via CNN
By Roland Martin, CNN Contributor
For everyone who has condemned the numerous protests, rallies and vigils demanding justice for Trayvon Benjamin Martin, the 17-year-old gunned down in Sanford, Florida, a month ago, please listen to these two words: Shut up!
Of course that may seem harsh, but that is exactly how I feel. I don’t want to hear the nonsense to let the system run its course. Others say, “Let’s not do anything until all of the facts are in.”
Let’s cut to the chase: There would be no special prosecutor had thousands across the national not mobilized, organized and took to the streets to demand justice for Trayvon.
Would a grand jury be convened on April 10? Not a chance.
Would the 911 tapes be released showing admitted trigger man George Zimmerman calling Trayvon suspicious, and owning up to following him? No.
Would the Department of Justice have launched an investigation into the case, as well as the Sanford Police Department? Nope.
Would Sanford’s police chief, Bill Lee, have stepped down if the inept investigation hadn’t been exposed? No.
Instead of critics condemning the protests, they should be saying, “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
Whether folks want to admit it or not, this has always been the story of African-Americans. Go through history and you will find many examples of cases not being investigated or, if they were brought to trial, prosecuted or judged atrociously: Scottsboro Boys. Clarence Brandley. Lenell Geter. Medgar Evers. The Sixteeenth Street Baptist Church bombing.
Justice is supposed to be blind, but for African-Americans, it has commonly been deaf, dumb and blind.
As a result, we’ve had to live by the admonition of former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who said, “Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!”
It was also Douglass who stated, “Power concedes nothing without a demand.”
The main demand in the Trayvon Martin case from Day One was for Zimmerman to be arrested and for justice to be served. This wasn’t about a ridiculous bounty on the head of Zimmerman by the New Black Panther Party. It wasn’t about the selling of T-shirts. It wasn’t about who showed up and led a march or why.
It was about holding a legal system accountable that clearly gave more credence to a 28-year-old gunman than the 17-year-old, unarmed man who was gunned down.
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Article courtesy cnn.com
