story for a particular reason as part of a larger story as to how he operates in big ways and small. i think many of us have plenty of our own material. that's "hardball." "politics nation" starts now. welcome to "politics nation." i'm al sharpton. tonight's lead, the fbi goes to the scene of trayvon martin's death. breaking news today, the fbi is in sanford, florida, and they are investigating. agents arrived this morning at the gated community where trayvon was killed going door to door, questioning potential witnesses and compiling information on zimmerman's background. the fbi investigation focused specifically on whether the shooting was racially motivated. word the young man's civil rights violated? meanwhile, trayvon martin's

parents sent a letter to the justice department asking for a formal investigation of florida state attorney's interactions with the sanford police department. the family wants to know why wolfinger's office didn't bring charges against zimmerman even though the lead homicide investigator in the case wanted an arrest. the most explosive news today centers on a witness 911 call the night of the shooting. on this call a voice can be heard screaming for help. listen. >> 911 do you need police, fire or medical? >> maybe both. i'm not sure. there's someone screaming outside. >> is it a male or a female? >> it sounds like a male. >> you don't know why? >> i don't know why, i think they are yelling help, but i don't know. just send someone quick please. >> does he look hurt to you? >> i can't see him.

i don't want to go out there. i don't know what's going on. >> they need to come now. >> they are sending. >> you think he's yelling help? >> yes. >> there's gunshots. >> zimmerman's supporters say it's him crying out for help. the self-defense claim relies on it. according to a police report an officer overheard him saying, quote, i was yelling for someone to help me, but no one would. his family members claim he was in the fight of his life. but leading forensic voice experts have analyzed the 911 call and they believe it is not zimmerman. one says, quote, you can say with reasonable scientific certainty that it is not zimmerman. a different expert using different voice technology saying, quote, i believe that's

trayvon martin in the background, without a doubt. end of quote. the more we learn, the more curious this mystery gets. joining me now is nbc news correspondent ron allen. he lives in sanford. he's live rather at sanford city hall. he's with us tonight. ron, thanks for joining me. >> thank you, reverend. i have been living here for the last couple of weeks. >> we both feel that. we have been teasing each other about living there. >> what can you tell us about the fbi investigating what they are doing down there? >> reporter: i think the fbi being here will really help perhaps give confidence to people in this community that a thorough investigation will be done. as you pointed out they are concerned about whether trayvon martin's civil rights were violated, whether there was a hate crime committed and the

martin family wants them to look at whether or not the chief of police and the state attorney norm wolfinger were here and allegedly had a conversation where they overruled the homicide investigator who wanted to press manslaughter charges against george zimmerman. the police denied that. wolfinger released a statement saying they were outright lies. that's the first time we have heard from him during the course of the investigation. it was a strong letter that was a really strong pushback about that allegation that the martin family's attorneys are making. so we go on. you're right. >> is he saying there was not an affidavit from the lead investigator? >> he wasn't specific. he said the letter, the allegations were lies, that the meeting, the communication between the chief and the state attorney, he says it never happened. it's a lie. >> he's denying the meeting, not the affidavit and the statement

that the lead investigator had said he wanted an arrest? >> no, no. yes. he is denying that communication ever happened. there is also some reporting that the chief investigator serino is saying he never said that he thought zimmerman's self-defense claim wasn't valid. we were in the community and spoke to the a woman with a 13-year-old boy. she said she believes the investigator said he didn't believe it was self-defense. >> she said live on television that he said that. and there is supposedly an affidavit. i think the investigation will surface. we'll see where that goes. >> we will. there is a lot of he said/she said. the more people talk about it there is a real demand for an open public hearing of all the issues. as you know, the prosecutor can decide to send it to a grand

jury or she can indict and arrest herself or not. i think a lot of people are saying they would much prefer a process that's open, not a secret grand jury where the evidence can be seen in public. if a grand jury chooses not to i diagnostic and it's done in secret i don't think that will satisfy the demand for justice. there will be more skepticism, doubts and worse. >> we'll talk about it more on the show. ron allen, thank you. joining me now the lou polumbo, a retired police investigator and now director of the elite group of private security agency and in miami, former u.s. attorney and now criminal defense lawyer kendall coffey. thanks for being here. lou, you have been part of thousands of cases where seeing the pictures of the fbi on scene in sanford. when you look at the pictures what do you make of it?

>> the case hit a certain threshold and the fbi has interest in it. what they are going to do is try to recreate what happened that evening. the problem is the forensics are gone. they have to rely on crime scene analysis conducted by the sanford police department and an autopsy report. >> when you say the forensics are gone, what does that mean? >> i'll give you an example. for example, if we were to find out that trayvon was shot and the bullet was a through and through. in other words it entered one side of his body and exited the other and we found the bullet lodged in the ground and it was recovered we could determine the fact that he wasn't on top but he was on the bottom. the entry wound. the distance and proximity the weapon was discharged and the direction of trayvon. this is relevant when you're saying you did it in self-defense. >> that's no longer possible? >> i'm not going to say it.

>> it's more difficult? >> it's more problematic. >> okay. >> a lot of it is now predicated on the thoroughness, the comprehensive approach the police department used in gathering the information. their crime scene information, the photographs they should have taken and how the body was marked off and so on and so forth. the reality of a crime scene is you have 24 to 48 hours before you have contaminants set in -- weather changes, the introduction of investigators. now we have had a month go by. it's more problematic. they are also going in there and readdressing all of the witnesses to get their own picture of what each of them saw. >> now mr. coffey, let me ask you. when you hear about forensics as louis here is explaining it and it also kour part of what may

come up if the justice department does honor the request of the parents to look at what the state investigators did or didn't do because wouldn't that also lead to questions on if certain photographs and certain forensic evidence was not taken in the first 24 to 48 hours why would they not have done that when you clearly had a killing here? >> i think it will, indeed further fuel what we have described at the investigation of the investigation. that in itself is going to take on a life of its own and have serious questions. i agree with the comment that when you don't have an exhaustive painstaking evaluation and collection of all the forensic evidence immediately available, irretrievable damage is done to an investigation. so as much as the fbi and justice department may now examine the quality and other aspects of the investigation that was done by sanford and the state attorney the reality is not much of it will help the

family of trayvon martin. they are looking for justice with respect to george zimmerman and the fact that evidence may have been lost forever, the fact that opportunities may never come again in terms of gathering evidence. the fact that the fbi and d.o.j. may end up with a very critical view of what was done by locals on the case. that doesn't get to the real key of how you now get enough evidence to bring charges if charges are merited against george zimmerman and prove them beyond a reasonable doubt. >> now there was a report in the new york times today, lou, that says that george zimmerman went back to the scene, recreated the scene with police the day after the shooting and there's been a recreation of the scene on tape. this is in the new york times. it says the day after the shooting george zimmerman, according to his father, returned with at least three

police officers to the retreat at twin lakes. investigators accompanied by someone with the video camera wanted him to reenact the events of the night when the two strangers had stood their ground. now, one where the tape is would be very interesting. secondly, in light of what you just said if they returned with the shooter, why wouldn't they have taken all of the forensic evidence and all of the photos necessary because one would then have to question why are you doing a recreation with the shooter and not taking an independence evidence gathering of forensic and other things available to you? >> i think what they were trying to do is connect some dots as to the story zimmerman told them. unfortunately i think zimmerman will only tell them what zimmerman would like them to know. that's part of the problem with the process. they were probably vetting his story further. the simple reality of the situation is other mistakes were

made. for example, the night of the shooting the police didn't demonstrate a real concern about blood, for example. when they took him out of the police car in their station no one put on rubber gloves. they were not concerned about contaminants. they didn't take his clothing. they didn't take photographs of the alleged injuries that were so severe it warranted him using deadly force. so, you know, going back to the scene with him, it's like asking me, did i do something wrong after i knew i did. i'm not going to tell you i did. i don't give much credence to that. the sum and substance of the problem revolves around how thorough they were the first 24 hours. if i recall, it indicated there was precipitation that evening which in itself causes problems. >> for evidence, yeah. lou palumbo and kendall coffey, thanks for joining us tonight. ahead, the mystery surrounding the trayvon tragedy grows. why did they let zimmerman go?

trayvon's parents are demanding answers and calling on the justice department. plus, new tapes released from the fire rescue dispatch could shed more light on zimmerman's state that night. and some in the right wing media have politicized this case. i say it's time to come together for america's future. you're watching "politics nation" on msnbc. [ donovan ] i hit a wall.

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36 days after the shooting of trayvon martin, but they still don't know exactly what happened that night. but we do know george zimmerman was handcuffed, brought to the police station and then walked out a free man later that night. why? because state attorney norm wolfinger refused to charge zimmerman. amid great public outrage wolfinger recused himself from the case and governor rick scott appointed governor cory to take over. today the martin family sent a formal request to the justice department to investigate in the meeting between wolfinger and police chief lee on the night of

the shooting. he said the men over ruled the homicide investigator's recommendation that zimmerman be charged with manslaughter. in response wolfinger released a statement today saying he's, quote, outraged by the outright lies contained in that letter. joining me now is managing editor of thegrio.com joy reed and ken padowitz, former homicide prosecutor. thanks for joining me. joanne, let's start with the letter the attorney for trayvon's family sent to the department of justice. what was this meeting that he's referring to? >> right. so today the attorney for trayvon martin's family sent a number to the justice department saying there are a number of things they want to look into. they want to look at the investigation of the case by police, what they did. they want to look into reports we have had from an anonymous source that wolfinger, the state

attorney then assigned to the case met in person with bill lee, the police chief in this case. >> you have had those sources as well as other media -- >> yes. our sourcing says that and they have gotten into somewhere else sourcing as well. they want it looked into. this is the part in the letter that raised my eyebrows. the family of george zimmerman was at the police station at some point. that could be as innocuous as who went and picked up george zimmerman. they have thrown it all in as well as the fact that the investing officinvest ing -- investigating officer. the patrol officer didn't believe zimmerman but was over ruled. they want it looked at. >> ken, without going into the weeds of what's in the letter or not, is it unusual for mr. zimmerman, given the facts as we know it to have walked out of the precinct, handcuffs taken off, never booked, never given a

mug shot, never charged? >> it's extremely unusual, reverend sharp ton. you cannot be unarrested in the state of florida. clearly mr. zimmerman had been placed under arrest by officers at the scene. so somebody believed there was probable cause to take him into custody. probable cause is mentioned in the united states constitution under the 4th amendment and in the florida constitution. it is not beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt which is the standard at trial. it's a much lower standard. you can have probable cause that a law was violated in the state of florida and have some doubt as to whether or not the person committed the crime. but clearly when he was taken in handcuffs and brought to the station, somebody believed he had probable cause. when they released him without booking him and filling out a probable cause affidavit, something is definitely unusual.

>> that's the question i want to raise. those of us who got involved only got involved saying probable cause, he should be arrested. nobody is calling for a conviction. we don't know what a charge would be. how can you convict without a charge? but how do you bring him in the police station or precinct? somebody somewhere and i'm not getting into the call. somebody said, don't book him or photograph him. something had to happen, here you have police officers who observe and using their intelligence and reasonable minds made a determination to take him into custody, to arrest him. that means they believed there was probable cause. you have zimmerman, a member of the neighborhood watch, not a member of neighborhood shoot, and clearly you had a dead body.

they took him into custody based on all the evidence they had at the scene. to have somebody -- and i'm speculating here, but to have a police chief or even the state attorney step in and take away the discretion of the officers at the scene and say, release this man, that is very, very unusual. i'm very happy to here the justice department is looking into this to find out what happened because something isn't just. >> joy, when you hear all of this, the mother of the young 13-year-old witness and i had her on the show. she said the lead investigator said to her that he thought it was not self-defense and thought it was stereo typing. >> there are a lot of strange things in the case. the witnesses who weren't questioned versus those who were. as you were talking about, this person is brought into the station. they are either in custody or not. police have said he was in detention, right?

something short of being arrested. we don't know if there was a mug shot, fingerprints taken. leaks from the police department say people are wrong when they say they didn't take the gun or jacket. there was a leak to the orlando sentinel ostensibly from the police saying, oh, no, we did take these things into evidence. if this person is free to go and he's not under arrest he should have been allowed to walk out with the jacket, gun, everything. police have said he wasn't. so the question is was he arrested or not? certain legal things kick in when you arrest someone. it has to happen. >> including a timeline. >> you have a certain period of time in which to try this person or it's moot. so the question of him being arrested is really important. if he was arrested there should be a mug shot, fingerprints, certain things done. >> clearly the timeline is important because if you run out of time if they say there was an arrest he could be charged. let me show you the tape, ken.

you tell me whether this will have an impact on the justice department looking into it. this is the mother of the 13-year-old witness on this show. >> now as the investigators communicated with you arranging and talking to you around the interview of your son, did they tell you whether they felt this was self-defense or not? >> the lead investigator from the sanford police department stood in my family room and told me this was absolutely not self-defense and they needed to prove it. he told me, and i'm paraphrasing the quote, but read between the lines. there are some stereo typing going on here. >> now this lady sat on the show and said that. wouldn't that have some bearing on the justice department if they were to investigate what happened that night that the lead investigator told this person who seems to have no ax

to grind with anybody that he did not believe it was self-defense and in fact raised the point of stereo typing which i said to her i would say is profiling. >> absolutely. that is a damning piece of testimonial evidence for a witness to come forward and say the homicide detective at the scene made those comments to her about the fact that self-defense was not an issue in his mind and clearly indicating that he had probable cause to make an arrest. that's what's so frustrating. only people want in this instance is for justice to be done. no one is talking about convictions. we are talking about an arrest and probable cause for arrest. justice is not being done here. that's why people are frustrated. they can see that there is a problem with this situation. >> i think you said it best. all we have ever said was release the tapes which we finally got, and probable cause for an arrest. no one but the right wing is

saying we want a conviction. we don't even know what a charge is. how can you call for conviction? but you can't accuse us of rushing to judgment unless you misquote what we are saying. thank you for your time. stay with us. ahead, new details about an ambulance call for zimmerman the night of the shooting surfaces. and coming up, bill o'reilly and rush limbaugh are distorting the effort to get justice in this case. we'll examine what they are saying. stay with us. americans believe they should be in charge of their own future.

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the fbi went on the scene in sanford, florida, today just as we learned new information that further under mines george zimmerman's self-defense claim. that's next. the invention that i came up with is the hot dog ez bun steamer. steam is the key to a great hot dog. i knew it was going to be a success. the invention was so simple that i knew i needed to protect it. my name is chris schutte and i got my patent, trademark and llc on legalzoom. [ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side. bayer aspirin... ohh, no no no. i'm not having a heart attack, it's my head. this is made for pain. [ male announcer ] bayer advanced aspirin

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so my parents went to bank of america. they met with the branch manager and they said, "look, we've got this little hot dog cart, and it's on a really good corner. let's see if we can buy the property." and the branch manager said, "all right, i will take a chance with the two of you." and we've been loyal to bank of america for the last 71 years. welcome back to politics nation. george zimmerman's claim of self-defense is central to his version of events, but the more we learn, the more shaky the claim becomes. his supporters say george was in the fight for his life that night. his father says, quote, it's my understanding that trayvon martin got on top of him and just started beating him in the face, in his nose, hitting his head on the concrete. his brother said, quote, george was out of breath. he was barely conscious. his last thing he remembers

doing was moving his head from the concrete to the grass. the video in the police station did not show those injuries. today, we are learning that an ambulance call for zimmerman that night of the shooting was cancelled. he apparently did not need it. here's the recording from the fire rescue dispatch on the night of the shooting when emergency personnel rushed to the scene of the shooting. >> engine 38, rescue 38, gunshot wound at 2821 retreat view circle. >> engine 38 responding. >> engine 38 responding. per law enforcement, law enforcement is en route. someone laying in the grass. patient is unresponsive. 31, do you copy? 38 called, no code, novi tall. >> no i didn't copy that. do they have a second patient? >> that is affirmative. there is a second patient. >> cancel second rescue. patient is not a gunshot.

second patient is not a gunshot. >> this could be critical to the case. if you were barely conscious and in the struggle for your life you would think there would be a trip to the hospital. but there are signs of an altercation might have taken place. abc news released this picture today. it's a photograph taken from enhanced video from the police surveillance tape. it shows what appears to be marks on george zimmerman's head. but those marks don't add up to the picture they were painting. as we know, 35 minutes after he shot trayvon he was walking through the police station handcuffed without assistance. back with me, ken padowitz, former prosecutor and in washington, joe madison, host of "mornings with madison." thank you both for joining me. ken, we'll start with you. you have seen thousands of

homicide cases in florida. if someone is badly injured, how unusual would it be to cancel an ambulance? >> it would be extremely unusual. clearly that is an important piece of circumstantial evidence that this man was not so badly injured, that he had been fighting for his life just minutes earlier. it is clear from everything i have seen in this case, even if we take the enhanced pictures from abc news that shows injuries to the back of the head that it's clearly an extreme exaggeration that he was fighting for his life, the fact that an ambulance is cancelleded, that he's not even brought to the hospital and examined. if he was near being unconscious that would indicate that he potentially had some type of brain injury. nothing like that occurs in this case. 30 minutes later he's brought to the police station. that's an important piece of circumstantial evidence that

blows out of the water the consistent claim we hear from mr. zimmerman's family that he was fighting for his life. the evidence doesn't seem to support that. >> now, joe, if you look at the fact that officer timothy smith wrote in the police report from the crime scene, quote, zimmerman was placed in the rear of my police vehicle and was given first aid by the sanford fire department. zimmerman was cleared by the sanford fire department. he was transported to the sanford police department. now, this is the officer that says he was treated in the back of his car. this is his report. his police report. clearly he's not indicating that he was near unconscious or fighting for his life. this is his written report at the scene. >> absolutely. i don't know what else to tell you. look again at the evidence. a broken nose. where is the blood? you have a situation like you just reported. cancelled ems. the reality is that we are look

ing at a person who is telling his family one thing. he's probably not telling them the truth. they are repeating it and the right wing is buying it and accusing us of not wanting us to believe our eyes and believe our ears. that's why this case is falling apart for george zimmerman. >> let me go back to you. one, i don't think i have heard anyone say there may not have been a fight. i think the injuries and the extent is what we are dealing with. and the fact that it is now experts say it was probably trey trayvon martin yelling for help. there was something going on, but to what degree? then you have the funeral director who prepared trayvon martin's body said the zimmerman story of a scuffle didn't make sense.

>> we could see no physical signs of a scuffle, a fight. you know, the hands, i didn't see any knuckles abuses or what have you. that's something we would have covered up if it had been there. i didn't see signs of cuts on his neck or face. the story just does not make sense that he was in this type of scuffle or fight. nothing that we could see. >> now, does that kind of statement, if we go to trial, would that have a lot of bearing to a jury? would it have a lot of weight? >> absolutely. evidence comes in many forms. it can come in the form of testimony. it can come in the form of circumstantial evidence and clearly observing the body of trayvon martin and taking a look at his hands and taking a look at his knuckles, this is all circumstantial evidence that any fact-finder, any jury can consider at trial.

the more evidence that appears to come out in this case that gets leaked out or witnesses are talking about clearly seem to indicate it is not anyone here fighting but trayvon martin who may be fighting for his life. he's being stalked by an individual and may be fighting for his life. the fact that there are injuries to the back of the shooter's head doesn't seem to indicate to me that there is not probable cause. there clearly is probable cause for an arrest for some type of homicide in this case. joe, isn't this why some who raised zimmerman's past as something that can be considered here being that he's the one that did the shooting? i never understand why we go into trayvon's past when he's never been charged with a crime. yet the shooter, clearly you want a profile of him if there are questions here or whether he had the capacity of doing something wrong or whether he had the capacity of having an

anger problem or something. won't this come to bear when you're dealing with all of this kind of evidence that clearly may be cloudy in areas? >> i'm not a lawyer, but my god, we don't have trayvon on record, police record, committing what started out as a felony reduced to a misdemeanor doing what -- jumping on a law enforcement agent who is executing an arrest. that is anger management. i don't know how many people in the united states of america on the right or the left can sit back and say you don't have an anger problem when you jump on a police officer who tells you, whoa, back off and that officer is armed and you're angry enough to go after a police officer? yeah, it should have some bearing and i would imagine that a good prosecutor -- and again

i'm not a legal expert -- can bring that up in court. but nothing trayvon has done -- this is where the right wing is making a big mistake. nothing trayvon has done has -- did zimmerman know about. that's the point. he didn't know trayvon at the time that trayvon was shot. >> so it's irrelevant. >> it's irrelevant. >> there are no crimes charged there anyway. >> yeah. >> we'll talk about that next. thank you both for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> ahead, some in the right wing media are using this tragedy to attack. i'll tell you why they are distorting the effort and have it all wrong on this one. next. c'mon dad!

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it's about right and wrong. some in the right wing media have taken the case and made it a political one. >> msnbc and cnn to some extent have a vested interest in seeing zimmerman punished because they have already found him guilty on the air. so they are not going to respect any verdict but guilty. therefore, those entities will tell the american public that racial injustice has been done if there is not a conviction. and that could very well lead to violence as we saw in the rodney king case. leading the charge to convict zimmerman is al sharpton. >> this is not about self-defense. this is about a man deciding somebody based on who he was was a suspect and that he would take matters in his own hands. >> does that sound like i'm calling for a conviction or

violence? here's what i actually said at a rally in sanford, florida. >> every man in here going to help us do security tonight and we're going to escort our sisters. somebody says something stupid, say, brother, this is for trayvon tonight. be cool. >> what i was saying the night of the big rally is we don't want anybody acting up. we want everybody cool. i asked the men to walk with the women because i don't want even the outside possibility of disruptions. but bill o'reilly isn't the only one. listen to what rush limbaugh said today on his program. >> it's all about obama's re-election, pure and simple. until obama or jackson or sharp ton lead them to a story the media is not going to go there. >> the story is doing more harm to the black community than anything else out there right now. >> joining me now is msnbc

political analyst michael die son and georgetown professor and opinion writer for the washington post and msnbc contribut contributor. thanks for being here. jonathan, you have been covering the trayvon martin case. what are they trying to do by saying those things that obviously have nothing to do with what we are trying to accomplish here? >> i have no idea what they are trying to do. maybe if you want to put a good gloss on it they are trying to minimize what you and others have been trying to do. trayvon martin's family and those of us in the media who have been writing piece after piece after piece just simply asking questions about what happened and how sit possible that an unarmed teenager could be shot and killed by someone with a .9 millimeter handgun who isn't in police custody?

one of the things i have been very careful about, you know, despite the e-mails i have been getting from people making the same accusations about me as they are about you, not looking for a conviction. looking for this person to be, at a minimum, arrested and then taken out so the case could be taken out of the court of public opinion and be put where it belongs in a court of law. >> dr. dyson, i think coming from the tradition where i grew up as part of the organization dr. king founded, one, we respond when called. i responded when the parents and the attorney asked us to come. in many cases i never got involved and was criticized for not getting involved in. second, we must adhere to nonviolence. early in my career i would leave things open and i have learned the hard way to be clear that we are not going to have violence. is that not the overall tradition that we have represented in this case and

that we have learned from dr. king's teachings? >> absolutely, reverend. you have upheld that tradition. first of all, don't be disheartened because martin luther king, jr., was subjected to the same insults and slander you have been subjected to. when he went to birmingham they said, you're bothering us. wherever he went when people called him they said, look, our blacks are getting along fine without you. the blacks and whites are fine. we knew jim crow was flying in a powerful fashion over the lives of african-american people in the south. you are in a powerful tradition. not simply in calling for nonviolence which you have been clear enough. not simply going to where you were called but also in being assaulted. if bill o'reilly were around when king was around he would say the same thing about king he'd say the same thing he's saying now. >> they have done it to all the supporters and the parents.

>> without a doubt. >> jonathan, a point you raised because you're a writer not an activist. >> right. >> you're not saying a lot of things activists say. all of us have only said probable cause. make an arrest. how can you call for a conviction when you don't know the charge. supposedly the charge is something the family and supporters don't agree with. how can you practically call for a conviction? doesn't make legal sense is. >> right. from the very beginning it has always been -- the question has been and i have asked the question. why isn't george zimmerman in jail? that's the first hurdle. in one of the first pieces i wrote, i cautioned readers that especially when the department of justice got involved and started its parallel investigation for possible hate crime charge i cautioned right then and there the likelihood of a federal charge of hate crimes might be unlikely because the

bar is so high for the government to meet that it might not be possible. it could be possible that george zimmerman could be charged on state charges where the bar is lower, but still, reminding people that justice and the law don't work in ways that every day people think it should work because the law is the law and how you go about it is, you know, very tricky and nuanced process. >> let me go back to dr. dyson. i think the only thing that makes sense to me and rush might have slipped with it, is that they are really trying to tie it to the president. he mentioned president obama who has as much to do with the rallies and stuff as the man on the moon. why are they connecting this to the president and what do you think they are trying to gain by politicizing this. >> it's vicious. i think it's a weak kneed attempt to assault the president's reputation, to link

him again to blacken him in the public consciousness about which mr. capeharp has brilliantly written and to assert it's illegitimate for us to be concerned about racial justice. it's right versus wrong, not black versus white and why isn't this man? in jail? we are trying to say, if we have to go to this extent and this extreme just to get an arrest in the case of george zimmerman, that throws a sharp spotlight on the injustice that prevails in the justice system and the way in which many people of color and for that matter poor white people and poor latinos are disserved by the justice system. read "the new jim crow." it lays it out brilliantly. >> mr. capeharp, you have been a journalist, we went in front of the house you grew up in jersey and showed what you went through. did you do it because you wanted to incite violence or try to get a conviction or were you showing people that people go through

this and that's why it meant so much to so many? >> right. to show people, you know, here is where i lived. this is where those lessons took effect. but also because the outpouring of emotion over that particular piece was really rather overwhelming. i'm not talking about from african-americans. >> a lot of people. >> i'm talking from a lot of people. >> of all colors. i have to leave it there. >> who didn't know the story. >> thank you both. we'll be right back. wake up!

that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8.

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i was in florida marching with hundreds to keep the pressure on local officials. over the weekend, more than 20 rallies were held around the country. regular citizens calling for peace and justice. some celebrities were a part of the movement. chaka khan called on people to

show their support. she and others joined me and the family on shining a bigger spotlight on the case. this is a movement for nonviolence. in fact, i have called for these kind of nonviolent protests many times before. like in the amadu dialu case in 2000. also after the police officers were acquitted in the sean bell police case in new york. >> we are going to react in a methodical, serious way. we are going to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience. we are coming back to demonstrate to the federal government that new yorkers will not take this abortion of justice laying down. >> so even when we were disappointed we called on nonviolence. i learned years ago if you're not clear someone will come behind you and do something and your enemies will try