Riding for Trayvon: New York City Senators go to work in hoodies

 

I'm sure most of you know what this is all about. A few Black American senators went to work this week in hoodies in solidarity with Trayvon Martin, the teenager who was shot and killed by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman on February 26th for being black and wearing a hoodie inside his gated community allegedly assaulting him. It's not just the senators, black American celebs, footballers, activists, lawyers, pastors, thousands of regular folks have been wearing hoodies all week, riding for the slain teenager.

Trayvon entered the estate to visit someone, the watchman saw him, he was black, he was wearing a hoodie, to him that seemed suspicious, so he started to follow the boy. There was a confrontation, Trayvon gets two bullets to the chest. If this is news to you, continue to read the full story...

George Zimmerman                                                     Trayvon Martin

Zimmerman was on his way to the grocery store when he spotted Trayvon walking through his gated community.
Trayvon was visiting his father's fiancée, who lived there. He had been suspended from school in Miami after being found with an empty marijuana baggie. Miami schools have a zero-tolerance policy for drug possession.
Zimmerman called police and reported a suspicious person, describing Trayvon as black, acting strangely and perhaps on drugs.
Zimmerman got out of his SUV to follow Trayvon on foot. When a dispatch employee asked Zimmerman if he was following the 17-year-old, Zimmerman said yes. The dispatcher told Zimmerman he did not need to do that.
There is about a one-minute gap during which police say they're not sure what happened.
Zimmerman told them he lost sight of Trayvon and was walking back to his SUV when Trayvon approached him from the left rear, and they exchanged words.
Trayvon asked Zimmerman if he had a problem. Zimmerman said no and reached for his cell phone, he told police.
Trayvon then said, "Well, you do now" or something similar and punched Zimmerman in the nose.
Zimmerman fell to the ground and Trayvon got on top of him and began slamming his head into the sidewalk, he told police.
Zimmerman began yelling for help.
Several witnesses heard those cries, and there's been a dispute about from whom they came: Zimmerman or Trayvon.
Lawyers for Trayvon's family say it was Trayvon, but police say their evidence indicates it was Zimmerman.
One witness, who has since talked to local television news reporters, told police he saw Zimmerman on the ground with Trayvon on top, pounding him and was unequivocal that it was Zimmerman who was crying for help.
Zimmerman then shot Trayvon once in the chest from very close range, according to authorities.
When police arrived less than two minutes later, Zimmerman was bleeding from the nose, had a swollen lip and had bloody lacerations to the back of his head.
Paramedics gave him first aide but he said no to going to the hospital. He got medical care the next day.

Zimmerman was never arrested by police. They took his statement and let him go. He claimed he had acted in self defense.

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New developments have surfaced in the case, including a new witness who came forward suggesting that Zimmerman pinned Trayvon face down after the shooting and did nothing to help him.
According to Mary Cutcher on Dateline NBC, she and her roommate both saw Zimmerman "straddling the body, basically a foot on both sides of Trayvon's body, and his hands pressed on his back."
Mary Cutcher told Dateline NBC’s Lester Holt in an interview:

“It sounded young. It didn’t sound like a grown man is my point. It sounded to me like someone was in distress and it wasn’t like a crying, sobbing boo-hoo, it was a definite whine."

Cutcher added that Zimmerman told her and her roommate to call the police. "Zimmerman never turned him over or tried to help him or CPR or anything," Cutcher said.

Human rights lawyers are trying to get Zimmerman arrested and tried for murder.