‘This is a movement’: Zimmerman protests press on

NBC News - Protests over the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin will continue all summer – starting with vigils in 100 cities on Saturday, followed by marches in Tallahassee, Fla., and Washington, D.C., the Rev. Al Sharpton announced Tuesday...

NBC News – Protests over the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin will continue all summer – starting with vigils in 100 cities on Saturday, followed by marches in Tallahassee, Fla., and Washington, D.C., the Rev. Al Sharpton announced Tuesday.

“Florida will be the battleground of a new civil rights movement,” Sharpton said during a news conference with other clergy outside the Justice Department headquarters.

“We are not having a two- or three-day anger fit,” said Sharpton,who is president of the National Action Network and also hosts a show on MSNBC. “This is a movement for social justice.”

Sharpton said the nationwide action has two goals: urging the Justice Department to move forward with a civil-rights probe of Zimmerman and repealing “Stand Your Ground” self-defense laws that some say made it difficult to win a conviction in the case.

Rallies and vigils have been held by Martin supporters in major cities since a Florida jury found Zimmerman not guilty on Saturday night. They have been mostly peaceful, though 14 people were arrested Monday night in Los Angeles after a gathering descended into chaos with some people throwing rocks, attacking people and clashing with police,NBCLosAngeles.com reported.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck warned “this will not be allowed to continue” and said police would take a more active role in controlling demonstrations – and Sharpton urged all protesters to remain peaceful, saying Martin’s name should not be “smeared with reckless violence.”

At the same time, he struck a fiery tone, saying, “On Saturday night with the verdict we lost the battle, but the war is not over and we intend to fight.”

The first action will be Saturday, when Martin supporters will gather for an hour in front of federal buildings and courthouses in 100 cities “calling on the Department of Justice to resume aggressively a civil rights investigation in this matter.”

The Justice Department launched a probe three weeks after the Feb. 26, 2012, shooting in Sanford, Fla., and it remains open. While Attorney General Eric Holder said this week that Martin’s death was “unnecessary,” many legal experts doubt that the feds will bring hate crime charges against Zimmerman.

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