Occupy Movement Research Paper

In a free society, people are given the opportunity to stand up for what they believe in. I believe that the act of civil disobedience, or peaceful resistance to laws, positively impacts a free society for a number of reasons. Civil disobedience can have a positive effect when the government is flawed or when the law being resisted is wrong or prejudiced. In these situations, civil disobedience and peaceful resistance can mend some of the injustices that were being inflicted. All governments, including democracies, are flawed.

One night in a Florida gated community a young man named Trayvon Martin, was walking down the streets of a mostly white community, stopped by George Zimmerman who was a neighborhood watch resident.Mr. Martin was stopped for being “suspicious” and “up to no good” according to Mr.Zimmerman. Trayvon was fatally shot by Mr. Zimmerman out of “self defense”. Really “Self defense” he was carrying a bag of skittles and a Arizona Tea. This young man was nothing but harmless but was victimed for being African-American.George Zimmerman would rather later stand trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin was found not guilty,until April 2012 he was found guilty of second degree murder.Although there are positives and negatives of this argument, the Black Lives

Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old boy that lived in Florida. He lived with his mother and often visited his father. While he had undergone some troubles, he overall was not a terrible kid. Although he was notably young and minded his own business, others did not. On February 26, 2012, the young boy’s life was taken away from him. The man who killed him was George Michael Zimmerman. He served as a neighborhood watch captain around the area where his old man lived. CNN stated that all he had was skittles and tea in his hand. Now tell me does that seem threatening to you? According to Zimmerman, he was claiming “self-defense” and that Trayvon was “a suspicious person.” Florida law states that one is granted the “stand your ground” law and that is what Zimmerman claimed to do in an act of defense. Zimmerman was arrested, but he was not charged or convicted of Martin’s murder even though people know that Zimmerman killed him for absolutely no actual cause.

During the 1960 Civil Rights Movement, demonstrators were brutalized and killed, sometimes at the hands of law officers, whereas many slayings remain unsolved. “In some cases where local authorities failed to go after the attackers, or all-white juries refused to convict, the federal government moved in with civil rights charges.” Fifty-Two (52) years later in 2012 a murder of young unarmed African American teen Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman from Sanford, Florida, was found not guilty of second-degree murder and acquitted of manslaughter. The verdict sparked a heartfelt online message regarding the decision, which stated “essentially a love note to black people” which ended with “Black people. I love you.

At the age of 17,Trayvon Martin’s death became the fatal bullet that helped trigger a movement of “Black liberation” known as Black Lives Matter. On February 26, 2012 George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain in the gated community, The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, Florida had called 911 police at 7:11 pm to report the presence of a suspicious person walking through this private property. In response the dispatcher had instructed Zimmerman not to get out his vehicle and confront the person, but with defiance Zimmerman dhada completely disregarded this order by pursuing the 17 year old teen. This self - imposed confrontation led to an altercation between the two which resulted in the fatal shooting of Trayvon and “injuries sustained

Civil rights groups are not a new thing in the United States, but after the disputed case of Trayvon Martin who was killed by George Zimmerman, the movement has been growing tumultuously. After Martin’s death, hundreds of high school teens began protesting, demanding both Zimmerman and chief police be fired. With the help of social media, Umi Selah and other activists were able to organize a forty-mile march from Daytona Beach to the headquarters of Sanford Police Department (the department that dealt with Martin and Zimmerman’s case.) The march lasted four days and ended in a five-hour blockade of the Sanford Police Department’s door. This organized protest was just the beginning of what quickly became the Black Lives Matter movement (McClain 2016).

The article, “Black Lives Matter: Birth of a Movement”, by Wesley Lowery begins with the writer being arrested at a McDonald’s fast food establishment in Ferguson, Missouri. This arrest was due to the riots occurring after the death of Michael Brown, an eighteen-year-old high school student who was gunned down by a police officer. The riots were unorganized and unpredictable. They consisted of many citizens within the community, some questioning the chain of events that lead to the murder of Michael Brown, and others demanding and indictment of the officer that committed the crime. The article states, “Scores more stood on pavements and street corners unable to articulate their exact demands – they just knew they wanted justice.”

Just for wearing a hoodie, carrying an Arizona Tea and for being black he was shot and killed. In the book “Deadly Injustice: Travyon Martin, Race, and the Criminal Justice System“ the authors go on to discuss what happened that night and in the trial that preceded. It also helped me deliberate with how certain deaths are portrayed online. This being one of the biggest cases to hit the news and was brought to almost everyone in the United States attention, even the President at the time made a statement about what had happened to this young man. Social media spreaded this article like a wildfire and soon everyone knew what had happened that night in Florida. One of the main reasons why it was difficult to convict Zimmerman of this crime was because of the “Stand your ground” law After this the tension between black males and police officers rose to an even higher extent. African Americans often feel as if they are treated by police unfairly and with situations like this happening it help supported how they felt. Additionally with cases like in Ferguson and what happened in Lousivelle when four innocent teens were accused of robbing a woman with a weapon where they were later found not guilty of the

The American people have always stood up to oppression and lead the fight against inequality. Our nation’s history is packed with people who were not afraid to stand up for what they believed in: fleeing religious oppression, fighting unfair taxation, and standing against mistreatment of a fellow-man.

Civil disobedience is not a burden to the free society, in fact, it is, in essence, the free society. In able to be free, you must feel free and if there is an unjust act being forced upon you, it is your right as a citizen to disobey it. I say this with emphasis on the "civil" part. There is a peaceful way to execute every action. For example, Rosa Parks. One of the most historical displays of civil disobedience. She did not have to use force, violence, or threats to get results; she simply displayed her dissatisfaction with the treatment of her person by siting. There need not be force when trying to make a point.That bruises the the name of civil disobedience and threatens any future results. In order to keep order there must be someone

Since when has violence ever been the answer to solving a problem? NEVER. Peaceful resistance to laws positively impacts a free society because for one, we live in a country where we are allowed to express our thoughts and opinions freely. Protests are a fantastic way to get your point across to others. However, it is when those once peaceful protests warp into a hate riot including burning and breaking property that the police have to step in.

A protest is a formal declaration of opposition. Not only do protests catch the media's eye, they can stir revolutionary movements and halt the government's actions. Peaceful protesting is very beneficial. Protesting draws attention to the public as well as the media, calls for a change in the government, and unites people of common interests and beliefs.

Another incident happened to a 17 year old boy named Trayvon Martin an African American. On February 2012, Martin was shot by a 28 year old Hispanic neighborhood watch coordinator named George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman shot Martin, who was unarmed, during an argument between both of them. Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin because he was a black walking through a neighborhood where he didn’t belong. Instead of taking a non violent approach Zimmerman quickly concluded after the argument that his life was in danger and felt justified to use deadly force to kill an unarmed man who was black. It is possible if Trayvon Martin had been white Zimmerman would have taken a softer approach to get rid of him from the neighborhood. Trayvon died because he was black and walking in a wealthy neighborhood where he did not live at

A great example of this is the Occupy Movement. The Occupy Movement is made up of individuals who protest against social and economic inequalities, with the primary goal of “fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process” (occupywallstreet.org). The movement was driven by mounting frustrations against Wall Street greed like corporate profits, tax breaks for the rich, corporate lobbying in Congress, and bank bailouts at a time when the poor and the middleclass were losing their grip on the economy. People were simply tired of working hard for their money just to hand it over to big

It was on February 26th 2012 that a 17 year old African American youth named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a White/Hispanic community watch coordinator, George Zimmerman in Florida. While the facts of the case are still uncertain, and the trial of George Zimmerman has not yet begun, there has been a