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Today's Top News
Rep. Bobby Rush Kicked Off House Floor for Wearing Hoodie in Support of Trayvon Martin
Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill) was kicked off the House floor today for wearing a hoodie in honor of Trayvon Martin. During Rush's speech he said, "racial profiling has to stop."
As Rush began his speech, he was in his regular glasses and suit. But as he continued, he exchanged his regular glasses for sunglasses and took off his jacket to reveal a gray hoodie.
Rep. Greg Harper (R-Miss), who was presiding over the House floor, repeatedly hit his gavel down saying Rep. Rush was out of order. Rep. Harper repeatedly said, "The member will suspend." Rep. Rush continued his speech.
After Rush was taken off the floor, Harper said he was in violation of a rule that bans the wearing of hats while the House is in session.
"I don't mind being out of order if it means standing up for freedom and justice and human dignity. This is just another part of the struggle," Rush said.
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Watch Rep. Rush Kicked Off House Floor for Wearing Hoodie on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
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PBS The Rundown: Rep. Rush Kicked Off Floor for Wearing Hoodie in Support of Trayvon Martin
National protests over the shooting and killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in central Florida last month have swept the nation, and Wednesday, they landed on the House floor.
Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., didn't appear out of the ordinary as he began to read from prepared remarks for the sparsely attended session known as morning hour.
Rush called Martin's death an "American tragedy that too often is repeated in the streets of our nation," and then derided "the real hoodlums in this nation who wear quasi-official clothes." Rush then took off his suit jacket, exposing a hooded sweatshirt. He pulled the hood over his head and put on large black sunglasses, a symbol that has been frequently seen on college campuses as the country discusses what happened to Martin.
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177 Comments so far
Show AllIt's also not yet clear that this incident was racially-motivated.
Spreading disinformation or jumping to conclusions from either side of this unfortunate tragedy is wrong. And the Florida law which prevents police from doing their job is equally wrong.
Just what do you define as "racially motivated"?
It was the younger human being who was in fear for his life, was stalked and murdered. There is no leap off of the grand canyon of conclusions here- you are disgusting.
Just disgusting- Robert Riversong- you are disgusting.
What would clear this up for you? It is not a tragedy, it is a case of homicide. The older human being shot and killed the younger human being. One human being murdered the other human being.
Your cutesy name and condescending attitude, so clever. Why don't you start a fund to investigate what happened, how much do you think you will need to get to the bottom of this crime? Perhaps you can explain the "unfortunate tragedy" to the younger human being's family, since you are the calm adult in the room it should be simple to equate the loss of their family member to the "wrong" of jumping to conclusions. And the police ARE doing their job, but that is still not clear to you, you are disgusting Robert Riversong
You are disgusting "Robert Riversong"- simply disgusting.
I've spent the last 43 years as a militant activist for justice in America, have had a number of confontations with the police, have served jail time for acts of conscience, and have refused to pay war taxes for 33 years.
But I've also collected virtually all the publicly available information on this case, including from police reports and 911 tapes as well as from every witness at the scene who has come forward.
The evidence indicates that both parties contributed to the tragedy, that there is uncertainty about the motives of each party, and that the law is the primary guilty party.
If I had to guess, I would say there is some probability of racial profiling, that Trayvon is not as sweet and innocent a kid as his family is making out but certainly didn't deserve to die, and that Zimmerman was trying to protect his community and went too far, resulting in an action which he will regret for the rest of his life.
I also think that Zimmerman should never have been issued a concealed carry permit, shouldn't have been carrying his gun and that the law is an ass in Florida.
Now you can go back to swearing and spitting.
And your Bona Fides are impeccable- give us a fucking break- you are simple and plain- a pretender.
You are not an activist you are an infiltrator. Thanks for the synopsis of your research, no one needs your "guess" or your smearing of the victim.
As for your deep thoughts, they have the gravitas of tissue paper. Use it to wipe your chin when you and your cohort rebooted are finished.
Really now, asshole. Who the fuck had the gun? And who DIDN'T have a gun? Who the fuck called the police? Who the fuck was told by the police not to do anything and did it anyway? WHO LIVED AND WHO DIED YOU PIECE OF SHIT? "Evidence?" One side of the story will not be heard BECAUSE HE WAS MURDERED. The other side of the story will be heard over and over again because there is large power behind it. What relevant evidence can you imagine that would change the outcome?
The "evidence" we have "indicates" that an *armed adult shot an unarmed kid*. There is no other evidence beside the killer's words and the bullshit the racist media is digging up about the kid. Rule of law my ass. Killing an unarmed and weaker person with a gun is murder. Killing them after you are told to stand down doesn't make it any better.
"If I had to guess, I would say there is some probability of racial profiling, that Trayvon is not as sweet and innocent a kid as his family is making out but certainly didn't deserve to die, and that Zimmerman was trying to protect his community and went too far, resulting in an action which he will regret for the rest of his life."
It's all about balance! And balance in your disgusting world means dragging down the victim to the level of the criminal. You assume the completely unsubstantiated best of the murderer and the similarly unsubstantiated worst of the victim - that is balance in your fucked up world. Fucking disgusting.
You have damned yourself with your posts, probably inadvertently. You are expressing the position of the bully, of the oppressor. Bullies taunt and torment their victim, and then when the victim reacts they accuse the victim of being "emotional," of "over-reacting," of "jumping to conclusions" and then portray themselves as the calm and persecuted one and use the reactions of their targets as a justification for their bullying.
Interestingly enough, your behavior parallels exactly what may have happened in the event in question. The armed person follows and confronts the victim, and then when he provokes the victim to react uses that as justification for his stalking behavior and poses as the victim acting in self-defense. No, we do not know with certainty that this is how it unfolded. But it is a highly likely scenario based on what we do know.
Well said.
Good grief, it seems like we are on the crux of change if this stuff keeps going on. How can the world's blundering tyrannies continue unchecked?
Good on you Bobby Rush. Showing a little integrity in the face of injustice. Something sorely lacking from any of the congress critters. Now if only integrity was the norm rather than the exception.
Racism does not "work both ways."
Racism is not a matter of personal individual preferences, and it does not "go both ways."
Let me tell you what's disgusting and fucked up about the (liberal) definition of racism you seem to be using. It is disgusting because it expects sainthood from the oppressed race, it pretends that both sides are mostly equal and that a reaction to oppression is the same as the oppression itself. It drags down the victim to the level of the criminal. And that's not random - that's its purpose. It expects complete trust (but *only from the victim*) in some abstract principle (the "rule of law"), that is repeatedly proven not to exist from their pov, in fact to only exist *against* them - and when they don't subject themselves to it and finally identify the "other" group as their oppressor, it happily jumps on that and calls them racist too - so that they can be marked the same which makes violence more "justified". Basically, it uses the trick of looking only at the *individual actions* and motivations - not the social environment that's behind them. Basically, it says that if a group of oppressed people start to hate their oppressors, based on the grouping attribute of race the oppressor group has selected, and act based on that hate then they will be *the same*. The social environment and social level issues are ignored. The individuals are extracted, their circumstances and social environment ignored, and only the final result (hate based on skin colour) remains.
In this argument, a white man hating blacks because he thinks he's superior and acting on this, mostly with support from his community, is completely the same as a black man hating whites because of their sense of superiority and the oppressive actions stemming from it. What a wonderful abstraction, what a wonderful use of intelligence. It ignores *just* the right things and takes only the things that are truly worthy into account. I'm just too proud to be European when I see these kinds of arguments. The wonderfully complex concepts, the logic and rationality connecting them, and of course their sophisticated abuse - no other civilisation can compare.
In the most extreme cases, (some) black people hate whites BECAUSE the white system "hates" blacks, not just in words, but in everyday actions. It is an asymmetrical situation, and no amount of bullshit rationalisation and sophistry will make it symmetrical.
The sooner you understand that, the freer you will be and the longer you will live.
American law is anything but fair or just, either in its purpose or in its application. And many victims of American law are understandably skeptical or afraid of it.
Yes, it is incumbent upon all who would come to an opinion about this case to know all the available facts. But people have a right to their opinions.
This is a complex case. We know that Zimmerman was going beyond appropriate bounds and that he had a long history of playing policeman (wanted to be a cop). The evidence also indicates that Trayvon likely threw the first punch (probably out of legitimate fear) and was pounding Zimmerman's head into the pavement (which put legitimate fear into Zimmerman). The situation escalated into a shooting and death.
The real culprit here is the Florida Stand Your Ground Law, which prevented the police - who wanted to arrest Zimmerman - from doing so by orders of the district attorney. And concealed carry laws that allow someone like Zimmerman, who had a record of both domestic violence and assault on an officer, from being granted a gun license. That's where we should be directing our anger and our energy.
No one here needs your explanations about opinions, and facts. You are disgusting.
There was nothing preventing the police from arresting the older human being for the murder of the younger human being- they chose their actions like the older human being chose to murder the younger human being.
Everything you present here is lies, on this topic thread and elsewhere.
Your fake, an infiltrator and operator. Are you holding hands with Debooted under the desk?
1. The Stand your Ground law is deeply flawed.
2. Available evidence would suggest further investigation, including an arrest of the shooter.