Reflecting the strong standing we've seen for him a lot of places lately Rand Paul is the top choice of GOP voters in Alaska with 18% to 14% for Sarah Palin, 13% for Chris Christie, 11% for Jeb Bush, 9% for Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan, 8% for Ted Cruz, 5% for Rick Santorum, and 2% for George Zimmerman. In a Palin and Zimmerman-less field Paul gets up to 20% with Bush at 15%, Christie and Ryan at 14%, Rubio at 10%, Cruz at 9%, and Santorum at 6%.
George Zimmerman is still armed and theoretically dangerous … he was stopped by cops for speeding and revealed he had a gun in his glove compartment.
Zimmerman was speeding in Forney, Texas on Sunday, just after noon, when he was stopped by police. Zimmerman told cops he was headed “nowhere in particular,” and informed them he had a firearm in his glove compartment.
Zimmerman was given a warning, after cops determined he was free of warrants. He was sent on his way with a polite goodbye, “Have a safe trip.”
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Did George Zimmerman get away with murder? That’s what one of his jurors says, according to headlines in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and dozens of other newspapers. Trayvon Martin’s mother and the Martin family’s attorney are trumpeting this “new information” as proof that “George Zimmerman literally got away with murder.”
The reports are based on an ABC News interview with Juror B29, the sole nonwhite juror. She has identified herself only by her first name, Maddy. She’s been framed as the woman who was bullied out of voting to convict Zimmerman. But that’s not true. She stands by the verdict. She yielded to the evidence and the law, not to bullying. She thinks Zimmerman was morally culpable but not legally guilty. And she wants us to distinguish between this trial and larger questions of race and justice.
ABC News hasn’t posted a full unedited video or transcript of the interview. The video that has been broadcast—on World News Tonight, Nightline, and Good Morning America—has been cut and spliced in different ways, often so artfully that the transitions appear continuous. So beware what you’re seeing. But the video that’s available already shows, on closer inspection, that Maddy has been manipulated and misrepresented. Here are the key points.
1. The phrase “got away with murder” was put in her mouth. Nightline shows ABC interviewer Robin Roberts asking Maddy: “Some people have said, ‘George Zimmerman got away with murder. How do you respond to those people who say that?’ ” Maddy appears to reply promptly and confidently: “George Zimmerman got away with murder. But you can’t get away from God.” But that’s not quite how the exchange happened. In the unedited video, Roberts’ question is longer, with words that have been trimmed from the Nightline version, and Maddy pauses twice, for several seconds, as she struggles to answer it. “… George Zimmerman … That’s—George Zimmerman got away with murder. But you can’t get away from God.”
You have to watch her, not just read her words, to pick up her meaning. As she struggles to answer, she looks as though she’s trying to reconcile the sentiment that’s been quoted to her[...] She thinks he’s morally culpable, not legally guilty.
2. She stands by the verdict. ABC’s online story about the interview ends with Maddy asking, “Did I go the right way? Did I go the wrong way?” But that’s not the whole quote. In the unedited video, she continues: “I know I went the right way, because by the law and the way it was followed is the way I went. But if I would have used my heart, I probably would have [gone for] a hung jury.” [...]
3. She thinks the case should never have gone to trial. According to ABC News, when Roberts asked “whether the case should have gone to trial,” Maddy answered, “I don’t think so. … I felt like this was a publicity stunt.”
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The most famous white Hispanic helped rescue 4 Americans. The most famous black Caucasian refused to rescue 4 Americans! Who's A HATER?
— Kathy in SC (@KBinSC) July 22, 2013
African Americans have a mostly shared and sharply negative reaction to the shooting of Trayvon Martin and the not-guilty verdict in the resulting trial, while whites are far more divided, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.Learn the truth about Trayvon Martin.
At least eight in 10 African Americans say the shooting of the Florida teenager was unjustified, recoil at the verdict in the trial and want the shooter, George Zimmerman, tried in federal court for violating Martin’s civil rights.
On the Martin shooting in particular, the racial gaps are extremely wide.
Among African Americans, 87 percent say the shooting was unjustified; among whites, just 33 percent say so. A slim majority of whites (51 percent) approve of the not-guilty verdict in the Zimmerman trial, while African Americans overwhelmingly and strongly disapprove. Some 86 percent of blacks disagree with the verdict — almost all of them disapproving “strongly.”
There is also a partisan tinge to the public views. Among whites, 70 percent of Republicans but only 30 percent of Democrats say they approve of the verdict.
A new poll gives President Obama an overall approval rating of 44 percent, with 48 percent of respondents disapproving of his performance.
In late May, the Quinnipiac University national poll gave Obama similar ratings — 45 percent approval, 49 percent disapproval.
“President Barack Obama is in a slump, under water for the last two surveys,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Obama does get a positive rating — 52 percent approval to 43 percent disapproval — for his handling of terrorism, and a 46 percent-45 percent split for his handling of Afghanistan, Quinnipiac reported.
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors are pressing forward with their investigation into the killing of Trayvon Martin following the acquittal of the man who shot him, George Zimmerman, on state charges, a spokesperson for the Justice Department said Sunday. “Experienced federal prosecutors will determine whether the evidence reveals a prosecutable violation of any of the limited federal criminal civil rights statutes within our jurisdiction, and whether federal prosecution is appropriate in accordance with the Department’s policy governing successive federal prosecution following a state trial,” Dena W. Iverson, a Justice spokesperson, said in a statement. The Justice Department’s civil rights division as well as the FBI are continuing to investigate Martin’s death, the statement said. Civil rights groups and Martin supporters have called on the Justice Department to prosecute Zimmerman following his acquittal Saturday night. Sunday’s statement was the first response from Justice following the public pressure campaign. Keep on reading…
#Oakland anti-cop protestors overturn dumpsters, smash windows after #Zimmerman verdict, still moving @KTVU pic.twitter.com/Eu6p6cjNGG
— Debora Villalon (@deboraktvu) July 14, 2013
SANFORD, Fla. (AP) -- After a year and a half of living as a hermit, George Zimmerman emerged from a Florida courthouse a free man, cleared of all charges in the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
His brother said the former neighborhood watch volunteer was still processing the reality that he wouldn't serve prison time for the killing, which Zimmerman, 29, has maintained was an act of self-defense. A jury found him not guilty of second-degree murder late Saturday night and declined to convict him on a lesser charge of manslaughter.
However, with many critics angry over his acquittal, his freedom may be limited.
"He's going to be looking over his shoulder the rest of his life," Robert Zimmerman Jr. said during an interview on CNN.
(CNN) -- The George Zimmerman investigation was hijacked "in a number of ways" by outside forces, said the former police chief of Sanford, Florida.
Ex-Sanford police chief Bill Lee actually received a death threat for no arresting Zimmerman.
Bill Lee, who testified Monday in Zimmerman's second-degree murder trial, told CNN's George Howell in an exclusive interview that he felt pressure from city officials to arrest Zimmerman to placate the public rather than as a matter of justice."It was (relayed) to me that they just wanted an arrest. They didn't care if it got dismissed later," he said. "You don't do that."When Sanford police arrived on the scene on February 26, 2012, after Zimmerman fatally shot unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, they conducted a "sound" investigation, and the evidence provided no probable cause to arrest Zimmerman at the scene, he said.It had nothing to do with Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law, he said; from an investigative standpoint, it was purely a matter of self-defense.
A division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) was deployed to Sanford, Florida in 2012 to provide assistance for anti-George Zimmerman protests, including a rally headlined by activist Al Sharpton, according to newly released documents.
The Community Relations Service (CRS), a unit of DOJ, reported expenses related to its deployment in Sanford to help manage protests between March and April 2012, according to documents obtained by the watchdog group Judicial Watch.
CRS spent $674.14 between March 25-27 related to having been “deployed to Sanford, FL, to work marches, demonstrations, and rallies related to the shooting and death of an African-American teen by a neighborhood watch captain.” CRS spent another $1,142.84 for the same purpose between March 25-28.
A neighbor, John Good, who witnessed the fight between Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman has just devastated the State’s case, testifying that he saw the fight between the two, that Trayvon was on top punching Mixed Martial Arts style, and that the scream must have come from Zimmerman because Zimmerman was on the bottom and Trayvon was faced away from the witness.
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#Zimmerman Trial Day 4: Jeantel: "I could hear wet grass sounds." http://t.co/ulIhPQD3Fg
— Andrew Branca, LOSD (@LawSelfDefense) June 27, 2013
#Zimmerman Trial Day 4: West: "You heard . . . grass?" http://t.co/ulIhPQD3Fg
— Andrew Branca, LOSD (@LawSelfDefense) June 27, 2013
#Zimmerman Trial Day 4:West: "Can you tell me how wet grass sounds?" Jeantel: *crickets* http://t.co/ulIhPQD3Fg
— Andrew Branca, LOSD (@LawSelfDefense) June 27, 2013
. . . The derogatory term for white people had become a focus of the Zimmerman defense team after Jeantel told the court on Wednesday that the late Trayvon Martin had referred to the defendant as a “creepy-ass cracker” shortly before his own death. Defense lawyer Don West continually grilled Jeantel over various questions related to Martin’s use of the word, ultimately culminating with the question of whether it is “normal” within her own local community to use the slur.
“In the culture that you live in, in your community, people there call white people ‘crackers’?” West asked.
“Yes, sir,” Jeantel replied.
“And do they use the n-word regularly?” he asked.
“Yes, sir.”
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MSNBC is pushing back against Fox News host Sean Hannity, who last night accused MSNBC host the Rev. Al Sharpton of “rushing to judgment” in the case of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman who shot and killed Trayvon Martin.
“MSNBC would like to set the record straight following some misinformation presented by Fox News during the interview with George Zimmerman last night,” MSNBC wrote in a statement sent to POLITICO. “Reverend Al Sharpton never ‘rushed to judgment,’ as stated by Mr. Hannity. Reverend Sharpton repeatedly called for calm and for a more thorough investigation in the wake of the tragic events. Ultimately, the authorities agreed an arrest was warranted.”
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A day after killing Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman passed a police lie detector test when asked if he confronted the teenager and whether he feared for his life “when you shot the guy,” according to documents released today by Florida prosecutors.
According to a “confidential report” prepared by the Sanford Police Department, Zimmerman willingly submitted to a computer voice stress analyzer (CVSA) “truth verification” on February 27. Investigators concluded that he “has told substantially the complete truth in regards to this examination.”
Zimmerman, the report noted, “was classified as No Deception Indicated (NDI).”
Along with questions about whether his first name was George and if it was Monday, Zimmerman was asked, “Did you confront the guy you shot?’ He answered, “No.” He was also asked, “Were you in fear for your life, when you shot the guy.” Zimmerman replied, “Yes.”
