By Liz Goodwin | The Lookout – 17 hrs ago

To mark the 2oth anniversary of the deadly riots that engulfed Los Angeles following the 1992 Rodney King verdict, civil rights activist Al Sharpton and Trayvon Martin's parents are urging peace at events. Sharpton spoke to Yahoo News before he and Martin's family addressed a church on Thursday night.

"Twenty years ago I came out here after that protest after the verdict and tried to discourage the violence, and 20 years later now I'm here with Trayvon's parents and we're saying we don't want violence," he said. After four white police officers were acquitted in the recorded beating of Rodney King on April 29, the city exploded into one of the deadliest riots in American history, leaving 54 dead and causing $1 billion in property damage.

Sharpton, who now hosts a show on MSNBC, says much has changed since then, and he doesn't expect the racially charged debate over Martin's shooting to end in violence if George Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, is acquitted.

"I think even though people are angry and as concerned as I am, we don't feel like we have no options," he says. "Unlike [with] Rodney King, there's defined leadership in Trayvon Martin's case who have said from the beginning we cannot have violence."

Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain in a middle-class gated community in Sanford, Florida, shot the unarmed 17-year-old after calling the cops and following him because he found him suspicious. Zimmerman says he shot him in self-defense after Martin attacked him; Zimmerman's defenders say he suspected Martin because of a string of robberies that had occurred in the neighborhood. (A recent Reuters profile of Zimmerman quotes a black neighbor defending him for finding Martin suspicious because suspects in previous robberies were young black men. She declined to be named because she feared retaliation.) Zimmerman's detractors say he singled out Martin because of his race.

Sharpton says he has no idea whether Zimmerman was prejudiced against Martin because of his race, but he thinks the police would have handled the situation differently if Martin had been white. Zimmerman was briefly taken into custody but not charged with any crime; police said they found his self-defense claim credible. After the outcry, a special prosecutor charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder, more than a month after the shooting.

"If Trayvon Martin had not been black then they would have had taken his killing a lot more seriously at the police station," he says. "If the police had arrested Zimmerman that night there would not be a Trayvon Martin case or movement...Does it mean he's guilty? No. But it does mean that he should have to go in front of a court of law and not be acquitted in the back of a police station."

I was going to post this. Thank you.

"If Trayvon Martin had not been black then they would have had taken his killing a lot more seriously at the police station"

Where is the proof of this?

And who cares (or believes) what that bloated windbag says about peace, when he can't avoid trying to create racial division?

"Please, we shouldn't have violence. Yes, Trayvon was murdered in cold blood and the police didn't care because he was black, but there is no reason for violence."

Give me a break.

Im thinking of an old phrase,,,

damned if you do, damned if you dont,,

Have Al Sharpton drop the racial divisive language and I would have been pleasantly surprised. But as long as he's claiming that a racial divide on justice exists, he's just throwing fuel on the fire and shouting at it to go out.

Most of that article is rat, I mean, race-baited.
Not-so-Sharp-ton is the 2nd most white-hater in the US.
Eugene is number one. Leader of NOI.

are you suggesting there is no racial divide on justice? seriously?

well, if you think Sharpton is responsible for that divide,,,so be it,,,its amazing though cause I thought you more well read than that,,,

I'm suggesting that if such a divide exists, it has not been proven. Until it's proven, you are welcome to take it at faith, but I will not.



Sharpton isn't responsible for the racial divide. In biology terms, Sharpton is a form of parasite that keeps wounds open on black Americans so that he can feed on them.

ok

Good old Allie-Oop kind of implied Zim is almost one of his kind so, he wants to cut his hispanic bro some slack

no clue what that even means,, but ok

What about good ol' Jesse?

Or any of those folks who DARE talk about racism or race relations in AMerica,,,,


'creating' all that division that just wouldnt be there without them,,,,,,,

I expect, a well-read person will be capable of comprehending the similarity.
I like that analogy of Al being a parasite, feeding off the puss of wounds he helps keep infected.

Good old Allie-Oop kind of implied Zim is almost one of his kind so, he wants to cut his hispanic bro some slack


similarity to WHAT?

who is allie oop?

his kind of what?

who else is hispanic in this conversation?

If you tell someone every day that everyone not like him hates him, he will eventually feel that hate, real or not. It happens with white supremacists, we can all admit that. But it's somehow unbelievable when I say that Al Sharpton and other racial hucksters do the same thing?

ID say Ive never heard that message from them and certainly not heard ANYTHING from them anywhere close to EVERYDAY....

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were well read enough to have heard some of the racist and shocking things that Al Sharpton had said and to know what hyperbole was.

ID imagine any statement they have made that 'EVERYONE NOT LIKE YOU HATES YOU',,,,are probably rare enough that I have not personally come across them in reading or any other media

and we are in agreement that the 'everyday' statement is an exaggeration which doesnt really apply in fact to the discussion at hand,,,

It's only an exaggeration, because Al Sharpton isn't on TV or a podium every day.