Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story (2018–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - The Elephant in the Room - full transcript

Rescue 38.

Law enforcement advised,
can approach.

For the first time in history,

you had a black boy
on the covers

of every major magazine
in America.

I always wanted
Trayvon to be famous,

but not in this manner.

At a point you ask yourself,

"How can I get out of this
news story?"

But there's no getting
out of the news story.

...Twist in a story
that went from a local case



to the most widely
reported issue in America.

Trayvon Martin!
Trayvon Martin!

More than 2 million
people from around the world

demanding George Zimmerman
be arrested.

What do we want? - Justice!

Trayvon Martin
marked a moment in history.

Justice.

People felt impelled to act.

Marchers from across the state

took buses to participate.

So many people
remember that moment,

and saying, "That was
when I got out in the street.

That's when I knew
something had to change."

This then explodes



into a social media revolution,

and then everybody knew
who Trayvon Martin was.

You know, if I had a son,
he'd look like Trayvon.

That just immediately
polarized the country.

He said, "If I had a son,
he'd look like that."

The teenager was
suspended from school

for drug activity.

He was violent
and highly sexualized.

You need to make
Trayvon a villain.

You need to make him
into a nigger.

Clearly, we are not
living in post-racial America.

Tension on the rise
in this small town.

One official called
the city a "tinderbox."

It's a perfect microcosm

for what has split us
as a country.

Why are we going
through so much pain,

when all we want
is justice for our son.

There is breaking news
coming out of Florida...

Newly released 911
calls are raising questions

about what is a watchman
and what is a vigilante?

Outrage over the teen's death

now starting
to spread nationwide.

It's been over
three weeks without an arrest,

and his parents
still want to know why.

At this point,
you got a massive hurricane

heading at you.

I just remember coming into
work, shaking the mouse,

getting the computer to wake up,

and it woke up, all right.

And I had hundreds,
if not thousands of emails

that are coming into us.

The black community
was expecting

for this young man
to be arrested.

You got a black kid
who was killed.

And nobody in the black
community trusted

the Sanford Police Department.

Relations between
the Sanford police

and its black community were
strained

well before Martin's shooting.

In 2010, this black homeless man

was knocked unconscious
as he tried to stop a fight.

His white attacker, the son of
a Sanford police lieutenant,

wasn't charged until
three weeks of public outcry.

There's so much
about Sanford, Florida,

that's emblematic of sort of
the race problems in America.

There's an old part of town,

literally on the other side
of the tracks,

Goldsboro.

Along this road,
was a thriving community.

An all-black township.

We produced lawyers, doctors,
right out of Goldsboro.

But then,
the historic black town

was forcibly taken over
by Sanford,

a white town right next door.

Back in the days of segregation,

the Klan used to march up
to that line.

And the black men of Goldsboro
used to have to come out

with their shotguns and dare
them to come across the line.

It's a town with a really
fraught racial history.

We were colored.
We were negroes.

Most time, we were niggers
in Sanford.

Jackie Robinson had come here
to play in the stadium,

and whites in Sanford did not
want a black man playing

with the white men.

The chief was called over
by the Ku Klux Klan

to come in the field.

Police chief went out
on the baseball field

and told Jackie Robinson
a nigger would not hit a ball

in the city of Sanford.

Fast-forward to today,

you see black people thrown up
against the side

of police cars.

You see black people
sitting on the ground

with their arms crossed
behind their backs.

There are constant arrests.

There's a culture of
prejudice and bigotry.

But that good old boy network,

where one hand
watches the other,

one hand look out for the other,

that was definitely involved
here in Sanford.

There were claims that
the Sanford Police Department

was protecting George Zimmerman.

There's no way we'd be
protecting George Zimmerman.

And so do I.

And this new video
shows Zimmerman

walking unescorted
at the police station.

The recording raises
new questions about

whether Zimmerman received
preferential treatment.

Not--I'm not gonna talk about

all the facts and circumstances.

I see something was not right.

The case started stinking.

The police-community
relationship

was at an all-time low,

and the Trayvon Martin case
put it out in the open.

Stayed in his car.
He could've stayed in his car.

Then there's not a shooting.
It would've never occurred.

That's what we're
trying to tell you.

We were overcome with
emotion and fear and anger.

I called Chief Billy Lee.

He says, "Well, what do you
want me to do?"

I said, "We want you
to arrest him.

That's what
we want you to do."

There was pressure applied.

You know, all we wanted
was an arrest.

And I explained to them, well,
you--you just can't do that.

You have to
understand the process.

The chief said he was
standing his ground.

As members of the NRA,

we stand our ground.

The NRA used
its influence, money,

and lobbying muscle to get the
stand-your-ground law passed

in Florida and over a dozen
other states as well.

The law changed
the actual definition

of self-defense.

Stand-your-ground, it seemed
to protect people who killed.

Stand-your-ground makes
cops and prosecutors

potentially liable for
charging people who assert

self-defense.

If we improperly
prosecute somebody

when they're claiming
self-defense,

we could be liable for that.

The Sanford Police

have in the back of their mind,

if I don't do this right,
I could be sued personally.

Chris Serino was a hard-nosed,

old school detective.

He was trying to discredit

George Zimmerman's testimony.

Okay, why suspicious?

Detective Serino could've said,
"George, stand up, turn around,

"put your hands
behind your back.

You're under arrest."

And the only thing that
could've prevented him

from going out and arresting
George Zimmerman,

if he believed he had
probable cause, would be a fear

of civil liability under
the stand-your-ground law,

or if he had instructions
from someone above him,

like the State Attorney's
Office saying,

"You're not to make an arrest
without my prior approval."

The State Attorney
kept saying, you know,

"Not enough, not enough."

You know,
"We don't have anything here."

But you've got the
pressure from the media,

pressure from the community,

pressure from
the city commission.

I'm not sure where
the breaking point was,

but it--it certainly happened.

We recommended
that Mr. Zimmerman

be charged with manslaughter.

And we sent it
to the State Attorney.

So the city's kind of
washed their hands.

"Look, the police department
did something."

They chose to file this capias,

asking the state attorney

to put a warrant out
for Zimmerman.

You know,
the pressure's building.

Let's send it to
the State Attorney's Office

and let's let them clear it.

Kind of a hot potato.

That's when you sense
the real divide.

The next day,
we had a task force meeting.

The State Attorney looks at me,
he does like this,

he just starts poking
that hole, saying,

"You f#ked us
with a red hot poker."

They didn't want any part of it.

They're like,
"Don't send that to us."

State Attorney
decided that no charges

would be brought.

There would not be an arrest.

There you go,
there you go, there you go.

I was back at home,
and my mind was just racing.

You know, a black teen shot,
killed.

It gets considered
as a justifiable homicide.

I couldn't get an answer,

and so I decided to start
investigating by myself.

All I kept thinking about
was his cell phone,

his cell phone, his cell phone.

Well, he just went to the
computer and he pulled it up.

That's when we first found out
that Trayvon was on the phone

when all of this happened.

I called the number
on a phone bill.

Trayvon's friend Rachel
answered the phone,

"According to the phone records,

you were the last person
that he talked to."

She was just quiet.
She couldn't tell me nothing.

I didn't wanna be in this.

For God's sake,
this is a murder case.

Sybrina pleaded with her.

"Please, at least
talk to our lawyer."

I'm trying to figure out
this in my head,

'cause I'm still in shock
of what happened.

Trayvon called me.

He was heading to the 7-11.

He was like,
"Oh, I left the store.

I'm walking back
to the house."

Suddenly, Trayvon tell me
there's some guy watching him.

I was like, "Trayvon,
you better be paranoid,

you better be conscious."

Trayvon said, "Oh, shit."

The dude is following him
with the car.

I was like, "You better run."

Shit, he's running.

Trayvon said,
"I lost him."

Then he's behind him again.

Tray said, "Why are you
following me?"

George Zimmerman's saying,

"What're you doing
around here?"

Then bam, the phone went off.

Attorney Benjamin Crump

holding an emergency
press conference today.

He says a new witness
proves that Trayvon Martin

was not the aggressor.

He had no idea who this man
was who was following him.

And so he starts to run, and
Zimmerman gets out of his car

and pursues him.

Crump pulled out a tape

of the witness for reporters.

This young lady
connects the dots.

She blows Zimmerman's
absurd self-defense claim

out of the water.

Trayvon Martin's
parents say enough is enough.

We're asking for justice,
justice, justice.

Attorney Benjamin Crump

says he has explosive
new evidence.

A new witness
says she was on the phone

with Trayvon Martin as he was
stalked by George Zimmerman.

He said this man
was watching him.

In his first
statement to police,

Zimmerman claimed he was
ambushed and attacked.

He jumped out from the bushes.

Why he would be on the phone

if he was gonna attack somebody?

That don't make no sense.

But she says Martin was running

from the point of conflict,

that Zimmerman was the
aggressor and chased him down.

Everyone thought, surely,

George Zimmerman
would be arrested.

And at the end of the day,

they still won't
arrest the killer

of Trayvon Benjamin Martin.

The stand-your-ground law

became more important
to Norm Wolfinger

than justice for Trayvon Martin.

Stand-your-ground loomed over

this entire situation.

Prosecutors needed
to consider it

in determining
what to charge him with,

if anything.

The prosecutor in Sanford

decided there was no crime,

because they read the
stand-your-ground doctrine

to say that George Zimmerman
was standing his ground

when he killed Trayvon Martin.

And therefore, proactively,
were gonna not arrest him,

and not charge him with a crime.

I get a call from Pam Bondi,

who is the attorney general
for the state of Florida.

Hi, I'm so very, very sorry.

As attorney general, I have
absolutely no legal authority

to take the case,
and I looked, I tried,

What is the strategy now?

We gotta continue
to expose them.

And so, we went to New York.

We called in every
favor possible.

7:00 a.m., "Today" show.

8:00, "Good Morning, America."

9:00, Anderson Cooper.

You gotta get over to
"The View" by 11:00.

You gotta get "Dateline."
That's the hope.

And, oh, by the way, Reverend
Al is taping an hour live

at 6:00 p.m.

How have you been handling this?

I read you made the statement

that it's hard to sleep and eat.

I'm just consumed
with the fact that this guy

has not been arrested,
who murdered my son.

Across the country, people
wonder how this tragedy

could've happened.

All of us who had been
17-year-old black boys,

knew 17-year-old black boys
in our lives,

looked at those pictures
of Trayvon Martin

and something snapped.

This is the type of shit that
happens every day in the U.S.,

but it was something about this
no one could turn away from.

This is the generation,

especially for black people
who are growing up

during the War on Drugs,

were growing up in neighborhoods

that are over-policed,

with Trayvon Martin's murder,

he becomes a rallying call
for us.

It's not as if we hadn't seen

the deaths
of young black people,

that we weren't paying
attention to injustice,

but in 2012, there was this
emergence of social media,

whereby we could connect
with one another.

Facebook was a big part of that.

You realized that
you're not alone.

And also, you realized
you got a lot to learn.

It became particularly uncool

to not talk about what
was going on in the world.

We felt it collectively.

I remember seeing
on social media saying,

"If you're not talking
about Trayvon Martin,

"I don't want you on my wall.

I don't want you
on my Twitter feed."

It was the first time
I started hearing

white people say, "Oh man,

I think I need
to check my own racism."

So many of us had
seen Sybrina and Tracy

on television and felt bad.

But as white people, this would
never have happened to us,

and it has never happened to us.

Put my hand out for a taxi,
a taxi picks me up.

I walk into a restaurant,
they've never asked me

to pay for my bill before I eat.

When I walk down the street,

nobody grabs their purse
in fear of me.

I'm talking directly to
my white friends,

my white colleagues,
and my white family.

We have to speak up,

and we have to be a part
of this conversation

to push this country forward.

Uh, it boggles my mind that
people think that white people

shouldn't care about this.

Kevin Cunningham,
he was at Howard

for the arrest
of George Zimmerman.

That petition was
like the first call

for national protests.

At last check, there
was 20,000 plus signatures.

More than 100,000.

200,000 people
signed an online petition.

That is the fastest-growing
Internet petition

in the history of the Internet.

A single petition
calling for his arrest

has 400,000 signatures.

This petition was huge.

It made a lot of us wanna get
out to the streets ourselves.

I encourage everyone to wear
a hoodie to work, to school.

Whatever you're doing,
uh, wear a hoodie.

Trayvon's hoodie became a symbol

and helped create
a sense of community

and the sense of
a community in struggle.

We're gonna march
to show our solidarity

with Trayvon Martin's family.

And if you're in New York,
please join us in Union Square

at 6:00.

We were expecting
to see a few hundred people.

The closer we got,

we were starting to see
traffic being detoured.

It was a sea
of people out there.

We are Trayvon.
We are Trayvon.

We are Trayvon.

All you can hear
is cries for justice.

We are...
- Trayvon!

I was nervous,

because I just hadn't been
in a setting like that.

There, right here.

Rally underway in
New York's Union Square Park.

This is where the
Occupy Wall Street movement

has been making its base.

Occupy Wall Street was
there with local organizers.

There was convergence of
on the ground activism.

We've got the right to march

right down the middle
of the street.

You can see thousands
upon thousands of people

on 14th Street,
and all eyes are on

the parents of Trayvon Martin.

I said, "I don't know
if I could do this."

You started seeing
people there saying,

"Man, I just wanna
shake your hand."

And, "Man, thank you guys
for speaking up."

Once we started hearing that,

the nervousness
started to leave.

And I just want New York
to know that

we're not gonna stop until
we get justice for Trayvon.

Sybrina comes
and she steps beside me,

and I'm holding
the mic to her mouth.

Our son was not
committing any crime.

No.Our son is your son.

Yes.

I want you guys
to stand up for justice

and stand up for what's right.

This is not about
a black and white thing.

This is about
a right and wrong thing.

Justice for Trayvon.

Crowd goes crazy.

It took my son being shot down

to make me stand up.

For me, who really wasn't
paying attention

to the things that was
going on with this country,

it definitely woke me up.

It made me pay attention.
It made me wanna fight.

Justice!

Marchers now
taking it 30 blocks uptown,

to Times Square.

Mic check. - Mic check.

I don't know about you.
- I don't know about you.

But I'm motherf#king angry.

But I'm motherf#king angry.

So many people
remember that moment

and saying, "That was when
I got out in the street.

That's when I knew
something had to change."

How long are they gonna say
that this was justifiable,

that George Zimmerman
had a right to kill him?

How long were
they gonna lie to us?

I am Trayvon Martin...

When it first happened,

we didn't know
how widespread it was.

It's a feeling that
you really can't explain,

but I can say that I'm proud
that we spoke up.

And now we have
people galvanizing

and a new civil rights movement

being formed behind
Trayvon's death.

After the rally
down at Union Square,

I called a few of my friends
in Florida,

and I said,
"I need the churches.

I need the student groups."

'Cause I understood
that it would only be

a one- or two-day story

if you couldn't show
thousands of people

say that this is outrageous.

I was getting this early flight

to go down to Sanford.

On my way to the airport,
my sister says

my mother died the night before.

When I landed,
my cell phone rang.

The president was calling me
to give me condolences.

He said, "I hear some noise
in the background.

Where are you?"

I said,
"I'm in Sanford, Florida.

About this
Trayvon Martin case."

He said, "Really?"

I said, "Yeah, well, I'm doing
what mother would've wanted."

We're going to show
the authorities

this is not going away.

Y'all don't know
what's on his way here.

You're gonna have to answer

for what happened
to Trayvon Martin.

The president of
the NAACP, Ben Jealous,

arrived in Sanford today,

and is calling for
the police chief to resign.

Any chief who would allow
his police officers

to so mishandle
a situation like this

has to go.

No more. - No more.

Protestors joining the call

for the removal
of Chief Bill Lee.

I like Bill Lee,
but I think that a lot of times

you have sacrificial lambs.

Now Sanford city
commissioners are calling

for Lee to step down.

I have come to the decision

that I must temporarily
remove myself

from the position as police
chief for the city of Sanford.

Chief Lee, may I ask you
a question, please?

What would you have done
differently now, in retrospect?

What would you have
done differently?

Just hours after
Bill Lee's resignation,

protestors have gathered
in Fort Mellon Park

to demand Zimmerman's arrest.

People rushed to Sanford.

People made the trip
from all over the country.

This was unlike anything that I
had witnessed in my lifetime.

We must not allow...

Thousands gathered
here chanting,

"Chief is gone.
Zimmerman is next."

You had at least
30,000 people there

from all over the state.

That was the biggest
ever seen in an open area

in the entire state of Florida.

Enough is enough.

We are tired of going to jail
for nothing,

and others going home
for something.

Arrest Zimmerman now!

The beauty of that moment

was the non-violence,

was blacks and whites together,

was generations together.

It showed the protest movement
at its best.

If Trayvon would've been alive,

Trayvon would've been
at this rally.

And I pledge I will not
let my son die in vain.

We get a call.

"Governor Rick Scott wants to
meet with you

and your clients."

And I'm saying, "The governor
is here in Sanford?"

I'm like, "Okay."

Well, Rick Scott is
a fascinating character.

He was a rags to riches
multi-millionaire.

He had built the largest
hospital company in America.

Uh, he had to resign
from the hospital company

because he was being
investigated

for one of the largest
Medicare frauds in history.

It looks like my signature,
but, I mean,

what's your question?

And years later wanted
to become governor,

and he came out of nowhere.

No one really knew
anything about him.

A long time ago, I
met Rick Scott in the capitol.

And he crossed his legs.
He had some cowboy boots.

And emblazoned on the front
of it is a Confederate flag.

And he saw us notice,
and he said,

"Ah, these were a gift."

For the last eight years,

Rick Scott has been a great
ally for the NRA.

He has signed more pro-gun bills

than any other governor
in Florida history.

So when Trayvon
Martin's killing happened,

Rick Scott's default
it's gonna be like,

"Well, I'm gonna look
into it."

There's not enough information.
No one has enough information.

And then the media suggested

that George Zimmerman's father
had something to do with him

not being arrested
because he used his power

as a former magistrate.

Do you think George Zimmerman
is some way being

protected because his father
was a retired magistrate?

The allegation was
that the State Attorney

knew Robert Zimmerman

and there was some sort of
meeting between them.

They say both of them
decided to overrule

the lead investigator and
not charge George Zimmerman.

Wolfinger calling the family's
accusations, quote,

"outright lies."

Once these things become
TV media spectacles,

they just get out of hand.

The State Attorney
recused himself.

So then the case becomes,

"Alright, what does
Governor Rick Scott do?"

And he appoints a prosecutor

who's best known for
prosecuting black children,

Angela Corey.

Over the last 30 years,

Corey has prosecuted
65 homicide cases.

The 57-year-old has a reputation

as a tough conservative
in the court room.

Angela Corey was
"law and order, charge 'em,

lock 'em up."

She decided to
prosecute this 12-year-old,

Cristian Fernandez, as an adult

in the beating death of his
two-year-old brother.

The youngest person
in Florida history

to be charged for murder
as an adult.

She's the--
the Wicked Witch of the West.

She wasn't somebody
who was terribly sympathetic

to the African-American
community,

but the thought was, "Okay,
let's see if this might be

the case that could be
sort of her career-maker."

I think if the public
would be patient,

they would understand that
this is a very complicated

area of the law,

and that we're gonna
do everything we can

to make sure the public also
has the answers that they need.

Angela Corey knew
that that was bullshit.

If they wanted to arrest him,
they could've.

And they could've brought him
before a judge and said,

"He shot a black kid coming
back from the store

"who had bought Skittles,

and who was doing nothing."

We are Trayvon Martin.
We are Trayvon Martin.

Walkouts all across Miami today

in support of Trayvon.

Kids all over Florida
started walking out of school,

saying,
"Arrest George Zimmerman."

And then you had it nationwide.

Every day I will
announce to America

how long justice
has been delayed.

So many people
were standing up for us

and supporting us.

LeBron James
tweeted a team photo

to pay tribute to Martin.

LeBron James posted
a photo on social media.

LeBron James writing
"RIP Trayvon Martin"

on his shoe.

LeBron was saying "I see you."

A lot of us are fathers.

A lot of us have--
have young boys.

Being a successful black man,

if I walk down the street right
now at night with a hoodie on,

I'ma still feel that fear.

No matter how much money
you have,

no matter how much
popularity you have,

you still had to deal
with the question of race.

No justice.

Demonstrations are planned

in more than 20 major cities
this weekend.

More than 2 million
people from around the world

have signed their names
demanding

George Zimmerman be arrested.

Also, in Washington,
a rally was held

outside the White House

to show support
for Trayvon Martin,

calling on the president to
deliver justice in this case.

When Trayvon was killed,

we urged Obama to say something.

They were discussing
how to address this,

and many people in the room
were saying, "Leave it alone.

Leave it alone.
Don't talk about it."

And he knew, during a
presidential election year,

that this was a risk.

Obviously, this is a tragedy.

It is absolutely imperative
that we investigate

every aspect of this.

But my main message is to the
parents of, uh, Trayvon Martin.

You know, if I had a son,
he'd look like Trayvon.

And, um,

you know, I think they are
right to expect

that all of us,

as Americans,
are gonna take this

with the seriousness
it deserves,

and that we're gonna
get to the bottom

of exactly what happened.

Thank you.

That was pivotal.

Obama didn't talk about
blackness very much at all.

But that moment,

black people felt like
we had a black president.

Whereas white America
felt totally different.

The president himself...

I don't like when politics

gets in the way of facts.

What the president
said is disgraceful.

Houston, we've got a problem.

Tonight, it's the
tragedy that has captured

the attention of both
civil rights watchdogs,

and gun rights advocates
nationwide.

Some call for justice, while
others preach patience

for the facts to fully emerge.

There's a time in the media

where there was sympathy
given to Trayvon Martin

and the family.

And that cut across
the partisan lines

that we're accustomed to.

The way the police handled this
stinks to high heaven.

Every decent American should
want justice in this case.

Well, it has to be looked into.
It's terrible what happened.

17 years old, and now there are
all sorts of stories coming out

which just don't sound right.

Then Barack Obama says...

You know, if I had a son,
he'd look like Trayvon.

It just immediately
polarized the country.

Black America hears it
as a eureka moment.

Finally having what we've known

our entire lives affirmed.

White America hears it
as this black president

accusing every single
one of them of being racist.

This is nonsense.

I don't like when politics gets
in the way of the facts,

or when people come
to criminal investigations

with political agendas.

Why did Barack Obama have
to bring race into this?

The President
of the United States'

only public reaction,
"Look, if I had a son,

he'd look like that."

For what purpose
does on say that?

The conservative
media was on attack.

Do you really wanna have
a conversation

about who kills
who in this country?

Do you wanna look
at the statistics?

These pundits were all part
of a master narrative.

Zimmerman is not
being treated fairly.

The conversation in much
of white America turned

to, "Wait a minute, George
Zimmerman is the victim."

The victim of a President
of the United States

using unequal power against him.

Now George Zimmerman
has hired defense attorneys

Hal Uhrig and Craig Sonner.

The only place
George was on trial

was in the court
of public opinion.

One--one at a time.
Right here.

What--what?

It fed on itself.
It developed its own life.

It was tough to try to break
through that narrative.

And we didn't have a seething
town of civil unrest

because of race relations.

Jesse Jackson,

Al Sharpton
brought that to town.

But he's not actually
allowed to carry a gun

as a Neighborhood Watch
official.

That's why you saying
that when he made the call...

You're wrong.
You're wrong.

He was acting--
well, I'm not wrong.

That is the law, isn't it?

You are wrong.

A black friend of the family

says that these screams...

Which sparked so much protests

across the nation,
are actually the screams

of George Zimmerman.

We had a number of the people
actually in the media going,

"Huh."

Look, he's somebody's son.

No one needs to die
unnecessarily.

I can't imagine
the pain of the family.

But all evidence suggests
that Trayvon Martin

was a young punk and a thug.

A poor black child
murdered in cold blood

on the way to the 7-11
to buy some candy.

Get a good look
at this magazine cover.

Really soak it in.

Some very different pictures
emerge of the two men involved.

Literally.

These pictures we have
all seen many, many times.

It was conservative websites
that actually first showed us

the new pictures

that clearly show Trayvon older.

"If I had a son he'd probably
look just like Trayvon."

Which one, the 10-year-old
or the 17-year-old?

Which one would he look like?

The teenager was suspended
from school for drug activity.

Let's now take this kid
and turn him into a villain.

Let's turn him into a menace.

It goes back to that
classic storyline

that we all know,

about the black victim

not really being a victim.

I covered the Rodney King trial.

I vividly remember
hearing people say,

"Well, we don't know what
happened before

the tape started running."

Well, we know
what happened on tape.

I think the hoodie
is as much responsible

for Trayvon Martin's death

as George Zimmerman was.

Trayvon Martin wearing a hoodie

was deemed just as dangerous

as George Zimmerman
having a gun.

Just because someone
wears a hoodie...

does not make them a hoodlum.

If the hoodie was the problem,

then white people who wear
hoodies would end up dead,

and that's not the case.

The website "The Daily Caller"

has published more than
150 pages

of Trayvon's Twitter activity.

You had right wing
blogs doxing him.

The photo depicts him
extending his middle finger.

Have you seen a kid's
Facebook posts lately?

Who didn't have a picture
flicking the camera off?

The Twitter account
was "No Limit Nigga."

N-I-G-G-A.

It wasn't, um, you know,

"Dr. Martin Luther King's
acolyte."

"No, I'm a no limit nigga."

We have screen grabs
that showed sexual aggression

typical of hip-hop culture
in America today.

He was violent
and highly sexualized.

But they were out to
gather as much information

as they could to justify
his very death.

Let me tell you something
about Trayvon Martin's trip

to the 7-11.

There's a street drug.
It's not called "scat."

There's a street drug that's
popular with the kids.

It has three ingredients.

Sudafed, which is cough syrup,

Skittles and watermelon juice.

A particular brand
of watermelon juice.

I had not heard that one.

If you take Arizona watermelon
fruit juice cocktail,

a bag of Skittles,
and add simple cough syrup,

you get a cheap, codeine-based
drink called "lean."

Do these people actually
know what lean is?

Seems a bit of
a coincidence to me,

but the only two items he
picked up

out of the entire 7-11

were 2/3 of the ingredients
needed to make lean.

That--those are not
the ingredients.

And we could do this for hours.

You killed my son.

And then you're
assassinating his character

in the same breath.

They tried to break me.

They tried to break my family.

They can talk about
the suspension.

They can talk
about the marijuana.

They can talk about
the middle finger.

They can talk about the grill.

But at the end of the day,
that does not justify

a 28-year-old man
with a loaded gun

chasing, following,
profiling, pursuing

a 17-year-old.

You need a racist idea
to pin this on.

You need to make Trayvon
into a villain.

You need to make him
into a nigger.

Protestors blocked the entrance

of the Sanford Police
Department today

to increase the pressure for
an arrest of George Zimmerman.

- I am...
- Trayvon.

Marchers from across the state

took buses to participate.

A firestorm came.

Organizers say
the protests will continue

weekend after weekend until
authorities make an arrest.

Special prosecutor Angela Corey

telling Anderson Cooper
there are significant hurdles

to clear before
an arrest can be made.

Remember, our burden of proof
is beyond a reasonable doubt.

That's an extremely high burden,

especially in light of
the stand-your-ground law.

And you're hoping to make
that decision, you think,

within the next couple of days?

No, no, probably--hopefully by
the end of the week after next,

or we--we need
a couple of weeks.

Without stand-your-ground,

he would have been
arrested right away.

Thousands of
protestors descending

on Sanford once again.

Don't shoot me.
Skittles and tea.

There was a wound that
had a scab on it

for a long time.

And this pulled that scab off.

Now it's truly bleeding, and
we don't know how to stop it.

Father, this world is broken,

this city is broken,

but Father,
you came to fix broken things.

I don't think Sanford
needs healing.

I'm out and about in this city
all day, every day,

and I feel this city
was invaded.

This city was invaded by people

who have their own
personal agenda.

And they're still coming in,

who wants their
15 minutes of fame.

They need to be shown
the finger and shown the door.

City Commissioner Randy Jones

says Sanford residents
have seen enough.

Tensions rising
weekend by weekend,

protest by protest.

One official called
the city a "tinderbox."

Black power! Black Power!
- Black power! Black Power!

The New Black Panther Party

has placed a $10,000 bounty on
the head of George Zimmerman.

If you kill my damn baby, we're
gonna kill your damn baby.

Sanford is gonna explode.

The head of
a white separatist group

called the National
Socialist Movement

have announced patrols
on Sanford, Florida.

Jeff Schoep says
he'll protect white citizens

from racial violence.

No peace.
No justice, no peace.

A scary new turn in
the Trayvon Martin saga.

Early this morning,
six shots were fired

into a police car outside
The Retreat at Twin Lakes.

People were
really scared about riots.

Sanford spun out of control.

Three counties have activated

their emergency
operation centers

at the same level of
preparedness as if a hurricane

was about to hit.

Breaking news.

Special prosecutor Angela Corey

is gearing up for
a press conference

to release new details
in the Trayvon Martin case.

I'm praying, "Lord,
please don't let her come back

and say that she doesn't
have enough probable cause."

Good evening, everyone.

I'm Angela Corey,
the special prosecutor

for the Trayvon Martin case.

We was just nervous.

Like, what's gonna happen?

This is it.

Black people were
watching this side by side,

hoping that
they would get justice.

We were praying
that God was on our side.

Today we charge George Zimmerman

with murder
in the second degree.

A capias has been issued
for his arrest.

We had been fighting
for 40-some-odd days

for an arrest.

We just embraced each other.

We just hugged
and cried and prayed.

It was a moral victory.
It had to be.

We simply wanted an arrest.

We wanted nothing more,
nothing less.

We just wanted an arrest,
and we got it.

And I say thank you.

I will confirm that Mr.
Zimmerman is indeed in custody.

Can you tell us where?

I will not tell you where.

He will have a right to appear
in front of the magistrate

in Seminole County within
24 hours of his arrest.

And thus,
formal prosecution will begin.

Well, it didn't take long.

We have many
complicated homicides

that are thoroughly
investigated.

Remember, the prosecutor's
burden under our constitution

is proof beyond
a reasonable doubt.

Here's the moment
so many have waited for.

George Zimmerman in handcuffs.

I remember I told
Tracy and Sybrina,

"It's a great day,

but it doesn't mean
he's going to jail."

And I'll never forget.

Sybrina said, "They didn't
even want him to go to court."

Today George
Zimmerman appeared in court

to face charges that he shot
and killed Trayvon Martin.

People were relieved
once he was actually arrested.

But George Zimmerman
becomes a hero

to a lot of white America.

There were people out
there who are willing

to give him money.

Now, donations are
said to be skyrocketing.

Is there anything you
might do differently?

I feel that it was all
God's plan.