On Thursday, nearly one hundred people, many wearing hoodies as a symbolic gesture of memorial to Trayvon Martin, gathered to protest the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council’s involvement in the passing of “Stand Your Ground” laws across America.
The protesters, who gathered outside ALEC’s Washington headquarters, argued that the laws were responsible for setting the events in motion that resulted in the death of the unarmed 17-year-old. “Stand Your Ground” laws allow for people who to employ deadly force to defend themselves, which self-appointed neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman insists he was doing the night Martin was shot.
The coalition, which included ColorOfChange, AFL-CIO, SEIU and People For the American Way, demanded “disclosure of NRA funding and immediate cessation of ‘Kill at Will’ legislative advocacy.”
“We are here today to expose the true killers of Trayvon Martin” one man told TheDC, “Not that young man who pulled the trigger, he was merely the instrument used by the true murders, and the true murderers are the one-percenters, of which ALEC and the Koch brothers are part of that one percent who are inflicting that damage on working people like the families of Trayvon Martin.”
Videography by Tyler Whetsone and Kalyn McMackin