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One had skittles, One had a Gun
Author: Raine    Date: 03/19/2012 13:33:33

If you read nothing else this morning, I ask that you take a look at this post from Think Progress. A lot has been said about a young man named Trayvon Martin in the past week -- but it is not enough.

What Everyone Should Know About Trayvon Martin

I want to know why Mr. Zimmerman has not been arrested. I want to know why the Police in Sanford county are acting as judge and jury in a case where a 17 year old boy was murdered in cold blood by a 'neighborhood watch captain'.

I want to know why the police decided to correct a witness, and why the family had to wait so long for the 911 calls to be released. No justice in the world can make up for the fact that a mother and father had to bury a son, but people deserve answers into what happened here in Seminole county, Florida.

A boy had a bag of skittles -- Zimmerman had a gun. From ABC news:
A dispatcher told him to wait for a police cruiser, and not leave his vehicle.
But about a minute later, Zimmerman left his car wearing a red sweatshirt and pursued Martin on foot between two rows of townhouses, about 70 yards from where the teen was going.

Zimmerman's pursuit of Martin did not of itself constitute a crime, Lee said.

Witnesses told ABC News a fistfight broke out and, at one point, Zimmerman, who outweighed Martin by more than 100 pounds, was on the ground and that Martin was on top.

Austin Brown, 13, was walking his dog during the time of the altercation and saw both men on the ground but separated.
I have read accounts that Austin, was walking his dog that evening. His dog ran off, and Austin ran as well.
The screams rattle around in his daydreams, so loud at night that sleep hasn't come easily. And he can't stop asking himself a thousand what-ifs: What if he could have stopped it? What if he had looked "suspicious" that night, and not Martin?

"I picture myself back over where I saw it, and it sticks in the back of my mind," McLendon told HuffPost Black Voices on Saturday afternoon at his family's home. "Sometimes I'll, like, not be listening to the teacher, and I'll daydream or just think off about it. I've been feeling bad for him and his family."
In the meantime, Zimmerman has not been arrested. Austin is justified in his fears, this easily could have been him, or any one of the children living in that neighborhood.

According to police, George Zimmerman, the self-appointed caption of the neighborhood watch at the Retreat at Twin Lakes, has admitted to shooting and killing Martin, whom he described as "suspicious" in a 911 call. Zimmerman, who claimed that he was acting in self-defense, was carrying a licensed pistol.
This self-appointed watch captain made 46 calls to police in 14 months. It appears to me that he didn't seem to know his neighborhood at all -- or perhaps residents of the gated community were correct in saying that Zimmerman was overly aggressive to residents.
Zimmerman, who patrolled the Retreat at Twin Lakes development in his own car, had been called aggressive in earlier complaints to the local police and the homeowner's association, according to a homeowner who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

At an emergency homeowner’s association meeting on March 1, “one man was escorted out because he openly expressed his frustration because he had previously contacted the Sanford Police Department about Zimmerman approaching him and even coming to his home,” the resident wrote in an email to HuffPost. “It was also made known that there had been several complaints about George Zimmerman and his tactics" in his neighborhood watch captain role.
I want to know why the police department hasn't done anything to bring justice for this community. I want to know why the police aren't taking eyewitness accounts such as this seriously:
“This was not self-defense,” Cutcher said. “We heard no fighting, no wrestling, no punching. We heard a boy crying. As soon as the shot went off, it stopped, which tells me it was the child crying. If it had been Zimmerman crying, it wouldn’t have stopped. If you’re hurting, you’re hurting.”

She and her friend say they heard the sounds from a few steps away, where they were inside beside an open window. Seconds later, they dashed out to find a boy face down on the ground and a man standing over him, a foot on each side of the body on the ground, with his hands pinning the shooting victim down.

“I asked him, ‘What’s happening here? What’s going on?’ ” said Cutcher’s friend, Selma Mora Lamilla. “The third time, I was indignant, and he said, ‘just call the police.’ Then I saw him with his hands over his head in the universal sign of: ‘Oh man, I messed up.’ ”

The women, who were the first on the scene, said they saw Zimmerman pacing back and forth.
Instead the police cheif stated:
“Mr. Zimmerman’s claim is that the confrontation was initiated by Trayvon,” Police Chief Bill Lee said in an interview. “I am not going into specifics of what led to the violent physical encounter witnessed by residents. All the physical evidence and testimony we have independent of what Mr. Zimmerman provides corroborates this claim to self-defense.”

To claim self-defense, someone has to show there was danger of great bodily harm or death, Lee said. “Zimmerman had injuries consistent with his story,”
Nothing corroborates with what witnesses are saying. Nothing does. Zimmerman may have had injuries consistent with his story, but a dead body tells another story: a boy was murdered, in cold blood. He had Skittles and a can of ice tea. It appears to me that Trayvon Martin may have actually fought for HIS self-defense, and in doing so, lost his life to a gunshot.

Let me put it this way: The man claiming self-defense was actually in pursuit of the victim. No one tested Zimmerman for drugs or alcohol, as is standard practice in any homicide investigation. Trayvon Martin, the murder victim, however was posthumously tested for drugs and alcohol.

The Sanford Police department wanted you to believe that Zimmerman was just acting in self defense. They wanted you to believe it much so that they haven't bothered to seek justice for a young man who wanted to go to college and study Aviation mechanics. Trayvon was initially labeled a Jon Doe -- the assumption by the police department that he had no reason to be in the neighborhood. Trayvon Martin was killed on February 26. He was brought to the morgue.
That was Feb. 27, one day after Trayvon was shot. The father thought that he was missing, according to the family’s lawyer, Benjamin Crump, but the boy’s body had actually been taken to the medical examiner’s office and listed as a John Doe.

The father called the Missing Persons Unit. No luck. Then he called 911. The police asked the father to describe the boy, after which they sent officers to the house where the father was staying. There they showed him a picture of the boy with blood coming out of his mouth.
Zimmerman had been brought in for questioning and long released by the department when Trayvon's family learned of his murder.

Do I really need to make this more clear? I want to know why George Zimmerman has not been arrested. This looks like a cover up, instead of a murder investigation. I want to know why. Millions of people want to know as well.

and
Raine
 

71 comments (Latest Comment: 03/20/2012 03:52:33 by Raine)
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