Demonstrators protesting against the not-guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman at a rally for Trayvon Martin in New York yesterday. After a three-week trial, the six-woman jury found Zimmerman, not guilty in the death of 17-year-old Martin. The case has polarised the US public. Critics contend Zimmerman wrongly suspected Martin of being a criminal because he was black, making it civil rights issue, while gun rights supporters saw Zimmerman as a persecuted hero who was exercising his Second Amendment right to bear arms. Zimmerman’s lawyers argued he acted in self-defence on the night of February 26, 2012, when he and Martin met inside a gated community in the central Florida town of Sanford. They accuse civil rights advocates of wrongly injecting the issue of race. President Barack Obama called for calm after Zimmerman’s acquittal, saying Martin’s death was a tragedy and that the country should seek ways to stem gun violence.
