Posted on 05/14/2012 2:30:29 PM PDT by sheikdetailfeather
SANFORD, Fla. —
WFTV has learned charges against George Zimmerman could be getting more serious.
State prosecutors said Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman, profiled and stalked 17-year-old Trayvon Martin before killing him, so the FBI is now looking into charging him with a hate crime.
Zimmerman admitted to killing Martin in February during a confrontation. However, he claims the shooting was in self-defense. He's facing a second-degree murder charge, which carries a maximum possible sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In the meantime, FBI investigators are actively questioning witnesses in the retreat at the Twin Lakes neighborhood, seeking evidence for a possible federal hate crime charge.
Martin was unarmed when he was shot to death, police said, and some accuse Zimmerman of targeting the teenager solely because of the color of his skin.
WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said federal prosecutors would have to prove the hate crime to charge Zimmerman, though.
(Excerpt) Read more at wftv.com ...
And just whne you think the press can not be any stupider. Zimmerman is charged with 2nd degree murder. Being charged with a hate crime no matter how offensive that is to lefties IN THE THE CHARGES ABOUT TO BECOME MORE SERIOUS.
“is the goal to take away the right of self defense?”
Only against Amish...
One of the cool things about America used to be that we had neither political criminals nor thought crimes. Looks like O and Eric are fixin’ to change that. Lacking any evidence, they’re working frantically to invent a motive. We’ve fallen far.
Posted maybe a decade ago on FR:
I began to think alone - “to relax,” I told myself - but I knew it wasn’t true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.
I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don’t mix, but I couldn’t stop myself.
I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka.
I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, “What is it exactly we are doing here?”
Things weren’t going so great at home either. One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother’s.
I soon had a reputation as a heavy thinker. One day the boss called me in. He said, “Skippy, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don’t stop thinking on the job, you’ll have to find another job.” This gave me a lot to think about.
I came home early after my conversation with the boss. “Honey,” I confessed, “I’ve been thinking...”
“I know you’ve been thinking,” she said, “and I want a divorce!”
“But Honey, surely it’s not that serious.”
“It is serious,” she said, lower lip aquiver. “You think as much as college professors, and college professors don’t make any money, so if you keep on thinking we won’t have any money!”
“That’s a faulty syllogism,” I said impatiently, and she began to cry. I’d had enough. “I’m going to the library,” I snarled as I stomped out the door.
I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche, with NPR on the radio. I roared into the parking lot and ran up to the big glass doors... they didn’t open. The library was closed.
To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.
As I sank to the ground clawing at the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye. “Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?” it asked. You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinker’s Anonymous poster.
Which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was “Porky’s.” Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.
I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed... easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking.
Fine. Anyone attempting to enforce such nonsense will be immediately categorized as the “enemy” and treated as such by those who wish to live and die “Free”.
Now that blacks are annoyed with the gay thing, they need to fire them up
up again
They can prosecute all they want, we’re going to defend ourselves, anyway. I mean, if you’re attacked and you have no choice, what are you supposed to do?
Keep it up ERIC! How about those 2 souls in Knoxville 3 years ago. Let’s see that information hit the MSM. I am sick and tired of this BS Administration.
It's a tradition. They did it to the LAPD officers in the Rodney King case in 1992. And that was under Bush I.
The Justice Department under Holder would have to prosecute the alleged hate crime and I would think Holder would have to sign off on the charge when the FBI concludes its investigation. The investigation is for politically correct reasons to placate a certain constituency. However, any prosecution pressed by Holder for a hate crime is going to wreak havoc with white independents and bluedog Dems and white working class Dems not to mention hispanics. I do not think Obama is stupid enough to unleash the junkyard dog he has running Justice on this one. But then again he is the same guy who was going to try Khalid Mohammed in NY...
The double jeopardy issue was resolved during the Rodney King litigation.
Obama is directly behind this one.
Good grief. Social Justice anyone? And the state trial will drag out forever, so they must energize the base now; it’s desperation time with their polling lately. Justice Dept hands are all over this one.
I thought it was the ATF.
“How do you establish whether a ‘crime’is a Hate Crime’?”
Hate crime burdens:
1) Was a crime committed? If yes,
2) was it violent, or did it at least make someone feel bad? If yes,
3) was the victim not a heterosexual white guy? If yes,
4) was the perpetrator a heterosexual white guy, or at least kinda sorta look like one?
Bam! Hate crime conviction.
A prophecy..........
Sheaffer's wrong. All they have to do is file the charge based on their own belief. To CONVICT him, they have to prove it.
I know, right. Another gift for Romney if he chooses to accept it.
Can the FBI actually charge somone with a crime? Don’t they have to investigate and turn the affair over to the DOJ? Perhaps this is just a technicality, but technicalities are big in cases like these.
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