Friday, July 19, 2013

 

Obama proposes ways to prevent future Trayvon Martin tragedy

|Blog ---
WASHINGTON, - U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday made a series of proposals to prevent tragedies such as the Trayvon Martin case in the future, as he addressed the issue of race in the wake of the trial of George Zimmerman, who fatally shot Martin.


-Obama called for more training in local law enforcement agencies to reduce people's mistrust of the justice system,
-re- examination of state and local laws,
-including the Stand Your Ground laws,bolstering
-and reinforcing young African American men and soul-searching on race.


He said race relations in the United States actually are getting better.

People should "have confidence" that a new generation "have more sense than we did," said Obama. "And that along this long and difficult journey ... we're becoming a more perfect union."

Obama made the proposals in a surprise visit to the White House briefing room.

He said the Stand Your Ground laws were "designed in such a way that they may encourage the kinds of altercations and confrontations and tragedies that we saw in the Florida case, rather than diffuse potential altercations."

The trial of Zimmerman was done properly, he said, while acknowledging that the African American communities are feeling a lot of pain in the Martin case, as many of them have experienced being targeted and followed.

"Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago," said Obama, noting it's "important to recognize that the African-American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away."

Obama went on to address the race issue in the case, saying very few African American men haven't had the experience of being followed when shopping in a department store, of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars, and getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off.

He had those experiences himself, said Obama, the first black American elected president.

Combined with the history of racial disparities in the application of criminal laws in the country, Obama said those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened in the Martin case, while acknowledging the fact that African American young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system.

Given the context, the president said it's "understandable" that there have been demonstrations, vigils and protests after the verdict was rendered.

But he condemned violence,saying violence "dishonors what happened to Trayvon Martin and his family."

A jury in Florida on Saturday night acquitted Zimmerman of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the shooting death of African American teenager Martin last year.

The acquittal sparked protests, some of them violent, around the country.


• Obama Friday made a series of proposals to prevent tragedies such as the Trayvon Martin case. 


• He called for more training in local law enforcement agencies to reduce mistrust of justice system.


 • He said race relations in the United States actually are getting better.

Tags : , , ,

Social

   

Popular Posts

Read

Well, the way they make shows is, they make one show. That show's called a pilot. Then they show that show to the people who make shows, and on the strength of that one show they decide if they're going to make more shows.

Like you, I used to think the world was this great place where everybody lived by the same standards I did, then some kid with a nail showed me I was living in his world, a world where chaos rules not order, a world where righteousness is not rewarded. That's Cesar's world, and if you're not willing to play by his rules, then you're gonna have to pay the price.

You think water moves fast? You should see ice. It moves like it has a mind. Like it knows it killed the world once and got a taste for murder. After the avalanche, it took us a week to climb out. Now, I don't know exactly when we turned on each other, but I know that seven of us survived the slide... and only five made it out. Now we took an oath, that I'm breaking now. We said we'd say it was the snow that killed the other two, but it wasn't. Nature is lethal but it doesn't hold a candle to man.

You see? It's curious. Ted did figure it out - time travel. And when we get back, we gonna tell everyone. How it's possible, how it's done, what the dangers are. But then why fifty years in the future when the spacecraft encounters a black hole does the computer call it an 'unknown entry event'? Why don't they know? If they don't know, that means we never told anyone. And if we never told anyone it means we never made it back. Hence we die down here. Just as a matter of deductive logic.

Category