Tag Archives: Martin

Rush Limbaugh Compares Suspected Boston Bomber To Trayvon Martin

It’s too easy to say that the Limbaughs, Coulters and Hannitys of the world merely seek and need attention.  These people are simply unadulterated evil

Think Progress

Conservative radio prognosticator Rush Limbaugh used his nationally syndicated show on Tuesday to try and tie Dzhakar Tsarnaev, the captured suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings last week, to murdered teenager Trayvon Martin.

Last March, weeks after 17-year-old Martin was shot and killed, Limbaugh and the rest of the conservative echo chamber spent a considerable amount of time attacking Martin’s character and pushing back against a widely circulated photograph of the teen, claiming that the media was trying to gin up sympathy for the murdered boy.

On Tuesday, Limbaugh compared the media’s portrayal of Trayvon to the treatment of the captured Tsarnaev, citing the media’s use of slightly outdated photographs in both instances:

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh called out a variety of media outlets on Tuesday for trying to [do] “to Dzhokhar [Tsarnaev] what they did to Trayvon Martin.” He said that showing images of Tsarnaev at 14-years-old is an effort to humanize him and frame him as a “normal” or “mixed-up kid,” rather than an accused murder[er] and terrorist.

‘The news media are doing to Dzhokhar what they did to Trayvon Martin,”Limbaugh observed. “They’re regularly showing a photo of Dzhokhar that was taken when he was about 14. Soft, angelic, nice little boy. Harmless. Cute. Big, loveable eyes.”

“Not at all what he looks like today,” Limbaugh added. “The way, when we’re shown Osama bin Laden, it’s in his shepherd pose with his walking stick, walking through the mountains or whatever.”

The implication, subtly made, is that the liberal media is somehow supportive of Tsarnaev, who is responsible for the murders of three people and the injuries of more than 170 others. In reality, the outdated photograph of the younger Tsarnaev brother is one of several photographs in constant rotation on every news network since he was first identified late last week.

The comparison is also deeply offensive for Trayvon Martin and his family. Martin was a victim of gun violence in a state that remains lenient towards gun owners who turn their weapons on other Floridians.

HT: Mediaite

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Forensic tests find no Trayvon Martin DNA on George Zimmerman’s gun

 

Put this bit of info together with other things that didn’t pan out as Zimmerman claimed and one can see that the trial will be quite interesting.

The Raw Story

Results of forensic tests released on Wednesday could be crippling to the defense of a Florida neighborhood watch captain who is charged with murdering 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

Documents released by the State Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit ruled out the possibility that Martin’s DNA was on the grip of George Zimmerman’s gun, according to theOrlando Sentinel. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement could find no evidence that Martin had handled the weapon.

Zimmerman had told police that he was forced to shoot Martin because the teen was on top of him, slamming his head into the concrete and had tried to take the concealed pistol from the holster on his waist.

Other tests were inconclusive as to whether or not Martin’s DNA was on the holster, WKMG reported. Zimmerman’s DNA, however, was found on both the gun and the holster.

Witness diagrams and several hundred photos were also released on Wednesday, but they reportedly revealed little new information.

Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder earlier this year. He has pleaded not guilty and is claiming that he acted in self-defense.

 

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Why President Obama Is So Terrifying

 

Ta-Nehisi Coates is a prolific writer.

I’ve seen him on several shows in the last few days because of an amazing article he wrote for The Atlantic.  Each of the hosts gave Coates kudos for writing such a powerful essay which is entitled: Fear of a Black President.

The Root

When President Barack Obama was asked about Trayvon Martin’s untimely death during a press conference about another topic, the commander in chief replied: “But my main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon. I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves, and that we’re going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.”

Seems like a perfectly relatable response, but Ta-Nehisi Coates, senior editor at the Atlantic, argues that because those words came from a black president, suddenly the situation became “racialized political fodder.”

Why President Obama Is So Terrifying

But it would be wrong to attribute the burgeoning support for Zimmerman to the blunders of Spike Lee or an NBC producer. Before President Obama spoke, the death of Trayvon Martin was generally regarded as a national tragedy. After Obama spoke, Martin became material for an Internet vendor flogging paper gun-range targets that mimicked his hoodie and his bag of Skittles. (The vendor sold out within a week.) Before the president spoke, George Zimmerman was arguably the most reviled man in America. After the president spoke, Zimmerman became the patron saint of those who believe that an apt history of racism begins with Tawana Brawley and ends with the Duke lacrosse team.

The irony of Barack Obama is this: he has become the most successful black politician in American history by avoiding the radioactive racial issues of yesteryear, by being “clean” (as Joe Biden once labeled him) — and yet his indelible blackness irradiates everything he touches. This irony is rooted in the greater ironies of the country he leads. For most of American history, our political system was premised on two conflicting facts — one, an oft-stated love of democracy; the other, an undemocratic white supremacy inscribed at every level of government. In warring against that paradox, African Americans have historically been restricted to the realm of protest and agitation. But when President Barack Obama pledged to “get to the bottom of exactly what happened,” he was not protesting or agitating. He was not appealing to federal power — he was employing it. The power was black — and, in certain quarters, was received as such.

No amount of rhetorical moderation could change this. It did not matter that the president addressed himself to “every parent in America.” His insistence that “everybody [pull] together” was irrelevant. It meant nothing that he declined to cast aspersions on the investigating authorities, or to speculate on events. Even the fact that Obama expressed his own connection to Martin in the quietest way imaginable — “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon” — would not mollify his opposition. It is, after all, one thing to hear “I am Trayvon Martin” from the usual placard-waving rabble-rousers. Hearing it from the commander of the greatest military machine in human history is another.

Read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ entire piece at The Atlantic.

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George Zimmerman apologizes: 5 takeaways from his bail hearing

The Week"I wanted to say I am sorry for the loss of your son," George Zimmerman told Trayvon Martin's parents at his bail hearing. "I did not know how old he was... I did not know if he was armed or not."

In a dramatic day in court, Trayvon Martin’s killer says he’s sorry — and is granted a $150,000 bail

Nearly two months after he admittedly shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman unexpectedly apologized to Martin’s parents at a bail hearing in Sanford, Fla. on Friday. “I wanted to say I am sorry for the loss of your son,” Zimmerman, 28, said in a “meek” voice. “I did not know how old he was. I thought he was a little bit younger than I am. I did not know if he was armed or not.” (Watch the video below.) Zimmerman faces a charge of second-degree murder, but claims that he acted in self-defense. Judge Kenneth Lester granted him a $150,000 bail, though Zimmerman is still not expected to leave jail for several days. Here, five takeaways from the day’s events:

1. Martin’s parents are outraged
Martin’s parents are quite angry that Zimmerman would “give a self-serving apology to help him get a bond,” said Ben Crump, the Martin family attorney. Hold on, says Zimmerman attorney Mark O’Mara. Zimmerman wanted to apologize, and while ”it should have been done in a private setting… that [opportunity] wasn’t afforded to him.” (On Thursday, Martin’s parents rejected Zimmerman’s request for a meeting.)

2. Zimmerman will be tracked
The judge granted bail on the condition that Zimmerman would wear a monitoring bracelet on his ankle. Zimmerman was ordered not to contact Martin’s family, and to abide by a 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew each night. Lester is still weighing whether to allow Zimmerman to leave Florida. Zimmerman’s lawyers say he’s not safe in the Sunshine State, having reportedly received multiple death threats. Zimmerman is still in jail, and his lawyer says it could take some days for his family to come up with the money to post the $150,000 bond.

3. Prosecutors say he has a history of violence
In seeking to deny him bail, prosecutors grilled Zimmerman’s wife, Shellie Zimmerman, about her husband’s past arrest for assaulting an undercover police officer, and another incident in which an injunction was filed against him by a former girlfriend who claimed Zimmerman had hit her. Shellie Zimmerman, testifying by telephone, insisted that Zimmerman had merely acted in self-defense. “He’s absolutely not a violent person or a threat to the community,” she testified.

4. Lawyers are previewing their trial strategies
O’Mara went after Dale Gilbreath, an investigator for the state attorney’s office, when he took his turn on the stand. O’Mara aggressively questioned Gilbreath about an affidavit he had drawn up, in which he said Zimmerman “confronted” Martin. Gilbreath conceded that he did not know who started the fight. Also, when prosecutors asked Gilbreath if there was any evidence to suggest that Zimmerman had made untrue statements to the police, Gilbreath replied, “Yes.”

5. Meanwhile, a new photo of a bloodied Zimmerman emerges
ABC News published a photograph showing the back of Zimmerman’s head covered in blood mere minutes after Trayvon died. “The photo could give credence to Zimmerman’s claim that Martin had bashed his head against the concrete as Zimmerman fought for his life,” says ABC. Investigators had already seen the photo, and Crump said it proved nothing. “How bad could it have been if they didn’t take him to the hospital [and] didn’t stitch him up,” he said. “The special prosecutor has seen all the evidence and still believes George Zimmerman murdered Trayvon Martin.”

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George Zimmerman’s attorneys quit: We have lost contact with him

Attorneys Craig Sonner and Hal Uhri via screenshot

I’ve always thought that George Zimmerman is not in the contiguous United States.  I think he’s in Cuba or some other Caribbean Island.

The Raw Story

The attorneys for George Zimmerman, who claims to have shot and killed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin in self-defense, said during a press conference Tuesday that they had terminated their relationship with him.

Attorneys Craig Sonner and Hal Uhri said they had not be able to contact him since Sunday, but would continue to represent him if he decided to contact them. The attorneys said it would be wrong for them to claim to represent Zimmerman if they were not in contact with him.

“He has gone on his own,” Sonner said.

The attorneys had only talked with Zimmerman on the phone, but had planned to have face-to-face meetings.

Zimmerman called Fox News host Sean Hannity and special prosecutor Angela Corey’s office in Florida, according to the attorneys. Hannity refused to tell the attorneys what Zimmerman told him.

Zimmerman has completely avoided the media and has gone into hiding. Sonner and Uhri refused to indicate where he may be, but said anyone looking for him should look “far away from Florida.”

The attorneys said Zimmerman was “not doing well” and probably suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. They described him as being “emotionally crippled.”

The attorneys said they didn’t believe that Zimmerman planned to flee the country.

Despite withdrawing their counsel, Sonner and Uhri still believe Zimmerman acted in self-defense.

Zimmerman told police that he had followed Martin on foot, but eventually lost sight of him and turned around to walk back to his SUV. That is when, according to Zimmerman’s account, Martin approached him from behind and confronted him. He said that Martin punched him in the nose, knocking him down, and then began banging his head into the ground. That is when Zimmerman allegedly shot Martin.

When police arrived on the scene, Zimmerman claimed that he shot and killed the unarmed African American teenager out of self-defense, which allowed him to benefit from Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. Zimmerman was not arrested that night, a fact that later sparked national outrage and a flood of criticism.

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Fox News Contributor Thinks ‘The Blacks’ Are Making Too Big Of A Deal About Trayvon Martin

When I hear a term like The Blacks, I get the feeling that the person uttering the phrase is not too fond of Black people.  Remember Donald Trump?   Am I being a bit too sensitive?  NO.

Think Progress

While the controversy over the killing of Trayvon Martin largely skirted partisan politics in its first month, some conservative media outlets apparently saw an opportunity in the case and have spent the latter part of the week alternately smearing Martin, defending Zimmerman, or screaming about the dangers of viewing the case through a racial lens.

The conservative Daily Caller, a purportedly reported and fact-based news outlet, published parts of Martin’s life on social media, but only “selected [items that] reinforce the argument that the victim of the fatal shooting was a menacing figurewho might plausibly have been mistaken for a criminal,” the New York Times’ Robert Mackey noted. They skipped over pictures from prom night or of Martin’s friends, cherry-picking shots of Martin flipping the bird or wearing fake gold teeth.

Former Republican congressman and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough called the posthumous vilification of Martin “beneath contempt” and “disgusting.” “I guess it’s because the President actually said something to comfort the parents, and I guess they just can’t handle that,” he said this morning.

Meanwhile, the Daily Caller did their best to defend Zimmerman’s account that Martin had beat him up, even when new surveillance footage cast doubt on that claim. But perhaps one shouldn’t expect better from an outlet whose top editors stood by a blatantly false report it published last year.

At the late Andrew Breitbart’s website attacked Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) for wearing a hoodie on the House floor in solidarity with Trayvon, writing a cynical story today headlined, “HOODIE-WEARING GUNMEN KILL 1, WOUND 5 IN BOBBY RUSH’S CHICAGO DISTRICT.”

On Fox News, host Sean Hannity and conservative media critic Brent Bozell, like many in the conservative echo chamber, have dwelled on the fact that the fringe New Black Panthers, who have been condemned by everyone, offered a “bounty” on Zimmerman’s head. And Hannity and Bozell found the real scandal here — that NBC News edited a 911 tape in a way that portrayed Zimmerman in a poor light.

Overall, the message seems to be, as Fox contributor Tamara Holder told Hannity: “The blacks are also making this more of a racial issue than it should be.” Watch it

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Trayvon Martin’s Email And Facebook Accounts Allegedly Hacked By White Supremacist

Oh my.  This is getting uglier by the day…

The Huffington Post

A white supremacist hacker claims to have broken into Trayvon Martin’s email and social networking accounts and posted his private messages online.

“I realize that some of this information might be to [sic] extreme to believe,” a hacker named Klanklannon wrote, according to Gawker, which has an original copy of the message thread posted to the popular, unruly message board 4chan. “That’s why I offer you evidence. Here are my sources.”

Editor’s note: Some readers may find language in this article objectionable.

A slide posted to the message board titled “Trayvon Martin Used Marijuana Habitually,” apparently shows a conversation between Martin and a friend about getting high. Another alleged that Martin was a drug dealer and showed a picture of Martin standing “aggressively with a large amount of cash in his hand.”

Gawker reported that Klankannon shared several of Martin’s usernames and email accounts on the thread. The hacker also said that the passwords had been changed to racist slurs like “niggerniggernigger” and “coontrayvonnigger.”

Martin, 17, was shot and killed by self-appointed neighborhood watch member George Zimmerman as Martin returned to his father’s house in Sanford, Fla., on the night of Feb. 26. Zimmerman claimed that Martin looked “suspicious” in a 911 call. Not long after the call, Martin and Zimmerman engaged in a fight, and Zimmerman shot Martin in the chest. Zimmerman was not charged in the shooting, which has sparked a national outcry and drawn considerable media attention.

A much-circulated photo of a grimacing teen with his middle finger extended — that many right-leaning sites have suggested is the Trayvon Martin the “mainstream media” does not want the public to see — was also originally circulated on the white supremacist site stormfront.org, according to the Columbia Journalism Review. The person in that photo was not Martin, but another teenager who shared the name.

Slate’s political reporter Dave Weigel, who has long covered the conservative movement, said that the misattributed photo was “part of a new cottage industry of ‘truth about Trayvon’ content, calibrated to convince people that they really shouldn’t worry about the implications of this killing.”

“Why, the kid wasn’t even a saint!” Weigel said of the logic of such conservative sites. “He might have been shot after brawling with the man who creeply [sic] followed him around the gated community?”

But Gawker’s Adrian Chen wrote that the attempts to smear Martin have backfired “because the picture they paint is of a normal high school junior preparing for college.”

A screenshot of Trayvon’s Gmail inbox our source provided us is heartbreaking. Martin apparently used his Gmail account for his college search, and it’s filled with emails about upcoming SAT tests and scholarship applications. (“Trayvon, now is the best time to take the SATs!”) One email included the results of a career aptitude test, our source said. It “talked about his interest in aeronautics and stuff.”

This is not the first time Martin’s online life has made the news. Earlier this week, conservative site Daily Caller obtained and posted messages from Martin’s since-deleted Twitter account that date back to the beginning of the year. When The Huffington Post talked to the Caller’s executive editor, David Martosko, who published Martin’s tweets under his byline, Martosko said that he did so because his audience was hungry for information about the Martin shooting and the two people involved.

“These were not protected tweets,” Martosko said. “While he was alive, these were not outside of the public sphere in any shape or form.”

Martosko said that the Caller ran Martin’s tweets “without value judgment,” and would that he would publish Zimmerman’s tweets if he was made aware of an account opened and used by Zimmerman.

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Surveillance video shows no blood or bruises on George Zimmerman

There are so many questions relating to why the Sanford Police lied on the police report (see next to last page on the pdf file link.)

The Raw Story

Police surveillance video obtained by ABC News shows no blood or bruises on George Zimmerman, who allegedly shot and killed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. The video puts Zimmerman’s account of events into question.

The video shows Zimmerman arriving at the Sanford Police Department in a police cruiser.

Zimmerman told police last month that he had followed Martin on foot, but eventually lost sight of Trayvon and turned around to walk back to his SUV. That is when, according to Zimmerman’s account, Martin approached him from behind and confronted him.

Zimmerman said that Martin punched him in the nose, knocking him down, and then began banging his head into the ground. That is when Zimmerman allegedly shot Martin.

The initial police report noted that Zimmerman was covered in grass, and was bleeding from the back of the head and nose. Zimmerman’s lawyer has also said that his nose was broken in the incident.

But the surveillance video shows no blood or bruises on him. It is unclear whether the medical attention Zimmerman reportedly received would have stopped him from bleeding.

The lead homicide investigator on the Trayvon Martin case recommended George Zimmerman be charged with manslaughter, but was denied.

Chris Serino, the Sanford investigator, filed an affidavit on the night of crime saying he was unconvinced of Zimmerman’s account. However, the state attorney’s office told Serino not to press charges against Zimmerman because there wasn’t enough evidence against him.

Martin’s parents and lawyer have said that Zimmerman, who is still free, should be arrested for pursing Martin despite police urging Zimmerman not to follow him on the 911 tapes.

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What Everyone Needs To Know About The Smear Campaign Against Trayvon Martin (1995-2012)

Trayvon Martin, as he appeared on his actual Facebook page

The smear campaign against Trayvon Martin started at the Sanford Police Station on February 26, 2012.

It started when the Sanford Police tested Trayvon for drugs and alcohol posthumously.  It started when they left his body in the morgue for three days as a “John Doe”, although they had his cell phone and they could have canvassed the complex to see if anyone’s child was missing.

It started when they let George Zimmerman go with possible forensic evidence on his clothing.

The smear campaign continues as listed by Think Progress’ article below…

Think Progress

Over the last 48 hours, there has been a sustained effort to smear Trayvon Martin, the 17-year old African-American who was shot dead by George Zimmerman a month ago. Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, said, “They killed my son, now they’re trying to kill his reputation.”

Thus far these attacks have fallen into two categories: false and irrelevant. Much of this leaked information seems intended to play into stereotypes about young African-American males. Here’s what everyone should know:

1. Prominent conservative websites published fake photos of Martin. Twitchy, a new website run by prominent conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, promoted a photo — purportedly from Martin’s Facebook page — that shows Martin in saggy pants and flipping the bird. The photo, which spread quickly on conservative websites and Twitter, is intended to paint Martin as a thug. As Twitchy later acknowledged, it is not a photo of Trayvon Martin. [Examiner]

2. The Sanford Police selectively leaked irrelevant, negative information about Martin. The authorities told the Orlando Sentinel this morning that Trayvon was suspended from school for ten days “after being found with an empty marijuana baggie.” There is no evidence that Martin was under the influence of drugs at the time of his death, nor would prior possession of marijuana be a reason for killing him. It’s unclear what the relevance of the leak was, other than to smear Martin. [Orlando Sentinel]

3. On Fox News, Geraldo said that Martin was dressed “like a wannabe gangster.” Bill O’Reilly agreed with him. The sole evidence is that Martin was wearing a hoodie. Geraldo added that “everyone that ever stuck up a convenience store” was wearing a hoodie. [ThinkProgressThe Blaze]

4. Without any evidence, prominent right-wing bloggers suggested that Martin was a drug dealer. Right-wing blogger Dan Riehl advances the theory, also advanced in a widely linked peice on a site called Wagist. There does not appear to be any evidence to support this claim whatsoever. [Riehl World View]

5. Without any evidence, a right-wing columnist alleged that Martin assaulted a bus driver. Unlike Zimmerman, Trayvon has no documented history of violence. This allegation continues to be advanced by a blogger on the Examiner even after the real reason was leaked to the police and confirmed by the family. [Miami HeraldExaminer]

6. Zimmerman’s friend says Martin was to blame because he was disrespectful to Zimmerman. Zimmerman’s friend Joe Oliver said that Martin would not have been shot to death if Trayvon had just said “I’m staying with my parents.” Of course, Zimmerman was not a police officer, and Trayvon had no duty to tell him who he was or where he was going. [NBC News]

The final part of the effort to smear Trayvon Martin is to link him and his supporters to irresponsible fringe groups like the New Black Panthers and marginal provocateurs like Louis Farrakhan. Threats by these groups are serious and should be investigated, but they have nothing to do with Martin or his supporters. The leader of the effort to associate Martin with these groups is Matt Drudge. You can see how he is framing the story today here.

Ultimately, whether Martin was a perfect person is irrelevant to whether Zimmerman’s conduct that night was justified. Clearly, there are two different versions of the events that transpired on February 26, the night Trayvon was killed. There are conflicting statements by witnesses and conflicting evidence as to who was the aggressor. Zimmerman has the right to tell his side of the story. But his opportunity to do this will come in a court of law after he is charged and arrested. In the meantime, Zimmerman’s supporters should stop trying to smear the reputation of a dead, 17-year-old boy.

Think Progress has an earlier report on Trayvon Martin:  What Everyone Should Know About Trayvon Martin (1995 – 2012)

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Gun Owners Of America Chief Defends George Zimmerman: Trayvon Martin Was ‘Assailant’

Why am I not surprised?

Think Progress

Larry Pratt, the executive director of Second Amendment group Gun Owners of America, offered a rare defense of the man who killed Trayvon Martin, saying George Zimmerman was acting in self defense when he shot the Florida teen. As the facts of the case have emerged, everyone from President Obama to RIck Santorum and Rep. Allen West (R-FL) have condemned the killing.

But appearing on Current TV’s “The Young Turks” with Cenk Uygur Friday, Pratt said Zimmerman and the police acted properly. “Martin passed from becoming a victim to becoming an aggressor” during an alleged altercation, he said. Pratt’s said his view of the facts are based on a single eye witness interviewed by an Orlando news station. “[Martin] should have run away,” Pratt explained, saying Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” laws are irrelevant, because “we’re talking about fighting off an assailant.”

“Once Martin had neutralized the threat, that’s when he should have taken off to get out of there. He doubled down, and he started to really beat the tar out of the guy,” Pratt said. Martin “gave up his rights,” Pratt added.

See video here…

Gun Owners of America is a major firearms group several clicks to the right of the NRA, but nonetheless attracts significant support from mainstream conservatives.

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