The Black Panther Party does not back off after release of police report

Apparently, the New Black Panther Party still wants Zimmerman. A police report recently released shed light on the difficult case of the shooting of Travyon Martin. The African-American youth was shot by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman after assaulting him. Zimmerman apparently shot in self-defense, although he followed the youth because he believed Martin was suspicious.   

Before this police report was released, media portrayed Martin as an innocent teen, which lead the New Black Panther Party stepping in and offering $10,000 for the capture of Zimmerman. After the release of this new report, the party is not backing off and still calls for a citizen arrest of Zimmerman. I previously questioned the funding of the New Black Panther Party, but apparently they have managed to raise $1 million from famous artists and athletes.

Zimmerman obviously committed a mistake when he followed Martin against the advice of the 911 operator he called to report Martin’s suspicious behavior. He put himself in a dangerous situation and probably ended up shooting to defend his life – does that make him a racist? There have been some rather racist comments about the case, especially after FoxNews contributor Geraldo Rivera mentioned that wearing a hoodie was a bad choice. Did Zimmerman assume Martin was suspicious because of his hoodie? Martin ended up assaulting Zimmerman, probably because he had something to hide from the watch captain: the hoodie or the race do not make any difference.

I sincerely hope no one takes the New Black Panther Party on their offer or we will end up with a new episode in this series filled with misguided racial tensions.