A viral report emerged this week that the New Black Panther Party are offering $10,000 for the capture of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer acquitted in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
A report from Kristin Tate with Mr.Conservative website on Wednesday cites a video that was taken from a 2012 CNN report and uses it as a source, implying the New Black Panthers are currently offering the reward “for the capture of George Zimmerman.”
However, the video the website uses as a source was posted on March 25, 2012, around a month after Martin was shot and killed. Zimmerman in late March 2012 was not yet charged in the death of the 17-year-old, and according to CNN and numerous other media reports, the New Black Panthers wanted him captured at the time.
On the Mr. Conservative website, it says the story is “breaking news,“ while saying that ”BREAKING: the New Black Panthers are offering a $10,000 reward for killing George Zimmerman, even though he was acquitted of all charges after shooting black teen Trayvon Martin,” apparently using the 2012 video as a source for Tuesday’s story following the acquittal.
The CNN report on the New Black Panthers bounty was posted March 26, 2012. At the time, Martin’s family opposed the capture of Zimmerman. The Mr. Conservative story quotes a spokesman in the video as saying “we’re saying to President Obama, you gotta do your job on this one buddy.”
As of Thursday, the story generated more than 30,000 “likes” on Facebook. It was also heavily circulated on Twitter.
Following Zimmerman’s not guilty verdict on Saturday night, the New Black Panther Party called for nationwide rallies.
The group’s national chairman, Malik Zulu Shabazz, this week called on supporters to “take to the streets [and] stay there.”
“Were at war,” Shabbazz said on Twitter. “Its (sic) silly and immoral to call for peace when war has been declared.”
This is the 2012 video that Mr. Conservative used as a source:
