Though newly leaked information favoring George Zimmerman regarding his February 26 deadly confrontation with Trayvon Martin has surfaced in recent days, nobody at the jam-packed town hall meeting at the 34th Street Church of God was buying it Tuesday night in Tampa.
Hosted by Tampa City Councilman Frank Reddick in a house of worship run by the man Reddick succeeded on the Council last year, the Reverend Thomas Scott, the crowd (estimated to be over 900 people) heard electrifying speeches from the Rainbow Push Coalition's Reverend Charles McKenzie, WMNF radio talk-show host Otis Anthony and Hillsborough County NAACP head Carolyn Collins, among others.
It was Anthony — a performing poet — who first brought the crowd out of their seats, talking about George Zimmerman and the 46 times he called 911 as a neighborhood watchman leading up to last month's fateful encounter with the 17-year-old black teen.
This article appears in Mar 22-28, 2012.