Mario Tama/Getty Images
Rev. Al Sharpton (center) speaks at a rally with Tracy Martin (right), father of slain teenager Trayvon Martin, on March 22, 2012 in Sanford, Florida.
The embattled police chief of Sanford, Fla. stepped aside Thursday amid international condemnation of his refusal to arrest the man who shot Trayvon Martin.
Meanwhile, Florida's governor appointed a new prosecutor in the case.?Police Chief Bill Lee?s temporary resignation came hours before a mass rally scheduled for the Orlando suburb, and did not mollify the angry crowd.
?We did not come here for a temporary leave of absence,? said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who led the rally. ?We came here for an arrest.?
"We cannot allow a precedent when a man can just kill one of us ... and then walk out with the murder weapon," Sharpton said with Martin's parents by his side. "We don't want good enough. We want George Zimmerman in court with handcuffs behind his back."
Sanford city commissioners voted 3-2 Wednesday that they had lost confidence in Lee, who insisted there was no cause to arrest the overzealous Hispanic neighborhood watchman who shot the unarmed black 17-year-old on Feb 26.
?I am aware my role as leader of this department has become a distraction from the investigation,? Lee said in a brief afternoon statement.
He said ?temporarily removing? himself would restore a ?semblance of calm to the city.?
Lee, formerly of the Seminole County Sheriff?s Office, took the job only ten months ago ? after the previous chief quit amid an outcry over his refusal to arrest a cop?s son who brutally battered a black homeless man.
Lee had insisted for weeks that there was no probable cause to arrest George Zimmerman, 28, who stalked and shot Trayvon when he went out to buy a bag of Skittles.
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Zimmerman said Trayvon jumped him and claimed self defense. Cops never took him into custody or tested him for drugs or alcohol ? though they tested the teen?s corpse.
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Lee continued to say cops did the right thing even after it emerged that calls to 911 from worried neighbors captured the teen?s desperate cries for help and a single gunshot.
Zimmerman can also be heard on tape telling a police dispatcher he was following the boy.
Even though cops had the dead boy?s cell phone, it was Trayvon?s father who sorted through the phone records to discover that his son was talking to his girlfriend moments before he died.
The girlfriend confirmed that Trayvon said he was being followed.
Though he lost his mother late Wednesday, the Sharpton led the rally in Sanford.
?My mother raised me to stand up for justice. My mother would have been ashamed of me if I wasn?t here tonight,? Sharpton said.
Sanford city manager Norton Bonaparte put out a letter Wednesday saying the cops could not arrest Zimmerman because of Florida?s controversial 2005 Stand Your Ground law, which allows people to shoot anyone they believe is threatening them.
?Law enforcement was PROHIBITED from making an arrest based on the facts and circumstances they had at the time,? Bonaparte wrote.
?The Sanford Police Department has conducted a complete and fair investigation of this incident.?
Trayvon?s mother, Sybrina Fulton had a different take. ?They decided on the scene to be the judge and jury,? she said. ?I just want this guy arrested so he could be brought to justice.?
Trayvon, who was staying at his dad?s house within the gated community, went to 7-Eleven to buy Skittles and iced tea wearing a hoodie on a drizzly Sunday night.
Zimmerman spotted Trayvon and called 911 ? one of dozens of calls over the years about suspicious black males.
?This guy looks like he?s up to no good...These a**holes always get away,? Zimmerman told the police dispatcher.
When cops arrived, Trayvon was dead, shot in the chest by Zimmerman.
The Justice Department has opened a federal investigation into the incident.
Zimmerman has fled his home and is in hiding after receiving death threats.
WITH NEWS WIRE SERVICES
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nydnrss/news/~3/1LNB2kJy4NM/story01.htm
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