The Official Zimmerman Trial Verdict Thread

[idb]

Because it's black-on-black crime, that's why. A couple of weeks ago, I believe, Chicago had close to 70 murders in one weekend alone - black-on-black crime - but not a word from any of the so-called AA 'leaders' speaking out about it. Those 'leaders', it seems, get their thrills out of hyping racism. If they can't claim it, they won't touch it.

Agreed.
But this case should be high on the priority list because of who the student was and what she participated in before she was killed!

I read where Michelle Obama went to her funeral. But no word from the President demanding increased gun laws, etc. No FBI investigation to see if there might be a motive of racism. No DOJ investigation of possible hate crimes i.e. violation of her civil rights.

And I will be really surprised if there is gavel to gavel coverage of the trial or that it is even noted outside of Chicago.

President Obama would have been deemed a great leader if, after the Zimmerman verdict, he had stepped forward, condemned the violence in the wake of the verdict, and told everybody that the American way is to conduct a trial and go by the verdict whatever it is. Just go home folks and stop this senseless violence and rhetoric that divides us.

He would also have been condemned for instructing Americans on how to act and live their lives.

 

[Rat in the Hat]

Breaking news.

Juror B-37 interview part 2 on CNN in 5 minutes.

 

[Ernie S.]

Those who have been doing some in depth background investigation on Zimmerman have discovered:

1. The more sensational accounts of Zimmerman's girlfriend filing a restraining order and assault on a police officer have pretty much been unexploitable--in the first case nothing was ever proved and the judge just gave both of them restraining orders against each other. And the other incident was when a drunk Zimmerman pushed the officer to protect his younger friend--charges were dropped when Zimmerman agreed to attend some alcoholism classes. There is no indication that Zimmerman had a drinking problem however. Not much to go on there to establish racism.

However. . . .

2. There is new information surfacing that a young George Zimmerman took a black friend (female) as his date to the Senior Prom. He has a number of black social friends who will vouch for him; he has participated in a neighborhood program to mentor black kids and he continued to do that, including having the kids in his own home, for some time after the program ended. He once went to bat to defend a black homeless guy against the Sanford Police Department.

None of that George Zimmerman ever gets reported in the MSM though does it? But that is why the FBI could find zero basis for racism when they first investigated Zimmerman and why the DOJ will have to invent charges against him to accuse him of hate crimes and civil rights violations now.

His business partner in his mortgage business is black.

 

[daveman]

Here's what influenced the jury. They were five white woman and a hispanic woman. Blacks had been moving into that neighborhood and ruining it. We've all seen how that happens, right? The article MikeK posted talks about just that. Come on, you know what I mean! I grew up with a racist father, I know all about how those blacks ruin property values and all.

So anyway, those white women on that jury probably think a lot like my father did. Zimmerman was just trying to save the damn neighborhood, and here's this suspicious black kid...the root of all the problems, these fucking coons!!! They're going to convict Zimmerman? I think not. And the hispanic woman...of course not, he's one of her own. She's especially not going to fight against all the white women, who want to acquit him!

That's what influenced the jury.

It would be a lot quicker if you'd just post, "Holy shit, I'm a retard!!"

 

[Rat in the Hat]

The most common perception of the Trayvon Martin shooting is George Zimmerman is a wannabe cop who pursued and harrassed Martin because Martin is Black and Zimmerman is a racist. This source of this perception is the media's focus on the events surrounding the actual confrontation and their failure to afford equal exposure to the following circumstances.

Reuters| By the summer of 2011, Twin Lakes was experiencing a rash of burglaries and break-ins. Previously a family-friendly, first-time homeowner community, it was devastated by the recession that hit the Florida housing market, and transient renters began to occupy some of the 263 town houses in the complex. Vandalism and occasional drug activity were reported, and home values plunged. One resident who bought his home in 2006 for $250,000 said it was worth $80,000 today.

At least eight burglaries were reported within Twin Lakes in the 14 months prior to the Trayvon Martin shooting, according to the Sanford Police Department. Yet in a series of interviews, Twin Lakes residents said dozens of reports of attempted break-ins and would-be burglars casing homes had created an atmosphere of growing fear in the neighborhood.

In several of the incidents, witnesses identified the suspects to police as young black men. Twin Lakes is about 50 percent white, with an African-American and Hispanic population of about 20 percent each, roughly similar to the surrounding city of Sanford, according to U.S. Census data.

One morning in July 2011, a black teenager walked up to Zimmerman’s front porch and stole a bicycle, neighbors told Reuters. A police report was taken, though the bicycle was not recovered.

But it was the August incursion into the home of Olivia Bertalan that really troubled the neighborhood, particularly Zimmerman. Shellie was home most days, taking online courses towards certification as a registered nurse.

On August 3, Bertalan was at home with her infant son while her husband, Michael, was at work. She watched from a downstairs window, she said, as two black men repeatedly rang her doorbell and then entered through a sliding door at the back of the house. She ran upstairs, locked herself inside the boy’s bedroom, and called a police dispatcher, whispering frantically.

“I said, ‘What am I supposed to do? I hear them coming up the stairs!’” she told Reuters. Bertalan tried to coo her crying child into silence and armed herself with a pair of rusty scissors.

Police arrived just as the burglars – who had been trying to disconnect the couple’s television – fled out a back door. Shellie Zimmerman saw a black male teen running through her backyard and reported it to police.
http://the-american-journal.com/zimmerman-neighbors-fear-black-youth/

These are facts presented to the jurors by the Defense and which account for the Not Guilty verdict. While race certainly played a part in shaping the jurors' opinion of Zimmerman's motivation to pursue and question Martin, in view of this history of ample provocation it seems presumptuous to accuse Zimmerman and his jury of racism.

While Zimmerman is clearly guilty of using bad judgment his actions were motivated by far more substantive circumstances than racism. And to charge him with murder was excessive.

In an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN, Juror B-37 said the subject of race never came up in the jury room.

 

[Sallow]

The most common perception of the Trayvon Martin shooting is George Zimmerman is a wannabe cop who pursued and harrassed Martin because Martin is Black and Zimmerman is a racist. This source of this perception is the media's focus on the events surrounding the actual confrontation and their failure to afford equal exposure to the following circumstances.

Reuters| By the summer of 2011, Twin Lakes was experiencing a rash of burglaries and break-ins. Previously a family-friendly, first-time homeowner community, it was devastated by the recession that hit the Florida housing market, and transient renters began to occupy some of the 263 town houses in the complex. Vandalism and occasional drug activity were reported, and home values plunged. One resident who bought his home in 2006 for $250,000 said it was worth $80,000 today.

At least eight burglaries were reported within Twin Lakes in the 14 months prior to the Trayvon Martin shooting, according to the Sanford Police Department. Yet in a series of interviews, Twin Lakes residents said dozens of reports of attempted break-ins and would-be burglars casing homes had created an atmosphere of growing fear in the neighborhood.

In several of the incidents, witnesses identified the suspects to police as young black men. Twin Lakes is about 50 percent white, with an African-American and Hispanic population of about 20 percent each, roughly similar to the surrounding city of Sanford, according to U.S. Census data.

One morning in July 2011, a black teenager walked up to Zimmerman’s front porch and stole a bicycle, neighbors told Reuters. A police report was taken, though the bicycle was not recovered.

But it was the August incursion into the home of Olivia Bertalan that really troubled the neighborhood, particularly Zimmerman. Shellie was home most days, taking online courses towards certification as a registered nurse.

On August 3, Bertalan was at home with her infant son while her husband, Michael, was at work. She watched from a downstairs window, she said, as two black men repeatedly rang her doorbell and then entered through a sliding door at the back of the house. She ran upstairs, locked herself inside the boy’s bedroom, and called a police dispatcher, whispering frantically.

“I said, ‘What am I supposed to do? I hear them coming up the stairs!’” she told Reuters. Bertalan tried to coo her crying child into silence and armed herself with a pair of rusty scissors.

Police arrived just as the burglars – who had been trying to disconnect the couple’s television – fled out a back door. Shellie Zimmerman saw a black male teen running through her backyard and reported it to police.
http://the-american-journal.com/zimmerman-neighbors-fear-black-youth/

These are facts presented to the jurors by the Defense and which account for the Not Guilty verdict. While race certainly played a part in shaping the jurors' opinion of Zimmerman's motivation to pursue and question Martin, in view of this history of ample provocation it seems presumptuous to accuse Zimmerman and his jury of racism.

While Zimmerman is clearly guilty of using bad judgment his actions were motivated by far more substantive circumstances than racism. And to charge him with murder was excessive.

I listened to a lawyer that said the biggest mistake the prosecution made was allowing Zimmerman's multiple statements into evidence.

I thought that was odd until his reason. And I had heard the same sort of reasoning but not put this way. Some of the major criticism of the Prosecution's case, was that it got into the weeds. The case got too complex when it should have been very simple. An armed man chased an innocent kid down and shot him. And the guy who shot him was the one telling the story.

What the lawyer said was that allowing the statement in, was allowing Zimmerman a free pass to tell his story without any real cross examination.

That..was a brilliant assessment.

 

[Rat in the Hat]

Here's what influenced the jury. They were five white woman and a hispanic woman. Blacks had been moving into that neighborhood and ruining it. We've all seen how that happens, right? The article MikeK posted talks about just that. Come on, you know what I mean! I grew up with a racist father, I know all about how those blacks ruin property values and all.

So anyway, those white women on that jury probably think a lot like my father did. Zimmerman was just trying to save the damn neighborhood, and here's this suspicious black kid...the root of all the problems, these fucking coons!!! They're going to convict Zimmerman? I think not. And the hispanic woman...of course not, he's one of her own. She's especially not going to fight against all the white women, who want to acquit him!

That's what influenced the jury.

There's one problem with your theory...

The first jury vote was 1 guilty Murder 2, 2 guilty Manslaughter, and 3 Not Guilty.

 

[Sallow]

Here's what influenced the jury. They were five white woman and a hispanic woman. Blacks had been moving into that neighborhood and ruining it. We've all seen how that happens, right? The article MikeK posted talks about just that. Come on, you know what I mean! I grew up with a racist father, I know all about how those blacks ruin property values and all.

So anyway, those white women on that jury probably think a lot like my father did. Zimmerman was just trying to save the damn neighborhood, and here's this suspicious black kid...the root of all the problems, these fucking coons!!! They're going to convict Zimmerman? I think not. And the hispanic woman...of course not, he's one of her own. She's especially not going to fight against all the white women, who want to acquit him!

That's what influenced the jury.

There's one problem with your theory...

The first jury vote was 1 guilty Murder 2, 2 guilty Manslaughter, and 3 Not Guilty.

I kind of find that hard to believe.

The Jury I sat on went through several votes and we had a much easier case.

Took like 3 days to come to a conclusion.

 

[Rat in the Hat]

How about do not follow a teenage boy home and scare him half to death., Don't take the law into your own hands . Let the police handle it. Stay in his truck. I just saw a juror on tv saying the way Georges things were made her decide. What about Trayvon's? My feelings are the same. There was a reason Trayvon poped him in the nose. There was a reason his was disconected from the ear peace and they landed speratly. The whole truth was not told. It was ignored.

Oh, please. If he was scared "half to death" why didn't he hang up with DeeDee and dial 9-1-1?

The first phone call or the last? She called him twice. The first time he cut the phone and apparently assumed he would loose George buy taking the alternate route. The second time when she called him back he did not know when came back he would come across George again buy what the friend said Trayvon was saying he was suprised. I don't think he disconnected because he felt safer having her on the other end of the phone and the situation happend to fast for him too. I never said either party was perfect in this. Matter of fact there is wrong on both side i'm saying there something missing and if prosecution had gotten their story together they new was there , instead of relying on George's inconsitences , we would have got the whole story. That's all.

It doesn't matter which phone call. If he was that scared, he should have called 9-1-1 to say someone was following him. When dispatch would have compared notes, they would have found they had the other guy on the phone, and told him HE was now being called on.

 

[QuickHitCurepon]

Convicted or not, this was still ultimately Zimmerman's fault.

 

[Rat in the Hat]

Jesse Jackson Calls on U.N. to Intervene in Zimmerman Case

You just can't make this shit up!

 

[pioneerpete]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=T2QMVRFG42A]Allen West Where was NAACP and media when two black teenagers shot a white baby in the face - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Rat in the Hat]

Here's what influenced the jury. They were five white woman and a hispanic woman. Blacks had been moving into that neighborhood and ruining it. We've all seen how that happens, right? The article MikeK posted talks about just that. Come on, you know what I mean! I grew up with a racist father, I know all about how those blacks ruin property values and all.

So anyway, those white women on that jury probably think a lot like my father did. Zimmerman was just trying to save the damn neighborhood, and here's this suspicious black kid...the root of all the problems, these fucking coons!!! They're going to convict Zimmerman? I think not. And the hispanic woman...of course not, he's one of her own. She's especially not going to fight against all the white women, who want to acquit him!

That's what influenced the jury.

There's one problem with your theory...

The first jury vote was 1 guilty Murder 2, 2 guilty Manslaughter, and 3 Not Guilty.

I kind of find that hard to believe.

The Jury I sat on went through several votes and we had a much easier case.

Took like 3 days to come to a conclusion.

That's what B-37 said to Anderson.

 

[alan1]

Here's what influenced the jury. They were five white woman and a hispanic woman. Blacks had been moving into that neighborhood and ruining it. We've all seen how that happens, right? The article MikeK posted talks about just that. Come on, you know what I mean! I grew up with a racist father, I know all about how those blacks ruin property values and all.

So anyway, those white women on that jury probably think a lot like my father did. Zimmerman was just trying to save the damn neighborhood, and here's this suspicious black kid...the root of all the problems, these fucking coons!!! They're going to convict Zimmerman? I think not. And the hispanic woman...of course not, he's one of her own. She's especially not going to fight against all the white women, who want to acquit him!

That's what influenced the jury.

There's one problem with your theory...

The first jury vote was 1 guilty Murder 2, 2 guilty Manslaughter, and 3 Not Guilty.

I kind of find that hard to believe.

The Jury I sat on went through several votes and we had a much easier case.

Took like 3 days to come to a conclusion.

Did the case involve a dead man?
Just curious.

 

[numan]

Have you ever been on the Jury for a murder trial? I have, and it wasn't taken lightly by any of the jurors.
Race didn't matter, crappy talking points didn't matter, politics didn't matter.
What mattered was evidence and LAW.

Yeah, that's the way it was when an all-white jury in Simi Valley acquited the four cops in the Rodney King beating, wasn't it?

Impartial justice, based on evidence and LAW !! · ·

.

 

[BrianH]

Convicted or not, this was still ultimately Zimmerman's fault.

Many people like to play the "domino theory" game when discussing this case. The like to say that "If Zimmerman didn't get out of his car.." or "If Zimmerman wasn't a wanna be cop..." etc... then this wouldn't have happened.

Couldn't you also make the case on the other side? If Martin hadn't been suspended from school for fighting and drug possession, he may not have moved in with his father and may not have even been walking through the neighborhood at the time Zimmerman was there.

Both gentlement brought this situation upon themselves; period. Zimmerman when he chose to follow Martin. Martin when he chose to physically attack Zimmerman. Martin had 4 minutes, from when he first ran, to get home (between 300-400ft). Instead he chose to return and confront Martin. Zimmerman put himself in the situation to be attacked, and Martin put himself in the situation to be shot.

 

[Jimmy_Jam]

What influenced the Zimmerman jury?

Oh, I don't know, maybe because the prosecution overcharged him?

The jury asked for clarification of Manslaughter for a reason. Could it be because they knew second-degree murder was not an appropriate charge, or at least difficult to prove?

We can go ahead and blame the lack of a conviction on the prosecution and be done with it.

Due process is a cornerstone of the American justice system. It is not perfect. Move on.

 

[Kooshdakhaa]

And let's clear up a little misconception here... We don't convict people of murder on the basis of how we personally feel about the death of the victim, the color of skin, whether some other action could have happened, or anything other than the criteria for conviction, which was simply not met in Zimmerman's case. We have an established rule of law, and that's what we follow, not our emotions. What you need to do at this point, is take a step back, take a deep breath, and try to absorb what has happened here. The jury didn't share your zeal to lock a man away for 30 years, because he may have used poor judgement in dealing with a poor little black kid. The case wasn't made, and they acquitted. This does not translate to people not caring about the poor black kid, or feeling sorry for the loss. It doesn't mean we are racists or the jury were racists, it means the evidence for conviction was not there. It doesn't matter if Martin was black, white, green or purple, the evidence for conviction of murder, was not there.

Yeah, well, if the same exact scenario played out, and it was me wearing a hoody and walking back from the store, and Zimmerman ended up killing ME, he would have been convicted and sent off to prison...you know why?

Because it would have been a hispanic man killing a white woman.

But because it was a hispanic man killing a black kid...somehow the SAME evidence didn't support a conviction.

Of course, I'm not psychic, maybe they wouldn't have convicted him of killing little ol' me. But I know in my heart they would have.

 

[Rozman]

I thought in that interview she told Trevon that Zimmerman
might be gay and was gonna do him...like you know how gay guys do it...
Maybe that got Trevon all worked up.

 

[Kooshdakhaa]

You know what I find appalling? That so many people are so callous about a kid getting shot to death because he didn't know exactly the right way to handle a situation. He was a kid, barely turned 17.

But he was a black kid, wasn't he? And I know without a doubt that's why so many of you just don't give a fuck about what happened to him.

You've profiled him in your minds just as Zimmerman profiled him on the streets that night. It MUST have been his fault. Those kind, they always cause trouble.

Bullshit!

I'd say YOU were biased to begin with and didn't bother to look at the evidence presented to the jury.

The rest of the world was able to view tons of evidence the jury didn't get to see.

You are emoting...and playing the race card.

If you knew me better you'd know why it's so funny to hear someone say that I'm playing the race card. I'm not exactly known for being a huge fan of diversity. But right is right and wrong is wrong. The kid was killed because he was black and "therefore" suspicious. And his killer got away with it because a lot of people agree that black kids are indeed suspicious.

That's just wrong.