100 Rally for 'Justice for Trayvon Martin'

About 100 people gathered in the Sculpture Garden near Bethlehem City Hall on Wednesday to voice their discontent over the "not guilty" verdict handed down by a Florida jury in the death of Trayvon Martin.

Those who spoke said Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law—along with civilian racial profiling—is to blame for what many saw as an unjust outcome in the trial of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed an unarmed 17-year-old boy as he walked to his father's house from a nearby convenience store in Sanford, Fla.

"If the laws are not changed, this will happen again," said Judy Alexander, women's president of the Elks Lodge in South Bethlehem. "Until then, no child is safe.

“This was racial profiling,” she said.

There are reasons to be concerned locally and in Pennsylvania, protesters said, because the Commonwealth has a “Stand Your Ground” law of its own.

The Florida law allows people to “stand their ground” rather than retreat, even if outside their home, to defend themselves or someone else—with deadly force if necessary—to prevent bodily harm or “to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”

A total of 30 states in the United States have this law or something very similar to it.

Rev. Benjamin T. Hailey, of Union Baptist Church of Allentown, said the laws are “perverting justice by allowing vigilantism.”

“When walking home can get you killed, something is wrong in America,” he said.

Protesters held signs that read, “My son likes Skittles. Is he next?” “Trayvon Martin Murdered” and “I’m not a [target].”

“An unarmed 17-year-old was killed … but nothing was done to tip the scales of justice into balance,” said Dan Bosket, president of the Allentown NAACP.

Bosket encouraged everyone at the rally to go to the NAACP’s Website and sign a petition that calls on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to file civil rights charges against Zimmerman.

The protest was organized by the Bethlehem, Allentown and Easton NAACP chapters.