayvon Martin, Emmett Till, No More Youth Getting Killed," "We are all—TRAYVON" and "Trayvon didn't have to die. We all know the reason why: THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS GUILTY!!" Many took turns running with the large vinyl banner to the front of the march with Trayvon's image and the slogan: "WE ARE ALL TRAYVON—THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS GUILTY."
The LAPD announced a tactical alert throughout the city. By 11 pm, the march came back to Leimert Park, where lines of LAPD cops waited to corral the people and put a lid on the protest—and then the marchers swung back up Crenshaw headed north, determined to keep going, NOT be stopped and to spread the outrage. Many more cheered them on and joined in. The march swelled to several hundred, with cars going the opposite direction honking and hanging out of their windows joining in. People on several buses traveling south realized they were witnessing a wild, growing, defiant, and organized outpouring of people outraged by the murder of Trayvon, and they could then be seen jumping up and down in the aisle of the buses, and pounding fists on the windows to show their support.
Several times in the evening, the LAPD tried to block the marchers and contain the anger—and more than once, the people refused to be contained and together found the ways to dodge the riot-clad pig lines to keep marching. Several young Black men and women, some with their faces covered, took responsibility to help outmaneuver the cops and keep it going. Once, they led the marchers to calmly walk down a side street as if deciding to leave the area, and then making a joint run for it across the street, around the pig lines and back onto Crenshaw before the cops could figure out what was happening and try to move to prevent it. Squadrons of motorcycle cops leapfrogged to the next large intersection—only to have a good section of the marchers stopping far south of there at the MTA Expo line crossing as a train approached—blocking the tracks! Several hundred gathered there for several hours, with the LAPD repeatedly pleading for protesters to clear the tracks, turn around and march back to Leimert Park and end the protest. Masses laughed and shouted in their faces, and chants rang out even louder......
Now into the wee hours of the morning, the LAPD announced an unlawful assembly—and the marchers took off again, around the police lines, continuing up Crenshaw—crossing over the freeway from South L.A. heading north. Along the way the LAPD opened fire with rubber bullets and bean bags at the marchers, hitting several, including a KNX reporter as they were walking AWAY from the pig lines. The marchers were finally dispersed around 3 am, spreading the word throughout the protest and to masses who had come out of their houses to gather back at Leimert Park the next day at 1 pm—to carry forward the outrage.

Chicago

July 13, Chicago West Side after verdict freeing George Zimmerman. Photo: Special to Revolution

West Side, July 13, evening: On Chicago's West Side at a busy intersection, hundreds of fliers of Carl Dix's statement, "The Response That's Needed—The World We Want To Live In," and stickers of the Trayvon Martin hoodie image were gotten out. People from the neighborhood went out into the street with fliers and stickers, passing them out to cars, while young men hung posters on themselves that read, "We Are ALL Trayvon – the Whole Damn System is Guilty! Get with the Real Revolution." Many people coming through, including people pulling over in their cars, got handfuls of fliers and stickers to get out. People took posters to take home and to take to work. One woman took a poster to put up in her gallery.
People on the corner were of all ages but mainly young people. Many of these youth were clear that this verdict means that anything can be done to them and they can expect no justice. This is a neighborhood where the police had shot a kid a couple of years ago. It is a neighborhood of Black and Latinos, where many took up the "Blow the Whistle" campaign against police brutality. People there who consider themselves part of the movement for revolution immediately took up activity. People were coming through saying, "I want stickers," "Give me fliers."
A number of police cars arrived on the scene, both patrol units and detective cars, in an attempt to intimidate people gathered on the corner. They told people that they could protest but not block flow of traffic into the corner store. The expressions on the faces of these young men answered back, "We are here every day," and the young men stayed posted up on the corner as people circled the four corners with a banner with a gigantic picture of Trayvon Martin.
Downtown, July 13, evening: It started with a Facebook post from Gregory Koger, a young revolutionary with the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and the movement for revolution saying, "If the verdict comes in tonight—whenever we hear the news—we will be out in the streets... Keeping our ears to the streets and our eyes on a world where the Trayvon Martins and all oppressed youth can flourish..." Once the outrageous news of George Zimmerman's being found not guilty came down, a small team of revolutionaries rushed to .....People took to the mike—some in tears—pouring out their heartfelt agony and anger over the system doing what it does—one more fucking time... Name after name—Oscar Grant, Rekia Boyd, Sean Bell, Abner Louima, Rakeem Nance, Darius Pinex, Corey Harris... As anger began to swell, people began to shout—"NOT ONE MORE!"
As we started to march through the cavernous streets of downtown Chicago, the name of Trayvon Martin rang off the skyscrapers. As we marched through the streets, we began drawing in many people out on the town who either had not heard the news of the verdict or were heartened by seeing a multinational group marching through the streets expressing their outrage at the verdict. Many joined what turned out to be three separate rolling marches, interspersed with very emotional speak-outs from mainly young Black men who live every day under the gun of this system. A number of women also spoke, including a young Muslim woman from Saudi Arabia who spoke powerfully to the anger that everyone—no matter what their background or where they are from—should feel about the murder of Trayvon—and that this is intolerable. A Latina woman in tears spoke about the case of Marissa Alexander in Florida—who received a 20-year sentence for shooting a warning shot into a wall to stop her abusive husband from hurting her. Yet George Zimmerman walked free.
Within an hour and a half of the verdict, people searching for ways to express their outrage had made their way downtown after hearing of the growing rally and march. Two carloads of Black youth drove in from a Black leadership conference 30 minutes outside of Chicago. Many of them were from out of state. People of all different backgrounds showed support as we marched through the streets—from the basic masses, to the homeless white dude who joined the march and started passing out 'We Are All Trayvon' stickers, to the middle aged men and women in tuxedos and fancy dresses who joined in the chants and put the stickers right on, on the spot.....

Harlem, New York City

Harlem, July 14, 2013. Photo: Special to Revolution

July 13, evening: Phones rang across Harlem as word swept through the housing projects, the night spots, the work places, and street. It had happened again. The racist vigilante, wannabe cop who stalked and murdered Trayvon Martin was guilty of no crime according to the logic of this system. "This country is becoming more racist than ever. My head and my heart are aching. He wasn't the one with the weapon but they kill him all over again," a young woman said. Another said, "Racist world. It's OK to kill us Blacks, that's the messages that's being sent out."

Harlem July 14, 2013. Photo: Special to Revolution

At 11 o'clock Saturday night the people began to gather at the State Office Building in Harlem to express their outrage at the system's verdict. The first people who arrived were almost in shock. "I can't believe they did this," one young Black man repeated over and over again. "My life means nothing to these people." The individual shock and anger was soon transformed into a collective outrage and determination to deliver a message on the spot that night. Twenty-five people joined to take up posters that say "We Are All Trayvon! The Whole Damn System Is Guilty!" and to carry a banner demanding "Justice for Trayvon!" with Bob Avakian's statement declaring "No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world..." need be subjected to the misery and brutality of this system. People chanted from the sidewalk as some people went into the street with placards calling on motorists to honk their horn. At times dozens of car horns were honking at the same time. Hundreds of people raised their fists and shouted support from their car windows. Combined with whistles and chants from the sidewalk, all of this knocked the lid off the pain and deep hurt so many are feeling, and became a verdict against the verdict and a call for others to join in.

Union Square, New York City, July 14, 2013: more than 5,000 people protested in response to the verdict. Photo: Special to Revolution

One young man who had come to the State Office Building to see if something was happening to join in protest said at first there was only the police and some people sitting quietly, and he felt alone and depressed. Then the two Revolution supporters came with signs and posters and whistles—and the young man said that "it's so important to send a message from Harlem" and how instead of feeling downhearted people could feel strength and unity.
Knots of young men gathered, cheering and taking up the posters. A white family of five, tourists, stopped and joined for a while. A crew on bikes, youth about 15 years old, all held up their fists. Young women put up their hoodies and passed out Trayvon posters. They were especially interested in talking to white passersby, "Excuse me, what do you think of the verdict?" A Cuban man with homemade signs came marching up to join us yelling "No Justice, No Peace!" The chant went up from the traffic island, "Revolution—Nothing Less!" The police stationed themselves at one point in front of young men with sagging pants, under eaves trying to get out of the rain. These youth eagerly took up posters and whistles and posed for pictures chanting "no justice, no peace" and "fuck the police!" People left a little after 1 a.m., vowing to come back on Sunday with many more people.