Archive for the ‘George Zimmerman’ Category

Photos: Every face mask Naomi Osaka wore at the US Open championship – Insider – INSIDER

Osaka hits balls into the stands after her win against Anett Kontaveit of Estonia on day seven of the 2020 US Open tennis tournament. Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters

Osaka, who won her seventh match of the US Open tennis tournament on September 6, next sported a mask with the name of Trayvon Martin.

Martin, who was 17 at the time, was shot and killed on February 26, 2012, by George Zimmerman, who was a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman claimed that he shot Martin, who unarmed and leaving a convenience store, out of self-defense.

Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder and was later acquitted of the charges.

After Osaka was shown wearing her mask with Travyon Martin's name, Sabrina Fulton, Martin's mother, thanked the tennis player in an ESPN interview.

Osaka responded to the ESPN videos of Martin's mother and Arbery's father on Twitter, where she wrote: "I often wonder if what I'm doing is resonating and reaching as many people as I hope. That being said, I tried to hold it in on set but after watching these back I cried so much. The strength and the character both of these parents have is beyond me. Love you both, thank you."

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Photos: Every face mask Naomi Osaka wore at the US Open championship - Insider - INSIDER

George Zimmerman sues family of Trayvon Martin, publisher …

Miami Herald

George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer acquitted of homicide charges in the 2012 fatal shooting of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, is suing Martins family, prosecutors and others involved in the case he claims rested on false evidence, according to a copy of the suit sent to the media Wednesday.

Zimmerman is represented by Larry Klayman, a high-profile legal crusader tied to conservative causes and the founder of Judicial Watch before splitting with the activist group.

The suit in Polk County Circuit Court cites information in a documentary about the case that accuses the Martin family of engineering false testimony, and the director has scheduled a press conference this week in Coral Gables to coincide with a film screening there. The suit seeks $100 million in civil damages, alleging defamation, abuse of civil process and conspiracy. A copy of the suit was distributed to media Wednesday by the movies director, Joe Gilbert. The case does not yet appear on the online docket of the Polk court system.

The lead defendant in the suit is Sybrina Fulton, Martins mother who became a national figure in the wake of her sons death as a campaign surrogate for Hillary Clinton and a national advocate for social justice and reducing gun deaths. Shes running for the District 1 seat on the Miami-Dade County Commission being vacated by a term-limited Barbara Jordan in the Miami Gardens area.

Martin lived with Fulton, then a county employee, in Miami Gardens, and was visiting his father, Tracy Martin, in Sanford on Feb. 26, 2012, when he died in a gated community where his fathers fiancee lived. Martin was returning from a store with candy. Zimmerman, 28 at the time, reported Martin as suspicious to police in a recorded call after 7 p.m.

The details that followed remain in dispute, with Zimmerman claiming he was attacked by Martin and defended himself. Police and prosecutors described an unjustified shooting of a teenager in a hoodie with Skittles and a drink. A jury acquitted Zimmerman of all charges in 2013.

The lawsuit presses the Zimmerman version of events, with allegations of efforts by the Martin family to produce a false narrative through dishonest accounts from witnesses. The suit also names prosecutors in the Zimmerman case, alleging false prosecution, as well as book publisher Harper Collins over the October release of Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People. The book is by Ben Crump, who represented the Martin family. Crump is also named in the suit, which states all defendants have worked in concert to deprive Zimmerman of his constitutional and other legal rights.

Crump, Klayman and a campaign representative for Fulton did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

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George Zimmerman sues family of Trayvon Martin, publisher ...

Tech companies have made big promises, and small gains, for diversity and inclusion – CNBC

It's a story that's been told time and time again: Tech companies are just not diverse enough.

Tech companies supply some of the most financially beneficial jobs on the market. According to Tarika Barrett of Girls Who Code, technical jobs pay twice the average salary. By 2020, there could be 1 million unfilled tech jobs.

"And these are the jobs that can lift entire families up into the middle class," Barrett said.

Diversity in the tech industry is crucial for technical progress. CNBC's Jon Fortt described it like this: "Women, people of color, often have different experiences. And with that can come diversity of thought, and it's shown that diversity of thought can really aid organizations." According to a report from the Boston Consulting Group, companies with more diverse leadership teams report higher innovation revenues.

But tech companies are still lagging when it comes to diversity and inclusion.

In 2014,a year after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death ofTrayvon Martin and the subsequent founding of the Black Lives Matter movement,some Big Tech companies started reporting their workplace demographics and promised to increase diversity.

According to the available data from 10 major U.S. tech companies gathered between 2014 and 2019, the percentage of women in these workforces increased less than 2%. The reports that specified gender and race said most of these women were White. The gender data doesn't consider transgender or gender nonconforming employees, and only one of the 10 companies reported nonbinary employee demographics.

The percentage of Black employees increased less than 3% during the same period. The number of Hispanic employees increased about 1% and the number of Indigenous employees decreased about .01%. The diversity data shows that Asian employees made up about 30% of tech workforces in 2019.

CNBC explored why it's challenging for Big Tech to diversify and what experts say should be done to solve the problem. Watch CNBC's deep-dive into the lack of diversity in U.S. tech companies.

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Tech companies have made big promises, and small gains, for diversity and inclusion - CNBC

Trayvon Martins Mother Loses Election By 331 Votes – BET

Sybrina Fulton, social justice activist and mother of slain teenager Trayvon Martin, ran for office in Miami-Dade County, Florida and lost by just a small handful of votes.

According to The Miami Herald, Fulton lost the seat to Mayor Oliver Gilbert by 331 votes out of a total 34,000 votes cast in other words, by less than 1%.

RELATED: An Open Letter To Sybrina Fulton

After conceding to her opponent, Fulton tweeted a message of gratitude to her supporters.

"This pic is where my journey begin, I thank God for an awesome experience," Fulton said in a statement Thursday. "Id like to say THANK YOU to my wonderful family & friends, my team, donors, supporters & especially everyone of you who voted for me. Plz know, positive change will come in due time."

Fulton was running for a seat on the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners, where she would have had a say in all county matters, from allocation of resources to local policy. She was drawn to activism and politics after the 2012 fatal shooting of her 17-year-old son, Trayvon Martin, by vigilante George Zimmerman.

"Since 2012, I have advocated tirelessly to empower our communities and make them safer, Fulton said in an Instagram post announcing her candidacy last year. But the work is not done. I am proud to announce that I will run to represent District 1 on the county commission.

Fulton was endorsed by a number of high-level Democrats, including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

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Trayvon Martins Mother Loses Election By 331 Votes - BET

Letter to the Editor: Black Lives Matter comes with radical, political baggage – Tulsa World

Regarding writer Kendrick Marshalls opinion piece on Aug. 16, I wholeheartedly agree with him that equal treatment of all, regardless of skin color, is what we require of our police.

Will he acknowledge that the phrase Black lives matter comes with some serious radical political baggage?

Black lives matter was coined by a radical political movement involved in much more than just a protest about George Floyds death.

A BLM organizer in Chicago, Ariel Atkins, asserted a right to loot Chicago stores as reparations.

The BLM founders are proud Marxists, and the BLM website calls for disrupting the nuclear family, opposing heteronormative thinking and defunding the police.

These political positions provoke intense and well-justified criticism. Marshalls failure to acknowledge that fatally weakens his op-ed.

Marshall is at liberty to be wrong on fact, law and logic.

If Black Lives Matter is an appropriate street mural, why not Indian Lives Matter or Unborn Babies Lives Matter, or any number of other heart-felt sentiments from all corners of public opinion?

The city government would be bombarded with requests to paint streets, and any denials would come with the threat of lawsuits to justify why the politically charged phrase Black Lives Matter gets unquestioning deference.

Dale McIntyre, Bartlesville

Editor's note: One of the three Black Lives Matter organization founders gave an interview in 2015 saying she and another founder were "trained Marxists." The organization formed in response to the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman, though the phrase often refers to a larger movement.

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Letter to the Editor: Black Lives Matter comes with radical, political baggage - Tulsa World