Via Rawstory
Police released Monday neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman’s account of on why he shot Trayvon Martin one month ago, claiming that the slain 17-year-old punched him in the face and slammed his head into the sidewalk.
According to The Orlando Sentinel, Zimmerman said he was walking toward his SUV on February 26 when Martin approached him from behind and attacked him after the two exchange words. Zimmerman and his lawyer said he shot Martin in self-defense.
I'm not a person that advocates violence. I don't watch boxing. I'm not into MMA. But I will tell you one "fight" show I enjoy.
Bully Beat Down.
More on this from Young Turks.
Ok, so what we know about their relative state of minds from the Zimmerman 9-11 tape - where even though he was being recorded - he was willing to state "These Assholes always get away" and "Fucking Coons" (or "Goons" or whatever) it's pretty clear that George wasn't in the mood to have a reasonable conversation.
What might he have been thinking when his previous batch of 46 Non-Emergency Calls to the Police included some of this?
Feb. 2, 2012 – 8:29 p.m.
Type: TEL
Subject: Suspicious activity
Report: “BM lsw: black leather jacket, black hat, printed PJ pants, he keeps going going to this” location
Oct. 1, 2011 – 12:53 a.m.
Type: TEL
Subject: Suspicious activity
Report: Two black male suspects “20–30 YOA in [white] Chevy poss Impala at the gate of the community.” Zimmerman “does not recognize subjs or veh and is concerned due to recent” burglaries in the area
Aug. 6, 2011 – 10:20 p.m.
Type: TEL
Subject: Suspicious activity
Report: Two black males, one wearing a black tank top and black shorts, the second wearing a black t-shirt and jeans … “Subjs are in their teens”
Aug. 3, 2011 – 6:45 p.m.
Type: TEL
Subject: Suspicious activity
Report: Black male last seen wearing a white tank top and black shorts … Zimmerman “believes subject is involved in recent” burglaries in the neighborhood
April 22, 2011 – 7:09 p.m.
Type: TEL
Subject: Suspicious activity
Report: Juvenile black male “apprx 7–9” years old, four feet tall “skinny build short blk hair” last seen wearing a blue t-shirt and blue shorts
Jan. 12, 2010 – 10:25 p.m.
Type: TEL
Subject: Neighbor
Report: Open garage door … Zimmerman says “this is very unlike his neighbor” … “there is a lot of electronics in the resd and posb in the garage”
Aug. 21, 2009 – 6:57 p.m.
Type: TEL
Subject: Conflict
Report: “Landlord is trying to take [Zimmerman’s] money for rent … and home in foreclosure”
June 24, 2007 – 12:48 a.m.
Type: TEL
Subject: Suspicious activity
Report: “By the pool”, two Hispanic males and one white male with “slim jim”
In fact, based on the statement from Trayvon's girlfriend, Trayvon
initiated the conversation by asking "Why are you following me?"
To which George responds "What are you doing here?" - and the line goes dead.
The girlfriend assumes that at that point Trayvon was "pushed" but there's no way she could see that. Is it possible that Trayvon punched Zimmerman in the nose and broke it? (As his "Attorney" has claimed?)
Yeah, frankly it is. I hope he did. Particular if Zimmy actually called him either "Asshole, Coon or Nigger" to his face. Even if he didn't say it, he was already thinking it and behaving like it.
What do you think it would take to set someone off enough to haul off and punch in the face all of a sudden? I'm thinking "Hi, how are you - may I help you?" is not on the short list of possibilities.
I don't know that this happened for a fact, no one other than Zimmy does. But if it's true, under the "Stand Your Ground" law - Trayvon had every right to punch this stalkers lights out.
Zimmerman had been told Not To Follow Trayvon and there's a reason for that. Police have backup. They have training. They have experience in getting control of a potential suspect without getting themselves or the suspect injured.
And even then SOMETIMES THEY STILL SCREW IT UP!.
If he had a weapon he should have backed up and made sure it couldn't be taken away from him, he should have told Trayvon to NOT MOVE. Get on the ground, put his hands behind his head an STAY THERE until the Police arrive.
But he didn't do that. He clearly didn't do anything like that. We may not know exactly what happened yet, but we know it wasn't that.
George says he was calling for help from one witness, a witness who didn't help him, as he claims Trayvon was Kicking his Ass. (Although other witnesses and other 9-11 tapes dispute that, that's what he says - so the Police just took him at his word)
And if we take him at his word, when he was about to lose the fight that wouldn't have happened if he hadn't ignored the dispatcher, he cheated. He pulled a gun in a Skittles and Ice-tea fight. He killed a kid.
In my humble opinion, this Bully Needed a Beat Down. He still does. (Because I honest do NOT believe any of this Bull Crap!)
It's clear Sandford Police Dept failed to do any reasonable due diligence on this case, and that's the real problem. They failed Trayvon Martin. They failed his parents. Hell, they failed George Zimmerman. I'm glad the State AG and the FBI are looking into it, but I'm also afraid this might be a situation "Too many cooks" and way too much C.Y.A. for Florida politicians who green lit this ridiculous Castle Doctrine in the first place.
People like hopeful Vice-Presidential pick Marco Rubio who still to this day hasn't said anything of substance in any kind of sympathy for Martin, and still supports "Stand Your Ground".
"I voted for it and I think there is rational behind it but we have no idea whether that applies at all in this case," says Rubio. "I think that's very important to understand."
I think it did apply in this case, Marco. For Trayvon.
Vyan
4:36 PM PT: As Thinkprogress points out, this entire "Trayvon struck first" story may really be just the next iteration in the Right's Operation Smear Trayvon Version 1.5:
1. Prominent conservative websites published fake photos of Martin. Twitchy, a new website run by prominent conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, promoted a photo — purportedly from Martin’s Facebook page — that shows Martin in saggy pants and flipping the bird. The photo, which spread quickly on conservative websites and Twitter, is intended to paint Martin as a thug. As Twitchy later acknowledged, it is not a photo of Trayvon Martin. [Examiner]
2. The Sanford Police selectively leaked irrelevant, negative information about Martin. The authorities told the Orlando Sentinel this morning that Trayvon was suspended from school for ten days “after being found with an empty marijuana baggie.” (Ed, no it was for Tardiness) There is no evidence that Martin was under the influence of drugs at the time of his death, nor would prior possession of marijuana be a reason for killing him. It’s unclear what the relevance of the leak was, other than to smear Martin. [Orlando Sentinel]
3. On Fox News, Geraldo said that Martin was dressed “like a wannabe gangster.” Bill O’Reilly agreed with him. The sole evidence is that Martin was wearing a hoodie. Geraldo added that “everyone that ever stuck up a convenience store” was wearing a hoodie. [ThinkProgress; The Blaze]
(Ed. Yeah, except for everyone who wasn't!)
4. Without any evidence, prominent right-wing bloggers suggested that Martin was a drug dealer. Right-wing blogger Dan Riehl advances the theory, also advanced in a widely linked peice on a site called Wagist. There does not appear to be any evidence to support this claim whatsoever. [Riehl World View]
5. Without any evidence, a right-wing columnist alleged that Martin assaulted a bus driver. Unlike Zimmerman, Trayvon has no documented history of violence. This allegation continues to be advanced by a blogger on the Examiner even after the real reason was leaked to the police and confirmed by the family. [Miami Herald; Examiner]
6. Zimmerman’s friend says Martin was to blame because he was disrespectful to Zimmerman. Zimmerman’s friend Joe Oliver said that Martin would not have been shot to death if Trayvon had just said “I’m staying with my parents.” Of course, Zimmerman was not a police officer, and Trayvon had no duty to tell him who he was or where he was going. [NBC News]
Now they're also trying to link him to the New Black Panther party and Louis Farakhan. Any Bogeyman in a
shitstorm will apparently do.
I mean we've seen this cheap crap pulled on Sandra Fluke when she inconveniently got in the way of the Right-wing steamroller against common sense. Now they're trashing Trayvon, just like they've been trashing our President with their silly fantasies that he's Kenyan-Muslim-Black Christian Theologist-Marxist-Socialist-Fascist-Moon Alien with delusions of actually having Killed Osama Bin Laden when it was really the Great George W. Bush who did it with his oh-so-manly bare brush-clearing hands, behind the book case, with a candle stick, in the frothy rectum.
And the lies just keep on coming and coming...
