Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 21, 2013, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A6 NEWS CANADA I WORLD A6 SUNDAY, JULY 21, 2013 A TLANTA - One week after a jury found George Zimmerman not guilty in the shooting death of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin, people gathered nationwide Saturday to press for federal civil rights charges against the former neighbourhoodwatch leader and to call for changes in the nation's self- defence laws. The Florida case has become a flashpoint in separate but converging national debates over self- defence, guns and race relations. Zimmerman, who successfully claimed he was protecting himself when he shot Martin, identifies himself as Hispanic. Martin was black. For some attendees, particularly those who are black, the rallies seemed as much about those larger issues as about the verdict. " It's personal," said Cincinnati resident Chris Donegan, whose 11- year- old son wore a hoodie to the rally, as Martin did the night he died. " Anybody who is black with kids, Trayvon Martin became our son." The Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network organized the " Justice for Trayvon" rallies and vigils outside federal buildings in at least 101 cities, from New York and Los Angeles to Wichita, Kan., and Atlanta, where people stood in the rain at two federal buildings, with traffic blocked on surrounding downtown streets. Chants rang out across the rallies. " Justice! Justice! Justice! ... Now! Now! Now!" "' We won't forget." " No justice! No peace!" Many also sang hymns, prayed and held hands. Many participants carried signs: " Who's next?" " I am Trayvon Martin." " Enough Is Enough." Most rallies began at noon. In New York, hundreds of people, including Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, and music superstars Jay- Z and Beyonce, gathered in the heat. Fulton told the crowd she was determined to fight for societal and legal changes needed to ensure black youths are no longer viewed with suspicion because of their skin colour. " I promise you I'm going to work for your children as well," she told the crowd. At a morning appearance at Sharpton's headquarters in Harlem, she implored people to understand the tragedy involved more than Martin alone. " Today, it was my son. Tomorrow, it might be yours," she said. In Atlanta, speakers noted the rally occurred in the shadows of federal buildings named for two figures who had vastly differing views on civil rights and racial equality: Richard B. Russell was a Georgia governor and U. S. senator elected in the Jim Crow South; Martin Luther King Jr. is the face of African- Americans' civil rights movement. " What's so frightening about a black man in a hood?" said the Rev. Raphael Warnock, who now preaches at King's Ebenezer Baptist Church. " History would suggest that we have plenty of data to be worried when we see other folk moving through our neighbourhoods in hoods. Some of them have on pinstripe suits, but in their hearts, they're wearing a hood." In addition to pushing the U. S. Justice Department to investigate civil- rights charges against Zimmerman, Sharpton told supporters in New York he wants to see a rollback of stand- your- ground self- defence laws. " We are trying to change laws so that this never, ever happens again," Sharpton said. Stand- your- ground laws are on the books in more than 20 states and go beyond many older, traditional self- defence statutes. In general, the newer laws eliminate a person's duty to retreat, if possible, in the face of a serious physical threat. Zimmerman didn't invoke stand- yourground at his trial, relying instead on a traditional self- defence argument, but the judge included a provision of the law in the jurors' instructions, allowing them to consider it as a legitimate defence. Neither was race discussed in front of the Zimmerman jury, but the two topics have dominated public discourse about the case and came up throughout Saturday's rallies. In Indianapolis, Rev. Jeffrey Johnson told about 200 attendees Saturday's nationwide rallies were about making life safer for young black men, who he said are still endangered by racial profiling. Johnson compared Zimmerman's acquittal to that of four white officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King in 1992. " The verdict freed George Zimmerman, but it condemned America more," said Johnson, pastor of the Eastern Star Church in Indianapolis and a member of the board of directors of the National Action Network. In Miami, Tracy Martin spoke about his son. " This could be any one of our children," he said. " Our mission now is to make sure that this doesn't happen to your child." He recalled a promise he made to his son as he lay in his casket. " I will continue to fight for Trayvon until the day I die," he said. Shantescia Hill held a sign in Miami that read: " Every person deserves a safe walk home." The 31- year- old mother, who is black, said, " I'm here because our children can't even walk on the streets without fearing for their lives." Speaking at the White House on Friday, U. S. President Barack Obama said it's a reality for black men in America to " be followed in a department store" while shopping or to walk down the street and " hear the car doors lock." The nation's first black president said he had both experiences before he rose to social and political prominence. At the New Orleans rally, La'Monte Johnson shared a similar story. The California native said he's been stopped multiple times by police and handcuffed " because I fit the description of someone they were looking for," though he noted charges were never filed against him. " You can be the greatest black guy around, but you can't get away from it," he said. - The Associated Press Rallies seek ' justice' Zimmerman acquittal spurs U. S. protests By Bill Barrow SAN MATEO, Calif. - No one knows exactly how Ye Mengyuan ended up on the runway just nine metres from the wreckage of Asiana Flight 214, but officials say one thing is clear now: She somehow survived the crash. As the plane burned, the 16- year- old Chinese student was buried by the firefighting foam rescue workers were spraying to douse the blaze. In the chaotic moments that followed - flames devouring the fuselage, those aboard escaping by emergency slides, flight attendants frantically cutting away seatbelts to free passengers - a fire truck ran over Ye, killing her. The new details, released Friday by the coroner's office, compounded the tragedy for her family in the aftermath of the July 6 crash at the San Francisco airport that killed two other teenage girls from China. " There's not a lot of words to describe how badly we feel, how sorry we feel," said San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes- White. Ye's family was upset after learning the details of their daughter's death and wants her body returned to China, San Mateo County coroner Robert Foucrault said. " It was a difficult conversation," he said. Hayes- White said she was trying to arrange a meeting with them and the " tragic accident" would prompt a review of how the fire department uses the foam and responds to emergencies at the airport. In a statement, the Chinese consulate called on authorities to determine responsibility for Ye's death. Online comments by Chinese citizens, while expressing sadness at the girl's death, praised the U. S. authorities for revealing the truth and contrasted that transparency with frequent coverups by their own governments. - The Associated Press AS of Saturday afternoon, there were few duller spots on the Internet than the live cam that Britain's Telegraph newspaper is aiming at the Lindo wing of St. Mary's Hospital in west London, where the duchess of Cambridge is expected to deliver the heir to the British throne... sometime. Presumably, maybe, sometime soon. The scene: A red- brick hospital building, with an entrance through Georgian- style doors. Every once in a while, a passerby passes by. The random motor vehicle blurs by. Otherwise... nothing. " How much longer will the world have to wait?" the Telegraph asked, perhaps a bit peevishly, noting the former Kate Middleton's due date was actually Friday. That's the nature of waiting for births, royal or otherwise, and it appears to be driving some of the British media a bit crazy. The Sun tabloid, perhaps best known for its topless Page 3 pinups, found look- alikes for the duke and duchess, William and Kate, and sent the faux royals to the hospital, where they reportedly briefly fooled the assembled media into thinking the real couple were arriving for delivery. The Mirror , helpfully suggested Kate and Will could call their baby Hyacinthe or Theophilus, after some of his or her more exotically named ancestors. The paper was also growing a bit testy, leading its extensive coverage with this complaint: " We are two- thirds of the way through July and still no royal baby." It should be said that some of the more buttoned- down British media are playing the birth relatively low- key. It takes some hunting to find news about the royal pregnancy on the homepages of the Independent or the Times . The BBC went looking for Londoners who were eagerly anticipating the birth... and found mostly American tourists. And the Guardian noted, perhaps not very enviously: " Guess what? America does royalbaby mania bigger and better." British tabloids, the Guardian's Diane Roberts observed, might be expected to " carry breathless, witless, content- free rubbish on the ( apparently) imminent arrival." " But," she continued, " will somebody explain why the American media is panting like wild dogs over what some genius has dubbed ' the Great Kate Wait'? ' Woman has baby' is not, strictly speaking, new, any more than ' dog bites man.' Now, if a woman has a litter of meerkats, that's page 1. Nevertheless, a couple of hundred alleged journalists are now loitering in the indecent heat outside a London hospital, waiting for a pregnant lady to turn up and do her thing." - Los Angeles Times Impatient Brit papers want ' Kate wait' to end Fire truck killed Asiana jet survivor By Terry Collins ARLINGTON, Texas - Investigators will try to determine if a woman who died while riding a roller- coaster at a Six Flags amusement park in north Texas fell from the ride after some witnesses said she wasn't properly secured. The accident happened just after 6: 30 p. m. Friday at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington. Park spokeswoman Sharon Parker confirmed a woman died while riding the Texas Giant roller- coaster, dubbed the tallest steel- hybrid coaster in the world, but did not specify how she was killed. Carmen Brown told the Dallas Morning News she was waiting in line to get on the ride when the accident happened and witnessed the woman being strapped in. " She goes up like this. Then when it drops to come down, that's when it ( the safety bar) released and she just tumbled," Brown, of Arlington, told the newspaper. " They didn't secure her right. One of the employees from the park, one of the ladies, she asked her to click her more than once, and they were like, ' As long you heard it click, you're OK.' Everybody else is like, click, click, click.' Hers only clicked once. Hers was the only one that went down once and she didn't feel safe, but they let her still get on the ride," Brown said. - The Associated Press Fatal error cited on roller- coaster JULIE JACOBSON / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Ulysses Diaz holds son Armani Hinton at a ' Justice for Trayvon' rally in Las Vegas. Similar protests were held in 101 U. S. cities Saturday. LEFTERIS PITARAKIS / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ' Will and Kate' look- alikes didn't fool the assembled media at London's St. Mary's Hospital for long. A_ 06_ Jul- 21- 13_ FP_ 01. indd A6 7/ 20/ 13 11: 52: 21 PM ;