Mediaboss Marketing

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Their sons -- Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner -- have become symbols of a raging national conversation about police brutality and racial injustice.

The mothers of these four unarmed black men and boys felled by bullets or excessive police force have no doubt their sons would still be alive if they were white. No question, they say.

"I think absolutely my son's race and the color of his skin had a lot to do with why he was shot and killed," Sybrina Fulton, Martin's mother, told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Friday. "In all of these cases, these victims were unarmed. These victims were African-American. That needs to be our conversation."

In their first interview together, Fulton was joined by Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden; Tamir's mother, Samaria Rice; and Garner's mother, Gwen Carr. They spoke of reliving the horrific final moments of their son's lives with each controversial death, of gaining strength from protesters and other supporters, of the importance of coming together to effect change.

"It seems our kids are getting younger and younger," Fulton said. "They're killing them younger and younger. There is no regard anymore for human life. There has to be somewhere where we draw the line and say, 'Listen, our kids want to grow up, too.'"

Carr said she had confidence in a federal investigation into whether her son's civil rights were violated. A Staten Island grand jury last week refused to indict a white police officer in the death of her son, was put in a fatal chokehold by the officer as he tried to arrest Garner for illegally selling cigarettes.

"If Eric Garner was a white man in Suffolk County doing the same thing that he was doing -- even if he would have been caught selling cigarettes that day -- they would have given him a summons and he wouldn't have lost his life that day," she said. "I believe that 100 percent."

Fulton's son was shot and killed in Florida in February 2012 by George Zimmerman, a volunteer neighborhood watch captain. The case quickly drew national attention as weeks went by without formal charges.

"We have to change mindsets," Fulton said. "We have to let people know that our children matter. Our sons and our daughters matter. We are hurting. This country is hurting."

View original post here:
Four mothers share their pain

The trial of George Zimmerman for the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin continued into its second week. On Monday, jurors heard the defense's account of the night of the killing. According to the defense, Martin was the initial aggressor and was reaching for Zimmerman's gun when Zimmerman killed him.

Trayvon Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton testified on Friday that screams from a 911 call were those of her murdered 17-year-old son. The call is a point of dispute in the case against George Zimmerman who has pleaded self-defense in the murder trial. Identifying which of the two men were screaming could be a key piece of evidence in determining who was the aggressor at the time.

The case against George Zimmerman brought a lot of attention to Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law. Other states have similar laws, but just one sentence could have changed the outcome of the case dramatically.

George Zimmerman's defense attorneys on Thursday released information from 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's cellphone that include the teen texting with a friend about fighting and smoking marijuana and photos that show a gun and what appears to be a potted marijuana plant.

Prosecutors in the Florida murder trial of neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman will reveal a star witness for the first time on Tuesday, the girl Trayvon Martin was talking with in the last minutes of his life.

The defense wrapped up its case for George Zimmerman on Wednesday afternoon, without Zimmerman testifying on his own behalf. He's on trial for second-degree murder for the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last year. Since the state retains the opportunity to call rebuttal witnesses, closing statements are still down the road.

First came an opening argument full or profanity from the prosecution. Then a knock-knock joke from the defense that didnt evoke much of a response. George Zimmerman said he was defending his life against 17-year-old Trayvon Martin when he shot and killed the unarmed teen in Sanford, Florida last year. The prosecution said this 911 call said it all. Listen carefully when the screaming stops. Its right when the gunshot goes off. Trayvon Martin was silenced immediately, said John Guy.

Today is the first day of George Zimmerman's trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin. Martin, an unarmed 17-year old, was shot and killed last year. Zimmerman, 29, claims he shot Martin in self-defense. George West, Zimmerman's attorney, opened the defense... by telling a knock-knock joke.

Lawyer Daryl Parks speaks with WGN anchors about the progress of the trial against George Zimmerman who allegedly murdered Trayvon Martin.

Today, the prosecution moved through witnesses and we heard what it was like when first responders first saw Trayvon Martin. The gun George Zimmerman used to shoot and kill the 17-year-old and Sgt. Anthony Raimondos first-hand account of that night. All part of day two of the George Zimmerman murder trial. Neighborhood watchman, George Zimmerman claimed it was self-defense when he shot and killed Martin last February in Sanford, Florida. Prosecutors said he murdered an unarmed teen.

View original post here:
George Zimmerman: Trayvon Was the Aggressor (Video)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Their sons -- Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner -- have become symbols of a raging national conversation about police brutality and racial injustice.

The mothers of these four unarmed black men and boys felled by bullets or excessive police force have no doubt their sons would still be alive if they were white. No question, they say.

"I think absolutely my son's race and the color of his skin had a lot to do with why he was shot and killed," Sybrina Fulton, Martin's mother, told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Friday. "In all of these cases, these victims were unarmed. These victims were African-American. That needs to be our conversation."

In their first interview together, Fulton was joined by Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden; Tamir's mother, Samaria Rice; and Garner's mother, Gwen Carr. They spoke of reliving the horrific final moments of their son's lives with each controversial death, of gaining strength from protesters and other supporters, of the importance of coming together to effect change.

"It seems our kids are getting younger and younger," Fulton said. "They're killing them younger and younger. There is no regard anymore for human life. There has to be somewhere where we draw the line and say, 'Listen, our kids want to grow up, too.'"

Carr said she had confidence in a federal investigation into whether her son's civil rights were violated. A Staten Island grand jury last week refused to indict a white police officer in the death of her son, was put in a fatal chokehold by the officer as he tried to arrest Garner for illegally selling cigarettes.

"If Eric Garner was a white man in Suffolk County doing the same thing that he was doing -- even if he would have been caught selling cigarettes that day -- they would have given him a summons and he wouldn't have lost his life that day," she said. "I believe that 100 percent."

Fulton's son was shot and killed in Florida in February 2012 by George Zimmerman, a volunteer neighborhood watch captain. The case quickly drew national attention as weeks went by without formal charges.

"We have to change mindsets," Fulton said. "We have to let people know that our children matter. Our sons and our daughters matter. We are hurting. This country is hurting."

View original post here:
'Our kids want to grow up, too'

George Zimmerman yelling.Not for his life
George Zimmerman ways yelling so the police would hear him.Not for his life.

By: TheEdmoss

See the original post:
George Zimmerman yelling.Not for his life - Video

Since George Zimmerman was found not guilty of killing Trayvon Martin, I've been repeating these words by the poet Audre Lorde like a prayer. She writes:

For those of us who were imprinted with fear like a faint line in the center of our foreheads learning to be afraid with our mother's milk for by this weapon this illusion of some safety to be found the heavy-footed hoped to silence us For all of us this instant and this triumph We were never meant to survive.

Each time I re-read this stanza from "A Litany For Survival," the chaos and confusion I feel is cleared away. The lines are clean and defiant. They name our aches, our hurts, the paradoxes of our living, and slay that demon that dogs our days, fear.

By the poem's end, I'm washed clean. It's a blessing and a baptism and a challenge to me to engage in a world that would seem to deny my life.

I needed it again, when news came of the shooting death of Michael Brown, and then again this week.

This poem is meant to break spells and fevers. That line, "we were never meant to survive" warns us of difficulties that will come. I think of this poem when I see photos of black millennials protesting police brutality. Fire and smoke envelop them as they face off with the police force of what was once just another city in the middle of America.

Lorde ends her poem with these lines:

and when we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed but when we are silent we are still afraid

So it is better to speak remembering we were never meant to survive.

This is a poem fitting for these times.

View post:
After The Ferguson Decision, A Poem That Gives Name To The Hurt | WUNC