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Subscribe to RSSPresident Obama addresses the Trayvon Martin case from a White House Rose Garden event.
President Barack Obama said Friday that "every aspect" of the death of Trayvon Martin, the black teenager shot in Florida last month, must be investigated.
"My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin: If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon," Obama said. "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 what happened."
The president was speaking Friday at the end of a news conference outside of the White House announcing his nomination of Dartmouth president Jim Yong Kim for president of the World Bank.
Asked by NBC's Mike Viqueira to comment on the Martin case, which has prompted national outrage after the shooter evaded arrest for claiming he shot the unarmed teen out of self-defense, Obama said, "Obviously, this is a tragedy. I can only imagine what these parents are going through. And when I think about this boy, I think about my own kids."He added, "I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together - federal, state, and local - to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened."
Storify: Politicians' reaction to the Trayvon Martin case
Martin's family thanked the president in an email statement.
"We'd like to thank the President and the millions of people from around the world who have shown their support for Trayvon by participating in hoodie marches, rallies or through social media. We are all working together to not only get justice for Trayvon, but also to ensure that this kindof senseless tragedy doesn't happen to another child."
In Miami, students from more than a dozen schools staged a walkout to protest the lack of an arrest in the shooting of a black Florida teen. NBC's Ron Allen reports.
Martin, 17, was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla.
"All of us have to do some soul-searching to do figure out how something like this happens," Obama told reporters.
Vote on Facebook: Appropriate for president to weigh in?
Meanwhile, on Friday, students at several South Florida high schools staged walkouts Friday morning in a protest against the lack of an arrest in the shooting.
Young, black, and in a hoodie: Recipe for disaster?
Hundreds of students from Miami Central, Miami Edison, Miami Norland and American Senior High poured out into the streets just after 9 a.m., reported NBCMiami.com.
Students at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School, which Martin was attending when he was killed, will be making a banner in his honor that will be signed by students, said NBCMiami.com.
Republicans join call for Trayvon Martin inquiry
Zimmerman, the 28-year-old man who fatally shot Martin, has not been arrested, but is the subject of a civil rights investigation by the Justice Department and FBI. A grand jury will be convened on April 10 to determine whether to charge him.
NBC's legal correspondent Savannah Guthrie and managing editor of TheGrio.com, Joy-Ann Reid, offer their take on the Trayvon Martin case.
On Thursday, the police chief in the Martin case temporarily stepped down, saying he had become a distraction to the investigation.
Martin's parents said that wasn't enough, and that Zimmerman should be taken into custody.
"We want an arrest, we want a conviction and we want him sentenced for the murder of my son," Martin's father, Tracy, said to large crowd of supporters in downtown Sanford on Thursday.
NBCMiami.com contributed to this report.
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This story makes me cry. I can fully understand President Obama's meaning. It's what many of us are thinking, who have children. I have a teen son, and its horrible to think about something like that happening from anyone wanting to walk to a store for an ice tea.
What does Jeb say about it? Any Romney comments yet? "I have friend who own gun factories..blahblahblah" I'm elite and special
Jealous you are poor trash by choice.
Presumptive you are elitist by choice? Are we doing Yoda-speak today or did you forget some punctuation?
This innocent black kids was murdered and justice needs to be done.
Sadly there is a national uproar by blacks over this, but not a word if it had been a black guy who shoot him dead. 10,000s of blacks are killed by blacks every year and the black community says nothing. This only brings out the worse of the black community.
uh-ojunks; its on now!
Yup-Yup.......Obama is stoking the fire to discord and racial divide.......here comes the riots....Sorry but if this was a white kid obama would not be sticking his nose in this!
beanne - The scariest thing is that you actually believe what you say. God help us all.
Answering a question from the press isn't "sticking his nose in this." And to assume that the President wouldn't care if the kid was white just demonstrates ingorance.
riots this summer. brought to you by the comander and divider
Oh, for sure - After all, he shot the unarmed kid, right? I'm sure no one noticed this story until someone asked the President a question.
All President Obama did was say what anybody and everybody wants for this terrible situation. A FULL INVESTIGATION by all parties, Federal, State and local authorities.
After that investigation has taken place, it will show, in my opinion, that Zimmerman had NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to shoot and kill Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman should be found guilty and sentenced to jail for the rest of his life.
I'm glad the President responded and gave those parents some comfort...he's a father like so many and poor boy was targeted by a racist who is still walking the streets armed with his gun ready to kill again someone he doesn't know and the next person just might be one of you if you are so unlucky to come across this nut. Thank you Mr. President for caring about the people in this country and not some ideological agenda to put as many guns in the hands of people as possible.
This kid was murdered with skitties and a can of coke in his hand (only in America).... and this murderer felt threatened ? Judicial trial of this *&^$% SOB is a waste of taxpayers' money and time. I hope he gets a vigilante justice from those now seeking his "ugly head"
You don't know the whole story.....in the tape Zimmerman explains to the dispatcher that the boy was trying to get into a back door...why is no one talking about that aspect of this??? Why would this kid be doing that? With all the crazies out there if someone was trying to get into my back door..I would suk my Pitbull on them......don't own a gun....Yet...but I may have to get one soon!
That is total BS beane, and you know it.
The boy was with his father visiting a resident of the neighborhood and it started to rain. Is it possible he was going to the back door of the house he was visiting? Not to mention that from what I've seen, every house in that neighborhood looks exactly the same!
This kid could have acted like he had a gun and threatened the officer....You have no idea what happened so quit acting like you do. Let the police and others do their job!
You've obviously not been paying attention to the story, so please get the facts straight before commenting, Toaroca. The shooter was a neighborhood watch volunteer, not an officer of anything.
He was allowed or had a permit to carry a gun, and I am not mistaken self defense is not a crime..So those are the facts. I would have done the same thing if i was in that situation. These days you never know what a person will do. so stay in your lane capecodmom
Toaroca
He has a carry permit, but broke the neighborhood watch program rules of NOT carrying a gun whiole patrolling the streets. He was told by the 911 dispatcher NOT to follow or confront the suspect and to let the police handle it. He stalked the boy.
Yeah....I was simply saying that the guy wasn't an officer of any kind, and that's a very important clarification. Having a permit to carry a gun doesn't make using it non-criminal.
Are you saying that, although no one has even insinuated that Trayvon was armed or even had anything on him that could've looked like a gun, that you would chase down and shoot someone "in that situation"? What "situation" do you think we're talking about?
Obama=George Bush, Just another person willing to twist our hearts instead of our minds to get our vote/compliance.
Local/State laws and police are over these matters and Presidential input is wrong outside of Pardons and the such.
More of the same..Come November lets elect a real Statesmen, Ron Paul 2012.
Bwaaa-haaa-haaaaa! Ron Paul? That's a good one!
How many of you A'holes would be ranting about Obama's lack of feelings if he did not nay anything? He is simply stating there will be a full investigation (just like there should be in every act of criminality in this nation) and an attempt to express the outrage of "six gun vengeance" under the guise of "self protection". Florida itself is guilty of passing a law that opens the door for untrained illiterate "security guard wannabe's" to carry guns without training able to interpret the law as they see fit and shoot anyone for any reason under the guise of "self defense".
That's where you're wrong as usual. You're "if he didn't... then you would have..." hypothesis is DOA. You libs need to stop believing that you know what makes everybody tick. You don't know sh*t.
Ted - the number of assumptions in your statement outweigh the point you appear to be trying to make.
He did not say anything about it until he was asked a question by a reporter.
Ted My Boy do you have anger issues?
BTW I am an Independent centrist - I DESPISE the extremism and "I don't give a damn about anyone else but me" attitude that is prevalent throughout this land. I am struck by the inability of our congress to accomplish anything due to their inability to compromise, this seems to have carried over to "Joe Six Pack" (whom you obviously are). A simple civil discourse on basic humanity is obviously something you are incapable of having so I calmly suggest to you STFU! And WYMOWS&W!
BTW who were you quoting? Attributing in quotes to the wrong person is really underscoring the feeble mindedness of the Repblinuts. Believe me I do NOT know what makes YOU or people like you "tick", that I will be the first to admit! I will also tell you I really do not care to know what makes the Fascist Bigoted mind work although I suspect it is a miswiring of the bran's synapsis, I would hate to think it was on purpose.
Those that complain about Obama voiceing his opinion to a direct question, you'd have jumped all over him if he'd said nothing.
There is a proven correlation between hate and low IQ.
And you proved it.
Not only does every aspect of this case needs to be examined, every suspicious case under the tenure of this police chief needs to be combed through as well. Sometimes police think they can just make up their own law as they go along, and the prosecutors and judges look the other way. It's called abuse of authority.
BINGO BooCoo DaBreeze!
This particular chief had been on the job only 10 months, cut him some slack. Why don't we try something novel, like let the authorities find out what happened, press charges if warranted, let the truth come out and take appropriate action at that time. None of us knows what happened.
Racial issues in this country will never be eliminated with things like this left to continue to happen.
How about OBAMA looking into the Death's of White people murdered by Blacks??? Anybody ever see the FBI investigate a Murdered White done by a Black?? Obama won't get My vote, That's for Damned sure.
Tarzan, you wouldn't have voted for him anyway. How would you feel if Zimmerman had shot your son? Have you forgotten how the southern states have treated black Almericans before the Civil War, and still try to treat them that way.
Look at the history of how the South has treated blacks. And still do a lot of the same crap now as they did back then. Yes, it has a racist footprint all over it. The poor kid was only armed with his zittles and tea.
Also, how many individual killings did Bush demand a full investigation on. They even tried to cover up Pat Tillman's killing. So I don't think Obama will lose sleep over you not voting for him.
Plural words do not require apostrophes. Why "Whites" but "a Black?"
In 2010, the FBI's Hate Crime unit investigated 6628 racially motivated hate crimes. Of those, 18.4% of offenders were black and 17.7% of victims were white. So, yes, I have "seen" the FBI investigate black on white hate crime
Correction: The total number of hate crimes reported to the FBI in 2010 was 6628. 3725 of those were classified as racially motivated.
Pander much...
If this had been a white boy we would of never heard a comment from the president. What a dumb MUFF this president is. Kiss your a$$ goodbye for another four years.
You would not have heard a comment either way if a reporter didn't ask him. Obama was giving a speech for something completely unrelated to this case, but as usual, the press has to ask questions THEY want answered.
You used skin color as a form of attack. Feel better?
I wonder if there is a Presidential "Hoodie?"
There sure is! Get yours now!
http://store.barackobama.com/featured-15/grey-hoodie.html
This sorry excuse for a President will latch on to any opportunity to get a few votes.
You mean just like the current Republicans running for their party's nomination?
Welcome to politics. Party affiliation is irrelevant.
Well, we know what party you are voting for, don't we. Only those who mention the President's opposition in such a negative way, feel a need to downcast the other party for the President's party. I will vote for the person whom I believe will best serve this country and its people. I hope this country gets back to its basic principles and its belief in the almighty (Under God).
Are you an American? The country was never founded on a religious belief. "Under God" was formally made part of the Pledge of Alliegance in 1942, and "in God We Trust" wasn't added to money until 1956.
Considering that today 70% of all black kids grow up in fatherless homes (get out in front of that discussion, Mr. President) he just may indeed have a son that looks like Trayvon.
That's just tacky, Ted. Seriously. You're insulting the President, his wife, and his daughters. And all black kids. And black men in general. Wow.
hey there Obummer, way to use a tragic situation for your election purposes!
Yes, way to answer a question from the press during a speech. What President does something like that?
He's speaking out because he was asked to comment. If you can't see a child being killed and nothing being done about it as a tragedy that is deserving of investigation there is something wrong. People should be outraged. This child was in a morgue for 24 hours as a John Doe. No one bothered to make contact with anyone listed in his cell phone. That isn't a red flag? The self admitted shooter was not given a drug test or a breathalyzer, but Trayvon was tested fro drugs and alcohol. Trayvon cried out for help and the cries for help ended with a gun shot.
I despise politicians. Especially the politician-in-chief.
If I had a son, he'd be walking around with baggie pants and a hoodie, yeah, right, Mr. President. I guess he'd let his daughters participate in the slut walks too.
Too bad you don't have a son, you might inspire this generation to pull up their pants and stop shuffling around in gangsta hoodies.
And you proved it.