Americans angry at the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of black 17-year-old Trayvon Martin marched in US cities throughout Saturday night, with reports of sporadic acts of violence.
Spontaneous marches of varying sizes erupted in cities including San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, Atlanta and Philadelphia. A jury in Sanford, Florida, late on Saturday found Zimmerman, a volunteer neighborhood watchman, not guilty of shooting dead the unarmed Martin on the night of Feb. 26 last year.
After a year-and-a-half of living as a hermit, Zimmerman emerged from the Florida courthouse a free man, cleared of the charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter.
Martin’s killing unleashed furious debate across the US over racial profiling, self-defense and equal justice. Protesters across the country lashed out against police in the Orlando suburb of Sanford, outraged that it took 44 days for Zimmerman to be arrested. Many, including Martin’s parents, said Zimmerman had racially profiled the teen. Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic.
Six anonymous female jurors — all but one of them white — considered nearly three weeks of often wildly conflicting testimony over who was the aggressor on the night Martin was shot while walking through the gated townhouse community where he was staying and where Zimmerman lived.
They deliberated more than 15 hours over two days before announcing they had reached a verdict.
After the ruling, rights activists like Jesse Jackson called for calm.
“Avoid violence, it will lead to more tragedies. Find a way for self construction not deconstruction in this time of despair,” he wrote on Twitter.
Martin’s parents have long called for non-violent demonstrations, quoting civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr and the Bible.
Several hundred demonstrators marched peacefully in downtown San Francisco soon after the verdict. Many carried signs with slogans such as: “The people say guilty.”
Hours later angry protesters marching through Oakland spray-painted cars and smashed windows, helicopter video footage posted by the Oakland Tribune showed.
The ANSWER coalition said it would hold marches yesterday in seven US cities, as well as three separate ones in New York.
“We are very saddened by the jury’s verdict,” Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump said after the verdict was read.
Rights activist Al Sharpton said on Facebook that Zimmerman’s acquittal was “a slap in the face to the American people.”
“The jury found he acted appropriately in defending his life in accordance with the law,” George’s brother, Robert Zimmerman Jr, said in an interview CNN, referring to the controversial Stand Your Ground laws that allow people who fear for their lives to use deadly force to defend themselves without having to flee.
However, Zimmerman Jr said his brother would “be looking over his shoulder the rest of his life.”
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary