Two days have passed since the jury acquitted George Zimmerman in the death of Sanford, Fla. teen Trayvon Martin. Since then, social media and news outlets have buzzed with speculations on race, gun control, and the controversial Stand Your Ground law. So what does the verdict mean? And what could or should happen moving forward?
Tampa-based poet and spoken word artist Life Malcom said he wasn't surprised at the verdict.
"People want to believe in the justice system, they want to believe that it really does work, but I've seen this happen before," Malcolm said. "The only reason it's different this time is because the entire world is paying attention."
The Miami Herald reported Sunday that the NAACP website had posted a petition demanding the Justice Department pursue a civil rights case against George Zimmerman. By Sunday evening, the petition had over 250,000 signatures.
"We knew how this would turn out," Malcolm said. "The outrage isn't about George Zimmerman, it isn't. It's about how the justice system isn't working to protect or defend African Americans."
Creative Loafing spoke with Ayele Hunt, executive director of I Am Choice (the grassroots effort that fought the passage of Amendment 6 last year). Hunt has become a major player in local and state progressive organizing efforts. She says that while the response from people across the country has been overwhelming, the post-verdict conversation is missing a few crucial components.
"It wasn't just a white guy versus a black kid. Yes, that is definitely a component, but there are other elements like the Stand Your Ground law," Hunt said. "If that law wasn't there, this would have been an open and shut case. It was the ambiguity of that law that allowed this to take place."
Florida's Stand Your Ground law states that a person “has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm.” (More than 30 states have similar laws now, but Florida was the first.)
Although Zimmerman did not use the Stand Your Ground defense in his case, it's because of that law that it took nearly two months for authorities to arrest Zimmerman because he said he'd acted in self-defense. And Florida's law says there must be specific evidence refuting a self-defense claim in order to arrest someone.
To Hunt, the Stand Your Ground law and the Zimmerman verdict are opportunities for progressives to organize.
"Homophobia, racism, gun violence, we are all fighting the same bigoted radical right agenda separately," Hunt said. "Until we build a coalition, we'll continue to get our butts kicked."
The best way to fight, says Hunt, is to vote.
"I know people are tired of hearing about elections but that is the solution," she says. "The electorate here is not engaged, if they were, they'd be getting people in office to change these laws. In other countries, they are fighting to have a voice. Here, we have a voice, we have a solution to these issues that we haven't tried."
Texas A&M University economist Mark Hoekstra recently conducted a study on national crime statistics and what happens when states pass Stand Your Ground laws. He found that the rate of homicide went up 7-9 percent in states with those laws versus states without.
"We are always talking about awareness," Hunt said, "when the majority of people really need to see something actually change soon."
St. Petersburg community historian and activist Gwen Reese thinks a change of mindset is in order, too.
"America has to stop seeing itself as the best," Reese said Monday. "We're good, but we are not the best and we can be better. This here is an example of where we can be better."