Quietly Thinking Aloud

shortformblog:

Her interview would have taken place after he was done talking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, a situation that already made the newswoman leery, we’re told, as she prefers to land exclusives. But we’re told that Walters was “appalled” by Zimmerman’s hotel demand, and told him the deal was off. An ABC News spokesman confirmed that Walters met with Zimmerman, but refused to confirm what he asked for. “She went down there with every intention of doing an interview, but Mr. Zimmerman made a demand at the last minute that we could not and would never agree to,” the rep said.

If the report is accurate, this certainly isn’t going to help the Zimmerman family’s public perception issues. It also makes you wonder what Sean Hannity and/or Fox News may have paid to secure their interview with George and his lawyer.

thepoliticalfreakshow:

A new batch of evidence has been released detailing the police investigation into George Zimmerman’s actions after he fatally shot Trayvon Martin. The latest stack of documents – 284 pages worth – is a compilation of witness statements and investigators’ reports collected by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI in the weeks following the Feb. 26 shooting. While the documents, some heavily redacted, don’t contain any bombshells, they do confirm the extent to which authorities, both local and federal, ramped up their evidence-gathering in late March and early April after the story made front page news across the U.S.

Zimmerman, 28, walked out of jail last Friday after posting $1 million bail, a sum that was ramped up from his earlier $150,000 bail after it was found he and his wife Shellie lied about their finances. He’s charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of the 17-year-old teen. Zimmerman has maintained his innocence, claiming he fired his gun out of self-defense.

See the entirety of the evidence in the document at the bottom of this page. But in lieu of wading through almost 300 pages, here are the eight things you need to know about the latest details:

Family members are sure that the voice crying for help on 911 tapes is Martin’s.

People close to the teenager insist that the unidentified voice screaming for help on 911 tapes from the evening of Feb. 26 is Trayvon Martin’s. An investigator spoke with Martin’s cousin who said he would swear to it “on a stack of Bibles.” Sybrina Fulton, Martin’s mother, also confirmed to investigators that the voice was her son’s. That same cousin said that he hadn’t seen Martin smoke marijuana that day, and the two had spent part of the day together.

(PHOTOS: Faces of Protest for Trayvon Martin)

Police disagreed on the extent of Zimmerman’s injuries following his altercation with Martin.

The first officer on the scene said that Zimmerman continued to bleed from the nose once he arrived at the station and had been cleaned by paramedics. However, another officer who saw Zimmerman walk in “did not notice any injury to Zimmerman’s nose,” but noted that Zimmerman was “grunting” in pain. Photos released from the night of the incident show injuries to Zimmerman’s face and the back of his head.

More accounts support Zimmerman’s version of his fight with Trayvon Martin.

New evidence indicates Zimmerman’s back was wet and covered with grass when police picked him up — which would corroborate his version of the events of that evening, in which Martin attacked him and pushed him to the ground. Most witnesses up until now were not able to confirm who was on top during the fight. However, a new witness now maintains that the man on top during the fight was the same one lying motionless on the ground after the gunshot — in other words, Martin. This evidence lends credence to Zimmerman’s story of self-defense.

Zimmerman and Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee exchanged emails long before the incident occurred.

In the weeks immediately following Trayvon Martin’s death Sanford Police maintained they had no idea who Zimmerman was; however, a video surfaced of a January 2011 city hall forum in which Zimmerman publicly lambasted the “lazy” work of Sanford police officers and claimed to have gone on ridealongs in police squad cars. Today’s evidence also released a short email exchange between Zimmerman and former Sanford police chief Bill Lee, in which Zimmerman told Lee that a helpful officer had “restored [his] faith” in the Sanford police department. Lee was fired June 20th amid accusations the police had botched their handling of Martin’s death.

(WATCH: Video Shows George Zimmerman Reenacting Fight with Trayvon Martin)

Zimmerman may have been influenced by Martin’s hoodie, not his skin color.

After interviewing dozens of friends, family, and co-workers, the FBI found no one who said Zimmerman was racist, damaging the allegations that the shooting of Trayvon Martin may have been racially motivated — charges the FBI had organized a probe to specifically investigate. A gang specialist with the Sanford Police Department told the FBI that Zimmerman’s actions may actually have been prompted by Martin’s attire. A local gang called the Goons is known to wear hoodies in cold weather. Meanwhile Sanford police detective Christopher Serino, the department’s lead investigator into the Martin killing, told FBI agents that he believed Zimmerman was a ‘soft guy’ with a ‘little hero complex’, but that he was no racist.

Zimmerman was prone to rage and violence, according to his ex-fiancée.

Zimmerman’s ex-fiancée told investigators that Zimmerman had a “bad temper” and was prone to “road rage.” She also told the FBI about the manner in which their relationship “deteriorated” after they moved in together, saying Zimmerman became overly protective and territorial. Friction between the two culminated in the breaking-off of their engagement amid mutual filings of domestic violence complaints in 2005.

New evidence confirms details of earlier crimes Zimmerman had alleged took place in the area.

During his 911 call on the night of Feb. 26, Zimmerman said he thought Martin was going to break into one of the homes in the gated Retreat at Twin Lakes community. In the call he cited several burglaries and crimes that had recently taken place. The evidence released Thursday confirms that seven burglaries, along with several drug offenses and larcenies, had been reported in the community between March 2010 and March 2012.

A friend of Zimmerman’s volunteered to be his “media consultant”.

ABC and NBC provided meals and airline tickets to an unnamed friend of George Zimmerman. The person, who met Zimmerman about six years ago, has extensive media experience and offered to be a consultant on his behalf as the case gained national attention. The man, according to his witness statement, flew around on behalf of Zimmerman attempting to secure for him a television interview.

A previous version of this article incorrectly implied that Zimmerman and Lee had worked together during Zimmerman’s time as a neighborhood watch volunteer. A representative for Lee says that Lee had only been on the job 10 months before the Trayvon Martin shooting and that this single email exchange is the only contact the two men had.

(PHOTOS: Trayvon Martin’s Death Sparks National Outrage, Mourning)

Read the new batch of documents released in the George Zimmerman case below:

Documents Given to the Defendant_R (1)

I’m reblogging this mainly for the evidence of police dishonesty… I really don’t care who was on top at what point during the altercation. If Trayvon had the upperhand at one point that doesn’t mean he started it, and in any case he had every right to stand his ground against a man with a gun and a car who was stalking him as he walked on foot.

invisiblelad:

ladyatheist:

Among the evidence in the Trayvon Martin case released by the Florida state prosecutor yesterday was a 15-minute interview with a former work colleague of George Zimmerman. The man, who is not identified by name, says that Zimmerman relentlessly bullied him at work.

Zimmerman, according to the witness, targeted him because he was Middle Eastern. He repeatedly called the man a “fucking moron” and mocked him using the voice of “Achmed the terrorist.” Zimmerman’s stories about the man would involve “bombing,” “I’ll kill your family” and other “jokes” about “Middle Eastern stuff.” According to the man, this went on “for days and days.”

[READ MORE]

I want to point out a pattern here. Its known that Zimmerman had a 911 on speed dial, and was a bit trigger happy  overzealous with his reporting. This bit here is telling:

After a few months, Zimmerman was terminated. According to the witness, “he was fired for calling HR hotline so many times…he would complain about each and every manager and employee.”

Yes to the bold. Zimmerman’s supporters (or rather, Trayvon’s detractors) are going to see this as nitpicking, prosecuting by point-scoring: “They’re saying Zimmerman did a bad thing so he’s bad, so we have to say a bad thing that Trayvon did!” The difference between this and Trayvon’s school record or any of that is that there’s a direct connection between how Zimmerman acted the night of the murder and how he acted in his daily life.

shortformblog:

producermatthew:

From MSNBC.com:

The man who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, setting off a nationwide outpouring of anger, told police that Martin knocked him down with a single punch and slammed his head into the sidewalk several times — an account that police said witnesses have corroborated, according to The Orlando Sentinel.

Important to note.

I can’t wait for the right wingers who support the SYG law to make the talk show circuit noting that Trayvon had no duty to retreat when he felt his life was in danger.

(Source: matthewkeys)

thesoapboxschtick:

Trayvon Martin’s girlfriend has spoken out. She was on the phone with Trayvon just moments before his murder.

Her account of the events:

“He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man. I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run but he said he was not going to run. Eventually he would run, thinking that he’d managed to escape. But suddenly the strange man was back, cornering him.

Trayvon said, ‘What, are you following me for,’ and the man said, ‘What are you doing here.’ Next thing I hear is somebody pushing, and somebody pushed Trayvon because the head set just fell. I called him again and he didn’t answer the phone.”

Martin’s Attorney:

“George Zimmerman’s claim that Martin was suspicious and up to no good is completely contradicted by this phone log, showing all day he was just talking to his friends— like so many teenagers do. Martin was talking to her when he went to the 7/11 and when he came back. Her testimony connects the dots, completely connects the dots of this whole thing. 

The friend’s phone call completely blows Zimmerman’s absurd self-defense claim out of the water.

A kid who is up to no good isn’t on the phone constantly calling his friends back. Somebody who’s looking to break in somewhere isn’t on the phone talking to his friend, when she’s in Miami.

Zimmerman wants you to believe he was on drugs and acting suspicious so he can justify killing him in cold blood.

The girl’s family wishes that she remain anonymous because of the traumatic nature of the event:

“This was her really, really close personal friend. They were dating… She couldn’t even go to his wake. She was so sick, her mother had to take her to the hospital, she spent the night in the hospital.” - Martin’s Attorney”

(Source: )