Thousands gather at Miami rally for Trayvon Martin

CHRISTINE ARMARIO

Asso­ci­ated Press

MIAMI — Polit­i­cal lead­ers, sport stars and enter­tain­ers were among sev­eral thou­sand peo­ple who gath­ered Sun­day at a Miami rally to call for an arrest in the fatal shoot­ing of an unarmed Florida teenager by a neigh­bor­hood watch volunteer.

The rally in 17-year-old Trayvon Martin’s home­town was one of the largest yet and drew bas­ket­ball stars Alonzo Mourn­ing and Isa­iah Thomas, singers Chaka Khan and Betty Wright, politi­cians and civil rights leaders.

Martin’s father, speak­ing briefly, promised the crowd he would not stop fight­ing “for my Trayvon and for your Trayvon.”

“Each and every one of us feels the pain of this fam­ily sim­ply because Trayvon Mar­tin could have been one of all of us,” said Mourn­ing, the for­mer Miami Heat player.

The rally came a day after thou­sands marched through San­ford, the cen­tral Florida town where 28-year-old George Zim­mer­man shot and killed Mar­tin in Feb­ru­ary. Mar­tin was walk­ing back from a con­ve­nience store, where he had gone to buy candy and iced tea, when he and Zim­mer­man got into an alter­ca­tion. Zim­mer­man says he was attacked and has claimed self-defense; Martin’s fam­ily dis­putes his ver­sion of events.

They point to 911 calls, a sur­veil­lance video of Zim­mer­man from shortly after the fatal shoot­ing, and other records that they say prove Mar­tin was not the aggres­sor. Zim­mer­man has not been arrested, though state and fed­eral author­i­ties are investigating.

The case has led to protests across the nation and spurred a debate about race and the laws of self-defense. Mar­tin was black; Zimmerman’s father is white and his mother is Hispanic.

Speak­ing at the rally Sun­day, the Rev. Jesse Jack­son said the case was about end­ing all types of racial pro­fil­ing — not just in crim­i­nal cases, but by banks, insur­ance com­pa­nies and in the job market.

“End pro­fil­ing now,” the civil rights activist said to applause.

Jack­son also said Martin’s case illus­trated the high num­ber of black stu­dents who are sus­pended from school. A report issued by the U.S. Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion last month found that black stu­dents are more than three times as likely as their white peers to be sus­pended or expelled. Mar­tin had been sus­pended from school for hav­ing a bag­gie that con­tained mar­i­juana residue shortly before he was killed.

“We must stop sus­pend­ing our chil­dren,” Jack­son said, ask­ing the crowd to repeat: “Invest in them. Edu­cate them.”

Many of the peo­ple who gath­ered at the bay­side park on a sunny after­noon wore T-shirts with Martin’s image and the words “Jus­tice for Trayvon.” Oth­ers wore but­tons that said, “Do I look sus­pi­cious?” One man had a Mohawk with an image of Trayvon Mar­tin painted on one side. A march­ing band from a high school that the teen attended danced, sang and beat drums.

Numer­ous sup­port­ers came dressed in hooded sweat shirts like the one Mar­tin was wear­ing when he died.

Among them: Mourning’s 15-year-old son, Trey.

“It could have been me,” Trey Mourn­ing told the crowd.

Grammy win­ner Chaka Khan said Martin’s death had affected her. “The mes­sage I bring to you today is fear kills and love heals,” she said.

Martin’s death occurred more than a month ago, but absent an arrest, his fam­ily and oth­ers vowed to con­tinue hold­ing protests. Rep. Fred­er­ica Wil­son orga­nized the rally in Miami, and an attor­ney for Martin’s par­ents said demon­stra­tions are being planned for in the com­ing weeks in cities includ­ing Los Ange­les and Chicago.

The Rev. Al Sharp­ton led the crowd in cir­cu­lat­ing buck­ets to col­lect con­tri­bu­tions that he said would help pay for the Mar­tins’ legal fees and travel.

“This is not a fit,” Sharp­ton said. “This is a movement.”

Posted by AP News on Apr 1 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.