Archive for Trayvon Martin

What I will not write about today

frustrated17

Sometimes I get so frustrated and/or disheartened and/or annoyed by some of the news stories of the day that I can’t bring myself to write about them. Here are a few recent reports that made my blood pressure hit the roof. I am avoiding delving into them at length out of concern for my physical and mental health.

  • Rush Limbaugh Compares Suspected Boston Bomber To Trayvon Martin– Yes, Rush, the non-existent librul media supports Tsarnaev, and linking unarmed Trayvon to a guy who bombed a bunch of people to smithereens and then gunned down a police officer draws a perfect parallel. If this is about photos aired by the media, in both cases multiple images were shown repeatedly, younger ones, older ones, flattering ones, and not-so flattering ones. Here’s an idea:

big glass of stfu

See what I mean? So who’s up for a couple of Margs or a trough of wine?

huge glass of wine 2 drunk

Police officer fired over Trayvon Martin shooting target

target

Nope, we weren’t going to shoot at the target, nosireebob. h/t.

A Port Canaveral police sergeant was fired Friday after an internal investigation showed he offered other officers a target resembling Trayvon Martin to use for shooting practice.

Sgt. Ron King, a firearms instructor and two-year veteran of the force, offered the target of a hoodie-wearing figure at the range near Cocoa during the first week of April, Rosalind Harvey, a port spokeswoman, said Saturday.

The other officers, who were on duty, refused, officials said.

In a YouTube video posted late Saturday, King said he did not intend for the Trayvon target to be used for shooting. It was designed “to use a bad situation as a learning tool,” he said.

Port Canaveral Interim Chief Executive Officer John Walsh apologized publicly to Trayvon’s family Saturday and called King’s behavior unacceptable, insensitive and unprofessional.

George Zimmerman must keep 24-hour monitor

A quick FYI regarding the Trayvon Martin case via Michael Muskal at the L.A. Times, where there’s more:

George Zimmerman, charged with the second-degree murder of an unarmed black teenager, will continue to have 24-hour-a-day electronic monitoring, a Florida judge ruled Tuesday.

At a hearing in Sanford, Fla., Circuit Judge Debra Nelson rejected a defense request to modify the conditions of Zimmerman’s release. The defense had sought to have the full-time GPS monitoring discontinued and permission to allow Zimmerman to go outside the county.

Hat Tip to Price Benowitz Criminal Defense

VIDEO: Here we go again, another black Fla. teen shot, killed by a white guy claiming “stand your ground”

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Just what we need, the tragedy and injustice of another Trayvon Martin.  This time, an African American teenager named Jordan Davis and his friends were in a parked car playing loud music at a Florida convenience store, they wouldn’t turn the volume down, so a fortysomething white guy pulled a gun and shot and killed Davis, who was sitting in the back seat. The man, Michael Dunn, who earlier had “a few drinks,” fired eight times at four kids, hitting and killing Jordan with the only two bullets that hit anyone.

Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office/AP

Dunn fled the scene, and now claims he was standing his ground, because clearly, see, he was “threatened,” see, because loud music is as lethal as unarmed teens. Of course, he was so afraid for his life that he never bothered to call the police. He just started shooting.

He’s been charged with murder and attempted murder.

Special thanks to Kush Arora Attorney at Law

Republican National Convention Lifts Ban on ‘Hoods’ After Trayvon Martin’s Death

This is just goofy, as is the extensive list of stuff that still is banned. And who is is that would be confused or “conflicted” and by what?

The city of Tampa’s initial ordinance for heightened security at the upcoming Republican National Convention looked slightly different than its final version today.

The first draft made it illegal for any person visiting the convention to wear “any mask, hood or device whereby any portion of the face is hidden, concealed or covered.” But in the final draft, the word “hood” is no longer there.

Mauricio Rodriguez, assistant city attorney for Tampa, tells Whispers that the word was taken out because of the February death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teen who was wearing a hoodie when he was shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla.

“With the recent incident out of Sanford, we reviewed the ordinance,” says Rodriguez. “And we decided to remove ‘hood’ because we didn’t want there to be confusion or conflict.”

Hoodies, he says. will now be permitted on the convention grounds.

Woman claims Trayvon Martin killer Zimmerman molested her for more than a decade, his family members “proud racists”

(AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Gary W. Green, Pool)

We’ll find out if George Zimmerman will be tried and/or convicted for shooting an unarmed teen named Trayvon Martin. We already know he’s gotten off to a bad start by misleading the court, leading the judge to say that Zimmerman was going to jump bail with other people’s money and “Trayvon Martin is the only male whose youth is relevant to this case.”

Now we have something else that may not play well in the court of public opinion, via HuffPo:

A woman with close ties to George Zimmerman and his family told investigators that members of Zimmerman’s family were boastfully proud racists and that for more than a decade Zimmerman sexually molested her.

“It started when I was six,” the woman told investigators during an interview on the morning of March 20. “We’d all lay in front of the TV and we had pillows and blankets and he would reach under the blankets and try to do things and I would try to push him off but he was bigger and stronger and older,” the woman said, audibly weeping in the Florida State Attorney’s Office interview recording released Monday. “It was in front of everybody and I don’t know how I didn’t say anything, I just didn’t know any better.”

This went on, allegedly, for 13 years, from when she was six years old until she was nineteen.

“It’s not just me that he did these things to,” she said. The witness said that she talked to another woman who she claims was also molested by Zimmerman, but would not come forward.

Several news sources are reporting that she is a relative of the Zimmermans.

The woman has also claimed that Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin because he was black. She is the second person who suggested Zimmerman family members “harbored negative racial views.”

Since it’s important to use the word “allegedly” when discussing legal matters, let it be on the record that I am allegedly sickened.

HuffPo has audio of the witness here.

VIDEO: Florida judge sets bond at $1 million for Trayvon Martin’s killer George Zimmerman

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FYI, from MSNBC:

A Florida judge granted bond Thursday for George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed teenager Trayvon Martin. It’s the second time Zimmerman has been given bail ahead of his trial.

Judge Kenneth Lester set bond at $1 million, but Zimmerman will only need to come up with 10 percent, with the rest provided by a bail bondsman, NBC News reported.

Zimmerman, 28, has been in jail since last month, when prosecutors told the judge that Zimmerman hid from the court the fact that he raised $135,000 in online donations. Lester then revoked the $150,000 bail he had granted Zimmerman on April 20.

UPDATE:

(CNN) — But an even bigger challenge is finding a bail bond company that will work with the family on the requirement of $1 million in collateral, defense attorney Mark O’Mara said later Thursday. The family does “not have anywhere near” the collateral amount, according to the attorney.

“We are encouraged we can work this out,” O’Mara said in a statement.

Donations to Zimmerman’s legal defense fund have dropped significantly while Zimmerman has been jailed, O’Mara said. [...]

The fund has a $211,000 balance, but has $40,000 in payables for defense expenses.

UPDATE: Judge: Zimmerman was going to jump bail with other people’s money… Judge: “Trayvon Martin is the only male whose youth is relevant to this case.”