City Council member proposes I.C. response to Trayvon Martin

IOWA CITY – Iowa City Council member Jim Throgmorton wants the council to weigh in on the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin.

Throgmorton, at a work session Tuesday night, offered a draft of a resolution responding to the February shooting of the unarmed Martin by a neighborhood watch volunteer.

In text accompanying the proposal, Throgmorton, who started his term on the council in January, said he wanted the council to express “our dismay and outrage about the senseless killing of this young man.”

He also noted that several hundred people attended a “Million Hoodie March” in Iowa City last month to show support for Martin and his family.

City Council members did not have much discussion on the proposal because it was not on the agenda. Some members, however, seemed cool to the idea.

Mayor Matt Hayek and Susan Mims said they have concerns about the council taking stances on national and international events. Rick Dobyns said he thought it would be more appropriate for the council to limit its response to its jurisdiction.

Connie Champion said she thought the problem was the shooting deaths of innocent people by authority figures in general, not just the Martin case. She told Throgmorton to remember he could respond to the incident as an individual.

Throgmorton said his proposed resolution would keep a local focus on the issue. It says “Martin's killing has caused grief and outrage among many Iowa Citians” and “Iowa Citians have a long and admirable history of resisting racism and racial profiling."

The resolution also criticized so-called "stand your ground" laws.

The council agreed to put the item on the agenda for its work session in two weeks.