Youth occupy Florida governor’s office to
demand
"Trayvon Martin Act"
By Monica Morhead, July 22, 2013 Workers World newspaper
Dream Defenders take over Gov. Rick
Scott’s office in Tallahassee, Fla.
July 22 — The reaction to the July 13 “not-guilty” verdict
for racist vigilante, George Zimmerman — who fatally shot
unarmed 17-year-old, Trayvon Martin, last year in Sanford, Fla.
— continues to evoke various kinds of protests all over the
U.S., including in Florida.
One of the most dynamic protests there is entering its second
week at the state Capitol in Tallahassee. On July 16, the Dream
Defenders — activists who are mainly African-American, Latino/a
and some white youth — took over Gov. Rick Scott’s office in a
sit-in and have not left.
Their main slogans are “The State is Ours!” and “3/5 No
More!” — which pertains to the Dred Scott decision made by the
U.S. Supreme Court in 1857 that declared enslaved Africans less
than human.
The activists are demanding that the governor call a special
legislative session to repeal the Stand Your Ground law, which
Zimmerman initially used as an “excuse” to kill Martin, whom he
claimed look “suspicious.” The Sanford police did not arrest
Zimmerman until massive protests prompted his arrest six weeks
after the atrocity took place.
This state law, in general, says that anyone who feels
“threatened” by someone has the right to use deadly force to
defend herself or himself. In reality, this law has been used
to criminalize mainly people of color, such as Martin and Jordan
Davis, another 17-year-old unarmed Black youth shot to death by
Michael Dunn, a white man, on Nov. 23, 2012.
What was Davis’ so-called crime? Dunn claimed that Davis and
his friends were playing their music too loud next to his car.
Dunn goes to trial on murder charges in Jacksonville, Fla., in
September.
And then there is the case of Marissa Alexander, a young
African-American single mother of three children, who was
sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing warning shots against
her abusive ex-spouse. The same Florida state attorney, Angela
Corey, who led the prosecution team in the Zimmerman case,
prosecuted Alexander for standing her ground, which led to her
unjust conviction. Alexander had the right to defend herself
and her children from a real threat.
‘Converge on Florida’s Capitol’
It took Gov. Scott two days to meet with the Dream Defenders
— where he’d have to listen to their demands and concerns. In
the end, Scott reiterated his support for Stand Your Ground. He
then stated that he would not call a special legislative
session. The Defenders’ response was that the sit-in would
continue indefinitely.
The Defenders are demanding the passage of a Trayvon Martin
Act to outlaw racial profiling, the Stand Your Ground law and
the school-to-prison pipeline policies.
Since the sit-in began, it has more than doubled in size. In
a July 18 press release, Defenders’ field director, Curtis
Hierro, stated, “Rick Scott has awoken a sleeping giant. We are
going to work. Dream Defenders call for people around the
nation to converge at Florida’s Capitol to join us as we stand
our ground for Trayvon.”
The Dream Defenders are organizing a petition campaign to
gather more than 50,000 signatures in support of the Trayvon
Martin Act. Supporters from around the U.S. are planning to
converge in Tallahassee in solidarity with the sit-in throughout
the coming week. Go to their “Take Over Tuesday” website at
tinyurl.com/lxowt9t or @Dreamdefenders at Twitter for more
information.