February 26, 2012, an unarmed, 17-year-old African-American high school student from Florida named Trayvon Benjamin Martin was gunned down by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer. Zimmerman was found innocent in a murder trial on the grounds of self-defense. The verdict sparked outrage across the country.
On July 30, 2018, a new six-part documentary series called “Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story,” a collaboration of Jay-Z and the Paramount Channel, premiered on the Paramount Network. The documentary, which brought new evidence to light, was not liked by Zimmerman. In fact, some of those involved in the documentary claim Zimmerman harassed and stalked them.
According to The Blast, Zimmerman “stalked the private investigator who contacted victims that participated in the documentary and now the victims are fearful of a retaliation.”
The private investor, Dennis Warren, made an official complaint to police and Zimmerman was charged with stalking. “Zimmerman was attempting to find out who the investigator spoke to, as expected the investigator would not provide details on who the participants were. Warren is also legally bound by a non-disclosure agreement while working on the show,” The Source reported.
Zimmerman also went to court with a subpoena for all of Warren’s documents in regard to the documentary. In turn, Warren filed an objection. In the filings, Warren said that “several of the people he contacted while working on the documentary are alleged victims of Zimmerman, and expressed that they were extremely scared of the man,” Raw Story reported.
Although Zimmerman pled not guilty to the stalking charges, there seems to be a lot of evidence. He “allegedly sent the P.I. 67 text messages, 27 emails, called 55 times and left 36 voicemails over the course of nine days,” Blast reported.
Zimmerman has also threatened Jay-Z regarding the documentary, and Jay responded in a recent song.
There was some pushback on the documentary, but Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton told Salon: Some people “want things back the way they were with slavery and with them oppressing us. And so [they] pretend like they don’t know what’s going on, but really, they do know…They know that people are being killed unjustly, unarmed people are being shot and killed and nobody is being held accountable. They know about the gun laws, they know about the guns that are being sold, they know about the court system and the laws, because they created all of those things.”
She added: “They have a better concept than we do. We’re just understanding now why so many of us are being shot and killed, but they know. Trust me.”
Trayvon’s father, Tracy Martin, said: “I think we’re moving in the right direction, in terms of the conversation. What America has a problem with is the violence that’s associated with racism. We might have gone back a few steps in terms of how people view us and…in terms of this administration. People are having a conversation about racism, but we still have a long way to go.”
"'Rest In Power' is a poignant reminder of how, even after six years of protests, court rulings, and more tragic shootings, we’ve still got a long way to go" https://t.co/Zlg44Ak21s
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) July 31, 2018
