he fixed on trayvon. in his mind, trayvon was a hood, a hoodhoodlum.uy had skittles and an iced tea. on the streets, you feel the instinct. somebody's stalking you, on your back, and trayvon probably at a certain point just decided to stand his ground. >> let me ask you, parker, a question about what it's like to have citizens involved in the patrol. is it of helpful for police officers or do you prefer to have them not involved in sort of how you're handling crime? >> good evening, soledad. it's very helpful for law enforcement and it is a thing that is really designed to be the extra set of eyes and ears to law enforcement and it's termed "watch" for a specific reason. it's not engage. it's not apprehend. it's not attempt to be a police officer. it is designed to watch and ultimately report to law enforcement. occasionally you will have an individual who has described earlier through profile may not be appropriately assigned as a crime watch person or a crime watch captain. i encourage and ask all crime watches in america, if you have this type of a

trayvon was. let's examine why we had a test on the victim, rather than the one that was aggressive. let's not play this double standard of trying to demonize who is dead and sanitize who was the cause of the death. >> the central issue in this case is race profiling. it happens across the country, whether by police, or judges, by bankers, by home foreclosures, we must end the racial profiling that set him up in the first place. we know that mr. zimmerman should not have pursued him and he did. should not have killed him and he did. and there is no basis for a man over another man's death with a gun cannot be arrested and processed until there is clarity. even today, the killer is free. even today, there is no inclination to arrest a killer. the same police department saw on film a homeless man being beaten. and the beater walked away. the same criminality within that infrastructure of that police department remains today. let me say lastly, this issue of race profiling and misconduct. it's painfu

my main message is to the parents of trayvon martin. if i had a son, he'd look like trayvon. i think they are right to expect that all of us as americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and we're going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. >> that comment made by the president last friday. we have to play that tonight for clarity. where's the hate? there is none. the president clearly felt for the parents of a lost son. and he voiced his support for finding out what really happened the night trayvon martin was shot. robert zimmerman is in denial, feeding off people like newt gingrich and rick santorum, who accuse the president of dividing the country by commenting on the case. zimmerman is trying to gin up support for his son by feeding the right wing beast. the retired magistrate stated factual errors with the fox station he did an interview with and speculated on the length of a confrontation. how would he know? so zimmerman's best defense is to play into the hot political rhetoric that permeates through this country. not only have we seen z

he fixed on trayvon. in his mind trayvon was a hood, a hoodum, an enemy of society. he has skittles and ice tea. the guy felt it. you feel the instinct. somebody is stalking you. somebody is on your back. and trayvon probably at a certain point just decided to stand his ground. >> let me ask chief parker a question about what it's like to have citizens involved in the patrol. is it ever helpful to the police officers or do you prefer to not have them involved in sort of how you're handling the crime? >> good evening, soledad. it's a thing really designed to be extra set of eyes and ears the to law enforcement. and it's termed watch for a specific reason. it's not engage. it's not apprehend. it's not attempt to be a police officer. it is designed to watch and ultimately report to larm. occasionally you will have an individual who may not appropriately be assigned a crime watch captain. i encourage and ask all crime watches in america, if you have this time of personality by all mean, get rid of them. >> would you want anybody on a crime watch to be armed? >> absolutel

i'm sure trayvon would too.ter of george zimmerman and what he would do differently, and what did trayvon do wrong that he would do differently? trayvon went and bought skittles, an iced tea, and walked home. what would he have done differently. >> look, when i was 17 years old, i was planning for my prom, i had a girlfriend, i was planning to go to college and play football. when i was 17 years old, i was planning on going back to high school. this police chief has some nerve, this dead young did won't to do college, senior prom, or have a life. he ought to be identifying with the parents you interviewed today. this shows you just how -- this chief of police ought to resign now. and tomorrow evening when we're there, that's exactly what i'm asking for. he ought to just step down. >> i think that you and others have said that. i think that may be too kind. i think they need to be investigating -- resignation should be the at least, some of them may face more serious problems if this investigation goes where i th

now we're hearing as trayvon's father just said that the police told him trayvon is on top of this guy. he's got his knees on his arms pinned. he's got him completely pinned and defenseless. both arms are now pinned. and he's holding him down with one of his hands additionally to stabilize him so that he can punch him and punch him and punch him. if that is true, how, if you're listening to someone tell you this story as an investigator, what does that person need to be able to tell you about how he escaped from that complete fizz control that the other person is exerting over him, and got to a gun that's in a holster underneath the body of the other person, who is obviously sitting on that gun. what does he have to tell you to convince you that he actually was able to turn the tables in that situation and then shoot that person dead? >> and that's the heart of the whole investigation. finding out if it's a believable, plausible story. there was a reinactment. we'll have to see what happened. that's a very good question as to how this could occur. it would be an extraordinary move t it

"beyond trayvon: race and justice in america" starts right now. >>> his name was trayvon martin. and his death has come to symbolize the racial tension and suspicions that still exist in america. i'm soledad o'brien. people from across this nation are here in this audience tonight to talk about this case and the questions that it raises. questions that cut to the heart of a country that promises liberty and justice for all. >> no justice, no peace! no justice, no peace! >> the killing of an unarmed teenager by a neighborhood watch volunteer touches a raw nerve across the nation. >> i know i cannot bring my baby back. but i'm sure going to make changes so that this does not happen to another family. >> the absolute facts lie with two people and one of them is dead. >> the case of trayvon martin is not unique. a child so innocent killed by a vigilante. >> was it racially motivated? the answer is absolutely not. >> what we worry about is seeking the truth. >> tonight, we separate the facts from the hype and the emotion and have a candid conversation about race and justice. this is a

. >>> police in the trayvon martin case try a new angle trying to make trayvon look bad. and big surprise they don't have anything. >> even in death they are disrespecting my son. >> trayvon martin was shot. >> the unarmed 17-year-old was shot by a neighborhood watch captain. >> the bottom line there was a life and death struggle. >> george zimmerman was acting in self defense. >> they killed my son and now they are trying to kill his reputation. >> if i had a son he would look like trayvon. >> some of on the right pounced on president obama's comments. >> what the president said is disgraceful. >> if the president says it is morning at 9:00 a.m., the conservatives must say no, he is wrong. >> unhinged and desperate. rick santorum is getting in to a few oral arguments of his own. >> it is [ bleep ]. >> his temper. >> it's [ bleep ] blp. >> the horse is out of the barn. he loses himself when he loses his anger. >> if you haven't cursed out a "new york times" reporter during a course of a campaign you are not a real republican. >> rick santorum is taken his campaign to the

this is not adding up, folks and also why -- i mean he tries to say that trayvon went for his gun, trayvon had iced tea and skittles. that's all he had. this guy was walking around with a 9 mm weighs almost 100 pounds more than trayvon. this guy was a vigilante. i mean, he took this situation to what it is now and he killed trayvon. >> daryl park, thank you very much for joining me tonight, the rest of the crew is going to stay with me. another point i want to make just before we go to this break is that george zimmerman's father keeps using the word walk. he never says run. he never allows for the possibility that george zimmerman ran after trayvon. now, trayvon's running away. how do you follow someone who is running away? you do that by running and we hear him on the 911 call, we hear the breath of a person running but the zimmerman family cannot allow for the possibility that he was running. there's a tailoring of every little verb, every little fact to be it seems to me at this stage of the story a little too neat. that's my little summation of this particular segment. we're going to

he lost site of trayvon martin and was returning to his suv when with trayvon approached him. martin punched him in the nose knocking him down. on the ground the teen was 6'3" hit him repeatedly and slammed his head into the ground. additionally, abc news is reporting that zimmerman told police martin tried to take his gun. now, remember martin's family said he was talking on the phone before he was shot. trayvon said zimmerman was following him. he wants to be known as john, and spoke to a local affiliate. >> the guy on the bottom who i believe had a red sweater on was yelling to me help, help. i told him to stop and i was calling 911. >> it was george zimmerman who was wearing red. this is the first eyewitness who says he saw who yelled for help. and it was george zimmerman, john says he locked his patio door, ran upstairs and heard at least one gunshot. >> i got upstairs and looked down. the perpendicular that was on top beating up the other guy was the one laying in the grass, and i believe he was dead at that point. >> those are the headlines, but now we have a fuller pic

it's all for trayvon martin. what these people, trying to get the word out that they want the person who shot trayvon martin in jail. and they're also trying to -- these are perfect strangers, but they're trying to support trayvon martin's family during this time. so we have people holding up signs, chanting "no justice, no peace," and dodging the raindrops, all to show support for trayvon martin. >> the admitted shooter of trayvon martin, george zimmerman, is not under arrest, in part because of florida's stand your ground law. but what does that law say and does it apply in this case? we're talking with legal and law enforcement experts. and look at these women. they are the mothers of young black men, including one that you see right there, and both have given advice to their children that's far different from the parents of other races might give to their children. it's advice on how to keep from dying. we're back in two minutes. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >>> welcome back to our special edition, "killing of trayvon martin." we

in the trayvon martin case. we'll bring you any new developments as we get them. >>> coming up, what's today's historic supreme court meeting for the president's healthcare law and his legacy? we'll be right back. [ johan ] hello, piper. nice up-do. i see you're crunching numbers with a cup of joe... when you could be relaxing with a delicious gevalia. or as i like to say, a cup of johan. joe's a cubicle. johan is a corner office with a young, eager assistant... who looks like me. put johan on your spreadsheets. he'll watch your bottom line. [ johan ] gevalia. meet me in the coffee aisle. cannot be contained. [ clang ] the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. see your lexus dealer. >>> we'll continue to monitor the breaking news with the trayvon martin case. but next, we'll turn our attention to the other major news of today. the supreme court arguments over the healthcare law. that's next. [ woman ] my boyfriend and i were going on vacation, so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories.

trayvon is pushed.he reason she concludes because his voice changes like something interrupted his speech. then the other thing she believes the earplug fell out of his ear. she can hear faint noises but no longer has the contact. she hears an altercation going and she says then suddenly somebody must have hit the phone and it went out because that's the last she hears. what's significant about that. you remember zimmerman, he got off the phone, trayvon martin never got off the phone. it's only the phone knocks off and you hear that 911 tape that he tells the dispatcher, he gets off the phone. are you aware of your concern why get off the 911 call. logically it makes sense that trayvon martin was the voice you heard crying on that tape. you heard zimmerman's voice at the beginning of that tape and you hear who's crying on that tape. you can conclude who is the person screaming out for help, presumably when they see a gun. and we know trayvon martin has skittles. he was a 17-year-old kid, 145 pounds appr

and so for him to try to turn the tide on trayvon right now when trayvon has lost his life, he's dead, it is almost -- it's a great insult to this family. >> do you think this is part of a -- sort of an organized campaign on the part of zimmerman or his supporters to -- some would say they want to get their side of the story out. do you believe it's to somehow bolster his side and somehow impugn the character of trayvon? >> i think it is. we've seen it often in criminal cases where a defense team will start trying to use various theories to try to put their position out there. in this case, it's very important that the american public know that when you take those two 911 tapes and the statements from his girlfriend and the phone records, it's very clear that she was on the phone from 7:12 to 7:16 and the sanford police were on scene at 7:17. mr. zimmerman and his friends can say whatever they want to say. those facts speak for itself. and america needs to focus on the facts. not the innuendo that people may try to come up with. >> when i interviewed trayvon's mother, she was very cle

he says he shot trayvon in self defense. but there are serious questions like the time between he old the operator he was pursuing him and when he shot him. there is about a one-minute gap that police say they're not sure what happened. and police say zimmerman's story contradicts what they saw and heard. >> we were in the kitchen, we heard the little boy crying, and the gun went off and the crying stopped. i believe this was not self-defense. i feel it was not self-defense because i heard the crying, and if it was simmerman that was crying, he would have continued crying after the shot went off. >> people that knew what trayvon was about as a person all say they can't believe he attacked zimmerman. trayvon's former football coach says "there's no way i can believe that" because he's not a confrontational kid. that is just not the kind of kid he was. joining me now are the parents of trayvon martin, tracy martin, sybrina fulton, and their attorney, mr. crump. let me say that the "orlando sentinel" comes out with the story th

he engages trayvon. now we know, as late as today that we have a witness who was an eyeball witness who saw mr. zimmerman on top and saw him shoot trayvon on the bottom. and we have mr. zimmerman saying, yes, i did shoot him. now, whether or not he is guilty or not is not the issue when it comes to arresting someone. he should be arrested. and a court of law decide whether or not he's guilty or innocent. >> sean: i understand that. but we also had a witness that was there and available that first night and he has a very contradictory statement. his statement was that he saw trayvon on top of mr. zimmerman and pounding his heads into the concrete and into the cement. just to -- just to point out one other thing is that according to zimmerman's side, he was walking back to his car when he said he was confronted, in fact, by trayvon. and so obviously, we have -- we have conflicting stories here. >> mr. hannity, when you have conflicting statements in any situation, right? we have enough for probable cause.

trayvon was a kid. he was another unarmed black boy whose life was lost because of suspicions, stereotypes, and fears. >> there are competing narratives from others including the sanford police. there's a leaked account of zimmerman's statement to police saying the martin confronted him, punched him in the face and slammed him to the ground. two eyewitnesses confirming that. and one other witness saying it was martin skreemg out for help. >> zimmerman was standing over the body basically straddling the body with his hands on trayvon's back. and it didn't seem to me that he was trying to help him in any way. it didn't seem to me -- i didn't hear any struggle prior to the gun shot. and i feel like it was trayvon martin that was crying out. the minute that the gun shot went off, the whining stopped. >> she didn't actually see any confrontation or see who it was that yelled out. there's also martin's girlfriend who's accounted her phone call suggests he was being followed by george zimmerman. aggressor or v

trayvon martin case. the alarming detail shines a new light on the good old boy's mishandling of the case and will make the george zimmerman apologyists crow. excluszive revelations. an investigator wanted george zirmerman arrested but he was overruled. the martin family attorney is here to react. righties can't stand it's a national news story and they are lashing out at msnbc. >> if trayvon martin was shot and killed by another black teenager, the media would not be running this on television for hours and hours on end. i'm taking bill o' reilly to school. >>> an explosive day of testimony at the supreme court. >> can you create commerce in order to regulate it? that's not what's going on. >> the health care of millions of americans hangs in the balance. we'll have the latest. >>> it's a new low in campaign advertising. >> better world nation and sworn american enemy has become a nuclear threat. >> republicans threaten an apocalypse and compare to president to a madman. >>> thanks for waping. the lead i

would look like trayvon. have a country where the first black president is severely punish forward making any reference to race whatsoever but there is also a little bit of accountability on the obama administration's part to say look, this kid, this event is a modern day version of what happened to emmett till. he is a modern day version rosa parks. other african americans punished for stepping out of their place. so do you think that it would have been appropriate for the president to comment on emmett till? then our president should step forward on the issue of trayvon martin and perhaps step forward in a way that calls for a little bit of political courage which i think is difficult to grab on to during an election year. >> there is more pressure on president obama because he is a black president to comment on this case? >> i think that any president would be expected to comment on a case that affected so many millions of people. trayvon's case was a perfect storm in terms of really highlighting what is w

trayvon is your son. a lot of people can relate to our situation. >> thank you so everyone who is supportive of our family. everyone who's helped us stand tall in this matter. everyone who is holding the legacy of trayvon and making sure that he did not indeed die in vain. >> injustice is the main reason this story continues to receive attention. where there's smoke, there's fire. the latest report of rejected manslaughter charges shows the wheels of justice were being prevented from turning. how do you think the american people will react to that? now there are new investigators in charge of the case. let's hope the conclusions of these investigators are not dismissed the way chris serino's were. get your cell phones out. will george zimmerman ever be charged with the killing of trayvon martin? text a for yes and b for no. you can leave a comment on our blog. we'll bring you the results later on in the show. >>> this is basig development. the lead investigator wanted to file charges. the attorney general

and you know, while the killing of trayvon is not unique, it's fairly common, as it unfolded here, trayvon being john doe as it unfolded, in an attempt to take his life, not take his reputation, everything about this has inflamed the whole world. it's not just about reverend sharpton. the whole world has look at this and said, something about this reflects upon america and the way that americans -- the president's had to speak to it. the congress has had to speak to it. the competitors for the office of republican has had to speak to it. this is unignorable. if you ignore it, it would be a sin, and accuse those that the family would support is just unfortunate. >> and reverend, how big is this story in comparison to some of the other injustices that you have been associated with or advocated for in your lifetime, where people have needed assistance? i mean, is this the civil rights story, the injustice of the 24-hour news cycle? there have been a lot of injustices, but we go back to the rodney king beating, which was some 20 years ago. what about this? >> it's one of these transformative m

my main message is to the parents of trayvon martin. if i had a son, he would look like trayvon. and, you know, i think they are right to expect that all of us as americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and we'll get to the bottom of exactly what happened. thank you. >> the fight for justice is spreading by the hour. many students walked out and protested today. they spelled out his initials on the football field. police say they did not arrest him because he claimed self-defense under the stand your ground law. even under the standards of that law, zimmerman should be arrested. the orlando sentinel said police routinely make arrests for stand your ground cases and let the courts decide if a killing is justified. court records show police and investigators file more often than not. that happened to chad smith. he was arrested for battery despite pleading self-defense around the stand your ground law. he was convicted. is that what happened to gracton garcia, arrested on a double murder charge. the judge dismissed the case but not before that arrest. not