Harry Reid: Zimmerman Case Not Closed
By Audrey Hudson and Amy Woods
July 14, 2013...Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid predicted that despite the not guilty verdict in the Trayvon Martin shooting, that the case was not over as the NAACP asked that the Justice Department pursue federal charges against George Zimmerman.
"I think the Justice Department's going to take a look at this.
You know, this isn't over with, and I think that's good, that's our system," Reid said.
Ben Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, said Sunday the attorney general's office should pursue criminal civil-rights charges in the killing of Martin following the acquittal of Zimmerman late Saturday.
"We are calling on them to do just that because when you look at his comments … there is reason to be concerned that race was a factor in why he targeted young Trayvon,” Jealous said on CNN’s "State of the Union."
"The reality is that even if there had been several burglaries in his neighborhood, and he believed that the suspects were never caught were young black men, there is no reason for him to kill Trayvon," Jealous said.
Jealous said the much-watched trial in Sanford, Fla., is as an iconic an event as was the Rodney King trial in Los Angeles.
"As black people, as black parents, parents raising black boys, black girls in this society, that it feels so awful that our young people have to fear the bad guys and the good guys, the robbers and the cops, and the self-appointed community-watch volunteer that thinks that they're keeping folks safer," he said.
Justice was not served by the all-female jury that delivered the innocent verdict, Jealous said.
"How is it that young Trayvon Martin could be killed by George Zimmerman, and George Zimmerman gets no time when Michael Vick got two-and-a-half years for killing dogs, when a domestic-violence victim in northern Florida shot warning shots in the air over the head of her attacker and got 20 years?” he asked.
Jealous, on CBS' "Face the Nation" said the focus will now shift to "ensuring that our justice system continues its' course."
"There seems to be plenty of evidence that suggests that may race may have been a factor," said Jealous.
"He called 911 a lot about young black men that he thought were dangerous.
He said, these punks always get away, having had that track record those words have powerful meaning.
It should not be the case that somebody should be able to track, to taunt, to kill a young man on the streets."
Michael Eric Dyson, of Georgetown University, who authored a biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., agreed that race played a factor in Martin's death.
"From the very beginning.
It was racial motivation," said Dyson.
"He's got a fear of and suspicion of African American youth.
It was also evident in the construction of the jury.
And while not indicting the jury themselves, they are a reflection of the broader society's inability to empathize and imagine what it means to be Trayvon's parents and Trayvon, going home and being assaulted by a marauding person who obviously is motivated by some sense of prejudice."
