The State of Florida vs George Zimmerman: The Trial

I can jack your blood pressure as high as I want, billy.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio Arpaio said last week that David Simpson, of Bath, NY, admitted to Arizona authorities he was en route to Georgia to kill Grace by "putting a knife" between her legs and slicing her to death.

When police picked him up in New York, they found guns, knives and handcuffs in his car.
http://www.kpho.com/story/22989145/man-pleads-not-guilty-to-threatening-news-anchors-in-arias-case

http://www.morrisdailyherald.com/2013/08/02/press-dangerously-distorts-facts-about-zimmerman/a2vzel0/

ress dangerously distorts facts about Zimmerman
By: Rick Jensen - [email protected]
Created: Friday, August 2, 2013 9:30 a.m. CDT
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The family George Zimmerman rescued from their burning SUV is refusing interviews for fear of their lives.

A woman whose phone number is one digit different from that of the line Zimmerman used to call police is getting death threats. That phone number appeared repeatedly throughout the trial.

George’s family is in hiding from death threats. When a news intern asked President Obama’s spokesman, Jay Carney, if the president was going to do anything to protect Zimmerman’s family, Carney sneered.

This, after Judicial Watch discovered documents showing President Obama’s Department of Justice helped organize anti-Zimmerman protests, leading to the firing of the Sanford police chief and the ultimate trial of George Zimmerman who, in case you may have forgotten, was found not guilty of murder or manslaughter.

This innocent man whose maternal grandparents were black and Hispanic has been portrayed as a racist and now fears for his life due to the press.

There is pushback now against the Obama Admini-stration, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and others determined to bring Zimmerman to court on charges that Zim-merman violated Trayvon Martin’s civil rights.

This pushback is from both the political left and the right. Conservatives are fighting against the President’s potential to override the rule of law. Democratic Party-leaning inner-city minorities are fighting for their lives.

While conservatives are sharing research from the British press that the American press is ignoring about George Zimmerman, local papers like Philadelphia’s Daily News are sharing the stories and opinions of city minorities who are sick of the big national games being played with the lives of George Zimmerman and his family while their political leaders ignore the violence that takes so many lives from their families every day.

Here’s what the London newspaper, The Telegraph, published about George Zimmerman that you have likely never seen, heard or read in the major media outlets in the U.S.:

George Zimmerman voted and campaigned for Obama.

George Zimmerman and his black friend opened an insurance company in Florida.

George Zimmerman has black family members. Some of George’s black family members lived with him, at some point.

George Zimmerman launched a campaign to help a homeless black man who was beaten up by a white kid.

George dated and took a black girl to the prom.

George Zimmerman also mentored young black school kids.

Still, powerful people say he’s a racist and needs to be put in jail somehow even though he shot Trayvon in self defense.

In the city of Philadelphia, people are angry at the activists spending so much time protesting Zimmerman and ignoring their local “Trayvons.”

City resident Patricia Thomas told the Philadelphia Daily News, “Trayvon, OK, but what about Tremaine? What about this other little boy that got killed?”

Tremaine Rogers was one of hundreds of Philly’s murder victims over the last year. The African American boy didn’t know his killers.

“Seventeen-year-old Tremaine Rogers didn’t have a bag of Skittles or an iced tea on him when he was shot in the back on July 13 outside of his home. He had a basketball.

He was killed in his own back yard at 4 p.m. by two black men for refusing to answer one question: ‘We cool?’”

Aaron Rogers, Tremaine’s 19 year-old brother, said, “We’re living in a city where people die over a conflict, over a female, over a dollar, over drugs. It’s a lot of petty things going on.”

The fact that the verdict in the Zimmerman trial came just hours after Tremaine’s slaying and dominated the news for days did not make things easier for his family.

“I feel like people don’t understand. It’s black-on-black but they’re worried about white-on-black.”

“They just trying to be racist.”

Did you hear that, Mr. President? That’s from the street, not a professional activist.

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Rick Jensen is Delaware’s Award-Winning Conservative Talk Show Host on 1150AM WDEL and 93.7FM HD3, Streaming live on WDEL.Com from 1pm — 4pm EST. Contact Rick at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter@JensenVoiceover. This column has been edited by the author. Representations of fact and opinions are solely those of the author.

© Copyright 2013 Rick Jensen

you are throwing together any slap happy arguement that you imagine helps your preconceived ideas

I have no idea why you are addressing me as "lover" but, that is kinda sick in it's own right...

Trayvon Martin's Parents Renew Appeal For Changes To 'Stand Your Ground' Laws
The Orlando Sentinel
08/03/2013

Attorneys for Trayvon Martin's parents on Friday renewed their appeal for changes to "stand your ground" laws around the country, calling them vague and confusing.

The laws -- including Florida's landmark legislation -- can feasibly allow an "initial aggressor" or a person who starts a fight, to kill someone and then claim self defense, attorney Benjamin Crump said.

"You cannot pick a fight and then kill the person and then claim 'stand your ground'," said Crump, standing alongside Trayvon's parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin. "It flies in the face of common sense...What message are we giving to society?"

Crump made the remarks during the National Association of Black Journalists convention at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Kissimmee.

George Zimmerman, a Neighborhood Watch volunteer, said he acted in self-defense when he shot Trayvon in February 2012 after the unarmed, black Miami Gardens teen attacked him. A Seminole County jury on July 13 found Zimmerman not-guilty of murder.

Crump said he has started working with legislators in 26 states to amend their "stand your ground" laws. As the laws are currently written, they should more accurately be called: "shoot first" or "make my day" laws, he said.

At one point in the press conference, Sybrina Fulton, told the room filled with reporters that she remains unsettled about the behavior of some journalists. She is often approached by reporters while shopping or while at home.

"Although this is your job, and this is just a story for you. This is our life," Fulton said. "So it's very difficult sometimes when you chase us, when you run up to us....It's invasive...So if you could be mindful of that."

But attorney Daryl Parks quickly jumped in to say: "Trayvon's case doesn't get to where it is today without the media."

Trayvon's parents also announced that their Trayvon Martin Foundation will work to help families whose children have died as a result of gun violence.

"It's very difficult to go through something like this and have people say: 'We know what you're going through.' Actually, you don't," Fulton said.

Tracy Martin said he plans to organize a Trayvon Martin retreat to mentor young black males about conflict resolution.

"I think our youth feel a lack of love," Martin said. "We as parents, especially African-American men, we have to show them your life is of equal value. That you are loved. That we're here for them."

Trayvon's parents also said they neither supported nor opposed a call for an economic and consumer boycott of Florida. The family's attorneys would not say on whether they plan to pursue a civil suit against Zimmerman.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/03/trayvon-martin-parents-appeal-changes-stand-your-ground-laws_n_3699317.html?ir=Black+Voices

Sears: George Zimmerman's punishment for a moment of paranoia is a lifetime of it
The Rev. Dr. Stanley Sears

I just read that George Zimmerman, who was recently acquitted of both second-degree murder and manslaughter for killing Trayvon Martin, was stopped in Texas for speeding. He revealed that he was carrying a handgun in his glove compartment. The fact that he was driving with a gun was not surprising. The suspicion that he felt about a 17-year-old boy in a hoodie will probably pale in comparison to the uncertainty that he now feels about who might be in the next car, or who might be following him on dark streets at night. Perhaps this feeling will be the punishment most befitting what many consider to be his “crime.” Although he has avoided incarceration, he has not escaped punishment for Martin’s killing. It is quite possible that there may be times when Zimmerman will feel as though he would have felt safer in a protective prison unit than he does on the streets of his community.

I believe that the way to look at this killing is through the lens of tragedy. Both Martin and Zimmerman were acting in ways that they felt necessary to defend themselves. One is now in a literal grave; the other’s life, as he might have lived it, is also in a grave of its own. Once again, our nation has been forced to confront the twin tragedies of racism and gun violence.

I do not know what was going on in Zimmerman’s heart or mind, but I seriously doubt that he started pursuing Martin with the thought of killing him. However, once he set upon his course of action, it was clear that someone was going to be badly injured. It is for reasons such as this that police dispatchers tell would-be vigilantes to retreat and ensure their own safety, rather than engaging possible criminals. Perhaps Zimmerman thought that he would be a hero. While some may bestow this status on him, no one can deny that his life has been irreparably changed, and he faces far more danger now than he did before getting out of his car to pursue Martin. Furthermore, who can fault Martin for attempting to defend himself against a man who was pursuing him for no good reason? The wounds on the back of Zimmerman’s head and face seem to indicate that Martin was doing what he thought necessary to protect himself against a pursuer. I have also wondered how this would have played out if Martin had wrested the gun away from Zimmerman, and killed him: Would he, too, have been acquitted?

The Tampa Bay Times has compiled a database of more than 200 Stand Your Ground cases in Florida. In the majority of the cases, the person who invoked the statute was armed, and the victim was not armed. In about one-third of the cases, the person who invoked the statute pursued the victim before killing him (or her). Some of these cases involved home owners that heard noises outside their homes and killed people who were fleeing, rather than continuing to enter the homes. Some were shot in driveways, and others “down the street.” In essence, teenagers were given the death sentence for cases of attempted breaking and entering.

As I read through the case histories, one of the most disturbing points was the high preponderance of cases involving alcohol — either inside or outside of bars, at keg parties, or at other places where alcohol was being served. Another sizable number of cases involved drug dealers. Some involved felons who invoked the statute and were convicted of illegal possession of guns, but spared prosecution because they invoked “Stand Your Ground.” One drug dealer has already invoked it twice. I make this point because of the continuing efforts to loosen gun laws to the point where some would advocate allowing anyone to possess and possibly use a gun in virtually any location. According to The Tampa Bay Times database, roughly twice as many of the cases involved people who did not use the guns on their own property, and a similar proportion could have avoided using their weapons by simply retreating, as Zimmerman was told to do.

Years ago, there was a Charles Bronson movie, “Death Wish.” The premise of the story is that a man whose wife has been killed and daughter left in a vegetative state after being attacked decides to entice would-be muggers to attack him. He then shoots them. The film was prescient in that it suggested how America has developed a fetish for retributive gun violence. It is absurd to think that our society has become any safer since the evisceration of sensible gun control laws and the proliferation of Stand Your Ground laws.

I grieve for Trayvon Martin’s family. I also grieve because the handling of the case has shown, again, our problems with racial differences and our paranoiac fear of those who are different. Had Martin been white, or a grown man, I think it's doubtful Zimmerman would have pursued him. As a young black male, Martin was assumed by Zimmerman to be guilty or “up to no good.” It was a fatal and false assumption. Martin is dead, and Zimmerman has been condemned to a life of fear. Who knows the mental toll this will take on him? Let us ask ourselves: What can we do to end this cycle of tragedy inflicted on our society so that there will be no more “Zimmermans” or “Martins” either facing or reaching for their guns?

The Rev. Dr. Stan Sears is a minister with the Auburn Unitarian Universalist Society

http://auburnpub.com/lifestyles/sears-george-zimmerman-s-punishment-for-a-moment-of-paranoia/article_34d1b3e0-ac4f-5d12-83a0-8e626a05d3bd.html

This case could hurt us politically...