Detroiters Rally Against Violence In Memory Of Trayvon Martin
DETROIT (WWJ) - It's a shooting that sparked outrage across the nation. And the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida, is hitting close to home for many in Metro Detroit.
The Reverend Horace Sheffield is one of the organizers of a rally Monday evening in Hart Plaza, where Civil Rights Leaders, Community Organizers and labor leaders will speak out against crime and violence in Detroit and across the country.
"And people rightfully raise the issue - why are we outraged about this when every day young African-American men are killed, or youth are killed, by one another in our own communities?" Sheffield said. "So, hopefully it will spawn some sense of responsibility we have to save our own lives."
"I mean, to be hunted down ... for the young man who ultimately pulled the trigger to be told to stand down and not to do so ... and then to be profiled. I mean, the whole notion of wearing a hoodie and how you look in a certain context can be deadly or fatal," he said.
The Hart Plaza rally kicks off at 7 p.m. There will also be a rally in support of Martin in downtown Pontiac from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Meantime, Detroit law students are inviting the community to a candlelight vigil for Martin. The event will take place Monday at 8 p.m. at Main Branch of the Detroit Public Library on the Cass Ave. lawn. The schools are following a similar action by their counterparts at Florida A and M University, which is not far from where the unarmed teen died.
The Detroit-area events mimic last week's" Million Hoodie March" in New York. On Wednesday night, demonstrators chanted "we want arrests" in Manhattan's Union Square. The march was galvanized by an online petition, created by Martin's parents, calling for a criminal investigation of their son's killer, neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman. The "Million Hoodie March" was named in hope of collecting one million signatures.
