One of the most damaging moments for the prosecution in the trial of George Zimmerman trial was the inexplicable decision to lead with Rachel Jeantel, a friend of Trayvon Martin’s. Jeantel proceeded to admit to previously lying and then gave conflicted and at points unintelligible testimony. Her statement that Martin called Zimmerman a “cracker” further helped the defense in balancing the derogatory statements of Zimmerman. After the verdict, Jeantel has made statements that seem unhinged and again raise the question on why the prosecutors would place her so prominently in their case in chief. The latest controversy is a new allegation from Jeantel that she warned Trayvon that Zimmerman might be a gay rapist. She is not the only person associated with the trial who seems to be courting the press in the case with disastrous results.
In an interview with Piers Morgan, she said “People need to understand, he didn’t want that creepy ass cracka going to his father or girlfriend’s house to go get — mind you, his little brother is there. Mind you I told you, I told Trayvon, [Zimmerman] might have been a rapist.”
In a truly bizarre interview, Morgan asks Jeantel to school him on the correct spelling and meaning of such terms as “cracka” and “nigga.”
Jeantel called the verdict “BS” and said “Well, the jury, they see their facts. My thoughts of the jury, they old, that’s old school people. We in a new school, our generation, my generation. So –”
Morgan then appears to turn into a cultural anthropologist and asked clinically:
“Let’s talk about ‘creepy ass cracka.’ People have said that that is a phrase used by black people, cracka, to describe a white person. Is that true?
JEANTEL: No! Like I said —
MORGAN: How do you spell it, first of all?
JEANTEL: Cracka.
MORGAN: There’s no ‘e-r,’ right?
JEANTEL: No, it’s an ‘a’ at the end.
MORGAN: C-r-a-c-k-a.
JEANTEL: Yeah. And that’s a person who act like they’re a police [officer], who, like a security guard who acting like — that’s what I said to them. Trayvon said creepy ass cracka.
MORGAN: It means he thought it was a police or a security guard?
JEANTEL: Yeah, he acting like the police. And then he keep telling me that the man is still watching him. So, if it was a security guard or a policeman, they would come up to Trayvon and say, ‘Do you have a problem? Do you need help?’ You know, like normal people.
Once again, it is unclear why Jeantel did not emphasize the concern over a male rape on the stand. One could almost feel the prosecutor cringing at the interview with so many questioning their judgment in relying so heavily on Jeantel.
While on the subject of people behaving badly from the case (a rather long list), there is juror B-37 who announced in an interview that she was going to write a book and had enlisted an agent. She even named her agent as Sharlene Martin. After an outcry over the effort to profit from the case (not to mention a pretty limited foundation for a book). Martin tweeted that juror B37 had regained her sanity and dropped the plans for a book (that was going to be co-written by her attorney husband). She explained that the isolation of being sequestered “shielded me from the depth of pain that exists among the general public over every aspect of this case.”
Really? It took this long to figure out that there was pain over the verdict. What tipped you off after you arranged for an interview, went to the interview, and announced your book? Was it the mass protests in various cities or continuing coverage on television. Ironically, she actually proved the accuracy of West’s disastrous joke in his opening statement: “Knock, knock. Who’s there? George Zimmerman. George Zimmerman who? Congratulations, you’re on the jury.” The joke was bizarre first because you should never cut jokes in a murder trial opening statement with a dead teenage boy. Second, if the jury got the joke, they would realize they were the punch line. The point is that only morons or cave-dwelling recluses would not know anything about the case. Well then walked in juror B-37.
Source: Real Clear Politics
SwM,
Dam, we’re losing too many of the good ones.
Good followup on Snopes
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/cosby.asp
I wonder what Bill Cosby thinks.
Bill Cosby; Address at the NAACP’ on the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education
delivered 17 May 2004, Constitution Hall, Washington D.C.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/billcosbypoundcakespeech.htm
The incidents I read about and saw reported were in LA and Oakland. Vandalism in Oakland, including breaking windows on a police cruiser. Crowds failing to disperse in LA w/ cops using bean bag projectiles to disperse the crowd. There may have been more?
thanks, sm.
honest, my last word.
“Dear George Zimmerman,
For the rest of your life you are now going to feel what its like to be a black man in America.
You will feel people stare at you. Judging you for what you think are unfair reasons. You will lose out on getting jobs for something you feel is outside of your control. You will believe yourself to be an upstanding citizen and wonder why people choose to not see that.
People will cross the street when they see you coming. They will call you hurtful names. It will drive you so insane some days that you’ll want to scream at the top of your lungs. But you will have to wake up the next day, put on firm look and push through life.
I bet you never thought that by shooting a black male you’d end up inheriting all of his struggles.
Enjoy your ‘freedom.’
Sincerely,
A black male who could’ve been Trayvon Martin”
– See more at: http://madamenoire.com/286260/bet-you-never-thought-that-by-shooting-a-black-man-youd-inherit-all-of-his-struggles-lance-gross-pens-gripping-letter-to-george-zimmerman/#sthash.lr8z6UqH.dpuf
bettykath, Have to admire you for your integrity and steadfastness.
Since I”m no longer getting email notification in spite of not unsubscribing, I’m deleting this link and won’t be back. The white privilege bias of JT is just too much for me to take. It’s a great disappointment b/c I know there are many posters who don’t share that bias. Hope I meet some of those posters somewhere else. I’m joining Malisha.
“Was it the rioting in various cities ”
What rioting? What cities? This is disinformation. There were many vigils and protests but no rioting. Please cite your source.
Mr. Turley, How’s your usual optimism that we can have an open dialogue on race? In many cases, those who call for it, want to define “open.” And it’s not very wide, is it.
“After rioting in several cities” Mr. Turley? Is this Fox news? There were a few incidents that might fit some technical definition of rioting, but to randomly insert that in there just perpetuates the right wing want of evidence of blacks behaving badly so as to feed their own biases.
White privilege just oozes, in JT and B37. A serious lack tolerance for a culture that’s a bit different.
Rachel Jeantel is the one with class, as in well mannered. Good for her for not spelling out what she thinks of nasty Don West. He tried to break a teen in 14 hours and he failed. She didn’t break. Too bad her audience didn’t really listen to her.
Cursive is no longer taught in schools. My white nieces and nephews can’t read it or write it b/c it isn’t taught in their predominantly white school.
Sorry some of you think I’m ignorant. I’ll just consider the source and realize that you really don’t know what you’re talking about.
B37s bias or amazing stupidity.
JUROR: I think George Zimmerman is a man whose heart was in the right place, but just got displaced by the vandalism in the neighborhoods, and wanting to catch these people so badly, that he went above and beyond what he really should have done. But I think his heart was in the right place. It just went terribly wrong.
later she says: “There were unbelievable, a number of robberies in the neighborhood. ”
[there was no vandalism, there were no open cases, according to the the response to Malisha’s foia, there were few incidents in preceding months.]
—————
COOPER: Do you think he’s guilty of something?
JUROR: I think he’s guilty of not using good judgment. When he was in the car and he called 911, he shouldn’t have gotten out of that car. But the 911 operator also, when he was talking to him, kind of egged him on. I don’t know if it’s their policy to tell them what to do, not to get out of the car, to stay in their car. But I think he should have said, stay in your car, not can you see where he’s gone.
[Sean didn’t an opportunity to tell gz to stay in his car; “shit, he’s running”, door opens and gz is running, on the hunt. “egged him on”? ]
——————–
COOPER: Is George Zimmerman somebody you would like to have on a neighborhood watch in your community?
JUROR: If he didn’t go too far. I mean, you can always go too far. HE JUST DIDN’T STOP AT THE LIMITATIONS THAT HE SHOULD HAVE STOPPED AT.
COOPER: So is that a yes or — if he didn’t go too far. Is he somebody prone, you think, to going too far? Is he somebody you would feel comfortable —
JUROR: I think he was frustrated. I think he was frustrated with the whole situation in the neighborhood, with the break-ins and the robberies. And they actually arrested somebody not that long ago. I — I mean, I would feel comfortable having George, but I THINK HE’S LEARNED A GOOD LESSON.
Right. Lie your a$$ off, get a jury with some bigots, and you can get away with murder, unless you’re Black.
Steve Fleischer:
why do you think they [schools] fail?
One of the saddest points in Ms. Jeantel’s testimony/interviews is the realization that this woman is permanently condemned to the underclass (as are so many other young black people). Ms. Jeantel will find it hard to do better than a near minimum wage job.
Listen to her accent, grammar, and spelling – the education system has failed her (remember the comment about not reading “cursive”?). Where were the “educators” when she went to school?
Nationally, we spend more and more on education – I know that here in my area, there isn’t a year that the school district doesn’t get more tax money (which seems to go for shiny new facilities and more administrators).
What Ms. Jeantel demonstrates is not a racial issue, it is a systemic/societal issue – our school systems are broken and many parents lack the education, money, or awareness to further their children.
Hi Jonathan, Appreciate your unbiased reporting and moral fortitude in doing so. For an expanded picture, I refer you to Frances Robles, Miami Herald Article 3/26/12, M-DSPD regarding T. Martin’s backpack with stolen jewelry and burglary tools. Also of note is CNN report on Florida’s State Attorneys Office where IT Director was fired for due diligence in noticing relevant data missing including; TM’s smoking and blowing smoke rings towards camera, as well as deleted txt messages which recorded a transaction for the purchase of firearms. I prefer you keep my communication private, just info to reinforce that you are on the right track. A ploy to keep humanity distracted and divided as the noose tightens.. Lydia
Darren Smith:
“So is it a rapist or a security guard? I’m confused.”
Those aren’t mutually exclusive, are they? It could be a security guard rapist. Or would that be a rapist security guard? I guess the first one would be ambiguous.
Hmmm…it’s almost like the prosecutor sabotaged the case.
Stupid is as stupid does..and in this case as stupid says! It is amazing why she was ever on the stand on anyone’s behalf. Reminds me of a certain glove incident in court.
So is it a rapist or a security guard? I’m confused.
Yeah, Cracka, one who acts like some type of LEO. Right. Sure. Great job there, Prosecution. But hey, it’s Floriduh.
It is vile that so many are climbing over this child’s dead body for fame and fortune.