Rep. Barbara Lee Speaks Out on Trayvon Martin Death

Bay City News Service–According to Bay Area Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), racial profiling, hate crimes and a powerful gun lobby have created a "toxic and deadly mix" and a nationwide attitude that makes the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida a cause for national attention.

Lee's Congressional district includes Piedmont.

Lee, after attending Tuesday's House Judiciary Committee briefing on racial profiling and hate crimes, offered her condolences to Martin's family and said that a similar tragedy could happen anywhere in the U.S.

"Sanford could be anywhere," she said, because of a pervasive tendency to condone guns on the streets, racial profiling and hate crimes, which has created the environment that allowed for something like Martin's death to happen.

"This is a defining moment where we really have to begin to deal with some of the very ugly issues that continue to be swept under the rug," Lee said.

She said that as an African-American parent of two sons, every day she feared for their safety and her fears were realized in Martin's death.

"Those fears haunted me each and every day," Lee said.

Martin was shot and killed on Feb. 26 in Sanford by a neighborhood watch commander, George Zimmerman, who told a 911 dispatcher that he was following a suspicious person in his gated community.

Martin was unarmed and carried only a pack of Skittles and a bottle of iced tea at the time, according to news reports. Zimmerman has not been arrested or charged with a crime.

According to early news reports, Zimmerman continued to follow Martin despite a police dispatcher's admonition to stop. The teenager had been fatally wounded by the time police arrived.

Most recent news stories report that Zimmerman told police he was heading back to his car when Martin attacked him, hitting him in the nose, slamming his head against the ground and trying to take his gun. The initial police report says that Zimmerman was bleeding from the nose and the back of his head when police arrived.

News reports also say that Martin had been suspended from high school for 10 days for having a "baggie" with traces of marijuana in his possession, and that Zimmerman had been arrested twice in the past, once for assault on a police officer and once for domestic violence.

Locally, the Trayvon Martin movement is growing, with people gathering on the steps of Oakland and San Francisco city halls for rallies in the past few days and calling for Zimmerman's arrest. to be brought to justice.

A talk entitled "Hoodies, Hijabs & Hearts" was scheduled at Oakland's Main Library Tuesday night. A rally in Trayvon's honor is planned for 6 p.m. Wednesday at San Francisco's Glide Memorial Church. According to the church, the rally intends to provide the community with a forum for sharing their thoughts and solutions for "breaking the cycles of racism in the U.S."

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