LATEST NEWS

As a chilling new series about the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012 is released, its directors discuss the historic case that sparked an urgent debate about racism in the US

This March, five years after being acquitted of the murder of Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman was back in the news for threatening another African-American man – Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter. “[I said] I would beat him as if I was Solange,” Zimmerman told a local newspaper, referencing Jay-Z’s much-publicised fracas with his sister-in-law, Solange Knowles, in 2014. “And he would find himself coming out of the south side of a gator if he comes to Florida and bothers my family.”

The reason behind the former neighbourhood watch volunteer’s belligerence towards the king of hip-hop was Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story, a new six-part documentary, which Jay-Z executive-produced. The series, made in cooperation with Martin’s parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, examines in forensic, harrowing and often exasperating detail the shooting on 26 February 2012 of the unarmed 17-year-old, which Zimmerman says was in self-defence, while the boy was walking through a gated community in Sanford, Florida. It also explores its momentous repercussions, both personal and national.

Continue reading...

from US news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2K140eN