Trayvon Martin

[chump]

In regards to the video up above:

What is Joe's story? Why is he defending George on national TV for over half an hour? This story burst onto the scene with that incessant OJ Simpson, Caylee Anthony pre-trial hype typical of yet another elaborate psy-op. Rascist Keystone Cops priming the audience for the deafening commercial message imbedded within: Trayvon Martin was shot by George - and the cover-up ensued. Who can be trusted? People are easily led when they're helpless, scared and stupid. Perhaps... neatly layered within the ratcheting of tension, the distracting hate and fear kind of vibe, and the slow drip of sadness and despair... an operation was designed to provoke a riot, or gun control, or the way black people dress... Whatever!

[Nordic]

I think Joe's purpose is to perpetuate the notion that reality is subjective, its based on belief and not facts, and you can choose whatever reality you want -- a reality where Obama is a secret Muslim foreign-born socialist who wants to steal your guns, or one in which he's a beleagured but well meaning heroic liberal Democrat who would make this country a paradise if it weren't for those dastardly republicans.

You can believe anything you want these days, and its valid! No matter how stupid it is, it's valid!

[Marie Laveau]

We just had a discussion in our house, per some other "news" we've been reading - financial stuff, that it's so beyond ludicrous anymore there is no believing anything about anything.

And in that mess, people like Trayvon Martin (at least the justice he deserves) get lost.

I guess we can add his name to the very, very long list.

[Rory]

Drip, drip, drip:

No signs of bruising or blood from post arrest police video

The video, obtained by ABC News, appears inconsistent with Zimmerman’s recently leaked statement to police that he was in a death struggle with Martin before Zimmerman shot him in the chest in self-defense. Zimmerman told investigators that Martin jumped him from behind, punched him in the nose and pounded his head into a sidewalk, according to a police report first described by the Orlando Sentinal.

In the video, apparently taken by surveillance cameras outside and inside the police station, Zimmerman’s face and head are clearly visible and show no injuries consistent with the kind of fight Zimmerman's statement described.

Zimmerman, 28, the neighborhood watch captain at the Retreat at Twin Lakes gated community, is seen arriving in a police cruiser. He gets out of the car with his hands cuffed behind his back. Zimmerman is clean-shaven and appears several pounds lighter than in ubiquitous mug shot of him taken in 2005 when he was arrested on a charge of assaulting a police officer.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blackberr ... id=1386764

[Grizzly]

sorry, rory... I deleted mine.

[AlicetheKurious]

Rory, you scooped me. But I got the video of Zimmerman's smooth, unmarked face at the link:

Trayvon Martin Video Shows No Blood or Bruises on George Zimmerman
By MATT GUTMAN | Good Morning America – 9 hrs ago

A police surveillance video taken the night that Trayvon Martin was shot dead shows no blood or bruises on George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who says he shot Martin after he was punched in the nose, knocked down and had his head slammed into the ground.

The surveillance video, which was obtained exclusively by ABC News, shows Zimmerman arriving in a police cruiser. As he exits the car, his hands are cuffed behind his back. Zimmerman is frisked and then led down a series of hallways, still cuffed.

Zimmerman, 28, is wearing a red and black fleece and his face and head are cleanly shaven. He appears well built, hardly the portly young man depicted in a 2005 mug shot that until a two days ago was the single image the media had of Zimmerman.

The initial police report noted that Zimmerman was bleeding from the back of the head and nose, and after medical attention it was decided that he was in good enough condition to travel in a police cruiser to the Sanford, Fla., police station for questioning.

His lawyer later insisted that Zimmerman's nose had been broken in his scuffle with 17-year-old Martin.

In the video an officer is seen pausing to look at the back of Zimmerman's head, but no abrasions or blood can be seen in the video and he did not check into the emergency room following the police questioning.

Zimmerman was not arrested although ABC News has learned that the lead homicide investigator filed an affidavit urging Zimmerman be charged with manslaughter. The prosecutor, however, told the officer to not file the charge because there was not enough evidence for conviction.

Zimmerman said he was heading back to his car when Martin attacked him. His lawyer, Craig Sonner, said his client felt "one of them was going to die that night," when he pulled the trigger.

Martin's girlfriend, who was on the phone with him in his final moments, told ABC News in an exclusive interview that she has not been interviewed by police, despite Martin telling her he was being followed.

The 16-year-old girl, who is only being identified as DeeDee, recounted the final moments of her conversation with Martin before the line went dead.

"When he saw the man behind him again he said this man is going to do something to him. And then he said this man is still behind him and I said run," she said.

Phone records obtained by ABC News show that the girl called Martin at 7:12 p.m., five minutes before police arrived, and remained on the phone with Martin until moments before he was shot.

DeeDee said Martin turned around and asked Zimmerman why he was following him.

"The man said what are you doing around here?" DeeDee recalled Zimmerman saying.

She said she heard someone pushed into the grass before the call was dropped.

Zimmerman, who had called 911, was asked by the dispatcher if he was following the teen. When Zimmerman replied that he was, the dispatcher said, "We don't need you to do that."

Martin's death has sparked protests across the country and prompted President Obama to say that if he had a son, he would look like Martin.

Over the past few days, leaks have emerged suggesting Martin was dogged by discipline problems.

Martin had been slapped with a 10 day school suspension after a bag with suspected marijuana was found in his backpack, Benjamin Crump, the family's attorney, said.

Last year the teen was suspended for spraying graffiti on school grounds. The Miami Herald reported that the school guard who stopped him searched his backpack and found 12 items of women's jewelry and a flathead screw driver that the guard believed to be a "burglary implement." But Martin was never charged or specifically disciplined for the incident.

Crump alleged that the Sanford police had leaked damaging information about Martin in order to muddy the case, calling it a "conspiracy." Crump called the school disciplinary problems "irrelevant" to the case that "an unarmed 17 year kid was killed." Link

So the lawyer lied to the media, saying that Zimmerman's nose was broken. Isn't that a crime in itself?

[Nordic]

What's so weird about this is how the entire story is being given the faux "vetting" treatment by the media and the public.

It's just bizarre. It's subverting the legal system and letting us all have our public carnival where we all get to play detective.

It's one of the most fucked up things I've ever seen. Just arrest the lying murdering piece of shit already and let's get on with our lives.

[wordspeak2]

I lost you a little, Nordic. It seems to me that there are a handful of reporters, like Lawrence O'Donnell and this Matt Gutman of ABC, who are actually doing their jobs, and they're the ones moving the whole thing forward, backed by the masses of activist pressure. We're watching it happen sloooowly in real time. If there had been no grassroots pressure certainly nothing at all would have happened prosecution-wise. And I'm sure that nothing is what often, if not always, happens when a very well-connected person kills a lower-class person of color. Now there's apparently a new prosecution team, and one would think that there's hope that an actual investigation will proceed, given the media spotlight. They could start with talking to Trayvon's girlfriend, with whom he was on the phone seconds before he was killed.

I mean, Zimmerman wasn't an actual cop, so I'm somewhat confident that the media pressure will force a real investigation. If not there could be fucking street riots, and I don't think anybody (in power) wants that.

[Nordic]

Sorry, ignore me. I spend more time looking in life's mirror than I do looking at life. Sometimes.

The sooner this Zimmerman thug ends up either behind bars or beaten to death by a vigilante, the better.

The cops who failed to arrest him all need to join him in jail (or share his other fate).

That much is obvious.

What it so bizarre to me is stepping back and looking at how our culture and media is dealing with this. And WHY he has yet to be arrested! I mean, we should be looking into the real reasons behind his non-arrest, no? His guilt is clear. Anyone going on "news" shows and proclaiming his innocence is some kind of tool and needs to be tarred and feathered and otherwise publicly humiliated.

WHY has nobody arrested him yet? WHY was he not arrested in the first place? WHY are we being distracted by arguments as to whether or not Zimmerman was justified, or Martin hit him first, or whatever? NONE OF THAT REALLY MATTERS.

Zimmerman should be arrested FOR HIS OWN PROTECTION at the very least.

It's almost like they WANT someone to step up and murder him. You know, a bunch of African American vigilantes. I'm starting to think this whole thing is being deliberately inflamed, gasoline being sprayed on the fire with a fucking fire-hose, so instigate something like that. I mean what other reasons could there POSSIBLY be?

There's something seriously fucked up going on other than a travesty of justice. Something.

[NeonLX]

I've been thinking the same thing, Nordic.

Exactly the same thing.

[General Patton]

Sorry, ignore me. I spend more time looking in life's mirror than I do looking at life. Sometimes.

The sooner this Zimmerman thug ends up either behind bars or beaten to death by a vigilante, the better.

The cops who failed to arrest him all need to join him in jail (or share his other fate).

...

Zimmerman should be arrested FOR HIS OWN PROTECTION at the very least.

It's almost like they WANT someone to step up and murder him. You know, a bunch of African American vigilantes.

Who? Spike Lee, the guy that tweeted his address (though it was found to be the wrong one)? Or the people who put a bounty on his head dead or alive? Those are some candidates.

Isn't it just a tad hypocritical to spend all of this time discussing the abuses of power, to just turn around and advocate mob rule without a trial?

[Nordic]

Sorry, ignore me. I spend more time looking in life's mirror than I do looking at life. Sometimes.

The sooner this Zimmerman thug ends up either behind bars or beaten to death by a vigilante, the better.

The cops who failed to arrest him all need to join him in jail (or share his other fate).

...

Zimmerman should be arrested FOR HIS OWN PROTECTION at the very least.

It's almost like they WANT someone to step up and murder him. You know, a bunch of African American vigilantes.

Who? Spike Lee, the guy that tweeted his address (though it was found to be the wrong one)? Or the people who put a bounty on his head dead or alive? Those are some candidates.

Isn't it just a tad hypocritical to spend all of this time discussing the abuses of power, to just turn around and advocate mob rule without a trial?

Well, okay, I honestly haven't been keeping up with all the details of the news cycle on this, because it sickens me and I limit my exposure to that stuff.

Yes, forgive me. The man should be put in prison first, THEN (seeing as how he's in Florida) have the State murder him. It's okay if the State does it, right?

Sometimes I'm a bit scattershot. I don't edit and I type very fast. Stream of consciousness, basically.

I will put it this way: It would be terribly just if the local community took the matter into their own hands and put Zimmerman out of his misery. Since the Police Department, who is SUPPOSED to do the job of removing him from circulation and throwing him down the "due process" chute, has FAILED to do the job.

Anarchy is really the only alternative when there is no government, right?

[Grizzly]

Who? Spike Lee, the guy that tweeted his address (though it was found to be the wrong one)? Or the people who put a bounty on his head dead or alive? Those are some candidates.

Isn't it just a tad hypocritical to spend all of this time discussing the abuses of power, to just turn around and advocate mob rule without a trial?

Nordic, don't let the ol' general double-speak ya...

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? THAT'S SOME MADE UP RIGHT-WING TALKING POINT BULLSHIT, IF THAT WAS THE CASE HE (SPIKE LEE) WOULD HAVE BEEN ARRESTED. Semper fi!

However, I will say, as rage filled as this makes me, and eye for an eye never works no matter who or what, it reminds me of a quote I found many years ago, "America, where we kill killers who have killed others to show that killing is wrong." I'm all about reparative justice and community accountability.

http://www.restorativejustice.org/

[Nordic]

Yes, Grizz, I agree and am against state-sponsored killing. However I am not against a community culling dangerous individuals from its midst. I just think it should be done very practically and with as little emotion as possible, and that every member of the community should have a hand on the rope. After due process of course.

Its cowardly to give that power over to anyone, especially a bureacracy. There may be nothing quite so awful and horrifying as murder by bureaucracy.

[American Dream]