Trayvon Martin: One Year Later

Feburary 26 marks the one-year anniversary of the murder of Travyon Martin by self-proclaimed vigilante, neighborhood watchman, George FU Zimmerman.

Martin's parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, and their attorney, Benjamin Crump, said Martin's death last February 26 in the Orlando suburb of Sanford has altered the debate about Stand Your Ground gun laws.

Police cited that law in initially refusing to arrest Zimmerman, which sparked celebrity protests and popular demonstrations across the country, turning the case into international story.

Although this story, like so many other Trayvon Martin stories, did not spark a national debate on gun control laws like the Sandy Hook elementary school shootings, D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton plans to re-introduce a racial profiling bill.

A press release today from Norton's office states:

Today, a year after the death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old African-American boy who was killed by a neighborhood watch member, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) re-introduced her bill to reestablish a popular federal grant program aimed at reducing racial profiling. Norton’s bill permits states to apply for grants to develop racial profiling laws, to collect and maintain data on traffic stops, to fashion programs to reduce racial profiling, and to train law enforcement officers. Nearly half of the states participated in the program when it was in existence, which, Norton said, shows both the need and interest in tackling this civil rights issue. Norton got the program included in the surface transportation law in 2005, but the program expired in 2009. Norton, a former chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, will try to get her bill included in the surface transportation bill Congress will be writing during this congress.

Demonstrations are planned nation wide in remembrance of the murdered teen.

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