The progressive activist group MoveOn.org partnered with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in successfully pushing the Department of Justice to review the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial.
“Last night MoveOn members from all walks of life joined with the NAACP to demand justice for Trayvon,” MoveOn announced Sunday, the same day the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it was reviewing a potential civil rights case against Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman acquitted Saturday in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous sent an email out to MoveOn members early Sunday at 1:43 AM entitled “George Zimmerman found not guilty.”
“We’re calling on the U.S. Justice Department to open a civil rights case against George Zimmerman and have launched a petition to Attorney General Eric Holder,” Jealous told MoveOn members.
The petition has been signed more than 180,000 times as of this writing.
The DOJ announced Sunday that it is looking into the possibility of a civil rights case against Zimmerman. “Experienced federal prosecutors will determine whether the evidence reveals a prosecutable violation,” said the DOJ in a statement.
As The Daily Caller reported, the NAACP first appealed to the DOJ Saturday evening to pursue a civil rights case against Zimmerman.
“We will update you as we work to pursue civil rights charges against Zimmerman through the DOJ,” the NAACP said on Twitter.
MoveOn became involved just hours later.
“Our members, like so many Americans, are outraged at the verdict. Justice has not been served. The facts are clear: a seventeen year old boy is dead because George Zimmerman shot him. This is a sad day for our country and our justice system,” MoveOn executive director Anna Galland said in a statement.
“What we saw take place in Florida vividly illustrates the broader dysfunction in our criminal justice system, where people of color still don’t have access to equal treatment under the law. It is also highlighted the deadly problem with laws like ‘Stand Your Ground’, that have been advanced by the NRA [National Rifle Association] and others, that encourage vigilantes,” she added.
The DOJ has not responded to repeated Daily Caller requests for comment.