Churchgoer Erin Juarez wipes a tear during a service at Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village. Many wore hooded sweatshirts out of solidarity with slain teen Trayvon Martin. (Helayne Seidman)
A woman holds signs during a demonstration at Union Square today. (AFP/Getty Images)
A man holds up a copy of today’s Post at a rally opposing the George Zimmerman verdict held at Union Square this afternoon. (Getty Images)
President Barack Obama today called the death of Trayvon Martin a “tragedy” but said the country must accept a Florida jury’s decision to acquit the neighborhood watchman accused of killing the unarmed teen.
“I know this case has elicited strong passions. And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher,” Obama said in a statement today. “But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken. I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son.”
A mostly-white jury of six women last night found George Zimmerman not guilty of either murder or manslaughter in the shooting death of the unarmed black teenager last year, in a case that touched on a national conversation about racial profiling and gun laws.
Today, outrage over the verdict poured from street demonstrations and church pulpits Sunday as protesters spoke out against his acquittal and demanded federal charges on civil rights violations.
So far, only one of the protests appears to have descended into disorder. In Oakland, Calif., vandals broke windows, burned U.S. flags and started street fires. Some marchers also shattered the windshield of a police squad car and used spray paint to scrawl anti-police graffiti on a courthouse.
Protests were planned later Sunday in Boston, Detroit, Baltimore, San Francisco and other cities.
In Manhattan, congregants at Middle Collegiate Church were encouraged to wear hooded sweatshirts in the memory of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager who was wearing a hoodie the night he was shot to death in February 2012.
The Rev. Jacqueline Lewis, wearing a pink hoodie, urged peace and told her congregation that Martin Luther King Jr. “would have wanted us to conduct ourselves on the highest plane of dignity.”
But, she added, “we’re going to raise our voices against the root causes of this kind of tragedy.”
Congregant Jessica Nacinovich, wearing a hoodie, said “I can’t help but want to express disappointment and sadness in response to the decision, and I just wanted to come and be here with everybody in solidarity and talk and pray and sing about where we go from here.”
At a youth service in Sanford, Fla., where the trial was held, teens wearing shirts displaying Martin’s picture wiped away tears during a sermon at the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church.
Hours after the verdict, demonstrators gathered on U Street in Washington, D.C., chanting, “No justice, no peace.” One protester carried a sign that read, “Stop criminalizing black men.”
In Florida, about 200 demonstrators marched through downtown Tallahassee carrying signs that said “Racism is Not Dead” and “Who’s Next?”
In Chicago, black clergy members called for calm, with the Rev. Ira Acree of Greater St. John Bible Church saying the community should become “a united voice for peace” because it can’t control the verdict but it “can control our streets and communities.”
About 200 people turned out for a rally and march in downtown Chicago, saying the verdict was symbolic of lingering racism in the United States.
Seventy-three-year-old Maya Miller said the case reminded her of the 1955 slaying of Emmitt Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago who was murdered by a group of white men while visiting Mississippi. Till’s killing galvanized the civil rights movement.
Miller said she feels as if “nothing has changed in 58 years.”
The NAACP called for the opening of a civil rights case against Zimmerman in an online petition addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder.
Civil rights leaders, including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, urged peace in the wake of the verdict. Jackson said the legal system “failed justice,” but violence isn’t the answer.
Obama’s full statement is below:
The death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy. Not just for his family, or for any one community, but for America. I know this case has elicited strong passions. And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher. But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken. I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son. And as we do, we should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our own communities. We should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis. We should ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this. As citizens, that’s a job for all of us. That’s the way to honor Trayvon Martin.