Marching in memory of Martin Lee Anderson... from all over Florida

TALLAHASSEE | About 700 marchers shouted "We shall overcome" and "No justice, no peace" Tuesday to protest Florida's handling of a teenager's death after guards hit and kicked him at a state boot camp last year.

.."They want federal authorities to investigate what they claim are civil rights violations by camp staffers and others, including Florida's former top law enforcement official. The U.S. Justice Department is reviewing the state's unsuccessful prosecution of the camp guards and a nurse.

..."Tallahassee mayor John Marks welcomed the protesters - many of them busing in from South Florida in an all-night caravan - and praised them for keeping the pressure on federal authorities to take up the case.

"Why are we here and not in Bay County?" asked Carolyn Mosley, the NAACP chairwoman for Bay County. "I think Bay County is still asleep."

How small a town is Panama City? Just across the street from the courthouse where the guards and nurse are being tried sits the camp. Shut down like the rest in Florida after the video made national news, it sits abandoned, razor-wire gates rusty.

Tired of scenes of a boy collapsing and dragged upright again, I left and drove to where Martin lived. It is literally on the other side of the tracks, a scrubby street of ramshackle houses.

A few blocks over is the cemetery, the grass too high, fence sagging. He is there, flanked by stone angels, not a hero, not a monster, just gone.

What will the jury call what happened to Martin Lee Anderson? Sad comes to mind. And sorry. And wrong.