Trayvon Martin.
Representative Bobby Rush was escorted off the House floor on Wednesday after donning a hooded sweatshirt during a speech at the podium about killing of Florida teen Trayvon Martin and the problem of racial profiling in America.
Rush, an Illinois Democrat, intoned, “Racial profiling has to stop, Mr. Speaker. Just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum,” pulling the hood of his gray sweatshirt over his head and putting on sunglasses. As he spoke, the presiding officer, Mississippi Representative Gregg Harper, a Republican, began striking his gavel and reminding Rush of “clause five of rule 17″, evidently a prohibition against wearing hats on the floor. He then called House security to escort Rush off the floor.
“Just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum.”
Rush’s protest comes amid the growing controversy surrounding the death of Martin, a 17-year-old Sandford, Fla. teenager who was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old neighbourhood watch captain. This week, both sides of the issue have been competing for ownership of the media narrative: Martin is being alternately painted as an innocent young teenager walking home after buying sweets a local convenience store and a young thug who may or may not have been a thief. Zimmerman, who claims that he was attacked from behind by Martin, his head slammed against the pavement, is either a racist murderer or a man who was just trying to defend himself from an attacker.
Though police initially state that Zimmerman’s claim is backed up by witnesses, recent eyewitness accounts, however, suggest that Zimmerman was the aggressor. CCTV footage has also surfaced, showing Zimmerman just hours after the incident, with none of the injuries he claimed to have suffered visible.
Allegations that Martin is now the victim of a “racist smear campaign” are also flying, after an apparent white supremacist hacked Martin’s Gmail, Yahoo, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, leaking emails on “anarchic message board 4chan”, according to Adrien Chen at Gawker.
“Just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum.”
