The case of “Trayvon Martin vs. George Zimmerman” is the court case that encouraged me to pursue my career in law. The case was about a seventeen year old African American male named Trayvon Martin who was fatally shot while walking home. A man named George Zimmerman was claimed to be the shooter who shot and killed Martin. According to the news story Martin was walking home from the local Seven Eleven when Zimmerman encountered him. When asked about the situation Zimmerman claimed that he was unfamiliar with seeing Martin in the neighborhood and said Martin looked suspicious.…
Trayvon Martin, born February 5th, 1995, was a 17 years old Black American high school student. He lived with his mother in Miami Garden, Florida. According to Greg Botelho, his article titled “What Happened the Night Trayvon Martin Died”(Botelho,2012), discusses about the true reason why he died and how it mainly relate to police brutality. It all started with Trayvon Martin buying skittles and a bottle of Arizona from a convenience store. The neighborhood watch and guard, named George Zimmerman suspected that teen and decided to call the police.…
On February 26th, 2012, in Sanford Florida, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin an unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. Igniting a national debate on racial profiling and civil rights. Trayvon Martin was walking back from a nearby 7-Eleven before the crime was acted upon (Bay News 9 Staff). After three weeks of testimony, the six-women jury rejected the prosecution’s contention that Mr. Zimmerman had deliberately pursued Mr. Martin because he assumed the hoodie-clad teenager was a criminal and instigated the fight that led to his death. Mr. Zimmerman said he shot Mr. Martin in self-defense after the teenager knocked him to the ground, punched him and slammed his head repeatedly against the sidewalk.…
The Charleston church shooting was one of the biggest massacres and hate crimes. It took place at Emmanuel African Episcopal Church in the United States South Carolina on June 2015. This is one the oldest churches started by African Americans. The shooting, was done by Dylan Roof, a 21-year-old Supremacist, during a prayer service. Nine people died in the process, including the state senator who was also a senior pastor in a church.…
On July 10, 2015, Sandra Bland was pulled over in Waller County Texas by State Trooper Brian Encinia for what began as a routine traffic stop for Bland failing to use her turn signal to change lanes. After writing her a traffic violation ticket, Encinia asked bland to step out of the car. When Bland refused because he offered no reason as to why, the officer became belligerent, pulling Bland from her car and arresting her on the grounds of assaulting a public athourity. Three days later, on July 13, 2015, Bland was found hanged in her cell and was deemed a suicide.…
Massey, we read of the ways we enforce immigration laws and how they form an institution. There are 50.5 Million Latinos in the U.S. making them the largest minority group here. Blacks make 10.3% of the population and are outnumbered by Latinos by about 6%. Racialization of Latinos goes as far back as 1848 when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed into effect and it bought 50,000 Mexican people into the country. Immediately people began to discriminate against them.…
Those who think Kaepernick kneeled to disrespect the flag, genuinely don’t comprehend the purpose. Over the years, many African Americans have been murdered, and didn’t find justice. Statistics show that nationwide, police shot and killed 492 people in the first six months of this year (Jenkins, Sullivan, Tate, Thebault, “Number of Fatal Shootings”). This article also states that twenty-seven unarmed people were fatally shot. On February 12, 2012, teenager Trayvon Martin was shot and killed.…
As African Americans we will continue to face different obstacles resulting from racism, cultural movements, and important events that helped change the nation. Nearly six decades apart, Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin would never know that would be the day their actions affect their presence on Earth. They each walked into different stores, purchasing candy, and were unarmed. These individual stories marked pivotal moments within society. As history repeats itself, stories like these will have an impact on the younger generation.…
Research Project: Michael Brown As a matter of fact, about 2,500 unarmed people had been killed in the past 2 years and 331 African American this year have been killed already by police brutality. Michael Brown was the unarmed innocent teen who was shot and killed on August 9, 2014 by Darren Wilson a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri that made nationwide news. Some important background information to know about the Michael Brown case are words like police brutality, black lives matter, and people Michael Brown and Darren Wilson. Police brutality is acts of violence committed by police.…
Emmett Till Case Emmett Till was just 14 years old when he was tortured and killed. Emmett Till was killed by two white men in 1955 in Sumner, Mississippi. His murderers were found innocent by a jury of all white men. Of all the events fighting for Civil Rights the one that Kickstarted the major fights was the brutal torture and murder of a 14 year old boy by the name of Emmett Till.…
Baylee Curran accused Chris Brown of threatening her with a gun early Tuesday morning which led to a standoff with LAPD for 14 hours until Brown was finally arrested Tuesday night. Chris Brown’s attorney, Mark Geragos, tweeted later that night stating "Chris is out and well. The allegations against him are demonstrably false #TeamBreezy." Brown had posted a few Instagram videos on Tuesday showing the helicopters surrounding his house along with a few words for the police and about the whole situation. He has since deleted those videos from his Instagram.…
Ethnic Labeling and Identity among Mexican Americans In Buriel’s essay, he writes about the ethnic labels that the Hispanic population has dealt with in the past. He starts off by defining ethnicity as an individual’s membership in a group sharing a common ancestral heritage. In his article, Buriel states that the population is biologically Mestizo, which is a genetic mixture of European Spanish and New World Indian.…
The system just isn't equal for races, the criminal justice system was creating by whites and they focused all of it on them and didn't really give any fair rights to the black and hispanic race. “ Hispanics are overrepresented in the nation’s criminal justice system, with Hispanic defendants imprisoned three times as often and detained before trial for first-time offenses almost twice as often as whites, despite being the least likely of all ethnic groups to have a criminal history, a report released today has found.” separating the guilty from the innocent and protecting against injustice. “It is apparent that the criminal justice system in this country is neither fair nor just for Hispanics,” said Janet Murguia, NCLRs executive director and chief operating officer. “Recent polls show that Latinos care very much about protecting public safety and fighting crime, but they recognize that being tough on crime is not always the same as being smart on crime.…
September 11, 2001 and in its immediate aftermath, was probably the last time that the people in the United States were unconcerned about social inequality. The terrorist acts that occurred on that day brought the nation together against a perceived common enemy. However, in the few years following that short lived period of solidarity, the nation went into a tailspin, beginning with the Great Recession of 2008 and climaxing in the current period of social unrest, the underpinnings of which reside in racial inequality, wealth inequality, and gender discrimination. The implications of these various social inequalities are the repeated outbursts of racial violence, the continued destabilization of the economy, and political strife that paralyzes…
To begin with, the case I decided to write about is the Eric Garner case which I feel strongly about. This incident took place in Staten Island, New York on July 17th 2014. It all started when the police officers approached Mr. Garner about selling untaxed cigarettes and tried making an arrest. Eric Garner then tried to explain to the law enforcement officers that he hasn’t done anything. As the officer tried to make an arrest with resistance from the victim, he then wrapped his arm around the 43 year old’s neck.…