Trayvon
George Zimmerman (Reuters)
EMOTIONAL MOMENT: Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, whose son Trayvon (top left) was slain last month by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman (far left), speak on Capitol Hill yesterday. (
)
The grieving parents of slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin took their emotional pleas for justice to Capitol Hill yesterday, earning a dignified round of applause from lawmakers and hundreds of spectators.
“Trayvon was our son, but Trayvon was your son,” Martin’s mom, Sybrina Fulton, told a congressional panel, organized by the House Judiciary Committee, on racial profiling and controversial “stand your ground” laws.
“A lot of people can relate to our situation and it breaks their hearts just like it breaks ours,” Fulton said about the death of Trayvon, 17, killed last month while unarmed at the hands of a neighborhood watch volunteer.
Martin’s parents — who have been attending rallies in Florida and New York demanding that his killer, George Zimmerman, be prosecuted — were asked to sit at a witness table in the packed hearing room as a gesture of compassion. They gave no formal testimony.
Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the top Democrat on the committee, then asked for everyone to bow their head and observe a moment of silence.
“I would just like to say that of course my heart is broke. But it breaks even more to know that we have not gotten justice yet,” Fulton said after the panel meeting.
Fulton stressed nonviolence and denounced the bounty the New Black Panthers placed on Zimmerman’s head. The killing has ignited nationwide protests.
“We want this done peacefully. We want you to protest, we want you to rally, but we want it to be done peacefully,” she added.
Martin’s father, Tracy Martin, said it was important to ensure that his son, who was wearing a hoodie when he was slain, didn’t die in vain.
Lawmakers, nearly all of them members of the Congressional Black Caucus, echoed complaints that young black men are considered suspicious.
Looking directly at Martin’s parents, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said she had raised two sons.
“These fears haunted me every single day,” she said.
Criticism was also directed at Florida law enforcement.
Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.), who represents the Orlando suburb of Sanford, where the fatal shooting of Trayvon took place, said the investigation into the Feb. 26 slaying had been botched.
“Every part of it has been handled poorly,” Brown said.
Zimmerman, 28, of mixed white and Latino heritage, was cuffed at the scene of the shooting but never formally arrested or charged.
But Sanford Police investigator Chris Serino initially wanted to charge him with manslaughter.
Zimmerman, a volunteer neighborhood watchman, says he fired in self-defense after getting into a fight with the 6-foot-tall school football player.
Serino, however, was instructed not to press charges because the State Attorney’s Office said there wasn’t enough evidence, ABC News reported.
“Its a real mess in there. Unfortunately justice is slow,” Serino told The Post. “Being originally from New York . . . I operate on a different timetable. Right now, I can’t say anything,”
Meanwhile, more details of young Martin emerged from his Twitter account — that of a rebellious teenager who embraced a hip-hop swagger.
Using the handle “No Limit Nigga,” Martin throws around the N-word while bragging about smoking weed.
Also, his cousin posted to his account, “yu ain’t tell me tell me yu swung on a bus driver,” a possible reference to a previous fight.