The Zimmerman Trial - My View

I cannot wait for this trial to be done.  This case has gotten on my nerves from the very beginning.  The coverage on this trial has been irresponsible at best.  Both sides have been gone overboard. There is zero proof that Zimmerman is a racist.  Even the federal investigation has said that.  Of course, the race baiters have kept this meme going, but that is what they do best.  They will continue this regardless of what the facts are.  Even after the attorney for the Martin family has said this case isn't about race, they continue.

Here are some things that I think that have gotten lost in whole melodrama that has been playing out.

For the Zimmerman Supporters:

While it is true that he was under no legal obligation to listen to the 911 operator, he still should have gone back to his car and gone to the meeting place he set up.  Had he done that Trayvon would likely still be alive and his life would have gone on as normal.

The fact that Trayvon smoked pot proves nothing.  Many people in this country smoke pot and are not drug dealers, gang members, or thugs.  I have smoked pot in my lifetime and I can assure you I have never been any of those things.  I was a stupid kid who made some bad choices when it came to using drugs.  People who smoke pot have a habit of discussing it and using it with their friends.

The injuries to Zimmerman were relatively minor.  It is a medical fact that injuries to the skull have a tendency to bleed a great deal, it is not indicative of a severe injury in many cases.

Just because Zimmerman is the only witness, doesn't make his story true.  A lifetime in prison is a very good incentive to lie.

Zimmerman has not been totally consistent in his story.  On the 911 call he said he believed Trayvon to be teenager.  In his Hannity interview he said he believed him to be the around the same age as him.  That is troubling, any time a person who is accused of crime changes a key element in his story, it is reasonable doubt he is not telling the truth.  If he is lying about that, what else is lying about?

Having pot in your system also means nothing.  It is said that Trayvon had traces of it.  Pot can stay in your system for quite some time.  If I am not mistaken it can be found in your blood for up to 14 days.  All that says is that some time in the two weeks before his death he smoked pot.  So what?  Pot isn't a drug that is known to cause aggressive behavior.  Usually you want to sit and eat.

Most, if not all, neighborhood watch groups do not want you to carry a weapon.  The legality of the weapon is beside the point.  While he had the legal right to carry it, the chances increase that things get out of control and someone ends up dead.  This being a perfect case in point.  It also opens up that homeowners association to liability.  Another case in point, they did indeed settle a lawsuit in regards to wrongful death.

If you are going to call the parents of Trayvon liars for saying it is their son they heard on the tape, then you must do the same for the Zimmerman family and friends.  The FBI experts say it is not possible to tell.  All of them are speaking from their hearts, not from something that is fact based.

If you going to say that Zimmerman had the right to "stand his ground", then you must say the same for Martin.  It is just as likely that Martin felt intimidated by being followed by a man he didn't know.  Evidence has been presented that is indeed the case.  Trayvon had the same rights under the law that Zimmerman had.  Rights are extended to everyone, not just who you think is the more sympathetic.

I have read and seen a great deal about Martin's mother trademarking her son's name once the protests and rallies were in full force around the country.  That was a very smart thing to do.  Why should some jerk get to make money of her son's death?  As far as I know she has done nothing to profit off it, she just protected her family from others doing just that.  She was given sound legal advice and she followed it.  Remember when Jay-Z decided to sell shirts during the whole Occupy Wall Street thing?  He went to make money for himself and did nothing to further any other cause than to make his bank account bigger.  People would have done exactly the same thing in this case.  If you just buried your child would you want to see that happen?

There is zero evidence that Martin was a gang member.  A kid who seemed to be heading down the wrong the path yes, but that doesn't make him a gang member.  Generally speaking, in a court of law that isn't relevant to the case at hand and what happened on that night.  That is the only issue that really matters; what happened the evening he was shot to death?

Zimmerman also had a criminal past, including incidents of violence.

It has never made sense to me that Martin would say "you are going to die tonight".  I have never believed that.  Now, had the comment been I am going to kick your ass, that I would believe.  But for it to escalate immediately to a death threat doesn't seem logical.

The next time you feel inclined to make statements about Trayvon Martin's mother, just remember a few things.  It is very likely she sent her son up to stay with his dad because he seemed to be heading down the wrong path.  That choice cost her son his life.  Imagine the guilt that mom feels.  She buried her youngest child.  That should never happen. I don't care what your child does, you never want to bury them.  

For the Martin Supporters:

Zimmerman was well within his rights as a neighborhood watch member to call the police and to watch what a stranger was doing in the neighborhood. Zimmerman was under no legal obligation to follow orders of 911.  They have no legal authority to "order" anyone to do anything.  They can advise, but they can't order.

Martin is not Emmett Till.  The comparisons are simply ludicrous.  I have actually heard people say that Zimmerman should be found guilty to make up for those that didn't get justice in the past.  Huh?  Zimmerman shouldn't be expected to pay for sins of the past that he has no control over.  

The Department of Justice did an investigation to see if this could be labeled a hate crime.  No evidence that Zimmerman acted in malice because of the race of Martin exists.  It just isn't so.  Zimmerman has lived a life that most others have, they people of all colors in his life.

Just yesterday we heard of a case that a man who found out his dad was cheating on his mother put him in a coma with one punch.  To say that Martin had no way of defending himself is sheer nonsense.  He was close to six feet tall. Martin was taller than Zimmerman, by four inches in fact.

There is some evidence that Martin may have committed theft in the past.  If this report is true the police in Miami let him slide on the theft to keep the numbers of crime stats down in the public school system.  Clearly, he was not a saint.  That jewelry came from somewhere and the screwdriver was there for a reason.  It is possible that Zimmerman simply nailed him for what he was, a thief.  

One of the things that has always bothered me about this case is that the phone call that Martin was on disconnected.  Doesn't it make sense that had it been Zimmerman that started the fight wouldn't the phone just have been dropped and stayed connected?  That seems the most logical.  The fact that the phone was disconnected makes it seem more likely that Martin started the fight.  If it is true that Martin started the fight, it goes a long way to it being self-defense and not some racist wannabe cop who targeted some innocent black child.

There is no other way for Zimmerman to have had the injuries that he had other than Martin causing them.  Martin did have scraped knuckles from being in a fight, he also showed no sign of defensive wounds.  He clearly got the better of Zimmerman in that fight.  That doesn't mean he started it, but he did cause injury to Zimmerman.  That gives credence to  Zimmerman's claim of self-defense.

The law doesn't state that Zimmerman had to be in danger of losing his life, it only states that he had to reasonably believe that he was in danger of his life or bodily injury.  You can disagree with that, but that is what the law states.  Many victims who shot intruders/criminals are never touched, but are still covered under the law of self-defense.

One thing that rarely gets mentioned in the coverage of this trial is the fact that there was a reason that there was a neighborhood watch set up.  There had been breaks-ins in the recent past.  Many of those break ins were done by young  black males, it adds a layer to what George Zimmerman saw as suspicous.  The profiling wasn't based on race, but on recent past criminal history.  

The eyewitness that had the best view of the fight has said clearly that Martin was on top of Zimmerman.  Which again, backs his claims of self defense.  

The gun shot evidence shows that the gun didn't make contact with his body, but did have contact with the hoodie.  That also backs Zimmerman's claim that Martin was on top and leaning over him.  

We have seen people turn this into a media mess.  One side saying this innocent little child was gunned down in cold blood by some bigger white guy who was doing it for no other reason than he was black.  The other side saying he was just some thug who got what he deserved.  That I take real issue with.  Simply because someone has done things that are against the law, doesn't make them worthy of a death sentence at the hands of a man from the neighborhood watch.  Who exactly gets make those decisions if that were the case?

The cold hard truth is this.  We don't know who started the fight.  That piece of information is crucial to knowing what happened and who holds any criminal liability for the death of Trayvon Martin.  Had Zimmerman started that fight he simply couldn't use self-defense as an excuse simply because Martin got the better of him.  If that were the case, I could go pick a fight with any one that I didn't like and use it as excuse for killing them.

Both parties made bad choices that night.  A 17-year-old died because of those bad choices.  Zimmerman should have gotten into his car and drove to the area where he was to meet the police.  Martin should have used his phone to call 911 instead of talking with his gal pal.  The bit of the time-lapse seems to indicate that he had enough time to return to his home.  Had any of those choices been made that evening none of us would even know the names of these two families.

This is a tragedy, not entertainment.  One family buried a son and brother.  The other family has lost virtually everything trying to defend themselves against these charges,  have been living in hiding, in large part due to irresponsible media and even some "movie stars".  No one wins here no matter how this turns out.  The Martin family truly believes that their son was murdered.  If they are wrong about that, it doesn't change what they feel in their hearts.  The Zimmerman family believes that he acted in self-defense and has no criminal liability.  He could spend the rest of his life in jail for something he firmly believes he had to do in order to protect himself.  It will take a long time for the Zimmerman family to get back to "normal" after this.  He will continue to have to live in hiding if he is found not guilty, for at least a time.  

You never know what a jury will decide, but the court has not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Zimmerman's story is not true.  Based on that, they must acquit. We can hope we don't see riots in the aftermath as we did with the Rodney King Trial.  Now, that doesn't mean that Zimmerman is not guilty.  It just means that prosecution didn't prove the cause beyond a reasonable doubt.  We will never know what really happened that night.  But this trial has given the Martin family justice, as much as the law can give to the family.  What they want is their son back.  No court can ever do that.  But Zimmerman was judged by a jury of his peers.  That is justice, no matter how it turns out.  

Fact, Fiction, and the Unknowns of the Trayvon Martin Death

There is still so much of misinformation going around about this case, I  thought it may be good to figure out fact, fiction and the unknowns.

1. George Zimmerman used a racial slur during his 9-1-1 call.  Fiction.  The prosecutors have cleared this up once and for all.  He used the word punks.  Hardly a racial slur

2. George Zimmerman continued to follow Trayvon after the 9-1-1 operator instructed him not to.  Fiction and unknown.  The fiction is that he was "instructed" not to.  No such instruction was made, it was a suggestion, not an order.  Nor does the 9-1-1 operator have any authority to "instruct" anyone to do anything.  There is still some unknown in this when listening to the 9-1-1 tape.  Some say it proves that he stopped following Trayvon, others disagree.  You will have to listen for yourself to make that determination.

3. Trayvon attacked Zimmerman first.  Not known.  It just isn't.  Anyone that says that it is, is kidding themselves.  There are no witnesses who saw the fight start.  There are about 3 to 4 minutes between Zimmerman's 9-1-1 call and the next calls coming into 9-1-1 to report a fight and gunshots.  There are no witnesses to who threw the first punch.  At least that have been public at this point.

4. Trayvon is a drug dealer.  Fiction/Unknown No proof of this exists.  He was serving a suspension from school when they found a baggie that once had pot in it.  That only proves that at some point he had some pot in his possession.  It doesn't prove that ever smoked it, let alone sold it.  There are some tweets between he and his friends that seem to be talking about getting pot, but not enough to say that he was a drug dealer.  The most likely scenario was that he and friends smoked it at some point.  Nor does this information have any bearing on what happened that night as Zimmerman had no way of knowing it.

5. Trayvon is gang member.  Fiction.  Zero proof of this exists

6. Zimmerman is a racist.  Fiction.  Zero proof of this exists.

7. Trayvon went for the gun.  Unknown.  We don't know what the physical evidence says.

8. Zimmerman was being "beaten to death".  I would have to say unknown.  We don't know the severity of his injuries.  He was treated but we don't know the extent of those injuries.  We only know what a man accused of murder says happened.  We need to hear testimony from the person who examined his injuries at the scene.  It is a fact that Zimmerman had injuries, but we don't know the extent of what those injuries were.

9. Zimmerman was not arrested after the shooting.  Unknown to an extent.  He was handcuffed and taken to the police station for questioning.  It doesn't seem to be clear if he was free to leave or not.  Since he was handcuffed, I would think he was not free to leave.  Is that technically an arrest?  I am not sure.  A lawyer or police officer from Fl. would know that better than I.

10. Trayvon's father didn't report him missing for three days.  Fiction.  It took three days for the body to get released to the family.  His father reporting him missing the following morning.  It was at that time that the police brought a picture of him to his father to identify.  Trayvon was originally listed as a John Doe after the shooting.

11. The Sanford police department have had issues of incomplete investigations of black victims of crime.  Fact.  Zimmerman himself was involved in trying to force the police department to arrest an officer's son who beat a black homeless man.  Originally nothing was done.  Was that racially motivated or motivated by the cops trying to keep a fellow officer's son out of trouble?  Can't say, but either way and injustice was done to the homeless man initially.

12. The police just wanted to let Zimmerman go.  Fiction.  The officer who did the questioning wanted to press charges.  The prosecutors said to let him go.  The first police officer to hear his entire story wanted to arrest and charge him criminally in Trayvon's death.

A list of many of the other unknowns:

Where was Trayvon's body in relation to the Zimmerman's car?  No evidence of this has been released.

What angle the bullet entered Trayvon's chest is not known.  This will be important as it will answer the question if the gun was shot from a position of Zimmerman being underneath him at the time he pulled the trigger.

Did Trayvon have defensive wounds?  The person who got the body ready for burial says he didn't see any other injuries, but he is not a medical examiner.  The autopsy has not been released.

Did Trayvon have Zimmerman's DNA under his nails?

Is Zimmerman's blood on the concrete?  For his story to be true, it would have to be.

One of the most important facts in this case is that a set of parents buried their child.  They have every right to want a through investigation of why that happened.  If that were your child, you would want exactly the same thing.  They are not making an unreasonable demand.  The hoopla surrounding it has become that.  But the family wanting complete answers to why they had to buy a coffin for their son most certainly is not.

The hope now must become that Zimmerman can receive a fair trial.  Both Zimmerman and Trayvon only gets justice if the facts are judged for what they are instead of what people think they are.

The Politics of the Death of Trayvon Martin

The death of Trayvon Martin is still in the headlines and getting a great deal of coverage on the cable news shows.  I personally watch very little television, but when I do turn on CNN or MSNBC this is a major topic.  New polling is out that shows a racial divide on how you look at the case.  Many whites, myself among them, feel that this has been politicized by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton.  Now, I will admit anytime that Rev. Al gets involved in something I am more than just a tad suspicious.   See, I grew up outside of New York City and I remember the Tawana Brawley Case.  A very sad story of young teenaged girl who made accusations of rape at the hands of white attackers.  The longer it when on the more of the circus it became.  Brawley came from an abused background and had a step-father who was literally a killer and a mother who had abused her in the past for running away.  The racial strife that besieged the city during this incident is well-remembered by the people who had to live with it once this story left the news.  While Sharpton was successfully sued, he didn't pay the monetary damages, people paid it for him.  We then can move onto the Duke LaCrosse players.  Rev. Al tried to destroy these young men's lives based on a lie.  When there is a big spotlight that he can climb into, he never misses the opportunity.  He is nothing more than a race hustler and a con man.  How this man continues to have any creditability is beyond my comprehension.  Al Sharpton has blood on his hands.

I have been on record as being disgusted about how some one the right have decided to put Trayvon on trial.  This doesn't belong in the court of public opinion.  This case is moving along in the justice system.  More slowly than many people would like, but nonetheless it is moving along.

There are many things that we don't know about this case.  What does the coroner's report say about where the bullet entered Trayvon's body.  They can tell what angle the gun was held at and how close the gun was to his body when it went off.  Did Trayvon have any defensive wounds, did he have Zimmerman's DNA under his fingernails, and did he have any other injuries beside the gunshot?   Where was Trayvon's body in relation to Zimmerman's car?  Where was Trayvon spotted in comparison to the store and his dad's home?  All of these things will help bolster or help destroy Zimmerman's statement of events that led to the shooting.  None of these things have been made public, so we have no way of knowing what evidence the state has and what they don't.  Zimmerman has said that Trayvon went for his gun.  Is his fingerprints on the gun or the holster?  If so, game over; Zimmerman will be a free man.  Rightfully so, in my opinion.  That will be a clear-cut case of self-defense.

I have nothing but sympathy for the parents of Trayvon.  They buried their child.  Let me say that again, they buried their child.  That is a pain that no person should have to go through.  No matter the circumstances, it is one of the most painful things that anyone will endure.  They want justice done in the name of their son.  A perfectly understandable thing.  Any parent would want a full accounting of what happened to their child and how they died.  I am even willing to cut the woman some slack about getting the trademarks.  She has a very good attorney who I am sure told her to do this.  Lets be honest here, people would have tried to make money off her son's death and this prevents people from profiting off her pain and loss.

What I find so troubling is how this boy's death is being used and politicized.  The family made an appearance on Capitol Hill in regards to Stand Your Ground laws.  That is a state issue and has nothing to do with the federal government.  But people have decided to use this death to further their anti-gun agenda.  Stand Your Ground Laws isn't really a gun law.  It says that you can use up to deadly force to protect yourself  even off your own property.  You can do that in any number of ways that don't include a gun.  Some people are well-trained in martial arts and could end another's life with their bare hands.  You could use a knife if you happen to have one, a tire iron if you are on the side of the road changing a tire and some one tries to attack you.  The law isn't designed to be about guns, it is designed to allow people who are being threatened with imminent danger to protect themselves.  But of course the anti-gun lobby will use anything that they can to limit the constitutional rights of gun owners.

We also see cries of racism.  There is zero proof that Zimmerman is a racist.  Zero.  The people who are perpetuating this should be hanging their heads in shame (Rev. Al).  Racism is a very serious charge and it should not be made lightly.  There is word on the 911 call that you can't make out.  Somehow this has turned into the word "coon".  When is the last time you heard a person use that word to describe a black person?  That is not something that is part of the everyday conversation about race in this country.  When you make claims of racism that have little to no basis in fact, you are taking away from the true claims of racism.  I have heard one person go as far as to say that Zimmerman's tutoring of underprivileged people was actually proof that he is a racist.  He did it to prove his superiority or something like that.

The Congressional Black Congress is not going to be outdone by Rev. Al, so they have decided to enter a resolution to honor the life of the young slain teen and it also calls for a repeal of the stand your ground laws.  Oddly, one of the people who signed onto the resolution is Congresswoman Frederica Wilson who helped pass the law in the Florida legislator.  Oh, the irony and how it is not being reported that this law passed unopposed.

The media bias in this case is well documented.  NBC has admitted to "editing" the 911 call.  Apparently that happened in the control room.  Uh, huh.  They purposely reported this case as a white on black hate crime.  They have done everything in their power to convict Zimmerman, to heck with the facts; or more precisely the lack thereof.  They have led to some of this uneven polling that we are seeing.  They have taken an unfortunate set of circumstances that we don't have all the facts about and turned it into political theater.  A very sad commentary on how the view their jobs as unbiased reporters of facts.   They are losing even the bare threads of journalistic integrity that they had left.  Especially when you consider Al Sharpton is allowed to lead rallies then report on them during his show.  While he is opinion and should be given a little more leeway, he has been allowed to use that platform to push a point a view about a criminal matter.

Rev. Al says it is people  on the right who have decided that Zimmerman is not guilty.  I don't believe that to be true.  I think most on the right feel that they don't have enough facts to say what did or did not happen and we would like to see what the special prosecutor has to say about the available evidence.

I have heard on interview with Trayvon's mother.  She won't accept anything but a conviction.  Of course she is still in mourning and dealing with her grief.  I can't imagine that Al Sharpton will accept it if the prosecutors come back and say that the evidence shows that Zimmerman acted within the law and no charges will be brought.  I know some who will not accept it either.  At least at this point.  They have made up their minds.  They ignore the fact that there is a witness that backs up Zimmerman's claims.  Trayvon was on top of him punching him.  There are wounds seen on him in the video that released.  There was tape on his nose showing that their was some sort of injury.  To me the only way that Zimmerman should have felt reasonably in danger was if Trayvon did go for his gun.  If not, he was not justified in shooting him.

I have come to the conclusion that at the end of the day we will find that both Zimmerman and Trayvon both made some bad choices.  Zimmerman should have stayed in his car and locked the door once he knew the police were coming.  Trayvon should have either ran to his dad's or called 911 when he was made uncomfortable once he realized that some strange man was following him.  If either of them had done these things, Trayvon would still be alive today.

Tucker Carlson, you should be hanging your head in shame - The Daily Caller Enters the Trayvon Martin Fray

There doesn't seem to be an end to the tragedy of the Jayvon Martin story.  Two parents buried their child.  Something that shouldn't happen ever, under any circumstances.  Lets start with what we do know.

Zimmerman was out in his community doing a neighborhood watch.  Zimmerman calls the cops about a kid wearing a hoodie that looks suspicious to him, like he is on drugs or something (how he can tell that from driving by him is beyond me).  The 911 operator tells him that there is no need to keep following him.  Zimmerman doesn't listen and continues to follow him.

911 gets multiple calls about a fight outside that ends with a gun shot being heard. One caller sees Martin on top of Zimmerman punching him.  People are hearing cries for help.  Two other witnesses say that Zimmerman had his hand on his back after shooting him and made no attempts to help him.  People see a kid lying on the ground and suspect that the kid is dead.  The police arrive.   Zimmerman has cuts and is bleeding.  His injuries are treated in a police car.  No medical treatment that required hospitalization was given.  Zimmerman is then handcuffed and brought to the police station.  He gives a statement saying that Trayvon came up from behind when he was going back to his car after looking at the street sign to get the name of the street.  Trayvon punched him, after falling to the ground Trayvon gets on top of him and is banging his head into the ground.  He started yelling for help, no one came out to help him, he pulled his weapon and shot and killed Trayvon.  Zimmerman is Hispanic (which is not a race by way) and Trayvon is black.

That is what we know for sure.  From this little information this has turned into a three-ring circus.  Zimmerman has been labeled a racist when the proof of that is scant at best.  In walks the likes of Al Sharpton who has a history of riling up racial strife without knowing all the facts.  Remember the Duke Lacrosse players and Tawana Brawely?  Only two examples of his not having all the facts before shooting off his big mouth.  I remember the Brawley case.  I grew up just outside of New York City in a Connecticut suburb.  I was young, but I remember what he did to that city with the false claims and outright lies.

Then we have the journalists and talking heads that have taken a word that cannot be made out from the 911 call and have insisted he used the word "coon" which has racial overtones. CNN decided to go the extra mile and cleaned up the tape.  It seems like the word he really used was punk.   The pictures being released of both people have been purposely misleading.  They wanted to paint a narrative that Zimmerman was some wild-eyed racist intent on killing an innocent young boy simply because he was black.  No proof of that exists.

The president decides to open his mouth and he too further inserts race into the issue by saying his son would look like Trayvon.  We have seen marches, looting, horrible displays of "mourning" done across the country.  It is hard to turn on a cable news channel without it being about this story.  Some being worse than others.  But what I can tell you is from the hits I have had on my several blog posts, this is the story that people want to hear.

We then have the really idiotic left that has tried to blame this shooting on republicans.  It wasn't being politicized enough I guess.

I know that I have been called a racist more in the past three years than I have in the previous years of my life combined.  I get sick of it.  Especially since how I live my life and the people in it are not taken into account before the charge is leveled.  I am not alone on the right of this feeling.  We are all sick of it.

We are standing here watching Jesse Jackson, who doesn't even seem to have a grasp of the basic facts of the case when he said that Trayvon was shot in the back of the head, using this death to talk about voter registration.  Trayvon has been compared to Emmit Till, even though there is no comparison between the two deaths.  We see an agenda and we don't like it.

So instead of asking the left to come up with real evidence of Zimmerman's racism, we decide to handle it by attacking a dead 17-year-old boy.  An intrepid blogger goes digging around on Facebook and twitter.  Finds some tweets that lead one to believe that the kid and his friends smoked pot and a possible fight with a bus driver.  Alleged pictures of tattoos have surfaced.  His school records were leaked to the media.  Apparently Trayvon has been suspended 3 times during his high school career.  Once for tardiness.  Once for spray painting graffiti, and this last time for having a baggie that had traces of pot in it.  The juvenile authorities in Florida have confirmed this boy had no arrest record.  While I certainly don't condone a 17-year-old kid smoking pot, all in all there is no evidence that the kid is all that different from many others around the country.    If this is all of it, he is much better than many as well.

I smoked pot when I was younger.  I also got suspended for spray painting some very poorly chosen words about a teacher who gave me a B on school property.  My parents had to pay to clean it up.  And believe me, they weren't going to hire a professional to do it.  I had to do it.  It took me a couple of hours if I remember correctly.  I learned my lesson.  I never did it again and realized that a B wasn't so bad.  I have never been, nor will I ever be a gangbanger or a drug dealer.

So this kid has probably smoked pot.  He may or may not have had some jewelry in his backpack.  No one can prove that story to be true.  He has been late to school enough times that he has to serve a suspension.  He had may or may not have had tattoos, that would have been covered by the hoodie by the way. He may or may not have taken a "swing" at a bus driver; no proof of this happening exists.  Is that a drug dealing gangbanger make?  That is just as much as stretch as calling George Zimmerman a racist.  Don't "gangbangers" carry guns?  Isn't that the point of calling them bangers?

So in walks the Daily Caller and what do they decide to do?  They print the tweets.  They too have decided that they should be playing defense attorney for George Zimmerman.  They too have decided to put the dead kid on trial in the court of public opinion.  All the while complaining about the likes of Jackson and Sharpton doing the same to Zimmerman.  Hypocrites much?

There is so much we don't know about this case.  What type of scrapes and cuts did Trayvon have besides the fatal shot.  Did he have any defensive wounds that would put Zimmerman's version of the events into question?  What angle did the bullet hit Trayvon?  Did Zimmerman have  blood on his shirt?  Where was the body in relation to the car?   It would seem likely to be close by if his version of the story is true.  We don't know what the coroner's report says.  As far as I know it has not been released.  It just came out yesterday that the original police officer who questioned Zimmerman recommended that charges be pressed and wanted to arrest him that night.  The district attorney decided that they needed to wait.  Apparently not even the information that the police department wasn't doing its job as initially reported was correct.

But some on the right have decided to tear this young man's life apart and turn him into the villain.  I have seen people call him a gangbanging thug who got what he deserved.  Yeah, they said that.  Others believe because he had gold teeth (another thing I am not sure is true or not) proves he was a criminal.

What is so disturbing about the treatment of the dead boy in this case, this is how rape victims are sometimes treated.  Zimmerman may be charged with murder or manslaughter, a grand jury has been convened.  He already has a defense attorney.  Tucker Carlson shouldn't be playing that role.  He also shouldn't be making it harder for Zimmerman to get a fair trial. He certainly should not be turning what could very well be an innocent young, dead kid into a victim for the second time.  Shame on you Tucker.  You are a parent, you should know better.

C.L. Bryant and Roland Martin Debate Trayvon Martin's Exploitation