USF students weigh in on Trayvon Martin case

The student press conference was happening shortly after the family of Trayvon Martin blasted a leaked newspaper report revealing that Martin had been suspended for 10 days from his Miami school after the remains of marijuana were found in a plastic bag in his book bag. The family had previously said that the teenager had been suspended but hadn?t given the details.

At USF, community activist Tequila Alfred lamented what she said was the injustice of George Zimmerman remaining a free man, while NFL wide receiver Plaxico Burress received two years in prison for firing a gun (and accidentally shooting himself in the leg) in a crowded nightclub, and Michael Vick served two years in prison for abusing dogs.

Alfred said she didn't like Newt Gingrich's remarks last week criticizing President Obama for saying if he had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin. But she did appreciate the rest of Gingrich's statement, which was that "any young American of any ethnic background should be safe, period."

Dr. Joyce Hamilton is director of the Mid Florida Regional office of the ACLU. She made several provocative remarks, blasting the members of the Florida Legislature for passing the Stand Your Ground Law. "If George Zimmerman is claiming self-defense under Stand Your Ground, then the hand of our Legislature may as well have been on the gun that killed Trayvon," she asserted.

She said that justice is supposed to be blind, but "investigators should not be," adding that that "we know what people mean when they say they're colorblind...we know that too frequently people don't see a racial issue because they want to see something else."

Later on Monday the Black Student Union at USF was to hold a march from the Marshall Student Center to the MLK Plaza.