Who’s up for a little street justice? The New Black Panther Party, for starters. They’re circulating a “Wanted: Dead or Alive” poster for George Zimmerman, the 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer who shot 17-year-old black youth Treyvon Martin last month. Public outrage erupted after the police in Sanford, Florida declined to arrest Zimmerman, who claims he fired in self-defense.
President Obama inserted himself into the case on Friday, saying “every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together, federal, state, and local, to figure out how this tragedy happened.” Obama also remarked that if he had a son, “he’d look like Trayvon,” which will not do much to calm passions surrounding the case, or make it any easier to put together an impartial jury for any trial that might occur.
The New Black Panthers aren’t waiting around for any boring old “investigations.” They printed up a flyer declaring Trayvon Martin was “MURDERED in Cold BLOOD” and passed them out during a press conference held by Mikhail Muhummud, who described himself as “the southern regional director for the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense,” according to The Blaze.
On the subject of whether printing up this flyer might exacerbate a situation that has already seen death threats against Zimmerman, Muhummud declared, “God dammit, he should be fearful for his life.”
The New Black Panthers might have to get in line for their crack at Zimmerman, because another militant group, the New Black Liberation Militia, announced it would be sending members to Orlando next week to “attempt a citizen’s arrest” on Zimmerman.
They won’t have any trouble finding him, because movie director Spike Lee used his Twitter account to beam Zimmerman’s home address to his 244,858 followers.
Also on Twitter, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan said of Treyvon Martin, “Let us see what kind of justice will come for his bereaved family and our bereaved community”… followed immediately by, “Where there is no justice, there will be no peace. Soon and very soon, the law of retaliation may very well be applied.” Farrakhan has just under 37,000 Twitter followers.
Sanford police chief Bill Lee and his family have also been targeted by a death threat, issued by one John Carnduff Stewart of Melbourne Beach, Florida. Charges have been filed against Stewart, and he was placed on electronic monitoring. Lee stepped down as chief of police on Thursday, while Stewart’s emailed death threat was sent on Friday.
Update: The Black Panthers have now placed a cash bounty on Zimmerman's head. Originally it was $10,000, but later Mikhail Muhammad, speaking in Sanford, Florida, announced that he was receiving additional funds from "the black community, athletes, and entertainers as we speak," and anticipated kicking the bounty up to one million dollars by next week.
Hopes that President Obama would be able to defuse the situation with one of his famous "beer summits" were dashed, as Muhammad explicitly stated he will not be mollified by beer or good times.
Video of the announcement courtesy of CNN below.
