We have been following the investigation into the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. The shooter, George Zimmerman, 28, has not been charged and reported a suspicious character to 911. Martin was returning from a 7-11 after buying Skittles. He was carrying the candy, a small amount of cash, and an iced tea. The family and many others have called for the arrest of Zimmerman, though the accounts of the shooting have been murky. Previously, we discussed the need to hear the 911 tapes, which have now been released and are linked below.
Zimmerman is reportedly a habitual caller into the police and is heard on one of the tapes complaining that ““These a**holes always get away.” Zimmerman states on the call that Martin appeared “up to no good . . . It’s raining. He’s just walking around, looking about . . . He’s just staring looking at all the houses.” Zimmerman says on the call that it is Martin who confronts him: “Something’s wrong with him. He’s coming to check me out.” However, he later admits that he is following Martin, which the police dispatcher discourages.
Police Chief Bill Lee said the 911 calls show that the incident was not a case of racial profiling. He said Zimmerman could not say whether the suspect was black or white. However, on the tape you hear Zimmerman say “He looks black” and then a few moments later, “He’s a black male.” While he is at first equivocal, he does identify his race. That does not mean that this is a case of profiling, of course.
However, family member have been critical of the handling of the case by the police and what they view as the police bending over backward to defend Zimmerman. The family had to file a lawsuit to get these tapes. After a hearing, the police finally relented.
The tapes certainly contradict some statements by the police. However, I am not sure that they substantially alter the status in the case. The evidence still is largely based on Zimmerman’s account, though such contemporary records are generally admissible. The tapes both help and hurt Zimmerman.
The statement by Zimmerman that “these a**holes always get away” certainly shows animus and he clearly follows the youth. However, that does not translate into evidence of intent to kill. I am more interested in the level of force used by Zimmerman and the two gunshots heard on the tape. It is possible that audio creates a misleading impression of two shots but that would seem an important forensic question. It is hard to believe that Martin would allegedly continue any confrontation of Zimmerman after a warning shot unless the shot was fired in the midst of a struggle over the gun. Zimmerman can cite the tape for his statement that he believed that Martin had something in his waistband and appeared on drugs. He can also cite his contemporary description of Martin approaching him.
Putting aside the complaints regarding the handling of the case by the police and the conflicting statements given by officials, there remains the question of whether there is sufficient evidence to base a charge against Zimmerman. I would like to see the coroner’s report on the trajectory and distance of the gunshot wound as well as audio analysis of the gun shot or shots. I would also like to see evidence of the abrasions on both men. Zimmerman was reportedly bleeding from the struggle but we have not heard many details on Martin’s other injuries.
Zimmerman would be wise to secure criminal counsel. There is probably enough here for an indictment. The most salient facts against him are (1) the statement on the 911 tape showing animus, (2) the disregarded instructions not to follow Martin, (3) the advantage in weight and possession of a firearm in the struggle, and (4) the lack of any weapon or proof of criminal conduct by Martin.
What do you think about the state of the evidence?
Here is the Zimmerman tape: 911 Tape (Zimmerman)
Here is a witness tape: 911 Tape (1)
Here is a witness tape: 911 Tape (2)
Source: CNN
Steadfast:
“OK Gerty. Enough is enough. Did you bother to look at the DOB on that case?”
Who is Gerty? Or what is a Gerty? Who are you responding to?
Thanks for clearing up the question, but here’s MY question: how does any past behavior on the part of these two lawyers explain the present conduct of these two lawyers? My guess is that the lawyers were “stating facts” that were obviously not checked because they could get away with that so long as all they were doing was blah blah blah to the media and on the web. They would NOT be permitted to go into court saying Trayvon broke Zim’s nose or baby-shook his head because pursuant to the Canon of Ethics for lawyers in every single state of the union (and federal courts), an attorney cannot represent something to a court that he has personal knowledge is not correct. THere IS some possibility that the lawyers could say, if Zim were to stand trial, that they had NO evidence that what their client had told them was NOT TRUE, but that would sound pretty thin in light of all the real facts that cannot be undone. I think the lawyers needed to step aside for two reasons: (1) TO PROTECT THEMSELVES because they have been making up total fantasies for the media (which would have worked if there had never been charges leveled against Zim); and (2) TO PROTECT ZIM from the authorities knowing where he is, to arrest him.
They were PR hacks. I don’t care what their reputation was. They were meant to show everyone (prosecutor included) that the prosecution, if attempted, would fail. When that fell through, they fell off the case like ticks who have already engorged themselves on enough blood to last until “get real” day. But who will be present on “get real” day, to stand up and be a man? Trayvon Martin stood up and wa a man on 2/26/2012. Now it is time for his killer to decide whether or not to do that. His lawyers faded out —
My guess is that lots of “supporters” are going to fill the web with stories about how emotionally distressed, PTSD’d, psychotic-break-ed-broke, depressed, non-compos-mentos, driven-crazy-by-all-this-inexplicable-hatred, etc. etc. George was before he vanished…
I’m bracing myself.
Haiku Charge
Wide sky, big sea, wind,
The injured ozone layer,
And — a hidden place?
Concentrate all this,
storming ocean in a bowl,
It’s a reflection!
the so called ex-lawyers is in on the bogus lies they know where he is at this is a scam, andthe lawyers is involved, zimmerman is eating all this fame and attention up he is a trigger happy vigilante want to be cop and now he famous .
@Steadfast – Oops! You’re right! I did not check the DOB (1958). George’s DOB is 1983. Good catch… I was looking for the name of the lawyer I found earlier and posted here but can’t seem to find it. I stumbled on this case at the county clerk’s website. I’m just trying to be helpful not show-boating. I guess I should have caveated it with IMO or IMHO. I tend to drop caveats in the heat of posting stuff. I know bad habit.
No I did not get this from Wikipedia nor Google. Albeit, these websites are used by OSINT (Open Source Intelligence gathering) at certain govt agencies. Both are valuable sources as everything at Wiki is screened and challenged by skeptics and then deleted if found weak on facts or credible citations.
I also admit to getting my data on George from news media and internet blogs. I am not claiming “special” access. But my present employment helps as I am a Operational Research Analyst (now freelance) which mostly everybody on this forum knows – except you.
Thanks. It was getting old. (an earlier knee-jerk comment of mine)
On the other hand, it seems pretty intrusive…
Good news anon nurse. Now let’s hope he gets the full measure of justice, if convicted.
ThinkProgress via Twitter
BREAKING: Florida prosecutor will file charges against Zimmerman. Announcement at 6PM. (Via @NBCNews)
15 minutes ago
Thanks. It was getting old.
“Maybe the lawyer that represented him when he fled to PA in 2006 and was extradited back (Case file# 592006CF002747A Per Seminole County Clerk’s Office).”
OK Gerty. Enough is enough. Did you bother to look at the DOB on that case?
I understand it. You’re a child looking for attention. You’re a regular Wikipedia Commando. Those of us paying attention were able to make quick work of identifying you.
@Malisha – Actually Zim’s atty’s are doing this on TV to officially wash their hands of Zim to save face for existing and future customers. Zim owes them money over and above the retainer daddy paid them. So Zim is playing “off radar” to avoid the bill and to allow him to check out different lawyer. Maybe the lawyer that represented him when he fled to PA in 2006 and was extradited back (Case file# 592006CF002747A Per Seminole County Clerk’s Office). Apparently he is also a US veteran per the court. His online military record does not seem to show his service – only his name. This means he is a flight risk!
@ Sonofthunder– Thank you. I will do so.
Inviting your take on the announcements made by Zim’s attys and the “sudden” disappearance of Zim.
@Maliha – Watch the entire movie EOTS on Youtube (12 parts): Part 1 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcKR5X5cz7g
@Malisha – I think I know what you didn’t understand about Jack Black’s role in the movie “Enemy of the State”. You never saw the movie. Here’s a quick synopsis: The movie was based on rumors of the US Federal TIA program and the Patriot Act. It was fictional but was actually based on a real rumor that actually came true. The assassination of an opposing US Congressman was fictional (kinda’ – sorta’). Jack Black was a NSA ORA named FIEDLER that was doing illegal surveillance without the required FISA warrant with his team under the aegis of a corrupt NSA assistant director who was working for a corrupt Conservative Senator who wanted TIA (Total Information Awareness or total domestic surveillance) really badly. Why? To spy on political competition Watergate-on-steroids style. It was loosely based on NSA’s Echelon and FBI’s Carnivore Projects. In the movie an EPA dude accidently filmed the wet work and then gave the tape to his anti-mob attorney friend Will Smith. Jack’s operation (cleverly disguised as a StOp – standard training op) was to spy on Will to get that dam tape which was the kiss of death to the ENTIRE illegal program. Everybody would go to jail.
So Jack (or Fiedler’s) job was to run relational database searches and do what is called “data mining”. They also commandeered NRO satellites and NSA-CSS (Central Security Service) resources (military thugs?). Their uber-nemesis was an ex-NSA analyst (old school) played by Gene Hackman. I like the line where he said: http://www.wavlist.com/movies/016/eos-conspiracy.wav
BTW – check out what NSA is doing in Utah right now… Maybe this movie was correct?
@Malisha – Check your email… Baby Girl…
SotB:
very interesting.
thanks.
@Malisha – Very poetic. However, I would have preferred rhyming like Rev. Jackson or at least iambic pentameter 🙂
OK here’s the latest: Just like I said they dumped the lawyers. They may go with a guy in Orlando that handled George’s case back in 2005. Or the judge may represent him for free. The old lawyers LIED about George being out of state. If that is so then he violated his O.R. agreement and now is a federal fugitive. That means another federal agency will be involved (i.e. US Marshall Service) to go pick him up.
So the scuttlebutt is that George called the FL-SpecProc recently. That can only mean that daddy advised him to try and negotiate a plea-bargain. If the Barracuda accepts (which is probably what she’s going to say within next 72 hours), it may mean, to save the Florida taxpayers, she will ask the court for a reduced sentence if he plea’s Guilty to MAN-1 or 2. He could get as little as 5 years (I think). If so then she is guaranteed to issue in the 2012 Race Riots this summer making Vladimir Putin very happy (long story from mouth of ex-KGB General Oleg Kalugin who ALLEGEDLY defected to USA).
I assure you George never left the state. I believe he is holed up in daddy’s basement in Lake Mary (very armed). The ex-lawyers where using something my ilk is very familiar with: “misdirection”. I also think they are reading the blogs (including this one) for situational intelligence.
Has anyone read George’s new website yet?
BTW – y’all can call me SOT or SotB. I like that thanks to OS.
Bird’s Eye View of the Due Process in Sanford — oh by the way, remember the actual title of the Dred Scott case? Sanford versus Scott, right? I wonder…
Anyway, Zimmerman sees Martin, and wants to be THE MAN.
Zimmerman calls the heat on Martin, but then decides, “this one is MINE.”
Zimmerman comes up to Martin, asserts his whiteness, his rightness, his superiority, his official “THE MAN” itude, but…
uh oh
uh oh
Martin doesn’t play his role, has not studied his PART, and…
resists?
Martin gets the upper hand?
Martin gets proverbial leg up on Zimmerman?
“Help Help Help” screams little Zimmerman but then…
the great “equalizer” emerges…
Instead of Zim taking his beating administered by a KID WITH TEA,
Zimmerman can be THE MAN AGAIN, huh?
Pow.
The kids playing at “cops and robbers” do it the same way,
POW. I really AM THE MAN.
But now, again, when the other side gains on him, Zim is showing us his true grit.
Now Zim is showing us what a MAN he is.
His lawyers stood up there and yelled, “Trayvon Martin broke my client’s nose!”
They yelled, “Trayvon Martin was a victimizer, did shaken-baby stuff to our poor client, the poor victimized baby,”
AND THEY YELLED THAT when they could not be asked to submit all that “testimony” to cross examination.
They were full of bravado while their baby was under cover and their words could not be challenged and their version of reality was being broadcast all over the place with no one to contradict it and THEY WERE THE MAN,
and…
now that things have taken their course a little and a different, more reviewable form of due process may be available,
the lawyers run,
Zim skittles away,
and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land.
anon nurse – KGB? What does that stand for “Klever Good Boys”? – sorry 🙂
They have different alphabets now. But KGB will arise again thanks to the Democratically elected (yeah Right) new president of Russia. I know Dmitri is TOTALLY pissed! “Gray Cardinal you promised me another term!” Putin responds: “Hey Boychick I never promised you Rose Garden… Now get away from my face while I resurrect Communism! We have another race-riot to plan in America in Sanford Florida! Now where is my phone number for Comrade Kalugin?” – LOL
anon nurse,
Thanks for the etymology lesson, teaching me something new and thus making my day complete. Being an afficiando of espionage fiction, I knew “wet work” derived from the Russian term мокрое дело/”wet job”, but I didn’t know that the Russian term was originally a 19th Centurt criminal slang term. I always thought it was a Cold War contemporaneous term coined by the KGB.
Otteray Scribe – “SoTB: I had to stifle a grin at your last post. Wonder how many users here know what wet work is?”
You’re right but I did say “dirty work”.
To all: If you want to know anything go to Google (brainchild of the InQTel – who’s that?) and type in define:wetwork or any word or phrase. WW was recently sanctioned by President Obama in Abbottabad Pakistan on an old family friend of the Bush Family and son of the old employer of Pres. GW Bush when he worked for the failed Arbusto Oil. You know the guy who allegedly conducted 911 from a cave in Afghanistan and who the FBI was never looking for for that particular crime.
I wonder if this video sheds any light on the matter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRfhUezbKLw
No of course not. Our *friends* would never perform WW on us! What does Zechariah 13:6 say?