Another good piece at Slate (by William Saletan) about the Trayvon Martin case, which basically agrees with me that Zimmerman is no hero. He was an idiot who provoked an entirely unnecessary and deadly conflict. The only thing I disagree with him is that Florida law was not an issue.

It sure  was. A juror indicated that it was the defining factor in analyzing whether Zimmerman had a right to self-defense and if so, how it was constituted. Stand your ground informs the whole CopsRUs attitude of a lot of folks down here.

“Chief prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda conceded in his closing argument that these words were ambiguous. De la Rionda also acknowledged, based on witness and forensic evidence, that both men “were scraping and rolling and fighting out there.” He pointed out that the wounds, blood evidence, and DNA didn’t match Zimmerman’s story of being thoroughly restrained and pummeled throughout the fight. But the evidence didn’t fit the portrait of Martin as a sweet-tempered child, either. And the notion that Zimmerman hunted down Martin to accost him made no sense. Zimmerman knew the police were on the way.

[Lila: There Saletan forgets that some prescription drugs can make you overly anxious and paranoid]

They arrived only a minute or so after the gunshot. The fight happened in a public area surrounded by townhouses at close range. It was hardly the place or time to start shooting.

That doesn’t make Zimmerman a hero. It just makes him a reckless fool instead of a murderer. In a post-verdict press conference, his lawyer, Mark O’Mara, claimed that “the evidence supported that George Zimmerman did nothing wrong,” that “the jury decided that he acted properly in self-defense,” and that Zimmerman “was never guilty of anything except protecting himself in self-defense. I’m glad that the jury saw it that way.” That’s complete BS. The only thing the jury decided was that there was reasonable doubt as to whether Zimmerman had committed second-degree murder or manslaughter.

Zimmerman is guilty, morally if not legally, of precipitating the confrontation that led to Martin’s death. He did many things wrong. Mistake No. 1 was inferring that Martin was a burglar. In his 911 call, Zimmerman cited Martin’s behavior. “It’s raining, and he’s just walking around” looking at houses, Zimmerman said. He warned the dispatcher, “He’s got his hand in his waistband.” He described Martin’s race and clothing only after the dispatcher asked about them. Whatever its basis, the inference was false.

Mistake No. 2 was pursuing Martin on foot. Zimmerman had already done what the neighborhood watch rules advised: He had called the police. They would have arrived, questioned Martin, and ascertained that he was innocent. Instead, Zimmerman, packing a concealed firearm, got out and started walking after Martin. Zimmerman’s initial story, that he was trying to check the name of the street, was so laughable that his attorneys abandoned it. He was afraid Martin would get away. So he followed Martin, hoping to update the cops.

Mistake No. 3 was Zimmerman’s utter failure to imagine how his behavior looked to Martin. You’re a black kid walking home from a convenience store with Skittles and a fruit drink. Some dude in a car is watching and trailing you. God knows what he wants. You run away. He gets out of the car and follows you. What are you supposed to do? In Zimmerman’s initial interrogation, the police expressed surprise that he hadn’t identified himself to Martin as a neighborhood watch volunteer. They suggested that Martin might have been alarmed when Zimmerman reached for an object that Zimmerman, but not Martin, knew was a phone.

[So if Martin threw the first punch, it was probably because he thought he was going to be shot, which, given the way the militarized police think, is a pretty darn good guess.]

Zimmerman seemed baffled. He was so convinced of Martin’s criminal intent that he hadn’t considered how Martin, if he were innocent, would perceive his stalker.

[Lila: Bingo!]

Martin, meanwhile, was profiling Zimmerman. On his phone, he told a friend he was being followed by a “creepy-ass cracker.” The friend—who later testified that this phrase meant pervert—advised Martin, “You better run.”

[Lila: Martin thought the guy was going to rape him, at gun point. He was 200 pounds, you know. Martin was a teen boy. The worst thing he feared was being raped by a man.]

She reported, as Zimmerman did, that Martin challenged Zimmerman, demanding to know why he was being hassled. If Zimmerman’s phobic misreading of Martin was the first wrong turn that led to their fatal struggle, Martin’s phobic misreading of Zimmerman may have been the second.

In court, evidence and scrutiny have exposed these difficult, complicated truths. But outside the court, ideologues are ignoring them. They’re oversimplifying a tragedy that was caused by oversimplification.

Martin has become Emmett Till. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is using the verdict to attack Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which wasn’t invoked in this case. The grievance industrial complex is pushing the Department of Justice to prosecute Zimmerman for bias-motivated killing, based on evidence that didn’t even support a conviction for unpremeditated killing. Zimmerman’s lawyers have teamed up with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, inadvertently, to promote the false message that Zimmerman’s acquittal means our society thinks everything he did was OK.”

Comment:

I agree with everything in this insightful piece, except for the exoneration of the laws of Florida.

With the qualification that these sorts of reports from the establishment alternatives might be part of a co-ordinated effort to push forward gun control, the numbers of killings of black men by police/vigilantes is the context you need to keep in mind when looking at the Zimmerman  case.

This case isn’t really about race, which is how it was massaged, so much as it is about the police state, and Florida is possibly the best example of that in the US.

Not only can you have a jury of only SIX people for a murder trial (rather than the usual 12), you have the state’s ambiguously worded stand-your-ground laws, and a culture of impunity for the police.

The cops are everywhere in Florida, usually ticketing and harassing ordinary citizens over petty issues.  There are too many of them. There’s too much money in the business. They have to manufacture incidents. Zimmerman had sucked in that poisonous atmosphere. He was a cop wannabe, as I said.

Alternet.org:

Police officers, security guards, or self-appointed vigilantes extrajudicially killed at least 313 African-Americans in 2012 according to a recent study. This means a black person was killed by a security officer every 28 hours. The report notes that it’s possible that the real number could be much higher.

The report, entitled “Operation Ghetto Storm”, was performed by the  Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, an antiracist grassroots activist organization. The organization has  chapters in Atlanta, Detroit, Fort Worth-Dallas, Jackson, New Orleans, New York City, Oakland, and Washington, D.C. It has a  history of organizing campaigns against police brutality and state repression in black and brown communities. Their study’s sources included police and media reports along with other publicly available information. Last year, the organization published a similar  study showing that a black person is killed by security forces every 36 hours. However, this study did not tell the whole story, as it only looked at shootings from January to June 2012. Their latest study is an update of this.

These killings come on top of other forms of oppression black people face. Mass  incarceration ofnonwhites is one of them. While African-Americans constitute 13.1% of the  nation’s population, they make up  nearly 40% of the prison population. Even though African-Americans use or sell drugs about the same rate as whites, they are 2.8 to 5.5 times more likely to be  arrested for drugs than whites. Black offenders also  receive longer sentences compared to whites. Most offenders are in prison for nonviolent drug offenses.

“Operation Ghetto Storm” explains why such killings occur so often. Current practices of institutional racism have roots in the enslavement of black Africans, whose labor was exploited to build the American capitalist economy, and the genocide of Native Americans. The report points out that in order to maintain the systems of racism, colonialism, and capitalist exploitation, the United States maintains a network of “repressive enforcement structures”. These structures include the police, FBI, Homeland Security, CIA, Secret Service, prisons, and private security companies, along with mass surveillance and mass incarceration.“

Robert Wenzel at EconomicPolicyJournal:
From FreeAdamKokesh:

Adam was forcibly arraigned very early this morning. He is being held without bail pending a probable cause hearing. Early this morning, he was dragged barefoot in shorts out of the cage they put him in and carted to the arraignment in a wheelchair. He did not participate in the arraignment because he has been denied access to a lawyer.

Adam was able to make a call to his father. His father thinks that Adam may not be allowed to make another call anytime soon.

Adam wants a lawyer. He has requested access to a lawyer constantly since being caged. He refuses to go to court without a lawyer. Adam’s manager, Lucas Jewell, is working on getting him trusted counsel ASAP.

Adam is being held in solitary confinement in a 6.5? x 7.5? cage without bedding. He was kidnapped while wearing shorts and has not been given proper clothing to protect him from the frigid temperatures that have become standard operating procedure in America’s prisons.
Adam reports via his father that the cage he has been locked into is infested with ants. Furthermore, the lights are kept on by the guards 24 hours per day without any break for rest.
A public defender is expected to be appointed at 3PM Eastern today. 3:20PM EDT Update: I spoke with the public defender’s office and they still have not received the paperwork from the court that is required before appointing a public defender. One will not be appointed today (11 Jul 2013).

Adam’s phone call to his father was monitored by a sheriff’s deputy standing right next to him as he spoke with his father.

During the attack on his home Tuesday evening, the flashbang (stun grenade) deployed by militarized US Park Police exploded right in front of Adam. He reports that he has yet to receive any medical care inside the prison.

During the attack, Adam reports that the Park Police covered his chest with laser-sight red dots even when he had his hands up.

A sheriff’s deputy informed Adam that charges of illegal transportation of a firearm, sedition and armed sedition are being considered against him, presumably by federal prosecutors. (Oxford defines sedition as “conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch.”

Eyewitnesses to the attack on Adam and his companions Tuesday night report that US Park Police brought large brown paper evidence bags in with them before their search that appeared to be full. There is a concern that they planted evidence…”

Here are things Zimmerman could have done, if he thought Martin was suspicious:

1. Stayed in his car and followed him, with the windows rolled up.

2. Got down and shouted at him from a distance that he was the neighborhood watch and he was armed. That would have alerted Martin not to get belligerent and get into a fight.

3. Even after the first punch, and even if Martin was the aggressor, he could have fired into the air or into the boy’s leg or arm, or could have just run away firing randomly. That would have alerted Martin and scared him off and it would have resulted in no one being seriously injured.

The idea that the only way he could have saved himself is by killing an unarmed person is simply misleading.

Killing a burglar who enters your home at night is one thing, although even there, if you know the other person doesn’t have a gun, aim for the leg or arm.

Avoiding confrontation is the smartest thing to do when no one is being directly threatened.

Vigilante posturing ends up harming someone, either the vigilante or his target.

The first law of any kind of activity is FIRST DO NO HARM.

We heard endlessly in the mainstream media about the use of the word  “nigga” in Trayvon Martin’s social media pages.  In the US, lily-white gifted teen girls use that word when they’re trying to ape their hip “rap” heroes, so this isn’t terribly convincing as proof that he deserved to be followed….(or, implicitly, blown away).

Meanwhile, did we hear about Zimmerman’s MySpace comments?

PoliticalBlindSpot.org

Huffington Post’s Gene Demby seems to have dug up an old MySpace page belonging to George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin and is charged with his murder, makes disparaging comments about Mexicans and details his response to a criminal case against him in 2005.

The page was first made public by the Miami Herald. Zimmerman’s lawyer, Mark O’Mara, confirmed that the page is George Zimmerman’s MySpace, but has been unused for years.

On Zimmerman’s legal defense fund website, his lawyers admit that the page “will cast Mr. Zimmerman in a less-than-favorable light especially considering the charges he faces.”

“In that regard, it is possible that the statements Mr. Zimmerman made could be used as part of the trial, and therefore it is our policy not to comment directly on items that could become evidence,” the site read. The statement also indicated that the social media accounts of “all the parties” involved might come under scrutiny, and may be introduced at the trial as evidence.

Photos on Zimmerman’s MySpace page show Zimmerman, who calls himself “Joe G.,” with groups of friends. In his biographical blurb, he discusses things he doesn’t miss about his former home in Manassas, Virginia:

I dont miss driving around scared to hit mexicans walkin on the side of the street, soft ass wanna be thugs messin with peoples cars when they aint around (what are you provin, that you can dent a car when no ones watchin) dont make you a man in my book. Workin 96 hours to get a decent pay check, gettin knifes pulled on you by every mexican you run into!”

Lila: OK, I sympathize with that, but it shows he generalizes vastly about Mexicans and sees them all as criminals.

“In an August 24, 2005 blog post, he boasts about his relief about the proceedings in a criminal case.

I’m still free! The ex hoe tried her hardest, but the judge saw through it! Big Mike, reppin the Dverse security makin me look a million bucks, broke her down! Thanks to everyone for checkin up on me! Stay tuned for the A.T.F. charges……

A few days later, he expresses happiness that the other charges against him were reduced to misdemeanors.”

Lila: As I blogged before, saying “nigga” is always more inflammatory than “ho”.

“2 felonies dropped to 1 misdemeanor!!!!!!!!!!! The man knows he was wrong but still got this hump, Thanks to everyone friends and fam, G baby you know your my rock!

In 2005, a 20-year-old Zimmerman was arrested and charged after an altercation with a police officer. The same year, his ex-fianceé filed a restraining order against him and accused him of domestic violence.

The 28-year-old Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, on the night of Feb. 26. The case has garnered international attention, as many have called the case an example of rampant racial profiling, and have called for a repeal of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” gun laws.

Social media has played a major role in the case so far. News about the case spread virally on sites like Facebook and Twitter before it was picked up by mainstream outlets, and Martin’s since-deleted tweets were made public by the Daily Caller, a conservative news website. One of Martin’s accounts, called “NO_LIMIT_NIGGA,” in which Martin is shown with gold fronts in his mouth and talking about drug use, was seen by many Zimmerman supporters as evidence that the slain teenager was a hoodlum.

“These were not protected tweets,” the site’s editor told The Huffington Post about the decision to run Martin’s tweets, which were from an account that was no longer active. “While he was alive, these were not outside of the public sphere in any shape or form.”

Comment:

Since the whole case was first inflamed via Twitter, should we put it in the same class as the CIA-manipulated revolutions in the Middle East?

I plugged my ears and refused to listen to it….so I really don’t know what happened and really shouldn’t be commenting.

Trayvon Martin wasn’t a role model for a young man, from his social media comments, but neither was George Zimmerman perfect.

To me it’s amazing that you can go to jail for years for traffic offenses where no life is lost, but when you provoke a confrontation and then kill someone (even if in self-defense), you not only walk, you become a hero.

You’re not a hero. You’re an ass.

Since I haven’t been following this overblown case which ought to have stayed on the evening news, I really can only ask this as a question –

We heard about the “lean” (a type of marijuana) that Martin might have been using….although there was shifting testimony about whether it was present in sufficient quantities to affect him siginificantly.

Did we hear equally about Zimmerman’s prescription drug use?

Boston.com:

“While the mainstream media made sure to report with exclamations and gasps that marijuana was found in Trayvon Martin‘s system on the night that he was killed, many outlets failed to also report that the level was well below what medical studies show cause “performance impairment.”

The same can not be said for George Zimmerman.

According to the paramedic report, the vigilante neighborhood watch captain was on the prescription drug Temazepam, reports MSNBC.com.

Temazepam, also known as Restoril, is known to cause insomnia and anxiety, reports MSNBC. But there are more important side effects that were not mentioned.

Newsone exclusively reports:

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the drug is also known to cause “aggressiveness” and “hallucinations,” among other problematic symptoms.

From Examiner.com:

MSNBC.com reports that, according to the paramedic incident report, Trayvon Martin’s shooter was on the prescription drug Temazepam which is known to cause insomnia and anxiety. Other side effects not mentioned in the MSNBC.com report are “aggressiveness,” “hallucinations,” and other serious symptoms. The U.S. National Library of Medicine cautions that, after taking Temazepam, patients should not be walking around trying to watch anything or anyone and that, if they do not sleep for at least 7-8 hours after taking the drug, they may experience memory loss.”

Zimmerman was also on the commonly prescribed drug Adderall, which is known to cause “worsening mental or mood problems (eg, aggression, anxiety, delusions, depression, hallucination, hostility),” according to Drugs.com. Adderall is prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or narcolepsy. Both Temazepam and Adderall are medications that can cause problematic side effects including agitation and mood swings.

Source: http://newsone.com/2016433/george-zimmerman-drugs/?omcamp=sf_N1TW

ORIGINAL PIECE

Bill Anderson at LRC asks the crucial question about the media’s role in creating a frenzy that probably had the opposite effect it was intended to have:

“Why did Corey even file second-degree murder charges when it was clear that the state could not meet that threshold of evidence? My belief is that the mainstream media made it more likely, as journalists of supposedly reputable organizations literally made things up out of whole cloth and then put the lies on the Internet and in the airwaves. The frenzy that the media worked up made it easier for Corey to look like a crusader for justice rather than the dishonest opportunist that she really is.

As I noted at the beginning of this article, I do not know what happened in that encounter, other than Trayvon Martin was shot dead. At some point, Martin and Zimmerman tangled and it looks as though Zimmerman was getting the worst of it, which led to the shooting. What I do know, however, is that Corey’s people did not come close to presenting evidence that matched their rhetoric and the poisonous rhetoric that American politicians and journalists have been spewing.”

Personally, I have avoided reading or thinking too much about this case because I saw it as an intentional provocation of the mass mind. However, by doing so, by over-charging in the first place, they ended up losing the case.

Oh dear. It gets better by the hour. Now there’s a Nobel nomination. Edward Snowden will join Henry Kissinger (mass-murderer or great diplomat, depending on your political position) and, of course, Barack”Drone-Killer” Obama, that noted proponent of world peace.

LRC (Travis Holte):

“Here we see a woman in Mission, Kansas first assailed, then threatened with having her children kidnapped, before being degraded even further with a public “cavity” search. What was her offense? Putting pebbles in a government mail slot. This act, which was likely carried out by one of her small children, set what is probably your average indolent “civil” “servant” into immediate action. Cue the armed enforcers.”