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Reuters General/ ­- Article, Dom, 15 de Abril de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Civil Rights)
At U.S. gun convention, many see rush to
judgment in Trayvon Martin case
By Greg McCune ST. LOUIS, Missouri | Sun Apr 15,
2012 3:49am EDT ST. LOUIS, Missouri (Reuters) ­-
Gun­-rights activists at a National Rifle Association
convention said on Friday that protesters who
demanded the arrest of George Zimmerman for the
shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin
were ignoring the U.S. legal principle of innocent until
proven guilty. They said the protesters and the media
had rushed to judge Zimmerman, a white and Hispanic
neighborhood watch volunteer, as guilty in the death of
17­-year­-old Martin, who was black, without having
been convicted."I wish all those folks demonstrating
and making the inflammatory statements would keep
their powder dry," said Owen Mills, an NRA board
member, who runs a firearms training facility in
Paulden, Arizona. Mills said he was not speaking for
the NRA as an organization.Martin's shooting in
February sparked a national debate about "Stand Your
Ground" laws permitting the use of deadly force in
self­-defense. The laws, which have been enacted in
more than 20 states, are strongly backed by the
NRA.Authorities in Sanford, Florida, where the
shooting took place, cited the state's Stand Your
Ground law in deciding not to arrest
Zimmerman.Protesters said local police failed to
aggressively investigate the case and many accused
authorities of racial bias. Tens of thousands of people
around the country took to the streets to demand
Zimmerman's arrest.After days of protests, a special
prosecutor was appointed to take over the case. This
week, she charged Zimmerman with second­-degree
murder.Many in the overwhelmingly white and
conservative crowd at the NRA convention blamed the
media for playing up the racial aspect of the case.Paul
Hopkins, a retired computer engineer from Surfside
Beach, South Carolina, said he was rankled by the
media referring to Zimmerman as a white Hispanic,
which he interpreted as blaming a white man for the
shooting.Mary Ann Reisinger from Oakdale,
Connecticut, was particularly critical of civil rights
leader and TV show host Al Sharpton, who she said
was exploiting the issue by joining the marches for
justice."They should not be out in the streets
demonstrating about it," she said.NRA board member
Mills pointed to the statement by a group describing
itself as the New Black Panther Party last month
offering a bounty of $10,000 for anyone who made a
"citizens arrest" of Zimmerman."That is not the
American way to put a bounty on someone's head,"
Mills said.The bounty suggestion was roundly
condemned by leaders of all political
persuasions.(Editing by Eric Beech)
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