Black Panthers George Zimmerman

Black Panthers George Zimmerman, New Black Panthers Offers $10,000 Bounty for Zimmerman, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," proclaimed New Black Panther Party leader Mikhail Muhammad in a protest in Sanford, Fla., on Saturday. After calling for the mobilization of thousands of black men to hunt down Zimmerman for the shooting of Trayvon Martin, the group offered a $10,000 reward for the capture of the gunman.

But the group's call for vigilante justice has drawn some criticism from the community as well.

"We believe in a message of justice, not hate. We believe justice will come through the court system," Pastor Moses Brown said during an impromptu memorial for the slain Martin.

There is no denying the shooting of the 17-year-old Martin is an injustice. But the NBPP does not seek justice, it seeks vengeance. The group calls for the "capture" of Zimmerman. Yet, does not elaborate on what they will do to him once captured. This form of generalized intense rhetoric and the mobilization of black men only fuel a lynch-mob type of action. The racial unrest that the NBPP is attempting to stir does not add any positive value to an already heated debate and only distracts from true justice to be served.

According to Muhammad, the group's national chairman in Washington is receiving donations from black celebrities, the Orlando Sentinel reported. And, they are hoping to raise $1 million by next week.

Although the NBPP boasts about the donations they are collecting, they fail to address the allocation of these funds. Based on their hate-filled sentiments, it is fair to assume that the money will be used to promote their misguided cause. These funds will not help alleviate the plight of marginalized African-Americans, who the NBPP claims to represent.

This irony is reinforced further when NBPP protesters carry "Stop the Killing" signs yet call for more violence by offering a bounty on Zimmerman. The group sends conflicting messages and touts civil rights only for their convenience.

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