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The memorial to Trayvon Martin, Goldsboro, Sanford. Photo: Matthew Peddie, WMFE

Its been five years since the shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin. Sanford became the focal point for the worlds media as protesters demanded an arrest for the shooter, George Zimmerman. And the spotlight stayed on Sanford the following year as a jury found Zimmerman not guilty of murder.

The shooting and its aftermath put pressure on the citys police department and highlighted tensions between the police and the historic African American community of Goldsboro.

The cityreached out to African American and white faith leaders to try to help heal some of the divisions in the community.

Pastor Lowman Oliver from St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, Reverend Charlie Holt from St. Peters Church in Lake Mary, Francis Oliver, chief curator at the Goldsboro History Centerand Frank Hale,president of the Greater Sanford regional chamber of commerce joinIntersection to talk about community building and race relations in Sanford today.

Intersections Matthew Peddie also sat down with police chief Cecil Smith and mayor Jeff Triplett to talk about what the city has done to address those divisions. Interview here.

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Intersection: Race Relations In Sanford - Intersection - Local News ... - WMFE

By Rene Stutzman| Orlando Sentinel

SANFORD Francis Oliver took to the streets of Sanford with more than 8,000 other people, demanding the arrest of the man who killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old.

When Trayvons killer went on trial the following year, she cooked meals for his parents and let them take naps at her home.

Black Lives Matter was not created before Trayvon Martin, said the 73-year-old activist. Black Lives Matter was created after Trayvon Martin.

Specifically, the phrase was coined on July 13, 2013,the day a Seminole County jury acquitted George Zimmerman, the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who shot Trayvon after calling 911 and describing himas suspicious. Zimmermanhad been arrested six weeks after the shooting and charged with second-degree murder.

That shooting was five years ago this week.

It unleashed a firestorm of public protest, not just in Sanford, but in major cities across the United States and beyond: In Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and London.

Ese Ighedosa, 29, now an attorney for the NFL, was a protester and a student at the Florida A&M University College of Law in Orlando at the time of the shooting. She was at Sanford City Hall with Trayvons parents the night city officials played a 911 call for them that captured cries for help and then a shot.

This was really the resurgence of the civil rights movement, she said.

Renewed civil rights activism

When Zimmerman shot Trayvon, Barack Obama had been in the White House for three years and, Many Americans felt that we were in a post-racial era, said the Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist who came to Sanford twice in March 2012 to lead rallies calling for Zimmermans arrest.

Sharpton got involved, he said, because I realized how vulnerable we were, that this guy wasnt even a policeman, and he could just kill this kid and not even be arrested. Thats what outraged me.

He said he doesnt think young black men are better off now than they were when Trayvon was shot, but there is one big change: the movement led to accountability. He said people now demand answers when police kill young black men, and theyre willing to take to the streets in protest.

The demonstrations, the rallies that many of us came and started led into what later happened two years later around Ferguson (Mo.), around Eric Garner; but it started, the seeds of that started in Trayvon Martin, so Trayvon Martinenergizeda renewal of civilrights activismin the21stcentury like Emmett Till energizedit in the 20th century, Sharpton said.

Key figures in the case: Where are they now?

Government data indicates that in Central Florida, life has improved for young black men in some ways but gottenworse in others since Trayvon was killed.

Their unemployment rate in Orange County is down 38 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and the rate at which they graduate from high school is up sharply in Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, Volusia and Brevard counties, as it is for all students, according to the Florida Department of Education. The Florida Departmentof Economic Oppportunity had no unemployment numbers for black men ages 15 to 25 in Seminole County in those years.

But the poverty ratefor black males, ages 15 to 25, is 3 percent higher in those same six counties, the census bureau reported.

The number of black males ages 15 to 25 who are the victims of homicide in Central Florida has seesawed since 2012, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. That year, Trayvon was one of 31. In 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, the number was 35.

Trayvons death: The No. 1 story in the country

A few days after the shooting, Trayvons father, Tracy Martin, hired Tallahassee civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump and went on national television with their story: An unarmed black high school kid who was doing nothing unlawful was fatally shot, and Sanford police wouldnt arrest the light-skinned Hispanic man who did it.

Local members of the black community, including Francis Oliver, and others called for Zimmermans arrest.

He went into hidingbut cooperated with police. He told themthat he shot Trayvon in self-defense. The Miami Gardens teenager had punched him, knocked him to the ground then climbed on top and begun hammering his head against a sidewalk, he said.

Photos showed him with a swollen nose and blood coming from the back of his head.

Sanfords police chief at the time, Bill Lee Jr., said there wasnt enough evidence to justify an arrest but that his investigators were still working the case.

Reporters from the Orlando Sentinel, The New York Times, CNN and more than a dozen other news organizations flooded into Sanford, and the rallies got bigger.

Busloads of people came from Atlanta to a rally headlined by Sharpton that drew an estimated 8,000 people. A week later, Sharpton returned and was joined on stage by another civil rights icon, Jesse Jackson.

The president of the national NAACP also came to Sanfordand demanded that the police chief be fired and he eventually was.

According to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, for two weeks, when the people it polled were asked to name the most important story in the news, the No. 1 answer was the Trayvon Martin shooting.

On March 19, 2012, Ighedosa, the NFL lawyer, and about 75 other protesters marched outside the Seminole County Criminal courthouse. They insisted upon and got a sit-down meeting with the countys lead prosecutor.

The shooting and protests surrounding it were life-changing. That showed me how powerful my voice is and also what my responsibility is to speak out.

On March 22, 2012, Gov. Rick Scott appointed a special prosecutor Angela Corey of Jacksonville and three weeks later she charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder.

Everything changed

Zimmerman hired Orlando lawyer Mark OMara to defend him. The experience changed his life, OMara said. He got a national reputation, andCNN hired him as a legal expert, a contract now in its fourth year.

Once I said Id represent George Zimmerman, from that date forward, everything changed, OMara said. Trial preparation consumed the next year of his life; then came the five-week trial.

His exposurealso made him a sought-after attorney arguing for the civil rights for young black men, a dramatic departure from his most famous case. He has been hired by the family of a 21-year-old black man who died after being repeatedly Tased while in a restraint chair in a Savannah, Ga. jail; by the family of a 27-year-old black man who was shot by a Houston police officer while in a mental ward; and by the family of a 43-year-old black man who was killed by a University of Cincinnati officer whos awaiting trial on a murder charge.

Now I do speaking engagements throughout the country, internationally, actually, and I have all these civil rights cases. I really considerit a blessing to have an opportunity to have a voice in civil rights matters.

Zimmerman, 34, would not comment about the anniversary of Trayvons death. In addition to his acquittal in state court,he was cleared of federal civil rights charges following a grand jury investigation.

Stand Your Ground

Curtis Hierro, 29 of Orlando, took part in a 31-day sit-in at the State Capitol in Tallahassee shortly after Zimmermans acquittal.

I see the murder of Trayvon Martin as an awful moment that I think stirred many folks to action, he said.

He and other protesters were calling for the repeal of Floridas Stand Your Ground law, which provides immunity to anyone who uses deadly force as long as they have a reasonable fear of imminent death or great bodily injury.

Their efforts failed. This year a measure is moving through both houses of the Legislature that would strengthen the law and make it harder for prosecutors to win Stand Your Ground hearings.

Sharpton wants the law repealed as well, and not just in Florida.

The Civil Rights Act passed in 1964, he said, nine years after Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a bus, an act that launched the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama. Sharpton said he is hopeful that Stand Your Ground laws will be repealed.

I think were going to see it, he said. Were not going to give up.

82904532

Gal Tziperman Lotan contributed to this report.

rstutzman@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6394

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Trayvon Martin: Five years after his death, struggle for civil rights continues - Orlando Sentinel

Miami Herald (blog)

Trayvon Martin had to be guilty of something, right? Miami Herald (blog) George Zimmerman was the first to make that reduction when he stalked Trayvon through a gated community despite a police dispatcher advising him to stay with his car. Then the police did it, testing the shooting victim for drugs and alcohol while ... Trayvon's parents recount son's death in new bookThe Detroit News all 3 news articles »

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Trayvon Martin had to be guilty of something, right? - Miami Herald (blog)

Benjamin Crump Published 8:47 p.m. ET Feb. 23, 2017 | Updated 13 hours ago

People demonstrate in Washington after the acquittal of George Zimmerman.(Photo: Nicholas Kamm, AFP/Getty Images)

It has been nearly five years since the story of an innocent, unarmed black teens death at the hands of a neighborhood watch volunteer challenged Americans to recognize this uncomfortable truth: It is dangerous to be black in America.

The nightly news has well documented the sad fact that its often dangerous for black citizens to have an encounter with a police officer. What made Trayvon Martin'scase remarkable is that it apparently extended the license to kill innocent, unarmed black people to other citizens. Now, as we approach the fifth year since Trayvons death, we inevitably ask ourselves what his life and death meant and where we go from here.

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On Feb. 26, 2012, Trayvon was targeted, pursued and shot dead by George Zimmerman in a gated neighborhood in Sanford, Fla., for the simple reason that he was black.

The newscoverage of Trayvons story was a phenomenon. For the first time in decades, a young black teens death was the top news story in the nation. Trayvons face was on every major news network, newspaper, magazine and online news site. But how many other young black men are killed every day without generating the slightest bit of notice? The unprecedented public attention and outrage generated by Trayvons death is certainly an element of his legacy.

And while Trayvons killing mighthave drawn uncommon public attention, it reflected the sadly common bias of our justice system that white-on-black crime is justified by mere suspicion. A turning point in the Zimmerman case occurred when the judge allowed testimony from a woman who said she had been burglarized six months earlier byblack suspects, an incident in no way connected with Trayvon. The admission of that testimony in effect said its a fair assumption that black people are dangerous as a group, and that white people could be justified in killing them.

Trayvons death was one in a long line of cases calling into question whether black lives matter under the law. Consider 14-year-old Emmett Till, whose white killers saw no consequence for acting on a false accusation. Consider 15-year-old Latasha Harlins, fatally shot in the back of the head in 1991 by a store owner who suspected the girl was trying to steal a bottle of juice. No justice.

Trayvons death and his killers subsequent acquittal galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement, generating many important conversations across America. Critics of the movement frequently ask, Dont you mean all lives matter? Of course, all lives should matter. But the evidence overwhelmingly suggests thatin America today, black lives dont. Raising that conversation and provoking a hard look at the racial bias that is baked into Americas justice system is another important part of Trayvons legacy, though that work is far from finished.

Attorney Benjamin Crump speaks during a news conference.(Photo: Jeff Roberson, AP)

In working toward a better America, Trayvons parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, rightfully deserve a tribute for their painful and tireless sharing of their story, contributing to a more conscious awareness of discrimination. Their powerful work and sacrifices have re-energized the civil rights movement.

Unfortunately, not all the outgrowths of Trayvons case have been constructive. Deadly laws such asstand your ground, which in part vindicated Trayvons killer, have sprung up across the country, metastasizing to more than 30 states. The deep pockets of the gun lobby continue to fund this kind of legislation that lets everyday citizens off the hook for the killing of innocent people such asTrayvon, sweeping their deaths under the blood-stained rug of racial injustice.

To cure what ails our nation, first we must admit the problem. Black Americans are more likely to be stopped by police, more likely to be arrested, more likely to die in an encounter with police, more likely to serve time and are oftenforced to plead guilty tocrimes they did not commit. In fact, one in threeblack men born in 2001 will end up serving time in prison, according to the Sentencing Project. That shocking fact accounts for the destruction of an extraordinary number of black families and imperils the future of the next generation of black children.

While Trayvon's death raised Americas consciousness and pierced its conscience, the progress toward racial equality and true justice has been painfully slow. Trayvons life mattered. For his death to also matter, we must change the justice equation in America to ensure that all citizens are treated fairly by police, by the courts and by the correctional system. Let's finally extendequal justice to all.

Attorney Benjamin Crump is a civil rights advocate who represents the family of Trayvon Martin and has worked on dozens of other high-profile civil rights cases.

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5 years after Trayvon Martin's death, what has nation learned?: Column - USA TODAY

(CN) Three years after an argument over texting in a Florida movie theater ended in a 43-year-old mans death, the states controversial Stand Your Ground law is under scrutiny in a hearing underway in a small courthouse about an hour north of Tampa.

Prosecutors say Curtis Reeves, a retired police captain, killed Chad Oulson during an argument in the Wesley Chapel theater in January 2014.

But Reeves attorney, Dino Michaels, contends a video from that night will show Oulson attacked the older man first and the former officer acted in self-defense.

The Stand Your Ground law allows Florida residents to use deadly force to defend their lives or their property. If Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Susan Barthle determines the incident meets the proper criteria, Reeves will be immune from criminal prosecution and civil action.

If not, he will be tried for second-degree murder.

For now his fate is in the hands of Barthle, who is presiding over a hearing on that very question. The hearing is supposed to continue for the next two weeks.

On January 13, 2014, Reeves and his wife arrived at a movie theater and sat behind Oulson and his wife to watch Lone Survivor.

During the previews, Oulson checked his phone, prompting Reeves to ask him to put it away, because the light was distracting him. When Oulson refused, Reeves left to contact a manager. When Reeves returned, the argument continued.

What happened next is still contested.

In his opening statement, Dino Michaels said Oulson stood over Reeves, tossed popcorn at him, and then threw another object probably his cell phone at the retired officers head.

Oulsons behavior terrified Mr. Reeves, Michaels told the court, and terrified his wife who was sitting next to him.

Reeves leaned back, took out a pistol and shot Oulson in the chest.

He acted reasonably because of his background, because of his training, because of the situation, Michaels said of his client..

Assistant State Attorney Glenn Martin painted a different picture.

Martin said Reeves instigated the argument and had non-consensual contact with Oulson three times before the younger man stood up. According to Martin, Reese had already begun pulling out his pistol after Oulson threw fluffy popcorn at him, while reportedly saying, Throw popcorn on me will you?

Was it reasonably necessary to prevent immediate great bodily harm, death or forcible felony? Martin asked the court. When we talk about stand your ground, it has to be just right.

The movie theater shooting is another flashpoint in the rocky history of Floridas Stand Your Ground law.

It first received national attention after the shooting of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch leader George Zimmerman.

Many saw the shooting as racially motivated (Martin was black; Zimmerman is Hispanic) and expressed outrage when Zimmerman was acquitted.

A 2012 study by the Tampa Bay Times found the law had been invoked more than 200 times since its inception and allowed 70 percent of those accused to walk free. Gang members and drug dealers were among those who never faced murder charges, the study said.

But pro-gun advocates like the National Rifle Association have praised the laws, which more than half of the country has enacted over the last decade.

Reeves attorney plans to focus on his credibility as a former police captain and vulnerability due to his age.

The first two witnesses, Reeves children, described a man struggling to remain active in his golden years.

Ive seen my dad push him limits to remain active, said Jennifer Shaw on the stand, describing her fathers difficulties opening a jar or picking up her child.

Reeves son, himself a police officer, had just stepped inside the theater when the shooting occurred. In his testimony, Matthew Reeves heard his fathers voice just before the sound of the gun.

He then described the wounded Oulson taking a step back and stumbling down the theater stairs. The younger Reeves attended to Oulsons wounds before a nurse appeared.

When Reeves looked up to see his father, he testified, the mans glasses were askew and his hand was pressed against the side of his head. His mother?

She was shaking, he said.

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Hearing on Movie House Shooting Latest Test of 'Stand Your Ground' Law - Courthouse News Service