George Zimmerman, the Florida man who followed and gunned down unarmed youth Trayvon Martin, has yet to be arrested or charged with any crime. Zimmerman may literally get away with murder. Why?
Because of “Kill at Will” laws in Florida and in 24 other states that allow gun-wielding vigilantes like Trayvon’s killer to remain free from the moment they claim that they kill in “self-defense.”
Unless we take urgent action against these laws, the Trayvon Martin case may signal that we are returning to the days when you could kill black people or Latinos without going to jail, “essentially giving citizens permission to do what cops have been doing forever to black and brown men: shoot first,” in the words of one scholar.
We have no choice but to continue the fight to honor Trayvon’s memory by holding Latino politicians and other backers of Kill at Will laws accountable. That fight begins with one of the most outspoken defenders of Kill at Will laws, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who’s also a front-runner for the GOP Vice Presidential ticket. Rubio recently told Politico “I voted for the law because the law had sound rationale, and I think it still does.”
Join the fight against Kill at Will laws by signing the petition telling Marco Rubio to immediately end his support for the deadly Kill at Will laws.
Rubio supported Florida’s original 2005 Kill at Will law when he was a state representative and has continued to aggressively back these laws, even after numerous reports indicated that following passage of the Florida law, the number of “justifiable homicides,” like the killing of Trayvon Martin, spiked from an average of 34 yearly to more than 100 in 2007.
By supporting these laws, Rubio stands against most Latinos and with powerful interests like the National Rifle Association (NRA), the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and other groups responsible for passing Kill at Will laws in more than 25 states, including Florida.
Thanks and ¡adelante!
Roberto, Arturo, Laurie, Favianna, Ana, and the rest of the PresenteAction.org team
UPDATED: 4/11/12 - George Zimmerman was charged for 2 degree murder.
UPDATED: 4/11/12 - George Zimmerman was charged for 2 degree murder.
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