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Rallies held for slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin

Students in Florida are rallying to demand the arrest of a man who shot dead an unarmed black teenager.

George Zimmerman gunned down Trayvon Martin as the 17-year-old was walking through a gated community in an Orlando suburb while visiting relatives.

Mr Zimmerman, 28, says he acted in self-defence. A 2005 state law allows deadly force if a person believes their life is in danger.

The incident has raised concerns among civil rights leaders.

Student rallies have been organised on Monday in front of a criminal court building in Sanford, the community where the shooting happened, and on the campus of Florida A&M University in Tallahassee.

Civil rights leader and television host Al Sharpton plans a rally on Thursday at a Sanford church.

Martin's parents told reporters on Friday that they want the FBI to take over the case, as they no longer trust the Sanford police.

"I feel betrayed by the Sanford Police Department and there's no way that I can still trust them in investigating this crime," his father, Tracy Martin, said.

An FBI spokesman said the agency was "aware of the incident" and had been in contact with local authorities.

Mr Zimmerman, acting as a neighbourhood watch volunteer, had called police several times in the months before the shooting to report incidents.

He called police on 26 February, reporting there had been break-ins in the community, and that there was "a real suspicious guy" who "looks like he's up to no good".

When he said he was following the person he had identified as suspicious, the dispatcher said: "We don't need you to do that."

Martin was walking to a nearby store to buy confectionary for his brother when the incident happened, according to a family lawyer.

He lived in Miami with his mother and was visiting Sanford.

The release of emergency calls recordings, including two from neighbours during which screams and shots can be heard, have fuelled demands for a federal investigation.

Sanford police chief Bill Lee has rejected criticism of his department.

"The hysteria, the media circus, it's just crazy," Mr Lee told the Orlando Sentinel.

"It's sad for the city of Sanford, the police department, because I know in my heart we did a good job."

Mr Zimmerman's father, Robert Zimmerman, wrote a letter to the Orlando Sentinel denying his son had followed or confronted Martin.

He said his son was a "Spanish-speaking minority with many black family members and friends".

He called the portrayal of the younger Mr Zimmerman "false and extremely misleading".


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17435776

Trayvon Martin: Police chief temporarily steps down

A Florida police chief criticised over the investigation into the shooting of an unarmed black teenager has announced he will temporarily step down.

Bill Lee had been censured by officials in Sanford, an Orlando suburb, over the death of Trayvon Martin.

A mass rally led by civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton will be held later to demand justice for the 17-year-old.

Neighbourhood watchman George Zimmerman, 28, was not charged for shooting the teenager.

He said he was defending himself because Mr Martin had attacked him. In Florida, a law known as "stand your ground" can prevent criminal or civil prosecution when deadly force is used in self-defence.

Mr Lee's decision to stand aside comes a day after city commissioners in Sanford issued a vote of no-confidence in him.

They voted 3-2 to censure the police chief, who has held his position for just 10 months.

"I take no pleasure in a public flogging of our police chief," Commissioner Mark McCarty said, according to the Orlando Sentinel. "But he really should turn in his resignation."

Mr Martin's parents have met federal officials reviewing police conduct.

Nearly one million people have signed online petitions calling for justice.

Mr Sharpton tweeted that he would still attend the rally despite the death of his mother, who passed away on Wednesday.

"My MOM would have wanted me to," he said.

In anticipation of large numbers of protesters, the rally venue was moved from a 400-seat church to Fort Mellon Park in Sanford.

On Wednesday, Mr Martin's parents addressed a mass rally in New York to call for the arrest of Mr Zimmerman.

His father, Tracy Martin, told that so-called Million Hoodie March: "My son did not deserve to die," and said police had racially profiled his son.

Although Mr Martin was killed in late February, the publication of 911 emergency calls and sworn testimony from a friend have fuelled debate over whether the shooting was truly a case of self-defence.

A Florida grand jury is considering whether there is enough evidence to file charges, and the US justice department has launched a probe into the local police investigation.

In a statement Sanford City Manager Norton Bonaparte called the death of Mr Martin a "tragic situation".

But he emphasised that officers of the Sanford police department were "prohibited from making an arrest based on the facts and circumstances they had at the time".

Mr Martin was unarmed and on his way home after buying sweets from a local shop, his parents say.

Transcripts of phone calls released by police indicate that Mr Zimmerman called the police after seeing Mr Martin, describing him as "real suspicious".

The recordings suggest the police dispatcher told Mr Zimmerman not to pursue the teenager.

Mr Zimmerman has said he shot Mr Martin to defend himself after the teenager attacked him.

Details of the confrontation remain unclear.

Florida's self-defence law, enacted in 2005 and known as "stand your ground", gives people scope to use deadly force rather than retreat during a fight.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17479308

US President Barack Obama has said the "tragedy" of an unarmed black teenager shot dead in Florida should prompt some national soul-searching.

The death of Trayvon Martin, 17, gunned down by a neighbourhood watchman, who was not charged as he claimed self-defence, has sparked outrage.

"If I had a son he would look like Trayvon," President Obama told reporters at the White House.

Crackpot wrote:[...]just about everyone but the she[r]iff[...]

Fox News Channel commentator Geraldo Rivera said on Friday that the hoodie an unarmed black teenager wore when he was killed in Florida is as much responsible for his death as the man who shot him.



The veteran TV personality, speaking on Fox & Friends, waded in with an opinion on the shooting of Trayvon Martin, a story that has attracted attention across America over the past month. He later acknowledged that his comments were "politically incorrect".

People wearing hooded sweatshirts are often going to be perceived as a menace, Rivera said.

"I'll bet you money that if he didn't have that hoodie on, that nutty neighbourhood watch guy wouldn't have responded in that violent and aggressive way," Rivera said.

Of Martin, Rivera said, "God bless him, he was an innocent kid, a wonderful kid." But he said the case should be a warning to parents to watch what their children should wear.

"If you dress like a hoodlum eventually some schmuck is going to take you at your word," he wrote in a commentary posted on Friday on the website Fox News Latino.

Hundreds of people had posted messages on Rivera's Facebook page by Friday afternoon, the overwhelming majority of them negative about Rivera's comments.

Rivera compared his own comments to those of fellow Fox analyst Juan Williams, who was fired by National Public Radio in 2010 for saying on Fox that he gets nervous when he sees people on a plane with clothing that identifies them as Muslim.

"No one black, brown or white can honestly tell me that seeing a kid of colour with a hood pulled over his head doesn't generate a certain reaction - sometimes scorn, often menace," Rivera wrote in his commentary.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/hoodie-had- ... z1q0Lfg3Qr