According to the statement released by City Council member, Jumaane Williams:

” Just a few moments ago, and at the request of the Council’s Black Latino and Asian Caucus (BLAC), the entire City Council sang the Black National Anthem ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ written by James Weldon Johnson.

“The topic of racial justice has been at the forefront of this country’s headlines for the past several years. Our emotions were in inflamed with the murder of Trayvon Martin, and then by the murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, and Philando Castile, to name only a few. Gun violence is in our cities nightly, while the cries for the resources needed to rise above subsistence are ignored.

None of these cases has been found to be a murder as yet.

Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman (not a police officer) in self-defense as Martin was beating Zimmerman’s head into the concrete ground.

Sandra Bland committed suicide, likely because her friends and fellow activists failed to bail her out of jail, according to a nearby inmate. She was not murdered by police.

Michael Brown had just robbed a store and attacked the officer who stopped him, trying to grab his gun. The grand jury found the officer acted in self-defense.

The other cases are still in potential litigation, and have not been found to be murders.

Not only is calling them murders is wrong, but shall we all know have individual group ‘national anthems’? The point of course of a national anthem is that it is the one song honoring and recognizing our nation.

But for the progressives who promote group think that apparently is not satisfactory…