Health & Fitness
HCC rally targets racial profiling, violence
Trayvon Martin, a Florida teen who was wearing a hoodie sweatshirt, and carrying a bag of Skittles candy and an Arizona iced tea when he was shot and killed by a block watch volunteer.
BRIDGEPORT—Some 300 supporters flooded the courtyard of Housatonic Community College last March for the “I Am Trayvon Martin Rally” just one-month after the 17-year-old Florida resident was slain.
The rally, which was organized to denounce issues like racial profiling, was triggered by the death of Trayvon Martin, a Florida teen who was wearing a hoodie sweatshirt, and carrying a bag of Skittles candy and an Arizona iced tea when he was shot and killed by a block watch volunteer. George Zimmerman, the 28-year-old man who shot and killed Martin, is claiming self-defense. In a 911 call, he told police the 17-year-old black male looked suspicious and that he suspected he may be responsible for a rash of recent break ins around the community. A volunteer captain of his neighborhood watch, Zimmerman claims he was accosted and severely beaten by Martin, forcing him to fire his Kel Tel 9mm pistol killing the unarmed teen.
The audience began filling in the quad just before 5 p.m. with high school and HCC students, many of them wearing hoodies; parents; politicians; police officers; and professors. It lasted over two hours. Bishop Courtney F. Williams instilled his thoughts and prayers as the crowd bowed their heads in a moment of silence. He voiced his concerns about gun violence among youths within the Bridgeport community.
Kirk Wesley, 26, the HCC student who organized the event on his Facebook page six days earlier, is the president of the Community Action Network, a student group dedicated to community service .
At the rally, he spoke about the black-on-black crime epidemic in the country; he linked the Trayvon Martin killing to the events of the Civil Rights movement 50-years ago. “Think about how far we’ve come,” Wesley said “But we still have a long way to go.”
The rally, featured speakers like Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch, HCC President Anita Gliniecki and Professor Edwena Chance.The mayor stressed the city’s involvement in assisting local crime enforcement, in order to prevent future fatalities like the Trayvon Martin killing.
