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Quick Retort From Rep. Harris on Zimmerman Verdict

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Rep. Andy Harris

“Get over it.”

Those were the words of Congressman Andy Harris had for those disappointed by the not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial for the shooting death of an African American teenager.

The Eastern Shore Republican told WMAL, “We’re hung up on this one case, where this one fellow was, in fact, found not guilty by a jury.”

The Maryland congressman went on to say “That’s the way the American law system works.”

Harris also castigated the media for its extensive coverage of the trial and its aftermath especially on TV.

As for the decision by Attorney General Eric Holder to move forward with a civil rights investigation Harris called it “purely political” saying that he was incredulous after Zimmerman was found not guilty.

Delaware

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Trayvon Martin

The Interdenominational Minister Action Council in Delaware warned that the nation may be entering an age of a new Jim Crow in the aftermath of the not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman case in the shooting death African American teenager Trayvon Martin.  

During the news conference at the Bethel AME Church the Reverend Dr. Lawrence Livingston declared,

"This case and this verdict is a wake up call to us all that we can no longer rest of so-called progress. when issues of race and injustice are concerned."

Livingston observed that there was a time when, “Black people couldn’t run through a neighborhood, now we can’t even walk.”

He was referring to the fact that Martin was walking home from a convenience store when he was confronted by Zimmerman. 

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Bethel AME Church
Reverend Dr. Sylvester Beaman

Meanwhile, Dr. Silvester Beaman said he believed there were two sets of law in the judicial system.

Beaman pointed to the disproportionate number of African Amercan men and women were incarcerated.

The Wilmington News Journal reports that the Delaware Department of Correction numbers show that of the 59-hundred prisoners at the four Level 5 prisons just over 34-hundred were black – or 60 percent.

The group of ministers offered up an eight point plan to stem violence and to challenge the nation’s justice system.

Most of them called for a unified black community seeking to find ways to move toward a post-racial society.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.