"‘Justice for Trayvon’ rallies held nationwide; Protests spotlight self-defense laws" by Bill Barrow | Associated Press, July 21, 2013
ATLANTA — One week after a jury found George Zimmerman not guilty in the death of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin, people gathered for nationwide rallies to press for changes to self-defense laws and for federal civil rights charges against the former neighborhood watch leader.
The Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network organized the ‘‘Justice for Trayvon’’ rallies and vigils outside federal buildings in at least 101 cities from Boston to Los Angeles.
Related: Obama Administration Organizing Race Riots in Response to Zimmerman Verdict
Al is nothing but an agent provocateur.
In addition to pushing the Justice Department to investigate civil rights charges against Zimmerman, Sharpton told supporters at the New York rally that he wants to see a rollback of “Stand Your Ground” self-defense laws.
‘‘We are trying to change laws so that this never, ever happens again,’’ Sharpton said.
The Florida case has become a flashpoint in separate but converging national debates over self-defense, guns, and race relations. Zimmerman, who successfully claimed that he was protecting himself when he shot Martin, identifies as Hispanic. Martin was black.
‘‘It’s personal,’’ said Cincinnati resident Chris Donegan, whose 11-year-old son wore a black hoodie to the rally, as Martin did when he died. ‘‘Anybody who is black with kids, Trayvon Martin became our son.’’
Did you teach your son to call white people crackers, because that's what the girl on the phone testified to?
Most rallies began at noontime. In New York, hundreds of people — including music superstars Jay-Z and Beyonce— gathered in the heat.
Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton told the New York crowd that she was determined to fight for societal and legal changes needed to ensure that black youths are no longer viewed with suspicion because of their skin color....
While I feel sorry for her loss, she is being used as a tool.
Meanwhile, Obama is looking at Raymond Kelly, he of stop-and-frisk fame, as the new director of Homeland Security (with a shove from Chuck Schumer), meaning all this
Haven't seen any more buckshot on it in my Globe. Was there ever a verdict?
At a morning appearance at Sharpton’s headquarters in Harlem, she implored people to understand that the tragedy involved more than Martin alone. ‘‘Today it was my son. Tomorrow it might be yours,’’ she said....
Zimmerman did not invoke Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, instead relying on a traditional self-defense argument. Nor was race discussed in front of the jury that acquitted Zimmerman. But the two topics have dominated public discourse about the case, and came up throughout the rallies.
Thanks to an agenda-pushing mouthpiece media!
Part of Sharpton’s comments echoed those made by President Obama on the case Friday. ‘‘Racial profiling is not as bad as segregation, but you don’t know the humiliation of being followed in a department store,’’ Sharpton said.
In Indianapolis, the Rev. Jeffrey Johnson told about 200 attendees that the nationwide effort is about making life safer for young black men. Johnson said young black men still are endangered by racial profiling, and he compared Zimmerman’s acquittal to that of four white officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King in 1992.
‘‘The verdict freed George Zimmerman, but it condemned America more,’’ said Johnson, pastor of the Eastern Star Church in Indianapolis and a member of the board of directors of the National Action Network.
In Miami, Tracy Martin spoke about his son.
‘‘This could be any one of our children,’’ he said. ‘‘Our mission now is to make sure that this doesn’t happen to your child.’’
It's happening to other people's children every day, all across this country, and they are not getting nearly the same attention.
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Related: Arizona Riots Spreading
Small rally makes big request for racial justice
Obama's Sweeping Trayvon Statement SUCCESSFULLY Distracted You From Today's NSA Re-Authorization!
Also see: Zionist Media Pushing Division Over Zimmerman Verdict
And somehow race never played a factor here, huh?
Sunday Globe Special: Aurora Anniversary
Other shootings not receiving so much attention:
"Two Roxbury shootings may be connected, police say" by Javier Panzar and Todd Feathers | Globe Correspondents, July 20, 2013
One man was killed and another hospitalized in a double shooting in Roxbury early Saturday morning, police said.
Police were also investigating a shooting nearby about an hour later, around 2:25 a.m., at Orchard Gardens Housing Development in Roxbury, in which about eight shots were fired but no injuries reported. Police made two arrests in that shooting.
Given the proximity of the double shooting and the other shooting at Orchard Gardens, detectives are investigating whether the two could be connected, police spokesman Officer James Kenneally said....
Harold Street was blocked off by police after the shooting, said Harold Street resident Mohamed Adan.
The 34-year-old security guard said he was watching television on the other side of the building at the time of the shooting and did not hear the gunshots.
“I’ve lived here three years and we have never had this kind of problem,” he said....
Police from the youth violence task force were monitoring the area near the housing development when they observed about 60 people in a courtyard on Eustis Street at 2:25 a.m, said Officer Neva Coakley, a police spokeswoman....
Apparently it is gang related.
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UPDATE:
"The Harold Street shooting occurred in an area authorities consider gang territory, Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Costello told Roxbury District Court Judge David Weingarten, and Boston police later said the shootings may be gang-related."
Related: Summer crime threat shows need for new police tactics
I was told crime was down, but I guess it's whatever narrative is needed to advance the agenda.
"Boston police kill man in Dorchester shoot-out; DA to review ‘fatal use of force’ near party" by Matt Rocheleau | Globe Correspondent, June 02, 2013
Boston Police officers shot and killed a 37-year-old man after he allegedly fired at officers outside a party in Dorchester early Sunday morning, according to authorities....
The police always claim that.
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced that his office will investigate the police shooting. “The community can count on a full and impartial investigation by our office,” Conley said in a statement....
Uh-huh.
And then the police will be absolved.
UPDATE: Group questions police role in shooting
It's apparently a SHOOT FIRST policy for the Boston cops now, and I'm waiting for the protests and wall-to-wall media coverage.
About 25 minutes before the shoot-out, officers had gone to the same area for an earlier report of gunshots, according to the Police Department.
Conley’s statement said “civilian witnesses” told officers that the man had a handgun.
Neither Conley nor police said how many officers were involved in the shooting or how many shots were fired.
Several neighbors said they heard two clusters of several gunshots about 10 or 15 minutes apart.
Faith Jackson said she was sleeping in her home across the street early Sunday morning when she heard what sounded like “firecrackers.” She ignored the noise. But a couple hours later, she awoke again when her grandson called to say he could not get home because the street was a crime scene, blocked off by police.
Jackson looked out her window and saw several police cruisers lining the street and many officers, including some who were photographing the inside of a car that had all of its doors open....
Conley said his office’s investigation, led by Assistant District Attorney Edmond Zabin, will be “transparent.”
“As we have in prior investigations of police-involved shootings, community stakeholders, and members of the media will have the opportunity to review our findings when the probe is complete,” Conley’s statement said....
Residents appeared to be partaking in typical summer activities Sunday afternoon, with frequent police cruisers patrolling the block and a small memorial of candles on the sidewalk....
But no protests.
At the corner of Willowwood and Ballou Avenue, several people stood around the candles.
"They declined to speak to a reporter and asked to be left alone" was cut from the printed version.
A woman who lives a few houses away from the shooting said she was in her bedroom when she heard numerous gunshots, followed by sirens and then more gunshots.
She said she did not dare go outside or even look out the window.
“People around here have bad aim,” she said, “I mind my business.”
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"Man killed in shootout with officers ID’d; Parents blame death on police" by Akilah Johnson and Jeremy C. Fox | Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent, June 03, 2013
Investigators returned to Willowwood Street Monday where the day before Boston police officers shot and killed a man identified by family as Ross Batista, 38, a man who studied architecture made a living renovating houses.
Police say Batista, a graduate of Mount Ida College, opened fire on officers early Sunday as he sat in a car in a neighborhood on the Mattapan-Dorchester line.
“He was executed,” Julio Batista, Ross Batista’s father, said at his estranged wife’s home in Roxbury Monday. “There was no chance for him to survive those wounds.”
Batista’s death remains under investigation by Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office. In a statement Sunday, Conley promised “a full and impartial investigation’’ into the use of deadly force by Boston police. No new details about the shooting were released Monday. Autopsy results were pending.
The shooting was the 10th involving a Boston police officer since 2008 and the third fatal incident investigated by the district attorney’s office, according to authorities. In the prior fatal shootings, officers were cleared of wrongdoing.
That's because it is the police who investigate themselves.
On Sunday, officers responded “to a call for shots fired” about 2 a.m. when, police said in a statement, a man sitting in a vehicle shot at the officers, who fired back. It was the second time officers were on Willowwood early Sunday; the first was around 1:24 a.m. for an earlier report of gunshots.
On Monday, Willowwood Street residents said one neighbor typically throws a barbecue this time of year, but something was off Sunday. “This party was different, different people, a lot of cars,” a 37-year-old man said while standing in the vestibule of his home, which was pockmarked by two fresh bullets holes. He asked not to be identified.
This year’s gathering was more akin to a raucous block party than a backyard barbecue, residents said, with hundreds of people crowding the narrow street.
Related:
"Two men and a woman, all in their early 20s, were fatally shot early Saturday morning during a fight at a party in Dorchester."
The call came in at 4:18 a.m.?
Also see:
Gunman crashed party in Roxbury
Triple slaying in Dorchester likely not random, police say
Police say Dorchester shootings may have been gang-related
A big brother, a ‘free spirit’ recalled
Two men shot in Dorchester, Roxbury
Man charged with killing South Boston woman
Where are the protesting cries of sexism?
It was unknown whether Batista had been at the party.
Family members said that Batista had a zeal for life and was determined to make everyone in the room smile. On Monday, there were few laughs inside his mother’s Roxbury home, where more than a dozen friends and family members gathered.
Melania Batista, 60, the victim’s mother, said police had been cavalier in dealing with the family following her son’s death.
“No police came to my door to let me know what’s going on,” she said. “Why? Why? They kill my son while I’ve been sleeping, and they didn’t tell me.”
Melania Batista placed the blame for her son’s death on Boston police, who, records show, have arrested and ticketed her son numerous times in the past.
According to his Registry of Motor Vehicles driving history, Batista had been prosecuted at least twice for illegal possession of a Class A drug, most recently in 2010. In 2008, Batista pleaded guilty and was given a five-month sentence by US District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro, who also placed him on three years of supervised release. In 2011, Tauro ordered Batista to serve an additional 15 months because of a new arrest.
A memorial for Batista sits near the corner of Willowwood and Ballou Avenue. Standing sentinel amid empty beer bottles were two candles. One honors St. Elias, often prayed to for an end to any injustice. The other honors St. Michael the Archangel, prayed to for protection against all evil and considered the patron saint of police officers.
What happens when the police officers are the ones who are evil?
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I wish I could say that was a singular event; however, it happens more often than you realize:
"Man shot by Boston officer opened fire first, police say" by Peter Schworm and Colin A. Young | Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent, July 16, 2013
Two a suspected drug dealer Tuesday in a midday exchange of gunfire in South Boston, a chaotic scene that sent bystanders fleeing to a nearby park for safety.
Oh, just a bad guy, so....
As part of a drug investigation, the uniformed officers approached the suspect behind a building in the McCormack housing development and pursued him when he fled. The man ran to the front of the building, then turned and fired several shots at the officers, police said....
Officers returned fire, shooting the man in the chest. The suspect fell to the ground and surrendered, police said. Police recovered a revolver from the suspect and assorted narcotics.
In this day and age, no discounting the planting of such items.
The man was taken to Tufts Medical Center with injuries considered life-threatening. Authorities declined to identify him.
Uh-oh. Was he a black man?
The officers were not struck, but received treatment for stress.
Hmmmmm!
After hearing several shots, one witness looked outside his window in the housing development to see that police had pinned a man to the ground. The man appeared to be bleeding from his chest....
The shooting, the third time this year that Boston police officers have shot a suspect, shattered the summer calm at the public housing development and unnerved residents and visitors to Moakley Park....
A woman named Mary, clutching her baby to her chest, said, “It never occurs to you in broad daylight that people are going to open fire.”
Another woman, who also declined to provide her full name, said drug activity is common in the complex and that crime has worsened in recent years....
Not what I was told, but whatever lie, 'er, message works at a given moment to advance the "security" agenda.
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Oh, right, let the protests begin.
Man shot by Boston police has open gun case in New York
That item was found on page B12 in the middle-right side of the paper. I almost missed making a note of it. I don't like to stereotype by name, but he looks like he could be a dark-skinned person. I could be wrong, but you can go see for yourself. Of course, after reading it you almost think he deserved to be shot anyway.
Let the protest begin on that one, huh?
"More than 100 law enforcement officers responded Tuesday to the scene on Old Colony Avenue, according to a police report. Around 1 p.m. Tuesday, Louis-Jeune allegedly fired several shots at two uniformed officers at the Mary Ellen McCormack housing development on Old Colony Avenue, Boston police said. The officers approached Louis-Jeune as part of a drug investigation and chased him when he fled, police said. Louis-Jeune ran to the front of a building in the housing development, then turned and fired several shots at the officers, police said. The officers fired back, and one of the officers shot Louis-Jeune in the chest. Authorities said Louis-Jeune is expected to survive his wounds. Officers also found 24 plastic baggies, each containing a “white, rocklike substance believed to be crack cocaine” and 31 white tablets of an unidentified medication, Wark said."
They needed to send over 100 cops for a five-second shooting? And we are up to several shots now, huh?
If I hear any more shots ring out in Boston I'll update this post.
NEXT DAY UPDATE: 2 Dorchester deaths investigated
I counted about the same in the Globe's photo.
Why Is the Government So Involved in the Trayvon / Zimmerman Case?
George Zimmerman Trial Distracts the USSA