Posted on 05/23/2012 10:42:55 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A year before George Zimmerman killed a Miami Gardens teenager, he stood before a City Hall community forum with a grievance: Sanford cops are lazy, he told the then-mayor elect.
And he should know: Zimmerman, a community college criminal justice major, said he went on ride-alongs with the Sanford Police.
“And what I saw was disgusting,” Zimmerman said, according to a recording of the January 2011 meeting obtained by The Miami Herald. “The officer showed me his favorite hiding spots for taking naps, explained to me that he doesn’t carry a long gun in his vehicle because, in his words, ‘anything that requires a long gun requires a lot of paperwork, and you’re going to find me as far away from it.’
“He took two lunch breaks and attended a going-away party for one of his fellow officers.”
Zimmerman’s public lambasting of the police department and its outgoing chief is rich with irony: A year later, the new chief took a national beating over how the department handled Zimmerman’s shooting of high school junior Trayvon Martin. The recording raises new questions about whether the neighborhood watch volunteer might have received preferential treatment the night of the shooting because he was familiar to officers in the department — or if any of the officers who took him into custody were the among those he criticized.
The department was widely condemned for letting Zimmerman go home after being questioned. From the start, attorneys for Trayvon’s family said that Zimmerman was a wannabe cop, protected by the “blue wall.”(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
Exactly, Zimmerman was honest and maybe a pain in the neck. Hardly terrible traits.
And what’s so wrong with neighborhood watch or even police wannabe’s, it doesn’t mean a person is violent, and certainly not in this case.
“But they wouldn’t give up the names of their donut shops,” said Zimmerman.
So if police were doing their job, there would have been no need for community watch dogs and Mr Zimmerman’s nose would have never had a close encounter with obamason’s knuckles.
BTW, What took the cops so long to arrive to the scene?
Tells me that Zimmerman sure wasn’t expecting any preferential treatment by the police after his first arrest the night of the shooting.
This piece of news will be an effective counter to those who will accuse him of being befriended by the police, and that they were covering for him.
They’re just grasping at any reason... besides the truth. In my experience, the cops would have been glad to find a reason to take someone into custody who had criticized them... if they could. The fact that they saw this as a clear case of self-defense on the spot is very good for Zimmerman’s case.
Hmmm, a community watch person who wants his city police to be more vigilant and less lazy.
String him up! (because the other case is unraveling)
i worked for a local LE department and wrote a mapping application that showed the location of police vehicles on a map.
I was all excited that it would help ID the closest vehicle to a call and speed response times...
The officers hated it and tried to defeat its use at every opportunity (disconnecting trans,itters, etc)
I was completely floored since I thought it was goign to help officer safety and community respose
The reason: they didnt want it to be known where they were traveling all day. I found way too many loafing off using this software, spending hours at their homes, or at girlfriends, or going from donut shop to donut shop all day long
they finally discontinued its use- I was extremely dissapointed
anyone who drives a vehicle who is in a union...the unions ALWAYS fight GPS tracking. Probably for the same reason.
Apparently the feeling was mutual.
Any criticism of the Sarasota Police should be reserved for the Prosecutor who (wisely) declined to prosecute a case he was almost certain to lose.
The Police didn’t think much of Zimmerman and they opined that he should be prosecuted. The Prosecutor declined.
I’m starting to really like this Zimmerman guy.
I agree. This would seem to be a reason for the police to come down hard on him, try to find any reason to charge him instead of letting him go the night of the shooting. I think this info actually supports the fact that they had no basis to hold or charge Zimmerman at the time or ever.
Ride alongs are hardly unusual in smaller towns. Where I live, any resident is welcome to participate in a ride along. You sign up with the chief, they set you up for it, and away you go.
I lived in FL for 10 years and was within about 10 miles of Sanford.
What Zimmerman is saying about the Sanford PD is, essentially, true of ALL FL LEOs. While there are some LEOs who actually WANT to do their jobs, MOST are lazy and just want a car to ride around in and a badge and a gun, but they don’t really want to DO anything to EARN them.
In their effort to smear Zimmerman, the Miami Herald has only made themselves look foolish.
This just goes to strengthen my belief that Zimmerman was actually an idealistic young adult who wanted to “make a difference”. This is evidenced by his coming to the defense of that person he thought was being mugged(turned out to be undercover officers, but how was he to know?) Also, the fact that he agreed to take the responsibility of the neighborhood watch captain. And, again by his serving as a mentor to dis-advantaged teens.
Why is it so hard for some people to accept that he is not a vicious, racist, vigilante?
records show, even though a background check showed Zimmerman had a criminal history, though no convictions.
How do you have a criminal history if you were never convicted of a criminal offence?
So the article describes George being a pain to the cops, then comes to the conclusion that the cops would cover up for him after he publicly criticized them.
Liberal logic.
Gotta love it.
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