Civil rights leaders in the U.S. pressured authorities to make an arrest in the case of an unarmed black teenager shot to death by a neighbourhood watch captain after declaring victories in getting federal and state officials to investigate. At a town hall meeting Tuesday evening in Florida, where 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot last month, officials from the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Nation of Islam urged residents to remain calm but demand that the shooter, George Zimmerman, be arrested. Zimmerman has not been charged in the Feb. 26 shooting and has said he shot Martin, who was returning to a gated community after buying candy at a convenience store, in self-defence after Martin attacked him. Police said Zimmerman is white; his family says he is Hispanic. “I stand here as a son, father, uncle who is tired of being scared for our boys,” said Benjamin Jealous, national president of the NAACP. “I’m tired of telling our young men how they can’t dress, where they can’t go and how they can’t behave.” The case has ignited a furor against the police department of this Orlando suburb, prompting rallies and a protest in Gov. Rick Scott’s office Tuesday. The U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said it is sending its community relations service this week to Sanford to “address tension in the community.” Read more: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/a...-unarmed-black-teen-urge-civil-rights-leaders
