Trayvon Martin case: Protestors gathered in major cities across US after George Zimmerman not guilty verdict
Protestors gathered in major cities across the US late into the night after George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the Trayvon Martin case.
The demonstrators carried signs and gathered en mass in major cities across the country including New York, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles.
Though the marches were non-violent police assembled close by to monitor the crowd’s activity.
In Los Angeles and Washington D.C. protestors carried signs that read, “Stop Criminalizing Black Men”, and “Stop Impunity for Cops and Wannabe Cops”.
Protesters in D.C. marched through the streets chanting “Trayvon was murdered”, and “No justice, no peace”, according to NBC 4 Washington.
Demonstrations like the one in D.C. organized quickly in the hours after news of the verdict broke.
After the verdict was announced an outcry of rage poured out over social media and from demonstrators in front of the court house in the moments after the not guilty verdict came down in the George Zimmerman trial.
Crowds outside the courthouse were outspoken about their disappointment at the verdict and hundreds took to Twitter to voice their discontentment with the justice system and jury’s verdict.
Violent words were thrown around on the social media outlet, and many people have already declared George Zimmerman a “dead man walking”.
Demonstrators outside the court started chanting “Justice for Trayvon”, according to USA Today. Other shouted “The system has failed”, in front of the courthouse where they were gathered en mass.
People held up banners reading “End racial oppression” as they chanted and others just screamed “No” in shock after the verdict, SkyNews reported.
The crowd outside the Florida courthouse quickly began to protest the verdict as a chant of “no justice, no peace”, rose up according to The Orlando Sentinel.
The newspaper reported that soon after the crowd learned of the verdict the police quickly closed the entrances to the courthouse ground. Those remained inside were relatively calm.
Amongst the protesters at the courthouse were members of the New Black Panther Party who wore shirts reading, “Freedom or Death”.
The paper reported that the militants spoke of ‘injustice’ in the moments after the ruling.
“No one, no one could have foreseen that he would walk away,” James Evans Muhammad, the party chairperson told the Sentinel.
A crowd of college students were amongst the louder voices present, chanting their dissent well after the verdict was announced, according to the newspaper.
Many on Twitter also expressed their unhappiness with the outcome of the trial.
Several Twitter users started to call George Zimmerman a “dead man walking”, conjecturing on his safety after his acquittal and threatening his life on the social media platform.
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