| The shooting of Trayvon Martin sparks controversy. |
Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News are obsessed with members of the New Black Panther Party for Self Justice protesting at the Trayvon Martin rallies. They are upset over the fact the Black nationalist group has put out a bounty on the shooter George Zimmerman. As the controversy continues down in Sanford, Florida, many are seeing the racial lines being drawn in this situation. More Blacks who are following this case have the assumption that George Zimmerman was reckless in his decision to use deadly force against an unarmed teenager who wore a hoodie and happen to be a Black person. Non-blacks (mostly conservative-leaning) felt that the case is tainted by the accounts presented by both the families of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. Conservatives believe that Martin attacking Zimmerman with blunt force was a contributing factor to the fatal shooting. Non-blacks (mostly-conservative-leaning), believe that Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and President Barack Obama turn a local issue into an international controversy.
Courtesy of The Christian Science Monitor and Black Voices/Huffington Post
Poll: Trayvon Martin case divides US by race, age, wealth, and politics
New polls show a distinct split in how Americans view the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Some groups, including blacks, women, and Democrats, are more likely to see race as a key factor. By Brad Knickerbocker, Staff writer / April 6, 2012
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| The New Black Panthers is a controversial Black extremist group |
“How Americans perceive this case is divided on several variables,” says Raghavan Mayur, president of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, which conducted a recent Christian Science Monitor/TIPP poll. “A similar pattern emerges when asked if blacks should be concerned about racial profiling in predominantly white areas.”
For example, twice as many blacks and Hispanics as whites say race played a major role in the shooting death of Trayvon (73 to 36 percent). The Monitor/TIPP poll of 906 adults taken from March 30 to April 5 finds other disparities as well.
- Younger respondents are more likely to see race as playing a major role in the case than those of middle age (66 to 43 percent).
- Women more so than men (48 to 39 percent).
- Those of modest income more than the wealthy (51 to 37 percent).
- Democrats much more so than Republicans (64 to 32 percent).
Asked in this survey “to what extent should blacks be concerned about racial profiling by police or law enforcement in predominantly white areas,” 69 percent say to “a great” or “some” extent. Here too, younger respondents, women, blacks and Hispanics, and Democrats are more likely to see racial profiling as a problem.
A recent USA Today/Gallup poll finds similar results.
Given what’s known about the case, for example, blacks are more than twice as likely as nonblacks (72 to 32 percent) to believe that Mr. Zimmerman (who is white and Hispanic) is guilty of a crime in shooting Trayvon, according to an April 2-4 Gallup survey of 3,006 Americans.
“Blacks are paying much closer attention to the news of the incident; overwhelmingly believe that George Zimmerman … is guilty of a crime; believe that racial bias was a major factor in the events leading up to the shooting; and believe that Zimmerman would already have been arrested had the victim been white, not black,” writes Gallup editor in chief Frank Newport in an analysis of the findings.
The Pew Research Center finds similar racial and political differences in the extent to which Americans are paying attention to the unfolding story.
Blacks and Democrats are much more likely to be following the story than whites or Republicans, Pew finds, and whites and Republicans are much more likely to say there’s been too much coverage of Trayvon's death.
Some major corporations apparently are paying close attention to the Trayvon Martin story as well.
On Thursday, Kraft Foods Inc. joined Coca-Cola and Pepsico in pulling its membership from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
The ALEC is a conservative nonprofit policy organization whose major funders include billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch. It’s been associated with laws like Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law (allowing citizens to use deadly force rather than retreat in the face of a potentially life-threatening encounter) as well as with efforts to restrict voter registration – neither of which has much to do with the organization’s stated probusiness agenda.
Gallup’s Mr. Newport finds similarities between the Trayvon Martin case and that of O.J. Simpson in Los Angeles in 1995.
“The situation in the Trayvon Martin case is different from the Simpson situation, however, because the victim, rather than the alleged perpetrator, is black,” writes Newport. “Still, both situations, even though 17 years apart, apparently tap into the same deeply felt views of the average black American that the criminal justice system in America is biased against blacks.”
Other observers see the split in public opinion over Trayvon's shooting death in a troubling context.
“Half the nation, generally younger and more minority, believes a grave injustice has been done. The other half, generally older and whiter, believes that a mob led by professional agitators is trying to railroad Zimmerman for their own political purposes,” writes broadcaster Geraldo Rivera on the Fox News Latino website. “The case has fractured the country along the undeniable racial fault line that is always there, but is most apparent in charged cases like this and Rodney King, Amadou Diallo, Ramarley Graham, Sean Bell and a hundred others.”
Trayvon Martin Case: Armed Neo-Nazis Patrolling Sanford
The Huffington Post | By Danielle Cadet |
| Far right fringe groups see this as a recruitment opportunity. |
The Detroit-based group said they are not advocating violence, but instead are responding to white residents' fear of a race riot.
"Whenever there is one of these racially charged events, Al Sharpton goes wherever blacks need him," Commander Jeff Schoep of the National Socialist Movement told the news outlet. "We do similar things. We are a white civil rights organization."
Schoep said that measures by groups like the New Black Panther Party, who offered a $10,000 bounty for the "capture" of George Zimmerman, are a sign of the "possibility of further racial violence."
"We don't wish for things like that," he said. "But there have been race riots in Detroit and L.A., so we know those types of things happen."
Schoep said the group's purpose is to show solidarity with the local white community, not to take sides in the case.
"That's for the courts to decide."
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