Trayvon Martin Case: Black Panther Party Issues $10,000 Bounty for George Zimmerman
The New Black Panther Party has issued a $10,000 bounty for the capture of widely condemned neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman, exactly one month after the tragic shooting death of unarmed teen, Trayvon Martin.
The controversial group's leader, Mikhail Muhammad, announced the reward during a rally in Sanford on Saturday and avoided questions about whether the group is inciting violence as a retaliation 17-year-old Martin's death, according to the Chicago Tribune.
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," Muhammad told onlookers on Saturday, also chanting "Justice for Trayvon!" and "Black Power!"
"If the government won't do the job, we'll do it!" Muhammad was heard telling rally members, along with "freedom or death" and "justice for Trayvon!"
The $10,000 bounty was announced shortly after part of the 8-member group called on 10,000 black men to capture Zimmerman, who is yet to be charged and arrested despite shooting Martin outside of his Sanford, Fla. home on Feb. 26.
Members of the public, particularly African-American community leaders, have become increasingly outraged in what a growing number of critics insist was a race hate attack on Zimmerman's part.
"Zimmerman should be arrested! There's more than enough probable cause to arrest him. The whole claim of self-defense is bogus. How do you claim self-defense against someone you are pursuing?" Rev. Al Sharpton recently told the Huffington Post.
"It is an unbelievable burden, and hard to articulate, that you're born automatically a suspect, and you have to operate and behave in a way that does not exacerbate or incite someone's paranoia," he continued.
"We have come so far in this country that we can put a black man in the White House, but we can't walk a black child down the neighborhood street to get a bag of Skittles," he added.
Zimmerman, 28, was heard making racist references about Martin during a call to 911 when he suggested that the African American teen looked suspicious while walking home from the store, according to News One.
Thousands continue to unite for nationwide rallies, calling on justice for the Martin family who believe that Zimmerman murdered Martin.
"We want an arrest, we want a conviction for the murder of our son," the late teen's father, Tracy Martin, said at a rally on Thursday.
