Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer last month.
The new Black Panther Party offered a bounty of $10,000 Saturday for the “capture” of a Florida neighborhood watch captain who killed unarmed teen Trayvon Martin.
“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” leader Mikhail Muhammad said after announcing the reward for George Zimmerman at a protest in Sanford, Fla.
Muhammad called on 5,000 black men to mobilize and capture the neighborhood watch volunteer.
“If the government won’t do the job, we’ll do it,” Muhammad said, leading chants that included “freedom or death” and “justice for Trayvon.”
Muhammad said New Black Panther’s chairman, Malik Zulu Shabaz of Washington, was taking donations from black entertainers and athletes.
The group hopes to collect $1 million off the outrage by next week.
New Black Panthers members pointed to what they called the inaction of government officials — from Sanford city officials up to the governor — and accused them of lying and delaying justice.
They also said Angela Corley, the newly appointed special prosecutor, was an enemy of the black community.
“She has a track record of sending innocent young black men and women to prison,” Muhammad said.
The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the New Black Panther Party, a black-separatist group created in 1989, “virulently racist and anti-Semitic.”
Martin, who is African-American, was wearing a hoodie and carrying a pack of Skittles and an ice tea on the night of Feb. 26. He was heading back to his father’s fiance’s townhouse.
Zimmerman, 28, called 911 to report a suspicious person in the gated community and followed the teen despite the dispatcher’s request that he stand down.
Zimmerman said he shot Martin in self-defense. Zimmerman’s family says he is Hispanic and race was not an issue.
A Florida man was also charged Friday with threatening to kill Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee and his family.
Lee temporarily stepped down as chief over the case.
Trayvon’s mom said she was having a hard time realizing that her son’s not coming home, People magazine reported Saturday.
“I look at every door and think, he’s just going to walk through it any minute,” Sybrina Fulton told the magazine.“I just want to see him again, but I can’t.
“He’s in heaven, looking down at me.”
No comments:
Post a Comment