Nina had it right. Where you going to run to? Oh Sinnerman.
Or Zimmerman.
I don't believe for a second that George Zimmerman went out seeking to shoot down Trayvon Martin in cold blood, just got out of his car in a rage hunted him down, saw him and blew him away. That would be murder. There are those in our country who keep calling him a murderer. This does not advance the calls for justice for Trayvon Martin, it in fact diminishes them by making them look as irrational as the immoral professional excusers for Zimmerman on the right.
I DO believe that this man with a demonstrable history of anger management "issues" created the situation in which Trayvon Martin's death occurred. He did that. Not Martin.
I am more interested in what has not been determined than what has. And there are a great deal of problems for Mr. Zimmerman and those who would defend him on that score.
The thing is, and the bottom line in all of this, if Zimmerman had done what the police 911 operator TOLD him to do and not left his car none of this would have happened at all. He made that choice, and a kid - a "thug" as many on the right have tried to portray him, an angel, or a normal 17 yr old kid with all the challenges and mistakes that entails plus the added bonus of being African American in our country in 2012, is dead as a result. That is the one overarching truth to all of this. Interpretations, motive, racism, no racism, who threw down first, what was said or not - none of that is relevant to that simple unassailable fact: Zimmerman created the situation where the shooting death occurred. I don't buy all this calls saying he is a murderer. He did not go out hunting some kid to kill, but that said he clearly has anger management issues - with cops and an ex in the past, with his documented anger on the 911 call on the night of the incident.
Another issue is his "injuries". For a more honest and better view you should look at the still from ABC itself that was enhanced and it clearly shows a blood clot on the TOP of his head. Unlike the Daily Caller and other right wing rile-em-up websites, which used a high contrast still to imply there was some huge mythical gash on the back his head - utter bullshit. I'm curious how Trayvon in the heat of this alleged assault while pinning him down managed to twist Zimmerman's head back enough to inflict a wound not just above his spine on the back of his head where one would think if he was slamming his head into the concrete it would be, but on the top part of his skull. Further the visually clear still from ABC shows an at most quarter sized well established blood clot, without a bandage. So how did this slamming his head over and over into the concrete manage to land all blows precisely on the same spot? And why no bandage of any sort? This was the story his attorney put out and that Zimmerman gave to police in the report, that Martin pinned him and was "repeatedly slamming his head" - not "slammed his head" - into the concrete. Let's allow for a moment that occurred. If he was so beat up and traumatized (as one would think having your head repeatedly slammed into a concrete sidewalk would be the case) why was he not transported to a hospital nor did he check himself in to one? I would be concerned about possible concussion at that point if my head was "repeatedly slammed into the sidewalk". He gets out of a cruiser and walks into the police station unassisted at 7:52 PM, just over 30 minutes after he shot and killed Martin.
Secondly, the claim is still out there by his own attorney, brother, and father that he suffered a broken nose. I have had a broken nose and blood does not gently just sort of dribble out, it is a mess. There does not appear to be anywhere on his light colored shirt any blood whatsoever,nor is there any bandage on his head or nose. I suppose eventually if he went to the hospital at some point we will see evidence of a broken nose - but at this point unless it was the same night it will be viewed as rather suspect. Also, why has there been no release of information of the alleged treatment administered to Zimmerman on the night in question by the Fire Department been released?
According to the funeral home man who prepared the body of Trayvon, there was no exit wound and he saw no bruises, scrapes or contusions of any sort of Martin's hands. I have been in brawls in my life, and your hands don't just stay clean and unaffected. Especially if he was slamming his head onto the concrete over and over. OF course he is not a physician, so perhaps a grain of salt there. We'll never know except the autopsy which of course assumes they even bothered to look at his hands. Another thing, Seminole County contracts with Volusia County for their ME services - they have no Coroner. Who is the M.E. who did the autopsy? The results take 30 days minimum. The same Volusia County that had its chief Medical Examiner fired for delays and malpractice in examinations in 2008. SO they could have mucked up any exit wound in the autopsy as well. There is also a new law as of last year that severely restrict the public access to any video, photos, or other recordings taken my police or other government agencies and mandates the withholding of video, audio and photographs depicting the “killing of a person” — and the surrounding moments — to anyone but family without a court order. The new law goes beyond autopsies and exempts from disclosure images held by government agencies that depict the “killing of a person” from being mandatorily released under the state public records act. Also included in the exemption are depictions of the events “immediately preceding or subsequent to the acts” that caused the killing. Only family members, specifically designated agents of family members or other government agencies are allowed to obtain such records without first obtaining a court order. Other citizens, such as the news media, can only get access to or make copies of the records by first going to court. It is interesting that the PD released the video of Zimmerman's arrival at the police station so readily. It remains to be seen to what extent any video, audio, or photographs taken by the responding officers AT the scene of the crime will be released in the future because of this law.
How does it happen there is no exit wound if it was shot at "close range"? He did use a Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm which does not necessarily have the velocity of a .45, but at close range there should have been an exit wound, unless of course he shot while MARTIN was on the ground already. But there is also the possibility that his shot hit bone and ricocheted around inside without exiting I suppose. It will be interesting to see if he was using hollow point ammo or not, and the casing on the ammo, which would also significantly impact how or why there was an exit wound.
That information SHOULD be in the police evidence report, but in the initial report it simply states they took the weapon into evidence. No mention at all of the type of ammo in the weapon. It also SHOULD be in the forensics report if they recovered a round or if it mushroomed out, disbursed, etc. Remains to be seen.
One of the other main issues as I see it is that this town has a long and bad history of relations with African American people and that is feeding into this narrative. The decision by someone in the PD to leak the police report did not help this at all. They could have held Zimmerman to answer and released him O.R. or with a modest bail, but they chose to not do that also. He has been arrested before, held and charged on much lesser crimes - so why not on this one? The answer is the Castle Defense law itself. I think the reason for the original law - and its very legitimate goals - have been completely perverted and expanded.
ALEC has been at the root of this of course - no surprise there - but surely the RKBA community and the elimination of all weapons folks could both agree that there has to be some limitations to when a firearm discharge and a law that says if one "feels threatened" that use is justified. And when that defense can be used when the individual chose to follow someone who was not breaking any laws, and that ends up with the person being followed dead. If Zimmerman had not left his car, Martin would not be dead. Zimmerman created the situation where that occurred. Its really that simple. What happened afterward will be parsed, spun, twisted, and molded over the next several months. I go by the facts here and look to the unanswered questions.
The only fact we know for sure is that 45+ 911 calls Zimmerman was told not to follow, he did it anyway, and the kid is dead as a result of his decision to get out of his car where he was perfectly safe.
Also the leaked Police Report cannot possibly match up to the timing of Zimmerman's call and the first report of the officer on scene. The timing between Zimmerman's call and the first officer on scene is completely absurd as there is no timing difference at all! Call received, arrival on scene are exactly the same. The nearest substation for Sanford PD is at minimum 5 minutes away.Oh and they just happened to leak the report and the kid's issues at school (completely irrelevant to the shooting BTW) were leaked on the one month ANNIVERSARY of the shooting. That is just sick, sadistic and disgusting.
His brother goes on TV saying if Zim didn't "defend himself" his brother would end up "feeding him with a spoon", what an asshole. Look this is about thrashing the potential jury pool -- both Zim's father's' interview and the son's and the attorney's. Do you wonder why the attorney turned chicken shit and fled O'Donnell's studio? Because he would not get to peddle his crap on that show. The attorney's tone has shifted dramatically in the last few days once the PD video of Zim's arrival was released. WHy do you suppose that is?. Yes i believe his family is trying to protect him of course, what family wouldn't do that? But we are supposed to just take their biased word third hand for what Zimmerman said? i think not. its criminal defense 101 to tweak the local jury pool by getting as many stories placed as possible, despite any self righteous bullshit about not adjudicating this in the media. it is a strategy.
FInally the nature of why Zimmerman got kicked the night of the shooting when the investigating officer recommended charges is a whole other kettle of rotting, stinking fish IMO.
In the end my prediction is that Zimmerman will walk. And the law will be minorly tweaked so that you have to be on your own property or place of business to invoke a "Castle defense" argument. To do otherwise means that in any CCW state if anyone FEELS threatened by anyone else they can pop off a round and use Castle as the reason. A wet dream for the NRA.
That way leads to a state of virtual armed anarchy, perilously close to where we find ourselves already.
I would close with Nina Simone:
http://www.youtube.com/...