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Of course, it was self-defense, but not by George Zimmerman. Let's forget blackness, racism, neighborhood watches and location for a moment and simplify the story. Let's say a person spots someone he has a perceived beef with; maybe this person doesn't like the way the other guy looks, or the way the other guy looked at someone else, or doesn't want him around his neighborhood, or this person is just out for trouble. Now this person follows the other guy slowly in his car for a while, ultimately getting out and confronting him. Maybe he even pushes the other guy...

Middle and high school students in San Diego, California will be encouraged to vent their frustration that the world lacks justice when they return to school and participate in the “Trayvon Martin dialogues” this fall. The board of San Diego Unified Schools unanimously approved a proposal recently to establish classroom forums to discuss the death of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager who was shot during an altercation with a Hispanic man, George Zimmerman, in Florida last year. A jury recently acquitted Zimmerman, who claimed that Martin struck first and shot him in self-defense. The sponsors of San Diego’s Trayvon Martin...

In the aftermath of the trial of George Zimmerman, protests erupted around the country, in Florida and elsewhere, demanding a range of legal remedies for the failure for Zimmerman to be convicted and punished for shooting unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin.  Not much has happened.  Here's why. 1.  Federal prosecution of Zimmerman. Perhaps the loudest demand (from Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and others) was that Zimmerman be tried again on federal civil rights or hate crime statutes, which Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the justice department was considering.  This idea made no sense from the start, since to bring such...

President Barack Obama discussed Edward Snowden, the health care law, Hillary Clinton and Russia during a Tuesday visit to "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." But Obama´s comments about the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin had special local interest. George Zimmerman was acquitted last month of murder in the teen´s death in Sanford. Some Americans have criticized Obama previously for commenting on the issue, but Leno said that the president had spoken eloquently and from the heart about Trayvon´s death. "I think all of us were troubled by what happened," Obama told Leno.

<p>A wrongful death suit filed by the parents of black teenager Trayvon Martin who was shot to death by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman has been settled, according to documents filed in a Florida court yesterday.</p> <p>Trayvon Martin's parents have settled a wrongful-death claim for an amount thought to be more than $1 million against the homeowners association of the Sanford subdivision where their teenage son was killed.</p>

The National Museum of African American History and Culture would like to display Trayvon Martin's hoodie, the Washington Post is reporting. A Seminole County jury on July 13 found Neighborhood Watch volunteer Zimmerman, 29, not guilty of second-degree murder in the Feb. 26, 2012, shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon. The verdict sparked outrage across the country.

Lee County, Florida Sheriff Mike Scott sent a letter to Lee County Branch NAACP president James Muwakkil explaining his disdain for the way he believes the NAACP ignores "epidemic" black-on-black violence in certain parts of Florida while allegedly trying to recast the Trayvon Martin shooting as white vs. black violence to score political points. Sheriff Scott was invited to the NAACP's "Freedom Fund Awards Banquet" and was even asked to sponsor the event financially, but as he made clear in his July 16 letter, "[he] will not be doing either." Regarding the lack of NAACP response to black-on-black violence, Scott...

This is just horrible, horrible racism.Jessica Chasmar at the Washington Times reports: “This is for George Zimmerman.”That’s what one of three white men told a black man as they approached him early Saturday in Washington before committing what police are saying may be a hate crime, according to Metropolitan Police Officer Anthony Clay.The men kicked the man, who was not identified, as they took his iPhone and wallet, the officer said Sunday, according to CNN. Wow, three on one. Really brave, you racists. I guess Touré Neblett is right. We really are living in Emmett Till’s America. Haven’t you done...

The story fed to the press would outrage anyone…and, predictably, it outraged everyone. The family provided a picture of Trayvon at age 12 or 13, which the media ran with the ugliest picture of Zimmerman they could find. The meme of a huge armed adult “stalking” a “helpless child” was born fully grown, to a Godzilla-like size. It loomed over America unopposed. The investigating officers and the State’s Attorney’s Office knew that the evidence showed something else: Zimmerman attacked by Martin, who towered over him, beat him to the ground, clearly smacked his head into the concrete, and might have...

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement was inundated with hundreds of phone calls Saturday after a group of protesters outside Gov. Rick Scott's office tweeted that Capitol Police were denying them food and water and urged people to call the agency in protest. The FDLE denied the allegations and asked the media not to republish the phone numbers put out by the protest group Dream Defenders. FDLE officials said some of those phone numbers are used by law enforcement agencies throughout the state to request Amber Alerts and crime scene or investigative help. Phillip Agnew, the Dream Defenders leader, said...

The trial of George Zimmerman over the shooting of Trayvon Martin has stirred national debate on race relations and on guns and violence in America. President Obama, who by many accounts has lost politically in his push for tighter gun control, has exploited the incident stating after the not-guilty verdict that “We should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis.” Anecdotal stories are interesting because they’re relatable; they help us see the human side of things by putting names and...

There are many honest citizens in Knox County who think that instead of being seriously injured or killed by having his head smashed repeatedly on a concrete sidewalk by the 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, it was a good thing George Zimmerman was able to avoid that by having a gun and shooting him. Sadly Martin died, but it would also have been a tragedy if Zimmerman had died or been permanently injured. After a fair trial Zimmerman was deemed not to have killed without oversight, a jury, a judge or a defense team but was acquitted by a jury of his...

Two weeks after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, the only person on the jury who is a member of an ethnic minority said in an ABC News interview that Zimmerman “got away with murder.’ Juror B29, identified only by her first name Maddy, sat down with ABC’s Robin Roberts, to discuss the trial for “Good Morning America.” As the first juror to show her face on camera, Maddy expressed both conviction and regret. “You can’t put the man in jail even though in our hearts we felt he was guilty,” Maddy said of...

The Muslim terrorist group Qa’adat el-Jihad claimed responsibility Saturday for a terrorist bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria. The bombing in Bulgaria last week killed five Israelis, one a pregnant woman. The Lebanese paper El-Nashra reported that the group, which has ties to Al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility in an email to the Arab press.

Robert Zimmerman, brother of Florida neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman who was recently cleared by a jury of criminal wrongdoing in the self-defense shooting of Trayvon Martin, will join host Mark Walters Sunday on Armed American Radio, a program media advisory announced today. Also joining the conversation, scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern Time, will be Robert Zimmerman’s attorney Jeff Dowdy.“I am absolutely thrilled to offer the Zimmerman family a supportive environment to talk to the nation,” Walters said. “I look forward to providing them a friendly, pro CCW, pro self-defense venue.“Unlike the mainstream media who continue to drag George Zimmerman...

A bad stretch for liberals just got worse, all because George Zimmerman decided again he needed to get out of a vehicle. This time Zimmerman helped rescue a family of four from a wrecked SUV in Florida. Turns out it was more than left-wing radio hosts Bill Press and Stephanie Miller could bear, as both expressed doubts about the incident while heaping aspersions on Zimmerman, who recently showed how a man of color facing a murder charge in a high-profile case could get a fair trial in America. (Audio clips after the jump) This morning, Press and guest Igor Volsky...

Video at Link

Jim continues discussion of the George Zimmerman trial verdict with Baton Rouge Rep. Ted James. *** 8 minutes in and 23 minutes in. At 23:30 he "stakes" his law degree that Trayvon was entitled to a jury of his peers, despite a listener pointing out that, in fact, it was the defendant, Zimmerman, entitled to such Constitutional protection. The rest of the conversation contains the usual spin mixed with falsehoods: That stand your ground had something to do with this case, that TM was an innocent child shot down, etc.

A gang of Latino punks thought it was amusing to key the private car of a police officer (and USMC Afghanistan/Iraq vet) Jonathan Molina, who lived in their neighborhood. When he confronted them, they assaulted him. One knocked him unconscious, and straddled him, beating his skull against the concrete. There’s a news story about the accused doer’s indictment. Just like Trayvon Martin did to George Zimmerman. Just like Trayvon, the accused, Juan Gonzalez, was “an unarmed child” of 17. Unlike Zimmerman, Molina had more restraint, or perhaps he was already unconscious.He suffered “a fractured skull, internal head injuries and multiple...

'He is a very quiet man and will not like having his name mentioned all over the press. I am sure he is very grateful to Zimmerman but he is not the type you will see on a chat show talking about what happened.' ... 'Mark has two young children and has got to live his life round here. Why would he want to mark himself out. 'Whatever he says could be taken out of context. If he praises Zimmerman then people will say he is making him into a hero. It is easier if he says nothing.'

How can we demand respect from others when we show so little of it for ourselves? Everyone agrees that Trayvon Martin's death was a senseless loss of life. While we'll never know all the facts, it seems likely that George Zimmerman did "profile" Martin when he first saw him. What happened after that will forever be unknown, and, in my mind, the facts were insufficient to convict Zimmerman. The establishment view of this tragedy is that it is primarily about racial profiling, "stand your ground" laws and the relative value our society places on the lives of young black males....

Hundreds of people attended a "Justice for Trayvon" vigil organized by National Action Network's Chicago Chapter Saturday at the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago.

On Friday, bestselling author Brad Thor offered to buy a new gun for George Zimmerman and all the ammunition he wants after learning the Department of Justice put a hold on the evidence in the case, delaying the return of Zimmerman's weapon. “Read this carefully, as I don’t want 2 be misunderstood: SCREW the #DOJ. If they won’t give #Zimmerman his gun back, I’ll buy him a new one,” he tweeted.“Whatever gun he wants + however much ammo, consider it done. I’m buying. Done deal,” he said in a tweet to Zimmerman's brother.Thor addressed the issue earlier in the day...

This account was found on a site devoted to survival in times when societal order has broken down.  It offers some interesting background to the Martin/Zimmerman confrontation.   Response to the Zimmerman trial verdict was mixed at the site.   This was penned by "Mac":  I know the area where Zimmerman was forced to kill to survive. I walked away from a very lucrative service contract in Sanford, Florida just two weeks before the incident happened because of the people that live there. One of the properties I was assigned work on was just around the corner from where it...

Charles Barkley has never been one to shy away from controversy, and on Thursday he weighed in with his opinion on the George Zimmerman verdict. “Well, I agree with the verdict,” Barkley told CNBC. “I feel sorry that young kid got killed, but they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him. Something clearly went wrong that night — clearly something went wrong — and I feel bad for anybody who loses a kid, but if you looked at the case and you don’t make it — there was some racial profiling, no question about it — but something happened that...

It seems that Barry is getting jealous of Trayvon Martin. Sick though it is, it is typical dictators with messianic complexes to become envious when someone steals the headlines from them. Obama couldn't resist and had to take back the attention apparently by saying that "Trayvon could have been me 35 years ago." I don't know about that but he certainly is a dead-ringer for... (Pic)

President Obama made a surprise visit to the White House press room on Friday to speak about the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin case, making some of the boldest and most open remarks about race of his presidency.

President Obama spoke about the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin and ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws on Friday at the White House. REPORTERS: Whoa! Q: Hello. PRESIDENT OBAMA: That’s so -- that’s so disappointing, man. Jay, is this kind of -- the kind of respect that you get? (Laughter.) Q: Wake up! Q: What brings you out here, Mr. -- PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, on -- on -- on television it usually looks like you’re addressing a full room. Q: (Laughs.) It’s just a mirage. Q: There’s generally not -- PRESIDENT OBAMA: All right. (Cross talk.) Q: (Inaudible) -- got...

There is an illustrated list of Leftist and media reactions here. "It’s 2013 and an American jury just acquitted a man who admitted to stalking and killing an unarmed child" — Richard Dreyfus, actor I think you can see why in the face above.  That face is expressing glee  -- barely restrained delight.  The slightest hint that America is unjust is manna from heaven for Leftists.  They  build their self-esteem on being wiser and more compassionate than "the masses".  And given America's black/white tensions, a chance to see others as racist is not to be missed.  It is America's...

Dream Defenders, the main group that has been agitating the protest movement surrounding the Trayvon Martin case, was spawned by activists employed by a who’s who of the race-hijacking radical left. From the socialist-oriented SEIU union to ACORN to Occupy to a litany of George Soros-funded organizations, the deep connections behind Dream Defenders raises questions about the motivation of an organization that claims to be a grassroots effort working to oppose racism. Dream Defenders has been leading Martin protests since the onset and has been credited with agitating for George Zimmerman’s arrest. The group was behind the protests that blockaded...

FULL TITLE - "Nobody Will Go Near Rachel Jeantel's Revelation That Trayvon Martin Inflicted a "Whoop Ass" on George Zimmerman Because He Thought Zimmerman was Gay" BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Let me go back to Piers Morgan CNN two nights ago. I keep learning things that Rachel Jeantel said. I didn't hear the interview. I just read about it. The audio sound bites that we heard yesterday are all I've heard. I didn't watch it. Apparently she said something else that's kind of entertaining. This is from Breitbart News. "Prosecution witness Rachel Jeantel, speaking to Piers Morgan on CNN last night,...

While much of the nation was focused on the pro-Trayvon Martin “protests” (practically riots) in Los Angeles and Oakland on Monday, demonstrators in Houston resorted to violence as they rallied for “justice for Trayvon.” The demonstrators in Houston on Monday evening successfully blocked traffic on a highway overpass and the road below. A woman, badly in need of getting her 7-year-old granddaughter to the hospital due to an allergic reaction, found herself at the mercy of the rowdy protesters.

There is an aphorism to the effect that there is only a small difference between police and criminals, just as there is only a small difference between sheep dogs and wolves. It is that small difference, however, that distinguishes heroes from enemies of society. Sheep dogs and wolves are members of the same species, and both are physically and temperamentally capable of killing other animals. The key difference is, of course, that sheep dogs never harm the sheep they protect from the wolves. A police officer must, like the violent criminals he or she arrests, be similarly capable of handling...

An unsolicited memo to State Attorney Angela Corey: You are a public official, and people have the right to express an opinion about how you are doing your job. -------- D'Alemberte is a former president of the American Bar Association, a former president of Florida State University and a law professor — not too shabby in the legal credentials department.When Corey was appointed to head up the investigation into the shooting death of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, D'Alemberte had this to say:"I cannot imagine a worse choice for a prosecutor to serve in the Sanford case. There is nothing...

MIAMI (CBS4) – Rachel Jeantel opens up about her friendship with Trayvon Martin, calling him a good and true friend. “He’s got an energy that makes you laugh, he’s real funny, and I like that in a person,” Jeantel said. “Trayvon never judged me, because I always had an under bite. It’s an under bite I need to get done. He never judged. He just said ‘oh, okay, that ain’t no problem’.”

Everything I initially wrote about the Trayvon Martin killing was based on network news reports. And it was almost entirely wrong. In my KOMO radio commentary of March 23, 2012, I said the following about the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman: “Thinking of 17-year old Trayvon the way we’d think of our own kids is exactly how to view this tragedy. The man who police say shot him, George Zimmerman, is a 28-year old CrimeWatch volunteer, who apparently did just about everything a Crimewatch volunteer SHOULDN’T do, such as following the 17 year old teen when a 911...

Twitter was in meltdown when the verdict came Saturday night in the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin trial. Facebookers like this one were among many writing their fair share of posts on the trial and its outcome. One online site in particular captured considerable attention – well over 100,000 visits a day and a public post-trial thank-you from Robert Zimmerman, father of the younger Zimmerman: “I have thanked Mark Omara and Don West. Now I would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to you, our friends at CTH.” The Conservative Treehouse (aka “CTH” and “The Last Refuge”) earned Zimmerman’s grateful acknowledgement because...

I just have a question that I've not heard anyone address. Its been stated that there had been a bunch of burglaries in George Zimmerman's neighborhood prior to his encounter with Trayvon. I'm curious what happened to the burglary rate in that neighborhood after the shooting? Did it drop, cut in half, pretty much stop all together, etc????

  The race card remains the Left’s all-purpose ace-in-the-hole that gets played any time they need to bolster a weak argument or intimidate others from expressing opposing views. Through the years it’s been played so often it’s gotten faded and dog-eared by overuse. But the Left will keep playing that same old hand as long as they think it’s working. And now that George Zimmerman has been acquitted of second degree murder in Sanford Florida, the race card is flying about like so many games of Fifty-Two Pick-Up. Liberals like to cite racism as evidence of what an unjust and...

Please indulge me in a very infrequent vanity. In all the uproar following the trial, I may have missed something. While I believe that the facts show Zimmerman's innocence beyond ANY doubt, I still think the state's case was hurt by what appeared to this layman to be an inept and incompetent prosecution. (Yes, I believe they are corrupt and unethical too, but that isn't the question here). So here's my question: Has anyone on the left or any black organizations or leaders, had any criticism at all of the prosecution team? If they care so much about Trayvon, why...

Attorney General Eric Holder blasted "stand-your-ground laws" in the wake of the acquittal of George Zimmerman for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin—saying such laws cause more violence than they prevent. Mr. Holder, speaking to the NAACP Annual Convention in Orlando, Fla., not far from where Mr. Zimmerman was acquitted last week, took direct aim at stand-your-ground laws, which say a person can use force in self-defense without first attempting to retreat from the situation. "Separate and apart from the case that has drawn the nation´s attention, it´s time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow

In the wake of the Zimmerman verdict, many media outlets have erroneously focused on Florida's Stand Your Ground law, which was never invoked by the defense. In fact, Zimmerman declined the opportunity to seek a Stand Your Ground hearing earlier this year. Reason explains: The initial decision not to arrest Zimmerman, former Sanford, Florida, Police Chief Bill Lee said last week (as paraphrased by CNN), "had nothing to do with Florida's controversial 'Stand Your Ground' law" because "from an investigative standpoint, it was purely a matter of self-defense." And as The New York Times explained last month, "Florida's Stand Your...

I was watching Special Report yesterday evening. At the end, Bret Baier said something to the effect that any pictures we may see of Trayvon Martin are probably fake. Did I get that wrong? Did anyone else hear that?

THIS JUST IN… George Zimmerman filed a civil suit today just before 5PM EST at the Seminole County, Florida, Courthouse. The suit alleges the parents of Trayvon Martin, failed to control their minor-age son on the evening of February 26, 2012, when Martin repeatedly assaulted Zimmerman, placing him in imminent fear for his life and resulting in the death of Martin. The civil action specifies that Zimmerman acted in self defense resulting in the case being ruled a justifiable homicide by a jury trial that ended on Saturday with a verdict of not guilty. Desperate state prosecutors charged the victim...

Watch the chaos unfold live in L.A. via NBC Los Angeles (the feed has gone in and out): View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com. Aerial video has caught some throwing rocks and a possible robbery. You can watch a live stream from the Oakland protests here (feed may also cut in and out):

Judge Jeanine Pirro slammed Florida Prosecutor Angela Corey for canceling the grand jury and charging Zimmerman herself, noting it looks a lot like she capitulated to public pressure instead of filing legitimate charges. She also blasted Corey for firing the employee who made it known that all the evidence wasn’t given to the defense and making it difficult on the defense to acquire all the evidence.

Did the system work? Was justice served? We like to think of those questions as identical. After all, the point of a criminal justice system is to dispense justice. But with the acquittal of George Zimmerman on charges of murdering Trayvon Martin, the system worked, yet justice fell short. This outcome is simultaneously sad but healthy — sad because a 17-year-old boy is dead and his killer walks free; healthy because the verdict seems justified as a matter of law ... ... No doubt race played a role in Martin’s death. Zimmerman likely would not have called the police about...

Ironically were it not for Frances Robles writing a Miami Herald article on March 26th 2012 an entire chain of events would not have taken place. It was that Robles article, and the outlining of the Miami-Dade School Police Department’s report on a Trayvon Martin incident from October 2011, that kicked off an internal investigation by M-DSPD Police Chief Hurley against his own officers to find out who leaked the police report.[Note: The Miami-Dade Public School System has its own Police force, and Chief, who report to the School Board and Superintendent - Not the Police Dept. The Police Chief...

There seems to be a general dismissal of the idea among many -- among white liberals and some blacks -- that it doesn't matter if Trayvon threw the first punch, and it doesn't matter if Trayvon was pounding Zimmerman's head into the concrete. ------ The idea that it's impossible that Trayvon threw the first punch, or was pounding Zimmerman into the concrete, is so stupid and ignorant I can safely dismiss it as a not a genuine belief at all, but merely something claimed publicly for convenience. Which leads me to the other possibility -- that those who want Zimmerman...

"You know, this is a case that should never have been brought in the first place, certainly not as a second degree murder prosecution," Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz told CNN's "State of the Union With Candy Crowley" on Sunday. Dershowitz said George Zimmerman was put on trial because "there was political pressure on the governor, and he appointed somebody (special prosecutor Angela Corey) who had the worst reputation in Florida for overcharging. And she did exactly what she was supposed to do; she overcharged. She charged second-degree murder in a case where there was reasonable doubt written all over...