Trayvon Martin could have been my son…or yours!

I just finished signing the Change.org petition to bring the murder of Trayvon Martin, Neighborhood Watch Capt. George Zimmerman to justice for approaching the teenager as he walked back to a family members house from a convenience store, and shooting against the advice of the police. George Zimmerman’s job as Neighborhood Watch Captain was to keep teenagers like Trayvon safe as they walked around the neighborhood in the evening. He followed and called police on the unarmed teenager and against the advice of the police this grown man approached and shot this 17-year-old boy who was holding a pack of skittles. From what I understand about the Neighborhood Watch program, it is not a substitute for police or meant for someone to fulfill childhood super hero vigilante dreams. It’s to empower neighbors in protecting their homes and community from criminals. They are to keep a watchful eye out and report suspicious activity immediately. I didn’t know we still lived in a world where being a 17-year-old black male child walking down the street was considered conducting suspicious behavior. And where does this man get off shooting this kid without cause and is then able to claim self-defense. Last time I checked self-defense is defending yourself from harm. This child was not on his property, he had not approached Zimmerman or attacked him…the child didn’t have a weapon on him at all.

This is just unacceptable! So now we are allowed to just go shooting random people because we fear them or suspect them of crime? Isn’t that murder? We have gangbangers running up and down neighborhoods randomly shooting kids walking down the street. We believe them to be monsters and scum of society and treat them as such, prosecuting them to the full extent of the law without thought. But Zimmerman takes a child life without cause, goes against police orders to stay away from the child and shoots him dead in the street…he goes free? Why? How? This young man could be anyone of our sons walking down the street at night minding their own business and being targeted by the color of their skin or the way they wear the clothes on their back. They are tried and convicted to death before they can open their mouth from an assumption & ignorance. This cannot be tolerated! How are we to progress as a society if we are still killing of our children based on things they cannot help. You cannot help the color of your skin. And you can’t help that someone fears or hates you because of the color of your skin. What can be helped is how we deal with those ignorant monsters! How do you know that this Zimmerman won’t do it again? We don’t know his motives for targeting this child! And what about justice for Trayvon Martin who lost his life for nothing? What about the Martin’s who lost their son, brother, grandchild, nephew, cousin and friend?

If we stand around and not do anything we are sending a message that it is okay to just take justice in your own hands and just shoot folks because you feel like it! It’s not okay! I urge you to sign this petition! I urge you to start calling Sanford, Florida mayor’s office and demand justice! I urge you to call and write to the Florida State Attorney, Norm Wolfinger who has taken over the case! This man hasn’t been investigated! It’s ridiculous! We have to protect our children! They can’t live in fear of walking down the street and being killed just because of the color of their skin! We have to do more than wear ribbons and retweet! We talk about the war on terrorism overseas while our children are being terrorized on our home turf! Stand up for your fellow Americans! Stop talking about it and be about it! We can’t expect change if we don’t make change!