During Al Sharpton’s “Justice for Trayvon” rally in Manhattan this afternoon, I asked various demonstrators to share their reasons for participating in the rally, their opinions of Stand Your Ground laws, and their thoughts on the future direction of the anti-Zimmerman protests. (Apologies in advance for the shaky handheld-camera visuals, although the audio is mostly quite clear.)
The overall mood of the rally was anger and impatience — especially when Sharpton spoke — but almost all of the protesters I interviewed were friendly and quite willing to answer questions (with the exception of one old gentleman, who makes a brief cameo above). A surprising variety of perspectives emerged on the relevance of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law to the Zimmerman case, although everyone I interviewed was united in calling for the statute to be at least amended.
For further reading on Stand Your Ground, see Reason’s Jacob Sullum for a debunking of the purported link between Zimmerman and the Florida law, and our own Charles Cooke for a spirited defense of Stand Your Ground as a legal principle.