Trial throughout the trial, is one that motivated the victim Trayvon Martin because he referred to George Zimmerman as a cracker but did not moat their motivate their client. This is not about civil rights. It needs to be talked about but not in the context of the George Zimmerman case. Trayvon martins family was not in the courthouse last night. Trayvon martin will forever remain in the annals of history next to med ger evers and emmett till as symbols for the fight for equal justice for all. Tracy and sybrina are thankful for all those prayers over the past 17 months since the death of their son. This is a very trying time for their family and we ask that you respected their privacy. In conclusion, for trayvon to rest in peace, we must all be peaceful. Thank you. Lawyers for Trayvon Martins family indicated they may sue George Zimmerman in civil court. The naacp promised to pursue civil rights cases in federal court and selected thousands of signatures for that. The state Department Said it would continue to evaluate evidence from an earlier today i want to bring in my yeah white, julie read, Michael Denzel smith with the Nation Institute and contributor to the nation magazine. Sima, legal contributor to arise news. This is one of those situations where we could have the technical discussion, we will have a tech discussion about what the exact charges were and what the jury was instructed to do and whether the jury given the confines, it reached a reasonable conclusion or not. I want to start more broadly speaking. This is one of those situations where you take one step back or half a step back and play through the events of february 2012 and look, this is sort of the end result of taking those events and filtering them through our legal system and this is what it comes out with . The man who indisputedly killed Trayvon Martin, loses the ankle bracelets, handcuffs, gets his gun back and says he has no more to do with the court. The most devastating of last night is the role we have to play with our children. Explain why a boy walking in his neighborhood after buying candy is dead. What did you say . You know what i said is, that it isnt right. That the most important thing we can do is understand we have to thank the jury. I mean, the jury did its job. It took the evidence into account and made their decision. We have to respect that. The issue here is whether or not we in america are going to have an honest and truthful conversation about whether race is still relevant in our lives. And the answer for my children is unquestioned. Its yes. Thats part of why theyre stunned. Its not just about, to your point, the legal finding and legal ramifications of the finding. Its really about what it symbolizes in terms of whether were going to address race in america and the fact that black people are not safe even when they are innocent. May i . Im actually stunned youre saying, just from knowing you, that you do respect the jurys findings. I do not respect the jurys findings. This is what i do for a living. This is what ive been doing for the last 20 years. Ive been doing this longer than Trayvon Martin was alive. And im disgusted with our system of justice and better for you that you can tell your children you respect these six women and what they find. This is an important discussion. I think our rule of law is important. I think there are many things wrong with the Justice System. So saying we have to recognize that six human beings in a very difficult case, emotionally difficult, huge amounts of public pressure, they were going to be denigrated no matter the verdict because there was going to be some side of the American Public that were going to say, they were absolutely wrong. Thats why. More because im taking a more human approach to this and saying, i think it is important to humanize those jurors and say, we need to let them go on and live their lives. The issue is what we need to fix about the situation . We need to fix the fact that they have six on murder cases. We wont have fair representation and because race Still Matters in america, it does matter what the racial makeup is of jurors. Thats the conversation im totally outraged about. I dont want to personalize it to those individual jurors. At the same time, we always talked about the verdict in the context of how africanamericans would view it and absorb it. We forgot theres a different complex. White women living in a town thats conservative, that is prozimmerman, at least among the whites in sanford. The home they were going back to, the community they were getting absorbed back into, this is the verdict more comfortable for that community. Youre talk about a town where people by and large are pro hive gun, angela corey, conservative republican. This is an issue where most of their community, the peers, their peers, were on the side they landed on. There were people on the other side of this. I dont know why i was surprised but i think what surprised me the most, to be honest with you, was the reaction of the Defense Attorneys. I was a little taken aback. It was breathtaking for me, the kind of spiking the football reaction, particularly of don west but both Defense Attorneys they were happy. Its fine to be happy for your client but i think their presentation struck me as very insensitive. There is still a dead boy here. I thought it was cavalier. I can only respond by don west, doubling down on the joke. This is not justice for the family of the dead kid. They should have been more sensitive. They had no respect for Trayvon Martin to begin with. The thing that disgusted me, the jury was made up of six women, five white women. The defense literally invoked the same they showed a picture of George Zimmermans white woman neighbor and show her as the picture of fear and said, this is what the neighborhood was up against and put a picture of Trayvon Martin with his shirt off looking like the most thugged out version of Trayvon Martin you could get and basically said, George Zimmerman was protecting not just himself but white womanhood from this vicious, black thug. We were talking about some reactions from the defense team last night. It was interesting to me, i dont understand all the legal procedures but i guess this was very unusual after the verdict announced that don west refused to shake hands with the prosecution team. Yes, please ask me about that. I want to play a couple this was mark omara after the verdict last night. This is some of what he had to say, basically putting the blame on Trayvon Martin. Im not going to shy away from the fact that i think the evidence supported that George Zimmerman did nothing wrong and that he was battered and beaten by a 17yearold, who for whatever reason, we wont know, thought he had to lash out and attack violently. And i just well play don west as well because he was talking about how this he felt a travesty had been avoided here. This is his reaction last night. This is something no one gets over. Theres no winners here. Theres no monsters here. Thats the tragedy. The travesty, it would have been a travesty of justice had George Zimmerman been convicted. Thats the travesty. Were going to get some reactions to that, right after this. Food dinners. A meal like this from walmart costs less that 3. 50 per serving. And if a family of four like yours switches out fast food dinner just once a week you can save over 690 a year. Unbelievable. Its believable. Save on a kraft dinner backed by the low price guarantee. Walmart i missed a payment. Aw, shoot. 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Lets say in this case when the defense was successful, you shake the hand of the prosecutor and you say, im sorry. Leave it at that. Going forward with that point, all these statements to the press, why do you have to talk to the press . I dont understand it. If you are sorry for the loss of Trayvon Martin, sit down, its done. I want to point out that mark omara throughout this trial especially they talk about how busy they are, in court, how do you find time to go on cnn and give a press statement every single night . You should be working. You should not be using this Young Persons death as my quick question from a legal standpoint, is there some kind were talking about the potential of civil suit, federal civil rights charges. Is there kind of legal especially of being in the media and trying to absolutely. As horrible as it is, smear Trayvon Martin and thats a great question. Because the civil suit would also be in state court. This is what omara has been doing the last year and a half. What hes continuing to do is taint a potential jury pool. Every single case does have an element of being tried in the court of Public Opinion for the very reason youve just pointed out and seema has just said. This is not over. This is not over by a longshot. This one criminal case is over. Yes, the Justice Department will see if they can bring an action against George Zimmerman of some kind. Its also pretty clear and the family is pretty clear theyre probably going after him in civil suit. So i would guess, and it is a guess, these are the communities who are, a, a narrative extremely destructive to the fabric of our nation in order to protect an individual. Not only that, mark omara has said on the one hand theyre sensitive to the racial issues and we have to have this discussion about black man and civil rights. He says that a lot. But he said, if George Zimmerman was black, he never would have been charged. To everybody who is black is the most that is that just is confoundi confounding. Thats simply not true. Look at the criminal Justice System. It sort of suggests there was some sort of racial controversy against George Zimmerman to proint him out as a racist. Thats the theme, too. Those by and large on the right, this is about messaging to them. Theres a lot of conversations going on. Those are the people who provided support. Those are the people in the potential jury pool. This jury was conservative, gun owners, et cetera. Also one other case is Shelly Zimmerman perjury case, which would also be tried in sanford. I thought that was statement was so jarring. Were talking about what the next step might be. To answer that, ill bring in two attorneys, Benjamin Crump. Thank you for joining us. Benjamin, ill start with you. Can you just tell us im sure youve been in communication with the family since last night. What is their mood like . What are you hearing right now . Well, initially when the verdict came, they were heart broken. Its painful. The killer of their unarmed son was not held accountable so theyre trying to make sense of it all and trying to think about positive stuff. They have a foundation and theyre going to work on that and try to figure out how to preserve trayvons legacy because his death was not in vein. As they have said, they will continue to vow to fight for him. The immediate questions from a legal standpoint, one directly involves you. This is a decision to pursue civil charges. Where does that stand right now . Well, right now they are dealing with this very difficult time. Im sure well spend time talking with them and make the appropriate decisions. But but this morning, the harder i thought about it because they are very con for used by the american Justice System. All of this has transpired, so as mr. And mrs. Martin, they can continue to talk to their children. A lot of the discussion, well into this more on this show, in the wing have the judge had a limited, narrow world it was forced to live in. I understand that if you go to a civil right, if you have a civil suit, the rules in that world expand a lot. Does that offer you possibilities if you in term of making a case going to a civil court. What would that look like . Certainly, theres a difference based on the preponderance of evidence so thats less than a reasonable doubt higher, but we think the facts and the evidence in this case were clear to us. He never should have followed Trayvon Martin. Never should have profiled him. You know, the familys just heartbroken about it all. All business purchases. So you can capture your receipts, and manage them online with jot, the latest app from ink. So you can spend less time doing paperwork. And more time doing paperwork. Ink from chase. So you can. What are you guys doing . Having some fiber with new phillips fiber good gummies. Theyre fruity delicious just two gummies have 4 grams of fiber to help support regularity i want some. [ woman ] hop on over [ marge ] fiber the fun way, from phillips. [ herbie ] theres no doubt about it brent, a real gate keeper. Heres kevin, the new boyfriend. Lamb to the slaughter. Thats right brent. Moms baked cookies but hell be lucky to make it inside. And heres the play. Oh dad did not see this coming. [ crowd cheering ] now if kevin can just seize the opportunity. Its looking good, herbie. Hes seen it. Its all over. Nothing but daylight. Yes id love a cookie. [ male announcer ] make a powerful first impression. The allnew nissan sentra. I understand were going to be losing Benjamin Crump in a minute. I want to play a clip for you before you go. I wanted your response to this. Mark omara on friday gave an interview where he singled out you, talked about the lawyers around the Martin Family and basically saying in his view that you and others had were responsible for this horrible thing that happened to his client. I want to play what he said and i want your response to it. Lets play it first. It was a wonderfully created, crafted Public Relations campaign by the people who were assisting the Martin Family. Thats ben crump and other people. I dont discredit what he did as long as he acknowledges thats exactly what happened. Do you think that George Zimmerman would have even been charged had ben crump not been pulled into this . No. Ben crump or someone like him, because had ben crump not gotten involved in the case, maybe for some good reasons to believed in. If he believed there was something swept under the rug, get into it. Im very okay with that. You didnt say it that way. You thought if it werent for ben crump George Zimmerman would be free and we would not be in that trial. Thats correct. I think it was a madeup story for purposes that had nothing to do with George Zimmerman. They victimized him they complain about Trayvon Martin being victimized. George zimmerman was victimized by a Publicity Campaign to smear him, to call him a racist when he wasnt and call him a murderer when he wasnt. Theres a lot there. I just im curious what your response to that is. Well, very simply, its almost as if people dont want to look at the fact that you had a dead, unarmed teenager on the ground killed by a Neighborhood Watch volunteer. And i remember distinctly when tracy martin called me with that sense of hopelessness in his voice where he said, they are not going to arrest him. They are not going to do anything. How i tried to encourage him to believe in the system because im a lawyer. I said, certainly theyre going to arrest him. You know, we have seen people in our communities arrested on nothing, a hypothesis, no evidence at all, and yet they told this father, this family they were not going to arrest the killer of their unarmed child. So we said, you know, we are lawyers. We do this type of work. It would have been so easy to say, we cant make a difference. I remember talking to my law partner darrell parks and how he said, were going to spend a lot of money, spend a lot of time and resources and at the end of the day theres no guarantee whatsoever theyre ever going to arrest this guy. And we agreed his statements were probably correct but we went to law school to try to make a difference in our community, to try to make everybody get equal justice. Not just people from one side of town, but people from everywhere, especially in our community. So when they say i did all of this, i think they overlook the facts, the 2 Million People that signed that petition that said you at least have to arrest the person who killed an unarmed teenager, because if you dont, what message does that send to society . What is the precedent set if we let people kill unarmed teenagers and go home and sleep in their beds at night . I just think we have to remember what the prosecutor said at the very end. If Trayvon Martin and the facts were reversed would have profiled and followed and pursued and killed unarmed George Zimmerman, what would the verdict have been . And i think the problem a lot of us are having accepting this verdict, we know in our heart of hearts that Trayvon Martin would have been convicted. So where we go from here, whether we progress or regress is going to be what we learn as a society to make sure this does not happen again and we have to continue to try as much as possible to say, you cant profile people. You cant make assumptions about people because on february 26, 2012, assumptions were made about Trayvon Martin and they were incorrect and he paid with his life. Benjamin crump, i want to thank you for joining us. E aflas expenses while he cant work, he can focus on his recovery. He doesnt have to worry so much about his mortgage, groceries, or even gas bills. Kick kick. Feel it feel it feel it nice work you got it you got it yes aflacs gonna help take care of his expenses. And us. Were gonna get him back in fighting shape. [ male announcer ] see whats happening behind the scenes at aflac. Com. I get out a lot. Except when its too cold. Like the last three weekends. Asthma doesnt affect my job. You missed the meeting again last week it doesnt affect my family. Your coughing woke me up again. I wish youd take me to the park. I dont use my rescue inhaler a lot. Depends on what you mean by a lot. Coping with asthma isnt controlling it. Test your level of control at asthma. Com, then talk to your doctor. There may be more you could do for your asthma. All your important legal matters in just minutes. Protect your family. And launch your dreams. At legalzoom. Com we put the law on your side. The day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain. And a choice. Take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] thats handy. So, weve been talking about that question that was raised and the question that was put to the defense team after the verdict last night about what if the roles were reversed, the race was reversed, Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. That question was put to the defense team last night. This is how mark omara answered it. Wellbeing i think things would have been different if George Zimmerman were black for this reason he never would have been charged with a crime. It seems what happened is an event that was being looked into by Sanford Police department, and as we know now, looked into quite well. I had taken advantage of Police Departments who have not done a good investigation of crimes because naethats what i do for living. When i looked into Sanford Police department, they had done quite a good job. You can look across the country at who does good or bad with their investigations. They had done quite a lot. What happened is this became the focus for a civil rights event, which is a wonderful event to have, but they decide George Zimmerman would be the person who they were to blame and sort of use as the creation of a civil rights violation. None of which was brought out by the facts. We have darrell parks with us, attorney for Trayvon Martins family. What do you make after hearing that claim, if zimmerman were black, he never would have been charged . I dont believe anyone in america knows that except mark oma omara. Everyone sitting at home knows that if a 28yearold black man shot and killed a young, white boy anywhere in america, that person would be arrested and face trial without question. So, i dont buy that at all. In that, mark omara, the quote there, trying to make this a civil rights event. In the press conference last night, you know, Benjamin Crump, your partner, said that Trayvon Martin will go down in history with emmett till and medgar everers. I think what mr. Omara attempts to do is not put the whole situation in context as to what happened. This is not just something that happened on the protest. This is something that built up over time when they refused to arrest George Zimmerman at all. First, it started off with ben and natalie having those very small press conferences locally, talking about the fact this young man had been killed and nothing had been done about it. That story began to grow for that reason because the system hadnt responded. And so there are some people in this country, some people in this country, who may not understand when people are not happy with what the system is doing, that nonviolent protests through the Civil Rights Movement is what you do. They may not understand it because theyve never participated in it or dont respect the fact that other people can have power. Thats fine. However, its the law of our land and people can affect change. Michael, i know you have thoughts. The presumption in omaras statement is George Zimmerman were a black man had killed a black child this wouldnt have been an issue because this isnt a point for people to make this about racism. What happened to Trayvon Martin is emblematic what happens in the Justice System turning a blind eye to black children. What infuriates me when people bring up chicago and detroit and why dont people care about blackonblack crime. People in those communities care, but the people in the system do not care. George zimmermans brother gave an interview and he specifically mentioned chicago. In cases in chicago if a black person kills another black person, theyre not allowed to go home. Theyre arrested. I mean, the Justice System grinds through africanamerican men at a pace thats breathtaking. There have been plenty of books written about it. We dont need to go into depth. Look, to believe it was an injustice to even arrest, let alone charge George Zimmerman for shooting Trayvon Martin, you have to believe when you see a dead, black child or teenager on the ground, can you presume on the word of the shooter, the person on the ground was a shooter. Was a killer. I have a bloody nose. That was the killer. Just believe that. No matter how ridiculous the story. Even if he lies about certain things, youre saying it was an injustice against the shooter to disbelieve his story wherein he is the only witness to what happened. Lets be frank. Black people are presumed guilty. White people are presumed innocent. Thats the truth. Thats exactly what happened here. It really is. Even in this particular case, that was completely counterfactual what mr. Omara said, is police did not go through all protocol in securing that crime scene because they believed George Zimmermans version without Forensic Science being conducted at the crime scene. Thats the example of white people being presumed innocent and a dead black boy laying on the sidewalk is presumed guilty with no ability to give his own statement. I think we can get this up on the screen. This is a revealing graphic that shows Racial Disparity in killings deemed here it is, found to be justifiable. The way to explain this is the baseline is whiteonwhite crime. You see if its whiteonblack crime, we put this in states that have stand your ground laws, dont have stand your ground laws and blue is all states. You can see theres a huge 200, 300, nearly 400 difference when you talk about blackonwhite crime. The idea of a justifiable homicide is vastly more likely its negative there when it becomes a blackonwhite issue. Because you can get away with it. Black life is not valued in this country the same way white lives are. Cynthia tucker did a great piece for the grio in which we posted this more than where she went back and reminded us the times in tampa bay did a stand your ground laws in 2005 found when defendants claim stand your ground, if the victim was black and the person who shot them was white, 73 of the time their stand your ground claim was effective. It was only 53 of the time effective when the victim was white. Am i getting that right . So when you claim stand your ground and you kill a black person, youre much more likely 20 Percentage Points more likely in stand your ground. I think the Racial Disparity is clear on its face. I want to pick up on stand your ground and look back at the roots of when the crime was when the killing took place, you had you took weeks to get George Zimmerman charged with anything. I want to go back to that period of time and see how that affected the outcome. [ male announcer ] fight pepperoni heartburn and pepperoni breath fast with tums freshers. Concentrated relief that goes to work in seconds and freshens breath. Tums freshers. Tum. Tum. Tum. Tum. Tums fast heartburn relief and minty fresh breath. [ male announcer ] some things are designed to draw crowds. Others are designed to leave them behind. The allnew 2014 lexus is. Its your move. The allnew 2014 lexus is. Because what you dont know can hurt you. Urance, what if you didnt know that its smart to replace washingmachine hoses every five years . What if you didnt know that you might need extra coverage for more expensive items . 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You know, what role do you think it played in the result that ended up being reached in the trial . I really dont believe it played any role. It was the topic of discussion early on in the case. You may recall earlier this year in one of the hearings, mark omara announced he would not be having a stand your ground hearing. At least at that particular stand your ground law, it was not an issue in this case. Mr. Parks, attorney here, do you think the delay in arrest, 45 dashgsz was a subtext to the jurys decision in finding a not guilty verdict . Its funny you would say that. Various times through these proceedings you heard mark omara take little stabs at the fact that the prosecutors in this case are from jacksonville and various times he would attack them about them being thats inappropriate, as you know. It has no bearing on the decision they would have made. All it was intended to do is draw a wedge between the jury and the prosecutors and make their job that much harder and inflame them. That was an issue that came into the proceedings several times and it was totally wrong. But do you feel George Zimmerman in some way looked less culpable because if the police believed him, if the police decided let me wait 45 days until, frankly you and your associates, you are the ones who got this arrest, if not for that, we wouldnt be here. But my point is, zimmerman was presented to the jury as, frankly, someone who was innocent for 45 days. What effect do you think that had . You saw the jurors. You saw their faces. Do you think it was relevant . It has a big effect. I dont want to call mark omara a racist, but i will say this, i really believe he made it his point to portray this young black man as a young, black thug, right . Theres a picture in there that shows Trayvon Martin from an upward position, the camera is pointed upward, as if hes a shirtless thug on the street. Thats the image they wanted to portray. They slid that picture in over the states objection and the court let it in. I think that was totally wrong because it started to create the wrong image. In their minds they could probably never identify that man they saw in the picture in this case. I wonder, too, daryl, how much do you think it was an obstacle for the prosecution, they would say profiling, not saying racial profiling, is that something you think the prosecution would have run with more as a legal strategy . No. Why would you do that with an allwhite jury . That would make no sense. Any time you start to make race an issue in a case like this, it tends to divide people for whatever reason and doesnt give the case to stand on its merits. I think they charged it correctly. George zimmerman believed trayvon was part of the element who had been burglarizing this complex and thats why he chose to follow him. That type the criminal profiling was the issue in this case. Joy reid was making an interesting point, the demographics, the culture of this area of florida. This is a more conservative, white area of florida. When you saw the jury that was chosen for this trial, was your reaction this is going to be an uphill climb because of some of those factors joy was talking about . Let me say this in a nice way. I think you have to always remember your jury matters. It would almost be as if the four of yall sitting there new york five of yall sitting there in new york, one or person, you were my jury, i would be feel comfortable with you all. Who your jury is makes a huge issue. I think what happens is most people wont talk about that as much. You took a stab at it today. Ive listened to what you all said. You all made some very, very great points about this case. Mr. Parks, this is mia wily. I wonder if you would tell us what you floridas unique because you only have six people on a murder trial which makes it i would think, to try to get the kind of jury to understand what its like to walk around in black skin. Whats your takeaway of the impact of having a sixmember jury instead of 12member jury. The capital cases you do have 12. Capital and Eminent Domain cases require 12person juries. Again, you all who tried cases know, that when you try a case, the jury is whoever you get. And in any case, you try to get a jury you believe best fits your case. And thats just life up. Hope you would get some people who can identify with the salient issues that will be a part of your case. Obviously, we didnt connect with that jury. And they found differently, based upon evidence they have. We have to live with that for now. Thats their decision. We accept their decision. Doesnt mean we have to agree with it, though. I dont think the country agrees with the decision but we accept it. Joy reid wants to ask one question right after this. Soft would be great, but we really just need kidproof. Softsprings got both, let me show you. Right over here. Here, feel this. Wow, thats nice. Wow. The soft carpets have never been this durable. You know i think well take it. Get kidfriendly toughness and feetfriendly softness, without walking all over your budget. He didnt tell us it would do this. More saving. More doing. Thats the power of the home depot. Right now, get wholehome installation for just 37 bucks. [ herbie ] theres no doubt about it brent, a real gate keeper. Heres kevin, the new boyfriend. Lamb to the slaughter. Thats right brent. Moms baked cookies but hell be lucky to make it inside. And heres the play. Oh dad did not see this coming. [ crowd cheering ] now if kevin can just seize the opportunity. Its looking good, herbie. Hes seen it. Its all over. Nothing but daylight. Yes id love a cookie. [ male announcer ] make a powerful first impression. The allnew nissan sentra. Her long day of pick ups and drop offs begins with arthritis pain. And a choice. Take up to 6 tylenol in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief. All aboard. All aboard. I asked my husband to pay our bill, and he forgot. You have the it card and its your first time missing a payment, so theres no late fee. Really . Yep so is your husband off the hook . No. He went out for milk last week and came back with a puppy. Hold it. Hold it. Hold it. At discover, we treat you like youd treat you. Get the it card with late payment forgiveness. I want to bring in president of the National Urban league, member of Virginia State house of delegates and chairwoman of Democratic State party and former Virginia Governor doug wilder, first africanamerican ever elected to a governors office. Ran for president in 1992 and elected mayor of richmond in 2004. Governor, i want to start with you. Although a basic level, im curious what your reaction is to the verdict last night and what youve seen in the aftermath of that verdict. Well, i was surprised by the verdict, first off, and somewhat disappointed, and yet ive been listening to the questions and answers that have been coming forth relative to your prepounding them. Some of them surprised me. Start off with this, you had an allwhite courtroom, for all practical purposes, other than the defendants presence and some of the witnesses im sorry, the victim and some of the witnesses. An allwhite jury. All of the prosecutors were white. The defense people were white. If race didnt play a part in it, then you ask this very simple question, if the florida stand your ground law is not a part of what people considered, then why could you come to this verdict . The other thing that i would say is to follow some bit of what youve suggested, youve got a young man who has done nothing wrong criminally. Hes been killed. No one debates that. So what caused his death . So the action that involved him being killed was the action of the defendant. To the extent he goes unpunished for someone whos done nothing doesnt make any sense. If the law has to be changed in florida, you should change it. Or if this could happen again under the same set of circumstances, thats not what we have fought for in terms of bringing justice to all, making certain that three preceps. America cant stand this kind of justice and people around the world would look at us and say, what are you talking about when you tell us how to bhaf. Im shocked with it. Im disappointed in it. I dont know all of the facts. I was not there. I dont know whether the prosecutors presented the case as best they could. I do think pretty clearly that race did play a part. I want to ask you because you came came of age, i guess, during and before the Civil Rights Movement. There was a point in the press conference after the verdict where Benjamin Crump, lawyer for Trayvon Martins family, likened he said Trayvon Martin will go down in history. Remembered with medgar evers and emmett till. I wonder what you make of that comparison. Thats probably true but it doesnt bring him back. It doesnt bring his life back. How many emmett tills and medgar evers and Trayvon Martins must be sacrificed before the wheels of justice, which grind so slowly, grind for meting out justice for all. I would have been very concerned when that jury was set to see six white people. I would have been very, very concerned. I dont know how or why the prosecutor would allow that to take place without some degree of closed session to say, hey, wait a minute, lets go talk to the judge. You know where the strikes came from. From the defense. You cant tell me there were not people of color, black people, that the jury would have been selected from. Somebody had to strike certain people. It would be interesting to see if the people stricken were black. If they were not included, why not . Were short on time, but i wonder as a lawyer if you can answer that quickly. Do you look could the prosecution have done better . The problem is sanford is 80 white, so the jury pool is representative of that. So, when youre picking a jury, there may not have been many blacks and minorities in that pool. So it really ends up being a numbers game. In a jury pool youre picking person by person by person so at the end you say, wow, i have six white people sitting here. But i do have to criticize the prosecutions strategy in picking a jury. Theyve been doing this a long time. They should know better. They should know how to play the numbers in picking a jury and to set it up exactly. That you would have more minorities on that. So, i absolutely do agree with the gentleman that that was their deficiency. We are were up against one hard break for this hour. We affected by oil spills, rescue workers have opened up a lot of dawn. They rely on it because its tough on grease yet gentle. But even theyll tell you, dawn helps open. All 3, 2, 1 [ male announcer ]. Something even bigger. This year, dawn is also donating 1 million to rescue efforts. Go to facebook. Com dawnsaveswildlife. Find out how the Little Things you do can make a big difference. And then another. And another. And if you do it. And your friends do it. And their friends do it. Soon well be walking our way to awareness, support and an end to alzheimers disease. And that . That would be big. Grab your friends and family and start a team today. Register at alz. Org vietnam in 1972. [ all ] fort benning, georgia in 1999. [ male announcer ] usaa Auto Insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. 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Were here with mia wily, cernel herring, seema and in richmond, virginia, we have Virginia Governor doug wilder. First i want to go to msnbcs craig melvin with the latest on the reaction to last nights verdict. Can you get us up to date . Reporter what a few hours makes in sanford, florida. The scene outside the courthouse as you saw, about 200 demonstrators at its height, about 200 demonstrators. No demonstrators now, obviously. Law enforcement that had been camped outside of that courthouse for two or three days during deliberations, and quite frankly, throughout the entire trial and jury selection as well, that Law Enforcement presence is also gone here in sanford. At least outside the courthouse. I can also tell you that the protests and the demonstrations that they were prepared for here in sanford at least, they happened on a very small scale. The ones that did happen were peaceful, they were orderly. There was no civil unrest to speak of here in sanford or the surrounding area. The video youre looking at is video from last night as that verdict was being read outside the courthouse, there was a hush that fell over the crowd. Shortly after the verdict was read, a few moments after the verdict was read, the crowd you see there erupted. There was chanting as well as singing. But the chants we heard more often than the others, no justice for trayvon was one of the chants. No justice, no peace, another one of the chants. Again, no arrests last night. They stuck around for about 90 minutes, steve. Shortly thereafter they dispersed. The news choppers also gone. The city of sanford, as ive talked to a number of folks here the past few weeks, said they want it to get back to return, they want it to return to narmalcy, and it appears as least on the surface, theres an important distinction to be made here, but at least on the surface logistically that is starting to happen. You know, craig, i would love, and i think a lot of people out there would really love to hear exactly it was that led these jurors to the conclusion they should acquit zimmerman. Is there any indication, any reason to believe well hear from any of the jurors at this point . Reporter thats the Million Dollar question. Its funny you should ask me that. I was having that same discussion with one of the producers here because thats the big piece of the story were missing. That jury of six women. To bring you up to speed on how this works, at least in the state of florida. About a week or so ago members of the media were allowed to submit requests that were then handed to the jurors. All six of those jurors, as you might imagine, got a folder, requests about that thick from just about every media outlet in this country. And were told that a spokesperson last night, a spokesperson with the court here in sanford, florida, went to the jurors and basically said, are any of you interested either collectively or individually, are you at all interested in answering any of the questions about deliberations . And all of them said no, not tonight. Not only did they not do it last night, by order of judge nelson, steve, their identities will be shielded. The media has been instructed to basically to not allow to try to track them down at their house. That order of anonymity at this point we dont know when it is going to be lifted. There will be a separate hearing scheduled. At that time judge nelson will decide if and whether to make the names of these jurors public. So, its going to be a while, if ever, we hear from these jurors about when they are or how they decided on the verdict that they reached. Could be mystery hovering over this for all time. We may never understand or never know. Thanks to msnbcs craig melvin from florida. Appreciate the update. Im curious what you think this is the most important thing. This is not over. This is whats important. Were talking about yesterdays trial and it was a travesty and a miscarriage of justice. But this is not over. Several of us civil rights leaders had a meeting at midnight, myself, al sharpton, melanie campbell, and our focus now is on the department of justice and for there to be a federal criminal civil rights investigation. I also thank that this may be a hate crime and that the hate crimes law, the Matthew Shepherd hate crime may apply. There are two important aspects of federal law that may have been violated by George Zimmerman, which could be investigated and should and could lead to an additional indictment. Secondly, there is the wrongful death case, a civil proceeding, which the Trayvon Martin family, they have competent counsel in daryl parks and ben crump to bring that. This is not over. Those who are activists, concerned justice has not been met, should absolutely continue disciplined and directed advocacy for this family. Thirdly, i was offended by mark omaras statements. They were not only unprofessional and unbecoming a lawyer, who just succeeded in a case. They are insensitive and further drive a wedge. And i think spur us to say that were going to insist that justice be done in this case. We have as a father a young boy. This is a boy who lost his life. Not a grown man who lost his life not at the hands of another teenager, not of another boy, but of a man. An unarmed teenager. I think from the very beginning, but for ben crump and the fact that the local Community Invited the civil rights leadership into this case, this matter would have been swept under the rug. And thats exactly what zimmerman and forces around him wanted to occur. We stop that from occurring and i think we want to send a strong message of solidarity with the parents and the family, but we want to send the message, this is not over and well continue. The other piece looking forward is legislative. Theres talk about what laws can be changed in florida. Youre familiar with whats on the books in virginia. Yes. Im curious if you can compare what the sort of situation is in florida, how out of line it is with other states and what needs to be changed there. Florida is certainly not alone. There are several states with stand your ground law. I can say in virginia our state law is basically for personality. If youre faced with deadly force, you can use deadly force to defend yourself. I will say this, in the Virginia Legislature there is always a bill put in similar to whats in florida. Its defeated each year. The thing is we get close every time to getting it passed. Its basically leadership that tucks that bill away and sends it back to committee. This is a message for every citizen who cares about our children from sandy hook to Trayvon Martin. We have a serious problem here when we are watching our children die. It is painful to watch. I remember my mother telling me about emmett till and how she felt during that time. Never in my life would i think i would have to relive her pain, but i in pain right now. And its not because of my race. I am looking at children dying in this country and with violence, so state legislators will certainly take a look at laws but we must be vigilant because these laws that allow a unarmed teenager to die, and ill call him a perpetrator, but he was instructed to stay in his car, zimmerman. Why are we allowing somebody to disregard instructions by our Law Enforcement . This is very serious. You mention the stand your ground laws seem to be gaining ground in the Virginia Legislature. Im curious. In florida the big story was the american council, its a national group. Its like a cookie cutter thing. Is that whats behind the movement in virginia . I mean, it could be unfortunately theres confusion about virginia law. Some legislators file the it has to be explained to them. Unfortunately, people just dont understand the law. A. L. E. C. Is a group that has forced this, the stand your ground legislation and other groups, too. Because there are rumors circulating that you cant protected yourself in your own home against deadly force. Its important to recognize a year ago when there was some sunlight on a. L. E. C. , many of us called for many of its major supporters to withdraw. I want to renew that call this morning. The poison of the stand your ground law was from a. L. E. C. They went to the state im a former state legislator and watched them operate. There needs to be sunlight on what nair doing, which what theyre doing is creating model legislation and spread the poison of stand your ground all over the nation. Those who support a. L. E. C. Should withdraw because this kind of thing and the use of stand your ground is why at the very instance the Law Enforcement there in sanford, florida, did not arrest George Zimmerman as they should have, at the very inception. You mentioned a minute ago one of the next steps is the question of whats going to happen at the federal level. There sort of a historical pattern there of cases where there are failures, civil rights failures at state and local level and then this historical pattern but that it defaults the federal government. [ male announcer ] this is kevin. To prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, hes agreed to give it up. Thats today . [ male announcer ] well be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. I was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. And now ive got to take more pills. Yup. Another pill stop. Can i get my aleve back yet . For my pain, i want my aleve. [ male announcer ] look for the easyopen red arthritis cap. Since aflac is helping with his expenses while he cant work, he can focus on his recovery. He doesnt have to worry so much about his mortgage, groceries, or even gas bills. Kick kick. Feel it feel it feel it nice work you got it you got it yes aflacs gonna help take care of his expenses. And us. Were gonna get him back in fighting shape. [ male announcer ] see whats happening behind the scenes at aflac. Com. When i heard the possibility of federal intervention, the Justice Department looking at this, i thought back to the rodney king case from the early 1990s, the black l. A. Motorist beaten by the cops. You had initially a jury acquitted the cops, thats what sparked the l. A. Riots of 1992. Then federal charges were brought and two of the Police Officers were eventually convicted and did time for that. I wonder, and ill bring doug wilder back. Im curious, governor, do you see sort of is this a continuation of a pattern . I teased at the end of last segment when there are civil rights failures at the local level, the state level. I know this is the story decades ago, generations ago, but again we see the federal government is sort of the its the last bit of defense there when it comes to civil rights. Well, i heard my good friend marc morial gave his explanation as to whats going on. I do agree with him that people should not give up and should have hope. And yet he being a lawyer himself recognizes that even asking the Justice Department to come in, theres no guarantee of anything to take place. They have this law in florida also that in order to maintain certain civil actions, you have got to have been proven to not been wrong yourself. And its going to be very, very difficult in many instances. And yet thats what the Justice Department is there for. One of the things that chanielle was speaking to relative to virginia, even though i dont disagree with her, even though there may have been attempts by some people in the house to get this legislation through, it never has gotten through, i would be surprised if it got through into the senate and i would be very surprised if any governor of virginia who would want to carry us back so far as to sign that bill. There would be human cry from a lot of people. I would hope when the Justice Department looks into it, it looks to the totality of whats going on. Was that grounds for zimmerman to do anything because of this stand your ground law . Why was he feeling that he was i was not a policeman. He has no license. What gives him the authority to take a life and go unpunished . Thats whats before the Justice Department. Was it civil rights violation . Yes. Was it also the loss of his opportunity to live . Yes. How can that and should that be corrected . So, there are theres something Police Officers, College Students and George Zimmerman all have in common and that is they are more likely to shoot a black man with a wallet than they are to shoot a white man with a gun. Its called shooter bias. The law has not kept pace with the science, with the Brain Science, because what Brain Science tells us is, these things are happening at nano seconds at subliminal levels, not conscious levels. Civil rights laws were written at a time when in this country racism happened at a conscious level. So, we dont even understand our brains on race now. We have made so much progress in this country on whether it is appropriate or okay or legal to be overtly, racially discriminatory. We have not dealt with the fact that most people are still carrying unconscious bias, that is racially motivated but not at a conscious level. And so when the department of justice has to look at a hates crime case, it has to find evidence of that conscious level of racial racism. This is an area where they tell us science is different and its sort of like we talk about the effect versus intensity. We talk about the Voting Rights a lot now. Effect versus intent. I wonder in the case of George Zimmerman, it strikes me this did not get a lot of play in the trial but prosecutors introduced five previous 911 calls he had made. 46 calls in a sixyear period from George Zimmerman claiming a scary black person was right. Five admitted as evidence in the trial. But my pointed is for Brain Science, 46 calls. Im not talking about the evidence. Im talking about George Zimmermans implicit bias. 46 calls is a lot of evidence on a social science level. Oh, sure. But those calls can be used as, you know, a foundation for the d. O. J. Suit and the other the other thing is, i was asking ben crump about this earlier but the rules of evidence, if this goes to a civil trial, are more expansive. Exactly. The standard of proof, which is different, which is the significant thing. Not only the rules of evidence but the standard of proof in a criminal case is obviously much all elements of the crime must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In a civil case its by preponderance of the evidence. Its a very different proceeding. The thing you mentioned, the 911 calls, certainly in a civil case, and i think with an intensive competent investigation by the department of justice, i feel that George Zimmerman can be brought up on federal criminal civil rights charges and potentially hate crime charges. This law were talking about, federal criminal civil rights laws, have been used around the nation particularly in Police Brutality cases. What you have in George Zimmerman is a classic wannabe Law Enforcement officer. Number one, sought to be a Law Enforcement officer. Two, acted like a Law Enforcement officer. Three, pursued like a Law Enforcement officer Trayvon Martin. These are not things a reasonable citizen would do. The charges you were outlining, is that what youre asking the department of justice were asking the department of justice to conduct a thorough investigation as to whether any federal laws were violated by George Zimmerman in connection with the death of Trayvon Martin. And we have certainly will make a form request. I think the naacp will hold a press conference. The naacp, National Urban league, black womens, all four of us and many others will join collectively in asking the Justice Department. Now, they started at the very beginning with an investigation. They put it on hold. This is standard procedure by them. To allow the local authorities to pursue their investigation, their prosecution to a conclusion. Now its appropriate for the Justice Department to pick this up and to proceed. Maya, i want to get you back in here but i want to say thanks to doug wilder. What do you driv . I drive a ford fusion. Who is healthier, you or your car . I would say my car. Probably the car. Cause as you get older you start breaking down. I love my car. I want to take care of it. I have a bad wheel i must say. My car is running quite well. Keep your car healthy with the works. 29. 95 or less after 10 mailin rebate at your participating ford dealer. So you gotta take care of yourself . Yes you do. You gotta take care of your baby . Oh yeah maya, i know you want to jump in. Go ahead. So, Trayvon Martins parents worked so hard with mr. Crump and mr. Parks to bring to get these criminal charges made. And i suspect will bring a civil case because they wanted that their son not die in vein. What that means, justice is not just for Trayvon Martin. Justice here is so black people can walk down the streets in america, innocent and unarmed, and not be afraid theyre going to be killed. And that means that in addition i agree with marc that, one, its not over. Two, that the department of justice, that theres an opportunity to prosecute this case more effectively. But if we miss the real message here, which is that we need to restructure our laws, we need to understand that our current legal structure does not work for how we do race in america right now, which means it doesnt work for anyone, because we all have a race. That means that we will miss the opportunity, not just to try to get justice for Trayvon Martin. We will miss the opportunity to assure us that innocent black people can live safe, long, healthy lives. I want to talk for a minute about the reaction weve seen nationwide to this. I know there was a lot of conversation, oh, is there going to be violence . Should we even be asking, oh, is there going to be violence . We have craig melvin, the report from sanford, florida, basically said overnight, you know, there were protests. They broke up. You know, life seems to be going back to the way it was. There were, you know, rallies or marches. We documented ten cities across the country. We were see be scenes from last night. I think thats san fran. There was Property Damage in california but nothing of the dire predictions we were hearing. There was a concert last night in hayward, california, Lester Chambers had a concert and dedicated a song to Trayvon Martin. I believe this was before the verdict was announced. He dedicated a song and a white woman came up on the stage and, i guess, started shoving him and was taken into custody. Thats what the Hayward Police told us this morning. We put in a call out there. Its interesting. Thats maybe the most dramatic. I encourage people, we encourage people as the civil rights leadership of the 21st century, we encourage people to express themselves with discipline and responsibility consistent with our rights under the First Amendment and consistent with the traditions of dr. Martin luther king, now on the 50th anniversary of that historic march. We also encourage people to join us on august 24th for what were calling the civil rights continuation march, which is 50 years after the historic 1963 effort. Now, steve, with the Supreme Court decision in the Voting Rights case, now with the Trayvon Martin case, this civil rights continuation effort has a renewed vigor and purpose. So, were asking people of all backgrounds to join us in washington, d. C. On august 24th when theres going to be an historic effort. We do need to express ourselves through social media, through appropriate means, but we have to remember that this is not over and that the cause and the quest for justice and civil rights of the 21st century continues. But we, i think, do not want to discourage expression. We want to encourage responsible and disciplined expression. There was a writing in the new yorker, the idea, are there going to be violent protests or anything, and he said youll see riots if maybe youre expecting one thing and you get another. That is part stereotyping. Thats stereotyping. We do not think the rest of ourselves as americans. For the most part, it was nonviolence. Look at us as americans and how beautiful we are, we believe in healing, we believe in getting to the highest potential, we believe in continuing the Civil Rights Movement. We have to. This is a wakeup call. What happened to Trayvon Martin, yes, it is similar to emmett till the Civil Rights Movement in this country has historically been the hall mark of peaceful protest. And to suggest that and to continue to harp on that is an effort to discredit the very issues at hand. This goes back to the narrative point you made at the top of the hour. It should not be news that black people are not rioting. That should not be rioting. White officer acquitted shooting dialo 19 times going for his wallet. Sean bell, 23 years old, shot and killed right before his wedding, unarmed. No right. Ricky boyd in chicago, two months after Trayvon Martin, shot and killed by an offduty detective, no riot. We have more incidents of not rioting that it should not be news were not rioting. It plays into the same narrative mr. Omara gave us after this verdict, which is tearing the social fabric of this country which is that black people are to be feared. The question i was trying to get at with what mr. Cobb wrote, not about violence, but he was saying in his mind he was not expecting a positive result. Im wondering, in general, how pervasive we were on all in with chris and he made this point and its a poignant point and worth restating. We see black People Killed who are innocent all the time. I mean, so the idea theres something unfortunately and wrongly, that theres something new here and, therefore, theres going to be eruption by virtue of the fact of the acquittal alone, ignores that this is a norm for our community. This is why i say, do we live in one america . Because i think the answer is no. We live in two different americas. Because the reality for people who are black in this country, and this is why the jury pool mattered, is very different than the reality for people who are white. Weve been talking about changing the laws. Its not just about stand your ground. Since this show started we decided we need to change stand your ground, we need to change the sixjuror number in florida if its want a capital case. In most states we all know we get 12person juries. When daryl parks was on he said to us, if its a capital case, its 12jury panel. I want to thank marc morial, and charniel harris. Shoot this is bad. No were good this is your first time missing a payment. And youve got the it card, so we wont hike up your apr for paying late. Thats great it is great thank you. At discover, we treat you like youd treat you. Get the it card with late payment forgiveness. Resoft would be great, but we really just need kidproof. Softsprings got both, let me show you. Right over here. Here, feel this. Wow, thats nice. Wow. The soft carpets have never been this durable. You know i think well take it. Get kidfriendly toughness and feetfriendly softness, without walking all over your budget. He didnt tell us it would do this. More saving. More doing. Thats the power of the home depot. Right now, get wholehome installation for just 37 bucks. Yeah. Try new alka seltzer fruit chews. They work fast on heartburn and taste awesome. These are good. Told ya im feeling better already. [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. Enjoy the relief i dont miss out. You sat out most of our game yesterday asthma doesnt affect my job. You were out sick last week. My asthma doesnt bother my family. You coughed all through our date night i hardly use my rescue inhaler at all. What did you say . How about every day . Coping with asthma isnt controlling it. Test your level of control at asthma. Com, then talk to your doctor. There may be more you could do for your asthma. I want to bring in msnbcs tre, cohost of the cycle, Michael Denzel smith, contributor at the nation, back with us at the table. I want to talk about the reaction from Trayvon Martin. First, we were just talking about the idea of, you know, if the jury had been bigger, if we had 12 instead of 6. Maya you said during the break some interesting point about research about what happens with just one if you take an allwhite jury and add one africanamerican to the mix, what happens . I thought everything i said was interesting. I agree, i agree. Now, seriously, seema is absolutely right. I want to reinforce seemas point with science. Jury matters president the race of who is on the jury matters in the outcome. Heres why. Sarasota and seminole counties, ten years of data, 700 juries, what that Research Found is when one black person is on a sixmember jury, the number of acquittals of black defendants drops over ten Percentage Points and the number of convictions of white defendants increases by 10 Percentage Points and makes the number of conviction equal by race. In other words, you dont see racial differences in convictions and acquittals. Which makes it we were talking about, you know, could the prosecution have done more to get right. It makes it all the more amazing this is also seemas point on the number of jurors is so important and why i asked mr. Parks the question about the sixmember jury. Because we live in segregated communities, we dont have the Geographic Area were pulling juries from do not reflect other nation, do not even reflect our states. If you dont have more seats on that jury, you have less opportunities to make sure one black juror is on that jury. We know that influences how people understand how because its all about how you understand what may have happened that night. And you have that juror in that room explaining to the other jurors, hey, im a black woman. This is my experience. This is what its like for a young black man walking home at night with candy. You need that. Thats the part of the deliberation process, i mean, bringing this credibility of witnesses. It was interesting to hear daryl parks, we had him on earlier, i asked him limb takings with the prosecution, did it hurt their case they couldnt explicitly make racial profiling a part of this case. He said, no, not at all with an allwhite jury. In function of these covert ways and one way which race is part of this, the prosecution got outlawyered. Why did that happen . Because George Zimmerman had an extraordinarily expensive defense team. Not the dream team o. J. Simpson had. What you get in the Justice System is what you can afford. When this became a political football back in the beginning of all this, all these people, most of whom we can assume are on the right, decided to give him hundreds of thousands of dollars. We dont know if it was one or two donors but thousands of donors, gave him hundreds of thousands of dollars, allowing him to get a mark omara and he can get representation far greater than he could ever afford. Two points to that. You know mark omara was working for free. Did you know that . Yeah. I thought that was out there. So, at some point mark omara did not get money for this . This is what happened was this publicity . That was my point. I thought this was out there. At some point mark omara wasnt getting paid. The problem is this is on a practical level. If you have a private case and youre getting paid, the client can no longer afford you, you ask the court to appoint you and have the court pay. Because George Zimmerman had the Legal Defense fund with the hundreds of thousands of dollars youre talking about, the court couldnt claim that George Zimmerman was indigent and, therefore, had that available, that option available to get appointed counsel. So, from my understanding, omara and, perhaps, don west, they havent been paid for a very long time. And to your point, yes, of course, its for the publicity. And he still spent all his money because all the bells and whistles, all the finding experts, we all know right. Thats very expensive and that came from the defense fund, the hundreds of thousands of dollars youre referring to. I want to get these on the screen and talk about them in a little bit. Last night after the verdict, there was some tweets from Trayvon Martins family that i think were really kind of moving. This is the first one. There were two from his father. This is the first one his father did last night. God bless me and sybrina and tray and even in his death i know my baby proud of the fight we we along with all of you put up for him. God bless. The second one, thanks to everyone who are with us and who will be with us so we together can make sure that this doesnt happen again. Also from his father. Even though i am brokenhearted, my faith is unshattered. I will always love my baby tray. We want to talk about what the family will do after this. Rites. Rites. 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Theres the federal issue overhanging this and after that theres just your whole life and your sons been killed and youve gone through and youve watched how hes been portrayed by the defense. I just wonder how any family im thinking more on a human level, how any family goes through this, how you pick up your life and move on at all. Thats why i want to go back to the point of the jurors being all white. I would like to get to a point where that allwhite jury could understand the pain of a tracy martin and Sybrina Fulton and they wonuldnt have to have a black person in the room explaining what theyre going through right now. Thats an unimaginable pain to have your son taken from you in circumstances beyond his control because someone looked at him and decided that he was a threat and decided to follow him, to stalk him, and to murder him. And whether, you know, the courts say he didnt murder him, fine, but he killed that child. Thats the pain that those parents are living with now. That jury couldnt relate to. Thats the racial empathy gap that people have written about. We see others like us and we feel their pain and others who are not like us. We dont feel their pain. Respect brother tracy for never wanting this to happen again but he knows, we know this will happen again. I mean, the roll call only grows, oscar grant, dialo, sean bell, iana jones and we could add other names boyd. The roll call grows and it will continue to grow. This cannot stopped as long as we have the Police Brutality level, the inherent shooter bias we have and so many people in this country who are armed as we talk about on the cycle, so many people who take the law into their own hands because they are armed. Not just where there is stand your ground but other places where they have similar statutes they dont call that but the same effect. Theres something important to say. If you watch other stations, not msnbc, but other stations, the conversation is about race baiting. The conversation is, and you ask the questions to mr. Crump and mr. Parks. Its being challenged. We saw mr. Omara do it yesterday. So when our who are the race baiters . The race what does that mean . So its because whats happening is were saying race no longer matters, that black kid was violent. Right. And lets i mean, that actually or that, well, George Zimmerman had race, right, because so George Zimmerman was raced, so ergo that cancels i find race is like the weather. People think about it when the weather events are extreme but the weather is con stand and race is constantly part of almost everything. You mentioned daryl parks and we interviewed him earlier. I do want to go back to something he said earlier, inshow flashback. Lets just play daryl parks talking about how the defense portrayed Trayvon Martin. I dont want to call mark omara a racist, but i will say this, i really believe he made it his point to portray this young black man as a young, black thug, right . Theres a picture in there that shows Trayvon Martin from an upward position. The cameras pointed upward, right, as if hes some shirtless thug on the streets, right . And so that was the image they wanted to portray. They slid that picture in at the end over the states objection at the last minute and the court let it in. I think that was totally wrong. Totally wrong because it started to create the wrong image. In their minds, they could probably never identify with that man they saw in the picture in this case. Maya, it really seems you talked earlier about sort of the way profiling happens, the Brain Science of it. And the defense was trying to get the white jury to profile Trayvon Martin the same way that there is a social, psychological term for this in the research. Its called priming. When you you can prime an image of a black person to the criminal that will increase the implicit bias of the viewer. You can prime in a way that reduces the implicit bias. Thats my point. We dont have to live this way. There are actual ways to solve this, but we dont solve it unless we recognize, one, that it exists and that its not as simple as saying, oh, youre a racist, not a racist. Its actually understanding that we are all victims of a media that is constantly priming us with images of dangerous black kids. Lets not forget that i think weve all forgotten about rachel jental. When she got on the stand, don west was talking to her like she was an alien. And that young lady was consistently authentic, consistently honest. And she stood her ground under a very brutal and long crossexamination. You know, all credit to mr. Parks for not calling omara a racist, but he trafficked in the exact racist ideology that renders blackness a threat in this country. He did it consistently. He and his team did it consistently. Thats what got George Zimmerman off. Toure, first word after the break. Nt . 20 . New purina one true instinct has 30. Active dogs crave nutrientdense food. So we made purina one true instinct. Learn more at purinaone. Com happy birthday its a painting easel the tides coming in this is my favorite one. Its upside down. Oh, sorry. woman vo it takes him places hes always wanted to go. Thats why we bought a subaru. announcer love. Its what makes a subaru, a subaru. Male narrator male narrator mattress discounters 197 mattress sale is on now. Dog mattress discounters 197 mattress sale . Male narrator right now, you can get a serta mattress, any size, for just 197 each piece when you buy the complete set. Dog any size mattress, twin, full, queen or king, for one low price. And theyll deliver it free male narrator the 197 mattress sale. Dog oh, boy male narrator . Is on now. Mattress discounters just like old times in the cycle, he was trying to talk and i cut him off. I want to underline the point, the test we get nowadays, are you racist, which means are you racist all day long, is a totally false test anybody can knock down. At this moment are you doing anything to perpetuate white supremacy, thats more effective than are you working with the tools of racism. When i look at trayvon, who lives 16 years and a couple of weeks, right, he was a child. Talking to people about he was a child, so many people are saying to me, stop it. He wasnt a child. He was bad. He was this. He was that. Thats the way we dont get to be children. We get to be man children, manchild in the promise land, that we are old before our years, right. Even his innocence was taken and his family had to work so hard to restore his innocence after George Zimmerman took it away, the police took it away, and now so much was made of the rebuttal from the prosecution after the defense made the final arguments, the rebuttal playing up the idea trayvon was a child. It didnt ring true with the jury. Theres something problematic about this, even though weve all done it, which is if i was 50 years old why would this be okay. Theres a 51yearold black man killed in washington state. Once again, no riot. He was innocent. He was unarmed. He didnt do anything wrong. He was shot dead. He was 51. Its not just age. If a man started following me, i would feel enough efficacy to face him and say, why are you following me . A 16, 17yearold would perhaps freak out, and im running. I agree with you in terms of hes i tell my kids if someone is messing with you on the playground. They live in brooklyn, in public school. If someone is messing with you on the playground you will not get in trouble with me if you defend yourself, but defending yourself does not mean you get to stand your ground. You have to do everything in your power but if its a 15yearold against my 9yearold, shes in a different situation, which is i think what youre saying. George zimmerman is the 28yearold, had more of an obligation. The one thing i want to come back to this point. A, if black people of all ages should be presumed innocent, it shouldnt just be about age. This is part of why we keep and part of why the prosecution kept trying to reinforce the issue of his age, it had to undermine that implicit bias of scariness. They were using age to try to say how can you were implicitly, frightening, the black body emanates fear and then we have to live with that, we have to deal with that. So people want to kill us, to cage us, the fear, the anxiety that flows out of our bodies. I hate to say it but i have to cut it off. I want to thank my guests. Thanks for getting up, and thank you all for joining us at home. Well be back next week 8 00 a. M. Eastern time. Coming up next, Melissa Harrisperry with more analysis and coverage of the continuing reaction to the zimmerman verdict. Thats Melissa Harrisperry coming up next. Msnbc will have continuing coverage of the verdict, the aftermath and more throughout the day. Well see you next week on up. 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Charmin ultra soft. What are you guys doing . Having some fiber with new phillips fiber good gummies. Theyre fruity delicious just two gummies have 4 grams of fiber to help support regularity i want some. [ woman ] hop on over [ marge ] fiber the fun way, from phillips. [ male announcer ] some question physics. Some question gravity. And some. Even have the audacity to question improbability. With bestinclass towing and bestinclass torque these are some of the bold, new ram commercial trucks built to blow your imagination. Guts. Glory. Ram. He is not guilty of manslaughter in the killing of Trayvon Martin. George zimmerman is now a free man after this scene played out late last night in the courtroom. In the Circuit Court of the 18th judicial circuit in and for Seminole County florida, state of florida versus George Zimmerman. Verdict, we the jury find George Zimmerman not guilty. Good morning. Im Melissa Harrisperry. We have a lot to get to over the course of the program this morning. But i want to put one
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