This news article indicates there is much more than meets the eye going on here. Sadly, vigilance is required of us. I’ve looked at the photographs, and to me the wounds on Zimmerman’s head could most easily have been from the clawing of fingernails. Have a look, and see what you think. ~J
by Trymaine Lee at Huffington Post
Posted: 05/23/2012 10:58 pm
Updated: 05/24/2012 10:55 am
Neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman had a relationship with members of the police department in Sanford, Fla., long before he shot unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin to death in February, newly released information suggests.
During a community forum on Jan. 8, 2011, more than a year before Martin was killed, Zimmerman, then a criminal justice student, told city officials he had ridden along with Sanford police officers on patrol. Zimmerman blasted Sanford police as lazy and criticized outgoing Police Chief Brian Tooley, who was forced from office in a scandal involving the son of an officer caught on tape beating a homeless black man.
“I would just like to state that the law is written in black and white, it can not be enforced by those who are in the thin blue line,” Zimmerman told an audience that included newly elected Mayor Jeff Triplett, according to an audio recording published by the Miami Herald. Zimmerman said he saw firsthand how bad Sanford police could be during his ride-alongs.
“What I saw was disgusting,” Zimmerman said, “The officer showed me his favorite hiding spots for taking naps, explained to me that he doesn’t carry a long gun in his vehicle because, in his words, ‘anything that requires a long gun requires a lot of paperwork, and you’re going to find me as far away from it.’” Zimmerman continued: “He took two lunch breaks and attended a going away party for one of his fellow officers.”
Zimmerman found himself at the center of another Sanford police scandal a year later. Relatives of Martin, the 17-year-old who was killed while visiting his father in a gated Sanford housing development, and a chorus of supporters across the country have accused Sanford police of biased and sloppy police work. Zimmerman initially was freed by police after saying he shot Martin in self defense. A prosecutor specially assigned to the case, working with state investigators, later charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder. He is free on bail awaiting trial.
A police station video taken three days after the shooting, released by the State Attorney’s Office with a trove of other evidence, shows Zimmerman walking unescorted through the police station. That suggests a “cozy” and “comfortable” relationship with the police, said Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Martin’s family.
“This video of Zimmerman just walking through the police department so casually underscores that people in that department have a familiarity with him,” Crump told HuffPost. “It means that he had a relationship with the Sanford police department. And it’s just unusual that all along they would say they didn’t. But he went on several ride-alongs with them and he was comfortable enough to walk unescorted through their department.”
Click Here to continue reading and to look at video and the excellent photographs.
Related articles
- Zimmerman’s Relationship with Police Evolved, City Files Show (fox8.com)
- Zimmerman complained about Sanford police in 2011 (wnd.com)
- New audio shows George Zimmerman had previous issue with Sanford cops (clickorlando.com)
- George Zimmerman rode with Sanford cops, ripped department – MiamiHerald.com (miamiherald.com)
I’m with you all the way Jean! United We Stand, Divided We Fall! We need, need, need to get this in a BIG way! NOW
Actually, I find the whole mess to be tiresome. To think we are nearly fifty years later still talking about racism. If it is okay for one group to create a uniqueness by assuming something that is not real why then am I not referred to as a European-American?
I am race blind but to be honest I am getting tired of being on the receiving end of attitudes simply because I’m of European heritage and having the term racist thrown at me as a weapon.
Dr King’s speech didn’t say he had a vision where some would get special treatment because of race, color, or cultural origin. He said his vision was that everyone would be treated not by the color of his skin but based on who they were. We, as a nation, have now gone totally in the opposite direction–everything is about the color of someone’s skin. Ironically, we didn’t even develop differences based on skin coloration until 6,000-10,000 years ago and in the development of Homo Sapiens that was just yesterday. Before that we all had the same characteristics including skin color.
I’d like for you to pretend with me for a moment and let’s just say that Zimmerman is even partially correct. You have someone younger, stronger, and bigger than you that has gotten you down, is beating on you, and has slammed your head into the ground several times. You happen to be armed and you’re afraid you’re not going to be able to get this person off of you before he beats you to death. You are in fear of your life, do you pull your gun to defend yourself and perhaps live to see your family again or do you allow this person to beat you to death. What would you have done?
Poor Zimmerman has been tried, convicted, and sentenced before ever getting to trial. The prior comment wraps it up with the “it’s very likely Zimmerman will get off” making the foregone conclusion that he is guilty and by the jury ruling otherwise is some sort of setup. I wouldn’t want to be Zimmerman there is no way in hell he can get a fair trial in this country.
What a world we have created.
Let me respond to you – and maybe to more than just you – this way: The gun law is a large part of this mess, a big mess though in which someone got killed. You tend to think Zimmerman is getting the short end of the stick, and there are people who think just the other way. I’d like to say that I think NEITHER WAY IS OF A VERY HIGH VIBRATION, because both sides are coming at the situation from an us-against-them, or Duality point of view. Maybe it’s time to look deeper into this whole situation.
We know we’ve been divided for a very long time by color and race and taught to fear one another. Can’t you see that this whole ‘killing’ situation is a result of that careful planning? It’s been around for so long, we don’t even look deeper, but I do believe we have been set up for a situation like this. Trayvon’s death was an accident waiting to happen, and when the ingredients were mixed just right, it did happen. Zimmerman is apparently not a very healthy man, and give him a gun, and the situation became serious. If he hadn’t been able to have a gun, while there might have been a knock-down drag-out fight, there could have been no death!
Can’t we all step back and say, Uh-uh, we’ve been there before! YOU FOLKS, meaning the cabal, AREN’T GOING TO DO THIS TO US AGAIN, BECAUSE WE’RE NOT BUYING INTO IT ANYMORE! LET’S STOP PROMOTING THESE SICK LAWS AND THESE SICK ATTITUDES! NO MORE! GO AWAY! WE WANT NONE OF THEM OR YOU!
Of course, there will be people who can’t understand what I’m saying, but when we get to the new earth – I doubt those folks will be there. However, let’s understand the situation clearly before we get there. These divisions have been created artificially and on purpose to divide us, and it’s time to stop buying into them. Isn’t it time for us to look beyond the visible case to the deeper causes, and to try to cleanse ourselves of these attitudes?
At this point in time, all I want is to see a fair trial, and maybe that will be impossible. I’m also wondering how/if it will even come to trial if the financial collapse happens first. Afterwards, the world is going to be very different, so maybe there could be a fair trial.
I think the gun law and the atmosphere which created it is largely to blame. Trayvon, a young black fellow who likely read the papers or listened to the television, had every right to be scared out of his wits, and Zimmerman had a gun, which he shouldn’t have been able to have. Both men had issues that were fired up by these foolish laws and the cabal. Can you see that at all? Instead of just blaming these two people, and finding one guilty or not – is there maybe someone else to blame? What about those people who create the divisive fear night after night on the television? I’m not talking about the reporters, but I am talking about the corporate media. These are the people who need to be taken to task! Not two men who met, each coming from a place of fear and distrust. While Trayvon without doubt got the very shortest end of the stick, I think we need step back and look beyond the incident itself to the real culprits, which I see as the corporate media, run by the cabal. If we permit them to continue with their fear porn, then we are as guilty as anyone who fires a gun.
Well, I think I’m repeating myself . . . so I hope you can get what I am saying.
Jean, I think you read/see a lot more into this than most (myself included) – I’m more inclined to agree with the opinion of being tired of it all…but I was blown away by the thought of someone setting up another Rodney King mess (having gone through the first one in L.A.).
I think everyone is entitled to have a gun…it’s part of our Constitution, and everyone has the right to protect themselves (which has little to do with laws, and how they’re applied). What I don’t understand is your comment about being “vigilant” – this has Nothing to do with me, and that’s not a matter of my being selfish…it’s a simple fact. If these people were my neighbors it would be a different story – but in terms of vigilance, I think my efforts are better focussed closer to home. I have no emotional involvement in this story – it’s just another distraction fed daily by the media to keep our eyes off the goal. It’s ironic, but I read basically the same story yesterday (from a different souce) and the Same Facts were being used to show how Zimmerman did Not have a good relationship with the local police, because he called them out
DD, I see you did not understand my idea about vigilance: I don’t want to watch this trial become a circus of lies and distractions. I can see, somehow, a larger picture in which both the victim and the perpetrator are really victims of the system, and there isn’t much to be done about the system at the moment except to watch and hold the light for a reasonably fair trial. I was tired this afternoon when I wrote my response, and I’m sorry if I wasn’t very clear. Hugs, ~Jean
Jean,
I do what you’re saying and I guess I just said it wrong. The problem is a perpetuation of false division that has continued generation after generation. You like me were around when the “public sentiment” was exactly opposite what it is today.
I have had high hopes that sooner or later we, at least as a nation if not the world, could grow into what we are capable of doing. Yet, we don’t seem to make a single inch of progress except for a few of us.
It was tragic and consisted of a lot of events leading up to it that isn’t even talked about. The preceived need for a neighborhood watch program at all because of an increase in burglaries and home invasions. The stand your ground law, the ability to carry a firearm, a young man raised in an environment based on racist attitudes, not to mention the physical differences in the two individuals that culminated in a tragedy.
I see it all Jean and have for a long time. However, I don’t see anyone saying that the entire attitude/process is wrong. Where are those voices of moderation saying lets wait until all the facts are known before we rush to judgment instead of being led around by the nose by a media that delights in creating separation where they should be none? That was actually the point I was trying to make–how can we judge someone when we weren’t in their shoes.
I know if there had been no gun. If Zimmerman had not been 28, 5 foot 8 overweight, out of shape 180 pounds he might have had a better chance against a 17 year old, 6 foot 160 pound in shape street smart kid. There were a lot of factors that could have been different but they weren’t so why can’t we let justice take its rightful course without all the media picking and choosing what they use?
All I’m trying to say here is that it start right here with us, right now. Let’s stop judging others based on anything. Let’s wait and see what it is that both the defense and prosecution is holding back from the public if anything. Then not judge the jury because they did their best to see to it that the laws that the people of the State of Florida have agreed they want are applied properly.
BA, I understand and I’m with you. Hugs, ~Jean
I listened to an interview the other night (I think it was on Unicus radio) and an interesting perspective was put forward – this gentleman (I’m thinking it was an ex-CIA agent?*) said something along the following lines:
1) That the charges against Zimmerman are weak and ‘passive’ in wording
2) that the witness statements are also weak (and apparently have changed)
3) That the odds of a conviction are pretty much slim to none – wait for it –
That with all of these components, it’s very likely that Zimmerman will get off, THE POINT BEING that it will cause another Rodney King episode! While many people talk about this whole mess being an attempt at starting a race war, it had Never crossed my mind that the setup was to Intentionally have him found not guilty, and That would be the issue that fired things off.
ooh – Martial law in Florida, just in time for the election!
* if anyone wants me to be more specific and locate the interview I’ll be happy to do that – not trying to be vague, it’s just that I listen to a LOT of interviews