Just watched him on First 48 WOW

 

SO SAD, TALENT....NOW HE IS 6FT UNDER.....

EBONY MAGAZINE AMAZING DEDICATION TO TRAYVON MARTIN

For its September issue, Ebony magazine chose not one, but four covers to open the conversation about race in America. HuffPost Live talks with the magazine's editor, Amy DuBois Barnett, to discuss the Trayvon Martin case, race relations, and "Stand Your Ground."

 

WE WILL NOT STOP!

20 YR OLD FEMALE KILLED IN JACKSONVILLE FL

 

STOP THE VIOLENCE

A woman believed to be the clerk of the Metro PCS in the 3100 block of North Main Street was shot and killed during a robbery Saturday afternoon, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

The victim has been identified as Shelby Deanna Farah, 20, whose last known address was on Chestnut Drive, just a few blocks off North Main Street.

Jacksonville Sheriff's Office had received the call at 4:33 p.m. in reference to a robbery. Officers found Farah lying dead behind the counter.

Witnesses told police a man came in with a gun and demanded money, Sgt. Michael Paul said.

“Those individuals ran from the store at that time and then they heard gunshots,” he said.

Paul said the man left the scene on foot. He was described as a black male, approximately 6 feet tall with a slim build. He wear wearing dark clothes and a bandana over his face.

Farah was a 2011 graduate of Andrew Jackson High School. Her Facebook page says she had been head cheerleading coach at Communities in School and had also studied at Florida State College at Jacksonville.

 

Prayers are with the Family, we have to do better. This girl was just working, not hanging out doing any wrong, she did not deserve to die.

 

"JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON MARTIN" RALLIES GATHER IN 100 CITIES

ATLANTA — One week after a jury found George Zimmerman not guilty in the shooting death of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin, people gathered nationwide Saturday to press for federal civil rights charges against the former neighborhood watch leader, and to call for changes in the nation's self-defense laws.
The Florida case has become a flashpoint in separate but converging national debates over self-defense, guns, and race relations. Zimmerman, who successfully claimed that he was protecting himself when he shot Martin, identifies himself as Hispanic. Martin was black.
For some attendees, particularly those who are black, the rallies seemed as much about those larger issues as about the verdict.
"It's personal," said Cincinnati resident Chris Donegan, whose 11-year-old son wore a hoodie to the rally, as Martin did the night he died. "Anybody who is black with kids, Trayvon Martin became our son."

The Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network organized the "Justice for Trayvon" rallies and vigils outside federal buildings in at least 101 cities: from New York and Los Angeles to Wichita, Kan., and Atlanta, where people stood in the rain at the bases of two federal buildings, with traffic blocked on surrounding downtown streets.
Chants rang out across the rallies. "Justice! Justice! Justice! ... Now! Now! Now!" "`We won't forget." "No justice! No peace!" Many also sang hymns, prayed and held hands.
And plenty of participants carried signs: "Who's next?" "I am Trayvon Martin." "Enough Is Enough."
Most rallies began at noon. In New York, hundreds of people – including Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, and music superstars Jay-Z and Beyonce – gathered in the heat.
Fulton told the crowd she was determined to fight for societal and legal changes needed to ensure that black youths are no longer viewed with suspicion because of their skin color.
"I promise you I'm going to work for your children as well," she told the crowd.
At a morning appearance at Sharpton's headquarters in Harlem, she implored people to understand that the tragedy involved more than Martin alone. "Today it was my son. Tomorrow it might be yours," she said.
In Atlanta, speakers noted that the rally occurred in the shadows of federal buildings named for two figures who had vastly differing views on civil rights and racial equality: Richard B. Russell was a Georgia governor and U.S. senator elected in the Jim Crow South; Martin Luther King Jr. is the face of African-Americans' civil rights movement.

 

"What's so frightening about a black man in a hood?" said the Rev. Raphael Warnock, who now occupies the pulpit at King's Ebenezer Baptist Church.
"History would suggest that we have plenty of data to be worried when we see other folk moving through our neighborhoods in hoods. Some of them have on pinstripe suits – but in their hearts, they're wearing a hood."
In addition to pushing the Justice Department to investigate civil rights charges against Zimmerman, Sharpton told supporters In New York that he wants to see a rollback of "stand your ground" self-defense laws.
"We are trying to change laws so that this never, ever happens again," Sharpton said.
"Stand your ground" laws are on the books in more than 20 states, and they go beyond many older, traditional self-defense statutes. In general, the newer laws eliminate a person's duty to retreat, if possible, in the face of a serious physical threat.
Zimmerman didn't invoke "stand your ground," relying instead on a traditional self-defense argument, but the judge included a provision of the law in the jurors' instructions, allowing them to consider it as a legitimate defense.
Neither was race discussed in front of the jury. But the two topics have dominated public discourse about the case, and came up throughout Saturday's rallies.
In Indianapolis, the Rev. Jeffrey Johnson told roughly 200 attendees that Saturday's nationwide rallies were about making life safer for young black men, who he said are still endangered by racial profiling.
Johnson compared Zimmerman's acquittal to that of four white officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King in 1992.
"The verdict freed George Zimmerman, but it condemned America more," said Johnson, pastor of the Eastern Star Church in Indianapolis and a member of the board of directors of the National Action Network.

In Miami, Tracy Martin spoke about his son.
"This could be any one of our children," he said. "Our mission now is to make sure that this doesn't happen to your child."
He recalled a promise he made to his son as he lay in his casket. "I will continue to fight for Trayvon until the day I die," he said.
Shantescia Hill held a sign in Miami that read: "Every person deserves a safe walk home." The 31-year-old mother, who is black, said, "I'm here because our children can't even walk on the streets without fearing for their lives."
Speaking at the White House on Friday, Obama said it's a reality for black men in American to "be followed in a department store" while shopping or to walk down the street and "hear the car doors lock." The nation's first black president said he had both experiences before he rose to social and political prominence.
At the New Orleans rally, La'Monte Johnson shared a similar story.

The California native said he's been stopped multiple times by police and handcuffed "because I fit the description of someone they were looking for," though he noted charges were never filed against him.
"You can be the greatest black guy around, but you can't get away from it," he said. "You're not equal."
Attorney General Eric Holder announced this week that his department would investigate whether Zimmerman could be charged under federal civil rights laws. Such a case would require evidence that Zimmerman harbored racial animosity against Martin.
Most legal experts say that would be a difficult charge to prove. Zimmerman's lawyers have said their client wasn't driven by race, but by a desire to protect his neighborhood.
Holder said the shooting demonstrates the need to re-examine "stand your ground" laws.
Despite the pledges from politicians and civil rights groups, people at some rallies said they had little hope of seeing self-defense laws rolled back significantly.

Kevin Parker, a 50-year-old from Stone Mountain, Ga., noted the conservative influence in his state, where gun-friendly Republicans control both legislative chambers and hold all statewide offices.
"Being that this is a red state, I just don't see that happening," he said.

54 People Were Shot Dead In Chicago During The George Zimmerman Trial

 

While the nation was fixated on the trial of George Zimmerman, who Saturday was acquitted in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, many were left wondering when the media would tell their similarly tragic stories of lives lost to gun violence.

Over the duration of the trial, over 50 people's lives came to an end in shootings in Chicago alone -- many of them black and many of them teenagers, just like Trayvon.

In the days since the trial, three more people were killed in Chicago shootings, including 16-year-old Joseph Brewer Jr. Brewer, who was gunned down Sunday afternoon while walking to visit his infant daughter, loved video games, basketball and was "family-oriented," his family told the Chicago Tribune.

Chicago Gun Violence Amid Zimmerman Trial | Create infographics

T.D. Jakes: 'Fight the good fight' to save Jacksonville's young

By By Beth Reese Cravey

In a rousing message that frequently had his Prime Osborn Convention Center audience on its feet and cheering, Bishop T.D. Jakes challenged Jacksonville’s interfaith community to step up and help save a generation of at-risk youth.
As the keynote speaker Monday at Mayor Alvin Brown’s annual Interfaith Breakfast, the famed Dallas pastor said that it will take the public, private and spiritual sectors working together to accomplish the goals of an increased high school graduation rate, strong families and decreased crime and unemployment rates.
“We need to fight the good fight of faith,” Jakes said. “Our job is daunting. A generation of people don’t have job skills, don’t know how to parent. ... We have a real job to do today.”
For the effort to be successful, political polarization and other cultural divisions must be overcome, he said.
“Rise up and support what unifies us. We don’t have to agree about everything to be united about something,” he said. “I still believe there is hope for our society. ... America needs a healing today. We’ve got to start to right, here and now.”
Fairly shouting, Jakes had the audience shouting affirmations.
“We are the people we have been waiting for. I am the ‘they’ that I hope for. If you see Goliath, tell him here I am,” he said. “We’re going to throw our rock today.”
Jakes, who has been preaching 37 years, is senior pastor of The Potter’s House, a 30,000-member church in Dallas and an author and commentator. His charitable programs provided medical screenings and dental help for Dallas area residents and disaster relief in Haiti, among other things.
When he introduced Jakes, Brown said his message of unity and “stubborn faith” was one the breakfast crowd needed to hear.
“I believe there is tremendous power when people of God work together,” Brown said, “I am sick and tired of our young people being locked up. Let’s take this city back.”
After his speech, Jakes told reporters that Brown and Jacksonville are “trendsetters” for including the faith community in citywide initiatives. He said he has seen some of that in other cities, but “not to the degree that we need to see it.”
The Rev. Garry Wiggins of Evangel Temple on Ramona Boulevard in Jacksonville, who issued the “call to action” that concluded the event, said there are 1,400 churches in the Jacksonville area. He challenged them to heed Jakes’ “compelling message to do something” by joining the Mayor’s Mentors program or by helping the city’s veterans and homeless.
“We can do better,” he said.