For the second day, protesting students hunkered down Wednesday in Gov. Rick Scott’s office waiting room in response to George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, reports Margie Menzel of the News Service of Florida.
They want Scott to call a special legislative session to address the controversial “stand your ground” law that was part of Zimmerman’s case, along with other laws they say put minority youths on a “pipeline to prison.”
Scott, who was in New York and New Jersey on Tuesday, also was out of the Capitol on Wednesday. His schedule listed two events in Pensacola and another event in Panama City.
He indicated through a spokeswoman Tuesday that he does not think the stand-your-ground law should be overturned.
Phillip Agnew, leader of the Dream Defenders, a group playing a key role in the protest, said the students wouldn’t be deterred by Scott’s position.
“It means nothing to me,” Agnew said. “He’s made a lot of statements that have been worse. But we’re still here, we’re still willing to meet, and we’ll escalate. We’ll continue to escalate, and more people will come, he’ll get visitors, we’ll bolster the Tallahassee economy by having people here, [and] we’ll give time-and-a-half to the guards who have to watch us all night. And we’ll continue to wait.”
The protesters were singing, chanting and talking about racism.
Also on hand was state Rep. Alan Williams, a Tallahassee Democrat who plans to take another run at repealing the “stand your ground” law in 2014. A similar repeal effort failed this year.
