From Huffpost:
The Sanford Police Department insisted there was no authorized release of the new information but acknowledged there may have been a leak. City Manager Norton Bonaparte Jr. said it would be investigated and the person responsible could be fired.
Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump said the link between the youth and marijuana should have no bearing on the probe into his shooting death. State and federal agencies are investigating, with a grand jury set to convene April 10.
"If he and his friends experimented with marijuana, that is completely irrelevant," Crump said. "What does it have to do with killing their son?"
The state Department of Juvenile Justice confirmed Monday that Martin does not have a juvenile offender record. The information came after a public records request by The Associated Press."They killed my son and now they're trying to kill his reputation," said Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon's mother.
Meanwhile, the Sanford Police Department still has not charged and arrested George Zimmerman - which is what their job is supposed to be in an alternate universe.
Below is a new rap song written for Trayvon by Jasiri X (based on "No Church in the Wild" by Jay-Z & Kanye West), and in a performance and protest hosted by the House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn, New York. You can read Jasiri X's lyrics at the youtube link and also see another video version here where Jasiri walks listeners through events that evening directly in the gated community neighborhood where Trayvon was killed.
Blame the Hoodie? Being black with a hoodie = punishable by death?? Have we come to this???
ReplyDeleteGIVE ME A BREAK. Hey, the poor unarmed kid was being STALKED when coming from the corner grocery store , after innocently buying a snack. Mr. Rivera: you should be ashamed of your inane, insensitive comments about Trayvon’s murder, and your attempts to create "excuses" for the inexcusable actions of judge-jury-and-executioner George Zimmerman (...and all those that would imitate him). We are becoming a society that seeks and sees threats under every rock; a frightened society that sees danger with every “other” that is not just like us; a manipulated society with control-freaks running rampant (whether politicians or mayors or police chiefs or individuals). Power-hungry people that are only too eager to take advantage of our fears; that are only too willing to get away with anything and everything that they can, as they deprive us of our our liberty (and sometimes our lives).....all in the name of defending it. What a shell game. But were it only a game. For it includes the worst provisions of the Patriot Act, the police spying on innocent people, “papers-please” and stop&frisk gone wild, the “right” to indefinitely detain Americans without trial, and out-of-control homicidal vigilantes such as we have tragically seen here. It’s a serious, slippery slope... one that ultimately leads to a police state/Orwellian mentality that is more typical of places such as China or Cuba - NOT the America that I know and love. We USED to stand proud and free, and contrasted our open society to such sorry places. Now we imitate them. Our country is better than this. Our values are better than this. WE are better than this. Don’t blame the hoodie......blame what we are becoming, and allowing, and doing as a society. As Shakespeare once said: the fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves: For we have come to accept things that should NEVER be accepted by a freedom-loving people. It’s time... it’s way past time, to reverse course. Let bring some good out of this tragedy.... by working to never let it happen again. You DO have the power, my friend. USE IT.