Listen, I really love Black people; yep, Lord knows I do. But I swear the way some of y’all are acting in the wake of this Trayvon Martin tragedy is just downright ridiculous. No seriously, it’s so bad that I might ask for a trade in the next racial draft. OK, don’t get me wrong; I can understand people being angry. But they way some of y’all express said anger just makes me, well, just a lil’ angry.
Now I’ve heard a lot of stupid stuff being said all in the interest of justice for Trayvon Martin, but nothing is more ignorant and disturbing than what I’ve heard from the New Black Panther Party. I don’t know who they are, or what exactly they do, but these fools got a lot of nerve to put out a $10,000 bounty on the head of George Zimmerman, the alleged shooter in the Trayvon Martin homicide. Imagine that; a friggin dead or alive bounty on George Zimmerman.
(CNN) — The separatist New Black Panther Party, described as a hate group by a civil rights organization, is standing by its $10,000 bounty offer for the capture of the man who shot Trayvon Martin, despite vehement opposition from, among others, Martin’s family.
“We’re here to make them do their job,” organizer Mikhail Muhammad said on Monday. “We will support Trayvon’s family, but we are military.”
Martin was shot February 26 by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer, while walking back from a Sanford, Florida, convenience store. Zimmerman, according to friends and his attorney, Craig Sonner, said he killed Martin, 17, in self-defense.
The fact he hasn’t been charged in Martin’s killing has outraged many in the United States, including people who believe Martin was considered “suspicious” because he was black. Zimmerman is a white Hispanic.
Yet no one has gone as far as the New Black Panther Party, which on its website advocates a revolution for African-Americans. The group — which is distinct from the better known Black Panther Party, founded in the late 1960s — is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group and a “virulently racist and anti-Semitic organization.”
On Saturday, the party put out a wanted poster offering money in return for a “legal citizen’s arrest” of Zimmerman. Muhammad said that same day that his group believed in “a life for a life,” an assertion that he reiterated on Monday.
Martin family attorney Daryl Parks echoed comments by others associated with the family, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, condemning the apparent bounty offer. “We don’t condone those people whatsoever,” Parks said.
Speaking earlier Monday to city officials in a packed Sanford Civic Center, Trayvon’s father, Tracy Martin, said his family wanted to work through the legal system and spur changes in Sanford’s police department and Florida law.
“We’re not asking for an eye for an eye,” Tracy Martin said. “We’re asking for justice, justice, justice.”
Mohammad said the U.S. Constitution grants people the right to make a citizen’s arrest, although he also said, a short time later, that he doesn’t “obey the white man’s law, I don’t follow the American law.”
“According to the street people’s law, (George Zimmerman) has been charged with murder — according to street law, according to God’s law,” Muhammad said.
The city of Sanford earlier responded to the bounty offer, and the New Black Panther Party’s push to have 5,000 men work together to go after Zimmerman, by calling for “calm heads and no vigilante justice.”
“Attempts by civilians to take any person into custody may result in criminal charges or unnecessary violence,” the department said.
Joe Oliver, a friend of Zimmerman’s, said such threats are weighing heavily on his friend, even if authorities and the Martin family are denouncing them. Zimmerman hasn’t been seen or heard from in public since the shooting,
“That’s why no one knows where he’s at,” Oliver said. “He should be concerned for his safety.”
Oliver, a CNN anchor in the 1990s, said he’s worried himself because he has spoken on several media outlets about the case.
“I now have to be concerned for my safety, not just for myself but for my friends and family as well,” he said. “Yet I wasn’t there, I didn’t pull the trigger. All I’m doing is standing up for a friend.”
Miss me with all that “an eye for an eye” biblical justice bullshit when speaking on the Trayvon Martin homicide. The New Black Panther Party aren’t the only ones saying this nonsense – I’ve heard this talk out in the streets in recent weeks, and I think it’s pretty stupid.
In fact, if that’s how you think, I reserve the right to shoot your dumb ass and claim self-defense as well. Yes, such contagious ignorance should be taken as seriously as the HIV/AIDS epidemic; yes, that seriously. Seriously though, anyone with that mindset cannot possibly be human; and, like pit-bull fresh from a neighborhood attack, they should be put to sleep. I’m speaking metaphorically of course, but on some real talk: couldn’t that $10,000 go towards educating a black kid in college, or maybe even to assist in funding a free lunch program in the spirit of the original Black Panther Party? I recognize that such an undertaking might not be too revolutionary and runs counter to the “kill whitey,” meme. But in the interest of justice — which should be for George Zimmerman as it should be for Trayvon Martin — do we really need vigilante street justice to be encouraged?
You know, it’s kind of hard to be upset at the fact that “certain people” are trying to smear the character of Trayvon Martin in the face of this foolishness. There has been much debate (on and offline) as to whether Martin was a thugged out knucklehead instead of the heralded innocent victim whose life was cut short. In recent days new photos pf Martin has surfaced, and they’re being used to besmirch his character. The sad thing about it, is that whether he wore gold fronts, smoked weed, or called himself “No Limit Nigga” on Facebook, none of this has anything to do with why he was killed. But I suppose for some of us, there’s never a bad time to party and bullshit — even if it’s in the interest of justice. I’ve heard of partying for your right to fight, but this is beyond me right now.
Check out this flyer:
Yep, nothing says arrest George Zimmerman, or no justice or peace like a $3 Long Island and Blue Motorcycle drink special; oh, let’s not forget to mention the how much impact that lingerie lounge will have as well. I believe in justice, and though I’m not sure if I do as much as the next man. It’s become quite apparent that we all take different roads in the pursuit of said justice. Wearing hoodies in a form of symbolic solidarity is one thing. But clearly to some, it’s not enough. No word on just how effective all of this will be. But hey, to each his own, I suppose; yep, no justice no peace.