Posted on 04/10/2012 1:49:35 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Many people at Ohio State University are outraged that George Zimmerman, the neighborhood-watch volunteer who shot and killed an unarmed, black teenager in Florida, had been using a photo of vandalism at OSU’s black cultural center to garner support.
“As our community unites against hate speech, disturbing news about Hale Center image used as fundraiser,” President E. Gordon Gee tweeted this afternoon.
Zimmerman is taking something the Ohio State campus finds threatening and offensive to serve his own rhetorical and political purposes — “a very strange move for someone maintaining that he shot Trayvon Martin in self-defense,” said Valerie Lee, OSU’s vice provost for diversity and inclusion.
The words Long Live Zimmerman were spray-painted on an outside wall of the Frank W. Hale Jr. Black Cultural Center on Thursday.
“By using the image from the Hale Center, the site minimizes the pain that African-American students and their allies feel about the hate crime that occurred on this campus,” Lee said. “What a lack of conscience, sensitivity and understanding to use such a message to gain funds for a legal defense.”
Zimmerman’s attorney, Hal Uhrig, has not returned phone or email messages. The photo of the graffiti on the Hale Center was on Zimmerman’s site most of the day but was taken down sometime this afternoon.
Zimmerman broke his silence over the fatal shooting of Martin on his new website, TheRealGeorgeZimmerman.com, which features a fluttering American flag as the backdrop. There’s also a prominent link to a PayPal account for supporters to help pay his legal and living expenses since the Feb. 26 shooting.
On the homepage of his new site, Zimmerman writes: “I am the real George Zimmerman. On Sunday February 26th, I was involved in a life-altering event which led me to become the subject of intense media coverage. As a result of the incident and subsequent media coverage, I have been forced to leave my home, my school, my employer, my family and ultimately, my entire life.”
In addition to the OSU Hale Center photo, the site features a “Justice for Zimmerman” sign from a rally last month that was led by Terry Jones, the anti-Islam Florida pastor famous for burning Korans.
Above the pictures is a quote by Norwegian playwright and poet Henrik Ibsen: “A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed.”
Zimmerman says he shot Martin in self-defense. The youth was walking back to his father’s fiancee’s home in Sanford, Fla., after buying candy and iced tea. Critics say Zimmerman is guilty of racial profiling or worse.
Sanford police did not arrest Zimmerman, saying they did not have enough evidence to disprove his claim of self-defense.
That touched off a firestorm of protests across the country, including at Ohio State, where students have held marches, rallies and sit-ins against hate crimes.
Last Friday, for instance, nearly 200 students and faculty members marched single file from the Hale Center to the OSU Board of Trustees meeting at Longaberger Alumni House, clad in black, to call for an atmosphere of acceptance. On the trek, the students sang the Black National Anthem and other songs and held up signs reading “Enough is enough,” “No place for hate” and “Are hate crimes educated citizenry?”
Once inside the trustees meeting, students James Hayes, who is a member of OSU’s Black Student Association, and LeChe Roach, the president of the OSU chapter of the NAACP, presented the board with three demands: Create a hate-crime alert system, increase the school’s diversity at the student and faculty level and instill a campus atmosphere of “inclusion not just tolerance” for people of all backgrounds.
Ohio State issued a crime alert on Friday after the vandalism at the Hale Center and after another incident in which a racial slur and three swastikas were painted on a mural of President Barack Obama at Weinland Park.
I'm really getting tired of all this "outrage."
How did these people ever get through life?
“The youth was walking back to his father’s fiancee’s home in Sanford, Fla., after buying candy and iced tea.”
Really? Has that actually been established as fact? “Skittles” and “iced tea” are code words for street drugs.
It’s called Affirmative Action - that’s how they get through life just like our Dear President notice how he is always throwing hissy fits.
I wonder how it would be received if a group of white students decided to kick back and watch some TV at the Frank W. Hale Jr. Black Cultural Center? On the other hand, I wonder if a group of black students could do the same at the White Cultural Cent... oh wait.
The picture in question is no longer on Zimmerman’s web page.
Good grief. What about the dead boys mother copyrighting his name?
Good grief, grow up already.
On the trek, the students sang the Black National Anthem and other songs and held up signs reading “Enough is enough,” “No place for hate” and “Are hate crimes educated citizenry?”Students? Educated?
All their grammar are belong to us?
I have searched far and wide for evidence of the mythical Skittles.
As the tale goes, young Trayvon went to the store, to get the tea and candy for his younger brother.
...I’ve got a question - that means his brother was in the apartment, right? And he didn’t notice that Trayvon never came back...and maybe put two and two together, with the whle gunshots and police siren thing? He just went to bed...no questions asked?
....And the next day, the father thought Trayvon must have gone to the movies with his cousin. Little brother didn’t mention the gas station run...gunfire, police at the scene for 7 hours, etc?
Ok, I guess little brother saw nothing out of the ordinary.
Anyway, back to the story....Young Trayvon had Skittles and Tea when he was shot, according too...well, I dunno. I’ve read the police report, and not seen them mentioned. No witness has come forth, saying they saw the Skittles and Tea. We haven’t been served up with the foreboding screen cap of Young Trayvon buying the Skittles..or seen the interview with the clerk who sold them to him.
Heck, the gated community is private property, and the standard issue ‘wailing wall’ can not be set up there. Wouldn’t the next most logical place be on the sidewalk, outside of the Skittle supply outlet?
Nothing. Nada.
The entire Skittles meme appears to be made up...and continues to be reported as absolute fact.
I wish I were amazed.
the students sang the Black National Anthem
There’s a black National Anthem?
I didn’t know, is there a white national anthem?
An asian national anthem?
A scandinavian national anthem?
I grow tired of this divisive diversity.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/04/the_story_unravels_new_questions_about_trayvon_martins_final_hour.html
What about the trip to the 7-Eleven? Some people have speculated that Martin didn't even go there, that "Skittles" and "tea" were code words for drugs. But Zimmerman does report him holding something, and apparently the can and candy were removed from the crime scene. The story about the Skittles originated with the lawyer for the Martin family, Benjamin Crump. A spokesman for the law office confirmed that the information came from Martin's girlfriend, and also, he believed, from a call to Tracy Martin. The law office hadn't corroborated their account by looking at security camera tapes or at an electronic receipt from the store.
But a video does exist. The public relations director of 7-Eleven told me that, according to the company's manager of security, a store camera captured an African-American male (she wouldn't commit to "young") purchasing a bag of Skittles and a can of tea (she wouldn't say that it was "Arizona" tea). The hard disk with the video was removed after the story broke, and it has been subpoenaed by investigators for the state and/or county. The company has not made it available to the media. The public relations director could not specify the exact time of the purchase but said it was between 6:00 and 6:30.
The 7-Eleven, according to maps.google, is 0.8 miles from the entrance to The Retreat at Twin Lakes, a 16-minute walk. There is not much to see or do on Rinehart Road on a Sunday night, and it was raining hard. Even if he was not bringing the tea and Skittles to his stepbrother but was eating and sipping en route, Martin should have arrived back at his dad's fiancée's place before 6:50, and much earlier if he left the store closer to 6:00 than 6:30. According to logs (now deleted from the department's website), Zimmerman called the Sanford police at 7:09:34.
Thanks...interesting.
My guess is that George Zimmerman saw the picture and had no idea where it came from. When he realized where it was spray-painted on he took it off his site.
These protestors are drawn even more to drama than that Kadishian family.
200 moronic dhimmis / 57,000 student enrollment = .0035
200 moronic dhimmis / 63,000 student enrollment + total staff = .0031
“nearly 200 students and faculty members marched...”
Yep, 200 birdbrains marching out of a campus of 35,000 souls. That’s a real big movement you got going there, you knuckle-dragging bed-wetters.
I like your stats better than mine. Good job.
Why no news on the spray painting of the white cultural center?
I've been puzzling on that factoid myself. It doesn't make sense.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.