1.30pm – 4pm
Saturday 31 March
Outside the US Embassy
Grosvenor Square
London W1A 1AE
On Facebook here
Trayvon Martin was just 17 when he was shot dead while walking back home from a local shop, having bought a soft drink and a packet of skittles on 26 February 2012.
His killer, George Zimmermann, a self appointed ‘neighbourhood watchman’ admitted to having killed Trayvon, claiming that he had felt ‘threatened’ by the teenager.
Since the murder, police recordings of calls both Zimmermann and witnesses to the murder have been made public, causing outrage across the world at what is an apparent racist murder.
Despite all this evidence, Sanford (Florida) police have not arrested or charged Zimmermann, who has found shelter in Florida’s ‘stand your ground’ laws, which supposedly protect those who kill in ‘self defence’.
Trayvon was not armed. He was wearing a hoodie and was racially profiled as ‘up to no good’, ‘possibly on drugs’ by Zimmermann whose call to the police clearly shows he followed the teenager despite advice from the police not to.
More than four weeks on, after over 1,5 million signatures on a petition promoted by Trayvon’s family, and recent statements by the President Obama, Zimmermann is still walking free.
This peaceful protest is called to show solidarity with Trayvon Martin’s family from London, where racial profiling also costs the lives of black people.
Please come, wear a hoodie, bring a packet of skittles, your children, friends, family and anyone else you can gather to say ‘no to racism’ and call for ‘justice for Trayvon Martin’, killed when just walking home because he was black