The Death of a Boy Makes Opportunistic Vultures Drool

The case of Trayvon Martin, a black boy, has made the opportunistic vultures drool. These are the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton who never miss an opportunity to take advantage of any situation that may advance their racist cause.  To them everything is about race even when it's not.  As soon as they heard about the case of a black boy being killed by a white man (he's not, he's Hispanic, but let's ignore that fact), they descended like vultures. 

The family of Trayvon Martin, with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton moved the location of their news conference from the church in Sanford, FL to a church in Eatonville, FL.  All previous meetings and conferences were held at the Allen Chapel AME Church in Sanford or in locations nearby.  Why, all of a sudden when Jesse Jackson comes to town does everything move to the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Eatonville?  They moved it because location is important.  Moving the location of the press conferences from racially diverse Sanford, to majority black Eatonville, one of the first all-black towns to be formed after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, allows them to join together in solidarity as black people.  To present a united front as black people and in essence make this about race which was more difficult to do in more diverse Sanford.  The plan is simple, rile up the locals, go to Eatonville, get the support of the black community locally and nationally and then bring the race hate back to Sanford. It makes it so much easier to play the race card with the support of the black community.There is no better place to garner support of the black community that than in mostly black Eatonville.

They descended upon the family and dragged them in to the race baiting and into their devious politics because the face of a little black boy is great publicity.  Look at how they've used it to get the community and the country caught up in their whirlwind.  There was not all this rallying and hoopla before Al Sharpton got here.  There were no national news outlets, with their big shiny trucks blocking the roads before the vultures came to town. 

Hundreds of people lined up in Sanford outside the civic center in the hopes of going inside to speak their minds to the council.  There have been other council meetings held prior to the vultures, why now do hundreds wait in line?  While hundreds waited in line for the council meeting, hundreds more took to the streets of Sanford with their signs and chants of “No Justice, No Peace” and “We want justice, we want it now” marching in a parade to the rallying point in Ft. Mellon park. Most of the marchers were calling for the arrest of George Zimmerman, with some even calling for his death or injury.  Many supported the theory that it was a race related murder.  Something must be compelling them to do this.

 Of course, the media was there to nibble up every bit of the brouhaha.  What makes better news than the martyrdom of a boy?  Outside in Ft. Mellon Park, the people gathered and the news crews national, local and independent were mulling around interviewing people.  Cameras were everywhere.  Many of the national news organizations such as CNN and MSNBC were broadcasting, not from amidst the people, but from a sectioned off area set up just for them.  Some of them were even barricaded off from everyone else.  They’ve seen it before, send the photographers and videographers in to get some shots and sound bites, but not need to go out and actually talk to people, they already know the story they will present. The only news people out and about among the crowd were local and independent news and citizen journalists.  This is why I generally recommend getting your news from local news, they tend to be less agenda oriented. 

In racially diverse Sanford, the crowd was primarily black.  Though I never felt uncomfortable, I was well aware that I was a small white woman in a big black sea.  There were other white people there.  Many of the journalists were white, and some of those rallying were white, but the crowd was mostly black.  The black community was rallying.  Busloads of people from other black communities showed up.


The New Black Panthers were in Sanford, they were cordial and respectful when I spoke with them.  When I said, it’s hot out there today, their leader said, “Issues are hot, police and government are not doing their jobs.”  They weren’t nasty or threatening, they did not say anything about “lynching” George Zimmerman. I though it odd the way the members stood around the leader as if to put their bodies between themselves and anyone who may harm him and also the posting of one person to stand guard at the window, I just assumed this was because there’s been a lot of negative talk about them and they wished no harm to their leader.   I was shocked later on to see a flier put out by them calling for the capture, dead or alive of George Zimmerman for the murder-execution of Trayvon Martin, it was chilling.  I had never seen such a thing.  In this country where we have laws, due process and presumed innocence. It's disheartening.

Here's the New Black Panther leader I met being interviewed by CNNs Anderson Cooper:
"Bounty Put on Trayvon Martin Shooter"


The rally took on a strange, almost a carnival/party atmosphere. Many of people held colorful signs with pictures and sayings, each one trying to be more creative than the rest.  There were skittles galore.   There were even a few people in costume.    There were large screens which showed the council meeting and later provided everyone a view of the speakers. 
I ran in to this gentleman, dressed as a jester, who did not agree with the Black Panther reward.  He felt that George Zimmerman should be arrested and go to trial.

It seems a bit odd that the one person who seemed to have a somewhat level head about the whole thing is the one wearing the jester’s hat. 

Most of the people were buying in to what Jackson and Sharpton were selling.  As good little followers should, they were appalled that the police would report information that would make Trayvon look bad, even if it’s true.  Jackson and Sharpton worked feverishly to denounce the reports.  It is not helpful to their cause for the information that was reported in the Orlando Sentinel which the police released, that says witness statements say that George Zimmerman was heading back to his SUV and that Trayvon attacked him from behind, punching him in the face and breaking his nose, he continued beating on George Zimmerman and had him pinned to the ground.  Sharpton, Jackson and the family are upset that reports are coming out that show Trayvon in a negative light. Yet, for days, they complained that the police had no proof that George Zimmerman had acted in self-defense.  When the police then reveal the information that they had, Zimmerman’s statement backed up by statements from eye-witnesses, they complain because this information can squash their case.  They lose ground in the race baiting they are doing.  They don’t even acknowledge that Zimmerman is Hispanic.  He is a “white-Hispanic,” whatever that is. 

I don’t know if any of the information coming out is true or not.  I was not there.  This is why there needs to be a thorough investigation and, if warranted, a trial.  Then if found guilty, punishment.  You can't just skip to punishment.  This is what the 5th Amendment is all about, presumed innocence and due process, gathering the facts before passing judgment.  Yet there are those who have already, such as the New Black Panthers, found George Zimmerman guilty of murder without an investigation and without a trial. 

No one disagrees that it is very sad that a teenage boy is dead.  What is terribly tragic is that there are those who are exploiting Trayvon’s death for their own selfish purposes.  In doing so, they tend to do and to report only that which is useful to further their cause. It's a shame that a boy's death has become a travesty, to exploit his death to promote a racist platform.

We can’t allow opportunists like Sharpton and Jackson to use the death of this boy for their racist agenda.  It has to be about finding out the truth.  We can’t ignore our laws because it doesn’t fit in with the promotion of a racist agenda.  We must stand true to the Fifth Amendment, to support due process and presumed innocence.  If we stray from our laws as put forth by the framers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, if we ignore State and local statutes, our country will be lost.  We can’t allow that to happen.   God Bless America!