In a Miami auditorium less than three miles from where slain teen Trayvon Martin is buried, his friend Rachel Jeantel on Friday was presented her high school diploma, fulfilling the promise she said she made him.
The moment was even more poignant with Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, looking on.
“Her coming is like having Trayvon there saying, ‘You did it. You proved people wrong,’” Jeantel told Yahoo News.
You go, Rachel girl. Of course, you didn’t really have to prove anything to anybody other than yourself.
…when Jeantel was forced to admit she couldn’t read a letter written in cursive, the court of public opinion was cruel.
I bet most of the ‘scholars’ making fun of Jeantel for not being able to read cursive handwriting can’t read Latin.
Latin was still part of a standard grammar school education back in my grandfather’s day, but has long since disappeared as a requirement (unless one is going to become a doctor or priest, etc.).
Ever since the Sandy Hook massacre, a small but vocal faction of the gun rights movement has been targeting women who speak up on the issue—whether to propose tighter regulations, educate about the dangers to children, or simply to sell guns with innovative security features. The vicious and often sexually degrading attacks have evolved far beyond online trolling, culminating in severe bullying, harassment, invasion of privacy, and physical aggression. Though vitriol flows from both sides in the gun debate, these menacing tactics have begun to alarm even some entrenched pro-gun conservatives.
Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, has faced a continuous barrage. “For me, the question is always, ‘Why does this person want to kill or rape or silence me?'” she says. “I think the answer is that this issue touches a cultural nerve based on gender, geography, and other politics. There are pundits who make a good deal of money encouraging this type of anger.”
What she said.
Gun rights activists always point to the Second Amendment and the intentions of the Founders. Did the Founders want to ensure freedom from tyranny? Sure.
Freedom from tyranny should include freedom from armed assholics. I feel certain that they had assholics even back in the era of the Founders, but back then they were largely limited to the damage they could cause with a muzzleloading rifle or a musket–a far cry from modern assault weapons:
Rifled firearms saw their first major combat usage in the American colonies during the Seven Years war, and later the American Revolution in the eighteenth century. The weapon never fully replaced the musket until the development of the Minié ball, mainly due to slower reload times from a tighter fitting lead ball, and the fouling of the bore after prolonged usage, eventually preventing loading, and rendering the weapon useless until thoroughly cleaned. This type of firearm was made popular by German gunsmiths who immigrated to America, bringing with them the technology of rifling from where it originated. The accuracy achieved by the longrifle made it an ideal tool for hunting wildlife for food in colonial America.
VIERA, Fla. – A judge allegedly struck a public defender Monday after a verbal confrontation in a Brevard County courtroom.
The two went into a hallway, where Murphy allegedly grabbed Weinstock by the collar and started hitting him, according to the public defender’s office.
Although off camera, the two can still be heard yelling at each other, with one of them saying, “You want to (expletive) with me?”
A Brevard County sheriff’s deputy stopped the fight.
Local 6 legal analyst Luis Calderon said both men could face disciplinary action for what happened in court, simply because of the attention the case is getting.
Calderon said worst cast scenarios for both men could result in them losing their jobs and possibly being disbarred.
Hat tip to crazy1946 at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the link to the article about the NRA retracting their recent statement about open carry:
The National Rifle Association has disavowed its recent criticism of pro-gun demonstrations in Texas.
The statement in question reproached gun activists in Texas for their attempts to take high-powered semiautomatic rifles into fast food restaurants. It said the activists had “crossed the line from enthusiasm to downright foolishness,” and denounced their tactics as “weird” and even “scary.”
In response, the activists flipped out. The group most notably involved in the fast food demonstrations, Open Carry Texas, issued a statement demanding that the NRA retract its “disgusting and disrespectful comments.” That’s basically what they got from Cox on Tuesday. Cox said the NRA shares the activists’ goal of getting Texas’ restrictions on the open carry of handguns changed.
“Ultimately, what this comes down to is a tactics discussion,” Cox told NRA News host Cam Edwards. “Some people believe that the best way to effectuate that sort of policy change is in protest. And what they did in Texas is, some people decided to protest the absurdity of the ban on … open carry of handguns by carrying their long guns openly, and legally. Now, the truth is, an alert went out that referred to this type of behavior as weird, or somehow not normal. And that was a mistake. It shouldn’t have happened. I’ve had a discussion with the staffer who wrote that piece, and expressed his personal opinion. Our job is not to criticize the lawful behavior of fellow gun owners.”
Here’s the comment I liked:
[RadicalCentrist]
DanaBlankenhorn said:
The NRA is a trade group for people who make
and sell assault weapons (among other things)
The trade group representing distillers feels obliged to recommend drinking responsibly. The trade group representing automakers doesn’t support the “right” to drive at 150 mph down a residential street.
Here’s the law on open carry of long guns in Texas (boldface font my edit for emphasis):
Long gun and black powder weapon open carry is not forbidden by law, unless it is done in a manner “calculated to cause alarm.” Open carry of a long gun is generally allowed in rural areas.
Yes, we have a Bill of Rights, but the enumerated rights therein are not ‘carte blanche.’
Free speech doesn’t allow the frivolous yelling of “Fire” in a crowded theater because that would be “calculated to cause alarm.”
Carrying one’s high-powered, semi-automatic rifle into Chipotle just to try to make a ‘point’ is frivolous, and “calculated to cause alarm.”
Can’t leave a comment? Trying to alert with two posts@bcc.list @websleuth
Not sure as to what your difficulty is. I looked at bcclist for recent activity, but didn’t see anything. If you’re having difficulty there, you could email “Crick” (thelist ‘at’ bcclist.com).
Is it that you tried to post something here on whonoze’s wordpress blog, and it’s hung up in moderation? If so, Perfesser whonoze gets automatic email notification when something is hung up in moderation.
Case ID: 14CECG01235 – David Piercy vs Santiago Rodriguez – -NON JURY-
Filing Date: Friday , May 02nd, 2014
Type: 43 – Other petition
Status: HPTN – Request Orders to Stop Harass
02-JUN-2014 04:01 PM
Minute order Judge Cabrera
Entry: Minute order from Dept 404: Clerk: J Yang/D Warnshuis Reporter: NR Nature of Hearing: Show Cause re Harassment The court denies civil harassment restraining order. Any orders previously issued are dissolved/lifted. Request for attorney fees denied. dhouston
Hopefully, everybody will stop these unproductive ‘games.’
Dunno who all has seen this, but Stutzman and Weiner of the Orlando Sentinel put together a “Where are they now?” piece about GZ, Judge Nelson, O’Mara, former Chief Lee, TM’s parents, Jeantel, Crump, Corey, and the jurors. It was mostly enlightening to me for the updates on O’Mara and Lee. although I did find it interesting that the jurors reportedly met for dinner around Christmas 2013 (I bet Juror B-29 didn’t attend):
Looks like Jim Hoft of thegatewaypundit dot com got sucked in by a relatively old News Nerd satire piece (Will Smith was allegedly making a movie about the GZ/TM case, starring his son Jayden and GZ was getting paid 3.2 million as a consultant):
As one might expect, the piece at the right-wing thegatewaypundit site has a lot of rabidly pro-GZ commentary, but this one was just funny to me:
Rose LouAnnWatson • 3 hours ago
You mean they’ll lie like snakes and scorpions to glorify Trayvon while slandering and crucifying Zimmerman, for the sake of their Stalinist Agenda of pure destruction upon the Public, without Mercy or Pity, in a promotion of Destruction for the sake of Treason.
Aquited of all charges, check em ->
Posted by Jaffa, a Wrongful Death client, 11 months ago
…I recommend Donald West.
I hired Donald more than 3 years ago.
Donald handled my Wrongful Death matter.
I have previously worked with 1-2 lawyers.
West is the Best! He is at all times professional and aggressive defense attorney. he is ethical honest and hardworking, he went the extra mile for my case, and even ate lunch with me! West brought hope to me in my darkest hour of need, and he can be trusted with all the skeletons in your closet and all your deepest secrets.
Actually, the reviews for West at AVVO dot com are full of interesting tidbits.
Hat tip to Xena at her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the reminder that June is Black Music Month, not to mention videos of the fabulous Big Mama Thornton:
RIP, Ruby. I hope you’ll forgive a white girl playing a song performed by a white boy in your honor, but Little Richard’s mother apparently thought well of his rendition:
On her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog, Xena details some of the history and specifics of the harassment she’s received at the hands of various people because of her stance on the GZ case:
On another front, the next action in GZ’s case against NBC Universal Media LLC is supposed to be a hearing on Thursday, June 19, 2014 at 930 AM (Eastern Time):
Editor’s note: Mark O’Mara is a CNN legal analyst. He is a criminal defense attorney who frequently writes and speaks about issues related to race, guns and self-defense in the context of the American criminal justice system. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
Listen, reasonable restrictions are necessary to assure the continued viability of our Second Amendment rights, and to curb the unnecessary bloodshed caused by the proliferation of guns into hands of irresponsible people who care little about constitutional rights, and less about the sanctity of life. Like that of a boy in Oregon, who was shot dead.
Like Trayvon Benjamin Martin in Florida at the hands of your client George Michael Zimmerman, you son of a Mara.
SANFORD – A judge this morning threw out part of George Zimmerman’s libel suit against NBC Universal and held out the prospect that she may throw out the whole thing.
Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson tossed the allegations related to one of four broadcast and said she needs to do more homework before deciding about the other three.
The hearing started shortly after 10 a.m. and concluded shortly before 11 a.m.
Zimmerman did not attend.
Being that the hearing is now over, I hope somebody will report on specifically which of the “four” it was that got tossed:
…If the case is not dismissed, it will be great to see Zimmerman deposed. In a civil case, NBC will have wide latitude regarding questions they can pose to him…
It would be great if that lying killer GZ finally took the stand.
Robert Zimmerman Sr. and his wife Gladys Zimmerman had offered to settle their suit for $750,000, records show.
But in an order signed Thursday, U.S. Magistrate David Baker says the money the Zimmermans stand to recover — if they recover any — is not even a fraction of that, not “anything close to $75,000”.
That’s the minimum amount required for a federal civil suit. As a consequence, Baker kicked the case back to state circuit court in Sanford, where the Zimmermans first filed it in March.
The Zimmermans allege they’ve suffered $600,000 worth of emotional distress. The tweet forced them to move out and go into hiding, they allege.
Baker focused on the Zimmermans’ alleged “hard expenses.” They reported $6,900 in hotel bills, $22,800 in rent and $7,700 in additional living expenses. Those things, Baker wrote, total $37,400, far below the $75,000 federal court minimum. In state circuit court, where the suit goes next, the minimum claim is $15,000.
Not to mention that they told the OS that they’d left their home long before Barr retweeted their published address. Also, their lying killer son GZ didn’t actually go on the lam (although he appears to have come close to doing so), so they didn’t lose their house when they put it up for his bond.
These triple dippers (insofar as I can tell, Mother Gladys has a government pension, and Father RZSR has two, one from his military service, and another from his time as a magistrate) don’t appear to be suffering overly much, other than from their delusion that they’re victims.
SANFORD – In his attempt to win a libel suit against NBC Universal Media, George Zimmerman’s civil attorney wants records about the Rev. Al Sharpton, according to new court pleadings. Same for Angela Corey.
Beasley also disclosed that he intends to press for communications from several NBC news employees and executives, including Phil Griffin, president of MSNBC.
Sharpton, who has a show in MSNBC, was one of Zimmerman’s harshest critics and traveled to Sanford, calling for his arrest.
Hmmm. I could ‘kind of’ understand going after comm records for those who have dealings with NBC, but what’s up with going after Corey’s records? Not that I have any great love for her, but what does she have to do with NBC?
Ya know, it’s true that the first time GZ described TM as black was prompted by an inquiry from the dispatcher, but later on in the same call he volunteered that information again with no prompting at all.
Oh, and when I say ‘kind of,’ I mean if I were a lawyer trying to win a case regardless of whether it had any actual merit:
In his affidavit, he also accuses NBC of editing his 911 [sic] call to a police dispatcher in a way that “caused me to be identified as a racist stalker.”
NBC’s broadcast excerpts from GZ’s Non Emergency Number police call didn’t make me think GZ was a racist stalker; GZ’s full, unexpurgated NEN police call did that.
When you really listen to it, you know damned well he didn’t say “Fcking punks,” but rather “Fcking *oons.”
As to “stalker,” I hope NBC talks to the Retreat resident who said GZ used to follow him every time he went jogging. Hey, there are all kinds of things NBC could go after, being that this is a civil case.
I agree what is with going after Angela Corey’s records? I would say it was an effort to run up his bill but tub’s lawyer will never see a dime. She threw his case and this is his typical thank you to anyone who tries to help him.
From the article:
In paperwork filed Friday, Beasley disclosed some of the people he intends to press for information or whose communication records he plans to seek.
Beasley needs to understand that this is a botanical issue, and the information he should be pressing for is
1. How was the watering of the potted palm performed?
2. What soil nurtured the potted palm?
3. Was the potted palm kept in the shade for extended periods?
4. Does the container of the potted palm have any defects?
5. Does the potted palm have any parasites?
As a sidebar, I’m sorry to read that Xena is feeling under the weather. Take care of yourself, and get back to one hundred percent, girl.
Hat tip to Xena at her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the link to an Orlando Sentinel update on the Z divorce (boldface font my edit for emphasis):
As part of the divorce case, Zimmerman filed a financial affidavit last week, spelling out his income, assets and debts.
According to it, he spends $3,304 a month, despite having no income.
What a ‘class’ act.
Is it too much to hope for that the two hundred clams a month GZ allegedly spends on mental health counseling has put a dent in what’s really wrong with him (narcissism)? Probably.
All this because a hollow shell of a human being needed hollow-point bullets to feel like a man.
A judge ruled Monday against George Zimmerman in a defamation lawsuit he filed against NBC regarding 911 calls made after Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in 2012.
Seminole County Circuit Judge Debra Nelson said in an order made public Monday that Zimmerman had failed to show that the news network acted with malice.
The judge says the malice standard is appropriate because Zimmerman was a public figure.
Is it over? Dunno, the Seminole County Clerk of Courts detailed case view hasn’t updated yet:
A Seminole County judge has entered an order in favor of NBCUniversal dismissing a lawsuit by George Zimmerman against the company.
Judge Debra Nelson, who presided over Zimmerman’s criminal trial, wrote in her order that “there are no genuine issues of material fact upon which a reasonable jury could find that the Defendants’ acted with actual malice; that there exists absolutely no clear and convincing evidence that Defendants’ knew that the information published was false at the time it was published, or recklessly disregard the truth or falsity of those statements at the time they were published”.
It’s not known if Zimmerman will appeal Nelson’s summary judgement.
Myself, I’m not doing a dance of glee over the decision, but rather feel a certain grim satisfaction.
It’s obscene that GZ has gotten as much money as he has already for killing somebody, and giving him more would have been beyond obscene.
He needs finally to learn that he doesn’t always get a free pass in life. Perhaps if GZ had learned that hard lesson earlier in life, TM would still be alive.
All right, I’m trying not to laugh, but given GZ’s penchant both for the “Zim” meme and posting sanctimonious tweets, this from Yahtzee at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog just makes me wheeze (boldface font my edit for emphasis):
A href=”http://blackbutterfly7.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/zimmermans-suit-against-nbc-dismissed/#comment-31552″>blackbutterfly at wordpress
Hat tip to yahtzee at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the link to the Washington Post piece about a potential appeal of the decision in the GZ versus NBC Universal Media LLC lawsuit:
I’m inclined to agree with yahtzee, and not invest too much energy into the possibility of an appeal unless and until we see some hard evidence thereof. I notice that while WaPo blogger Wemple quoted attorney Beasley, the statement “An appeal is coming.” was not a quote from Beasley.
I also notice that Junior tweeted a link to the WaPo piece, and if anybody had more information on the subject, I would think it would be Killer Boy’s bro. GZ himself and his alleged girlfriend Sam are both still silent (on twitter, anyway).
The Seminole County Clerk of Courts updated the case:
I was about to nominate Manjoo for President of the Shetland Pony Rescue League (the ‘joke’ is that when an optimist finds a pile of manure, they start digging enthusiastically, looking for a Shetland pony) until I read the final paragraph of his piece:
But if every study showing Facebook’s power is greeted with an outcry over its power, Facebook and other sites won’t disclose any research into how they work. And isn’t it better to know their strength, and try to defend against it, than to never find out at all?
On Monday, Judge Debra Nelson – the same judge who presided over George Zimmerman’s criminal trial – threw out his libel suit against NBC and several of its reporters.
Even though NBC had apologized for its actions and fired two reporters, George Zimmerman could not have been expecting justice. He had no political value to the justice system and even less to the media.
What had to surprise him, though, is the reason why Nelson threw out the suit and spared NBC a major payout. According to Nelson, Zimmerman had made himself a “public figure” a year before the shooting.
Two words for ya, Jack: Fucking coons. Your boy GZ said them, and further scrutiny of this case would expose that.
I think the reality is that Nelson tried to make this lawsuit go away because the state of Florida doesn’t want ‘sunshine’ on all the corruption in this case.
I wonder how many people in Florida, regardless of their views on race and gun laws, are silently cursing GZ, because in his own little dysfunctional way, he’s exposed so many to scrutiny and risk.
Make no mistake, though, GZ isn’t innocent by a long shot. Listen to his non-emergency phone call, watch his ‘re-enactment,’ read the transcripts of his interviews, and hey, by all means, read up on his ‘history’: he’s a lying killer who’s been enabled by an untold number of people with various agendas.
The ‘real’ GZ is back tweeting. It looks like the afternoon of July 2nd, because his first tweet since April 30th was actually a retweet, and I can’t tell the time on retweets:
Two things about GZ’s breaking of his twitter ‘fast’:
It suggests that his long silence was indeed about the NBC lawsuit.
It also suggests that there won't be an appeal,
or at least that they won't be trying to use the "not a public figure" angle.
Of course, we still haven’t heard from the feds…
As they might say in Lombardy, let yourself out, boy.
That business about FT getting a call frm GZ immediately after the homicide is interesing. What phone did GZ allegedly use to do that (we have the list of calls from that night for his main cell phone).
Sure would be nice to hear that interview, although I hope Uncle Frank isn’t just spouting lies in a pathetic attempt to garner attention.
I poked around, and the screen capture of what is allegedly Taaffe’s Facebook with the info that he’ll be talking to the feds on the 16th seemed a bit hinky in that the picture changed:
There is so much wrong with the story about a guy bit by a great white shark at Manhattan Beach, California that it’s difficult to know where to start, but a couple of things jump out at me.
First, to the people who try to insert politics into absolutely everything: Shut! Up!
Second, I find it disturbing that some people on the pier were allegedly laughing at the prospect of somebody being bitten by a shark. This is not a Hollywood movie, you insensitive clods.
I’m sure the poor man was indeed terrified; however, I also felt sympathy for the seven-foot juvenile shark who’d only just been freed from a half-hour-plus fight at the end of a fishing line.
Finally, the fisherman who hooked the shark was allegedly hoping for a bat ray using a sardine as bait (and not “chumming”). I hope he was planning to eat that hypothetical ray, because the idea of ‘sport’ fishing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Politics are a fact of life, and it is of course the First Amendment prerogative of everybody to comment on news stories, but unmitigated assholics who make observations like “I hope sharks eats all the (insert derogatory nickname for the unfavored group of your choice), help nothing and no one, including themselves.
For those at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog who are puzzled by references to GZ’s fiancee–I believe that would have been Veronica Zuazo, and the reference to VZ being told by a female caller that GZ had been questioned by the police might well have to do with the incident involving the ‘undercover’ law enforcement agent. The timing would be roughly correct.
Hat tip to Xena and her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the update on the case of Curtis Reeves who has been charged with second-degree murder for the shooting death of fellow movie theater patron Chad Oulson in January 2014:
I have to wonder if Reeves has always had a short temper. I suspect he’s always been a control-freak, and retirement didn’t afford him enough opportunities to micro-manage other people, so he ‘had’ to invent some.
Hat tip to Xena for the story about the needless and tragic death of a three year old at the hands of somebody trying to use a high-powered rifle as a crutch(!):
Gad, that story about a couple being stripped-searched over a three-buck pair of earrings is just sad. If the proprietor truly believed they were shoplifting, why could they not first look at the surveillance footage–and why would the couple not insist on that before consenting to a search? Just sad all the way round:
And that horrifying story about a NM woman’s ordeal after a visit to Mexico makes one not want to travel abroad–well, it does me, anyway:
When you compute the length of time between The Event, & The Nostalgia For The Event, the span seems to be about a year less in each cycle. Eventually within the next quarter of a century, the nostalgia cycles will be so close together that people will not be able to take a step without being nostalgic for the one they just took. At that point, everything stops. Death By Nostalgia. -FZ
I myself wonder if we’ll someday be nostalgic for tomorrow.
(Please understand that I personally am nostalgic to a near-crippling degree.)
At a glance, I can’t see what “VoteMike2014′ might have tweeted to cause GZ to tweet at him.
(Mike) Dickinson does appear to be yet another person who should stay off of twitter because he doesn’t know how to act like a mature, decent human being–but GZ calling him a “perverted douchebag?”
That strikes me as being analogous to the cannibal-orgy-sized cauldron calling the tea kettle black.
Today’s chortle comes courtesy of Turner Classic Movies, Bob Hope, and imdb (boldface font my edit for emphasis).
The movie is a kind of quasi-noir (but you know it has to be comedy because of Hope), and Hope’s character is doing voice-over narration of a flashback. He’s explaining that he wanted to become a detective:
I’ll follow the first 10 people that post confirmation that they reported (not simply blocked) @votemike2014 for harassment. Ready, set, Go!
…2:33 PM – 11 Jul 2014
The thing is, I’ve gone back through Dickinson’s twitter feed, and while there’s been plenty of recent mentions of GZ in it, none of them seem to predate GZ calling him a “perverted douchebag.”
It looks like GZ is trying to shut down Dickinson because the latter is running for congress in Virginia.
Did GZ finally find a ‘job?’ Is ‘somebody’ paying him to do this?
Last night was the one year anniversary of the realization the state would be willing to let a teen be murdered and the killer walk out with a not guilty verdict.and what this new law called SYG means.
In that year the Maetins and Fultons have taken their son’s murder and used it for good.
The killer, who walked free, used the last year to commit adultery, beat his father in law, destroy his wife’s IPAD, threatened and be arrested for DV on new girlfriend, get 3 tickets, hold pixs at gun show, hire himself out to be in a faux MMA match, run away when he found out he would actually have to participate, copy a copyright painting, sue media, loose case, parents sue somebody for something. Not one single act of good or gratitude expressed to anyone who helped him.
I’d say this latest is not a job, just another bid for attention by a massively bit of stupid humanity. File it under the ignore trash.
His DickinsonForCongress dot com website appears to be disabled, as it redirects to something that tells you as much. Here’s some of the text from the Google cache copy:
…Mike Dickinson was born and raised in Henrico County. He learned from an early age that hard work and perseverance would lead to success. He graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, with the help of student loans, and established a successful career.
As a restaurant management consultant, Mike learned firsthand about the challenges facing small businesses. He knows that Washington’s uncertainty and gridlock coming has crippled the ability of our job creators to expand and plan for the future.
Mike believes Congress needs to get back to finding solutions to our nation’s problems rather than being stuck in a loop of partisan bickering and crisis management. As a business person, he understands that long term planning is required, not lurching from crisis to crisis.
That is why Mike is running for Congress. He will focus on fixing our economy and providing opportunities for the people of the district. He will ensure that our schools have the resources they need to ensure that the next generation has the same opportunities he had. He will fight for a fair minimum wage so an honest day’s work brings an honest day’s pay. With your vote, Mike can work to put our nation back on track…
That sounds good, but his twitter feed doesn’t measure up.
Of course, with regard to GZ calling Dickinson nasty names, I think the cauldron/kettle analogy still stands.
Such activism frustrates Robert Zimmerman, George Zimmerman’s older brother. He said George Zimmerman is unfairly included in examples of senseless gun violence and racial profiling and continues to live under a shroud of unjust negativity related to the shooting.
The verdict was a legal victory without winners, said Robert Zimmerman, who explained that reports continue to describe his brother as the man acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin rather than the man who “who killed Trayvon Martin in self-defense after he attacked him.”
Maybe that’s because the only evidence that GZ was attacked by TM is GZ saying so. And his family parroting him.
I look forward to the day when accusing someone of racism without evidence is defamation AND a hate crime.
…1:48 PM – 14 Jul 2014
I myself look forward to the day when people can no longer kill somebody, give the weakest excuses ever, yet still walk.
I don’t know if I can hope for a day when:
A cure is found for fear of 'otherness," which would lead to
a reduction in hyper-vigilance--among many other things.
A return to old-fashioned Marine training where people are taught
the difference between their firearm, and their 'gun.'
Brilliant comeback!
I look forward to the day when a moron actually reads our bill of rights. As for tubs, there was more than enough proof he was targeting young AA, including his own friend., FT” he was sick of it”. Fucken coons. Asking what he was doing here”? Torturing the fellow Carmax Muslim coworker who had to pull off the side of the road when he heard who had killed a young AA. His own my space words on hating Mexicans.
He hated anyone who he felt he could bully, including his gay brother.
Make no mistake, I think GZ is very conflicted about race, but he’s also a calculating opportunist. You’ve touched on something here:
He hated anyone who he felt he could bully, including his gay brother.
Anytime GZ sees what he thinks is an opportunity to ‘better’ his own position by preying on a vulnerable person, he’ll do it.
I think he made fun of that fellow CarMax employee because he perceived that his own desired ‘in-crowd’ didn’t like the guy.
Right now, he appears to be trying to form a posse of twits on twitter to get that Dickinson guy shut down for no better reason other than that it’s ego-gratifying for him to get other people to do things for him.
I strongly suspect what happened on Sunday, February 26, 2012 is that GZ was ‘suffering’ from a number of failures: (a) his education was stalled (b) he was in debt up past his beady eyeballs, and probably couldn’t even cough up the rent money for March (c) he felt humiliated because he’d bungled a ‘collar’ earlier in February, and somebody else got the ‘glory’ (d) last but not least, he felt threatened with the cutoff of his primary narcissistic supply, his estranged wife.
I think he went out that evening hunting for some Neighborhood Watch instant gratification, and lo, what should he see but somebody who looked like an ‘ideal’ target: a black male teenager.
I think GZ calculated that the idea of a black male teenager being ‘up to no good’ would be an easy sale with the police.
It doesn’t have to be unmitigated racism to be ugly, especially when somebody ends up dead.
2dogsonly
July 16, 2014 at 12:13 PM
Exactly!
The really fascinating bit about the Carmax co-worker is he was from mid west state. He explained he was very used to being ragged on after 9/11 but tub’s over the top made him question whether he should punch him and then suffer the consequences.
And when manager brought them in, tubs was so convincing the Carmax guy questioned himself…manager said work it out but tubs being tubs started calling the corp. office on his own SUPERVISOR saying he could run the Carmax store so much better and called so many times, he was ” eased out”. They, the corp. office said they had never had an employee call to report so many times. This whole thing was years prior to 2012 yet the Carmax co- worker had to pull his car off the road when he heard tub’s name.
Tubs was jealous cause he out sold him. I think the co-worker was hired after tubs and received some bonus that fatty didn’t get.
I’m a clinical social worker so human nature and odd stories fascinate me. The fact this guy was American citizen but Muslim, in used car selling business ( a tough as nails business ), born and raised in mid west ( not exactly a love thy brother state), and tub’s ridiculeing in the height of the recession…made him go home each day and have a talk with himself to not punch the holy shit out of tubs and then question whether he could be losing his perspective ( because tubs was such a great actor when boss called them in)
Here’s an interesting tidbit from the past that I uncovered while trying to determine whether Junior’s politics had changed since his brother committed homicide:
(MARTIN is Michel Martin, and JR is, well Junior):
MARTIN: How do you know he voted for Obama, if you don’t mind my asking?
JR.: He was pitching Obama very, very heavily in our family and his registration card for voting, which, coincidentally, he filled out himself, says Hispanic. He’s registered as a Democrat in his home district to vote at the time and he, you know, really rallied his family behind getting past this all white men’s club of the American presidents that, you know, race was not a factor. The right man for the job came along, but that this would be a symbolic gesture for the world to see, that, you know, America is a different America today than it was 50 years ago.
I do wonder how deep GZ’s Democrat roots were–and did he really get his family, who appear to be dyed-in-the-wool Republicans, to vote for Obama?
Eh, then again, this is Junior talking, so who knows how much of it is real?
The fact this guy was American citizen but Muslim, in used car selling business ( a tough as nails business ), born and raised in mid west ( not exactly a love thy brother state), and tub’s ridiculeing in the height of the recession…made him go home each day and have a talk with himself to not punch the holy shit out of tubs and then question whether he could be losing his perspective ( because tubs was such a great actor when boss called them in)
I think it’s all of a piece with GZ. Those nasty comments about Mexicans on his old MySpace page were probably his way of ‘distancing’ himself from a group that his desired ‘in-crowd’ at the time didn’t like: “Hey, I might be Latino, but I’m not like them.”
He and Gracie made fun of him on the jail calls for being gay.called him useless.
That I wasn’t aware of (I didn’t listen to/read transcriptions for all the jailhouse calls). About the only thing I recall is GZ’s insinuation that Junior liked to party at the drop of a hat.
But I’m glad to know he filled out his own registration card. 😉
I found that to be a curious statement from Junior.
It’s being reported Taffe is speaking with DOJ today. Nowadays, I take everything with a wait and see attitude.
Thanks for the reminder; it was supposed to happen on the 16th, wasn’t it? Yeah, I ain’t holdin’ my breath or nothin.’
Sorry to read that Xena continues to receive harassment at her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog, and as a result feels a need to limit commenting access to those with wordpress accounts:
The harassers must somehow feel ‘threatened’ by what Xena and the other contributors at her blog have to say. If they had a legitimate complaint, they wouldn’t feel a ‘need’ to try to circumvent administrative controls to post abuse.
A Seminole County judge dismissed a Central Florida couple’s lawsuit against Spike Lee. The lawsuit stemmed from a tweet during the George Zimmerman investigation into the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.Lee had previously settled with the couple for $10,000
Actually, I don’t think this “Central Florida couple” is GZ’s parents, it’s another couple. Lee tweeted their address, thinking it was the Z’s.
Still, they had already settled with Lee for ten grand. Go away now. Don’t be grifters like the Z’s.
Speaking of the Z’s, am I imaging this, or did one of the recent news articles featuring Junior reported that he was living in Lake Mary? What are the odds that he isn’t living in his parent’s house? You know, the one they own, but can’t live in, because they’ve been too ‘terrorized?’
In a recent interview with CNN, Jeantel said she wished she would have been behaved differently during the trial, and that she partially blames herself for Zimmerman’s acquittal.
Jeantel believes the jurors didn’t take her testimony seriously because her appearance and the way she articulated herself on the witness stand. Self-reflexivity is an admirable quality for Jeantel to possess, but she has no reason to be anchored to guilt because Zimmerman’s acquittal is not her burden to bear.
Perfect witnesses don’t exist. The American Bar Association finds that most witnesses are anxious and fearful, and this can manifest on the stand in a myriad of ways. For Jeantel, testifying in a televised trial that unearthed simmering racial tensions, could’ve led to her demeanor on the stand.
Or maybe it was the trauma of losing her closest friend and knowing she was the last person to speak with him while he was alive. Or maybe it was her being questioned by two attorneys attempting to demean Martin, her speech or her mere presence
Not to mention the State not preparing her properly for the ordeal of testifying.
Texas blues legend Johnny Winter has died, ending a long and expansive career that included working alongside bluesman Muddy Waters and playing at the Woodstock festival. Winter, who was 70, had been set to release a new album this fall.
Winter has said he benefited from being exposed to many styles of music as a kid, particularly the blues music he would hear in clubs in his native Beaumont, Texas. And it seems that even in the racially charged era of the 1950s and 60s, the albino kid was seen as just another person who loved the blues.
“Nothing ever happened to me,” Winter said on his website. “I went to black clubs all the time, and nobody ever bothered me. I always felt welcome.”
Oh, word salad thank you for this!!
. Long white flowing hair. And he’s right about going to AA blues clubs and feeling welcomed. We used to go to the Peacock club in Atlanta in mid 60’s and never felt like we didn’t belong.
RIP Johnny Winter and thank you for your gift.
If Murdoch is successful with Time Warner, it would create an entertainment giant responsible for a large chunk of the programming on broadcast and cable television.
The combined company would be the biggest provider of prime-time television shows, producing nearly 40% of the broadcast networks’ scripted schedules. Both have a large presence on cable and daytime TV as well.
That size and the potential leverage such an entity could have over writers and producers is likely to be of huge concern to the creative community and lawmakers and regulators tasked with reviewing a deal.
The television industry is already consolidated. Besides Fox and Warner Bros., the other major players are Disney, Sony, CBS, NBCUniversal and Sony. In testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee on the issue of consolidation this week, television producer Shawn Ryan said although the number of ways people can get content has exploded, the companies producing it have dramatically shrunk.
“At odds with this proliferation of outlets is a disturbing truth about American media,” said Ryan, who represented the Writer’s Guild of America, West. “It is controlled by only a handful of companies, formed through two decades of vertical and horizontal integration,”
Well, since I checked it this morning, the twitter feed of GZ’s alleged girlfriend (samantha_khope) has disappeared. All that breathless, undying love–gone. Where is she these days, inquiring minds want to know?
I find it curious timing: GZ tweets that little homily about struggle, and suddenly, SS’s samantha_khope twitter feed disappears (it was still there this morning).
Well, not to mention that GZ’s multi-million dollar lawsuit against NBC Universal Media LLC was dismissed at the end of June.
2dogsonly
July 23, 2014 at 9:36 AM
Do you remember her tweet about getting her babies ( plural) out safely and that pix I think was taken at his Spanish radio interview of her in a hotel room looking puffy.? The baby, if she meant babies and was telling the truth when she said she was preggers when they had that blowup? The baby would be due any day. Someone pointed out she posted that fancy hotel room pix in May and that was true but that could just have been when she posted it. The interview took place around Nov. Remember, the beach pix she and Jr. posted only had one couple on the beach so it was chilly when she looked puffy.
Why else would she take it down now when there’s no controversy or law suit?
Why else would she take it down now when there’s no controversy or law suit?
Well, the cynic in me says that honeybee left honeypot when she figured out that there wouldn’t be anymore honey (money, that is) forthcoming.
They probably got into a fight, and she deleted her sweet-talk-laden twitter feed out of spite. (I would ‘hope’ she’s smart enough to realize that deleting it because of the feds wouldn’t do her any good.)
If it were just the two of them, I’d say that they deserved each other, but there’s at least one child involved. Aside from basic physical safety, what is that kid learning about relationships?
Do you think we need a life?
Eh maybe. I’ve said that I didn’t care about the minutiae of GZ’s life, and that’s still basically true. I’m mostly just treading water until the feds come out with their final decision. However, there is one exception–I want to know where GZ is because he’s a loose cannon.
In truth, the world is full of loose cannons, and I may already have one next door without realizing it.
The difference with GZ? Well, not only has he killed, he’s ‘gotten away with it.’ That makes him doubly dangerous, and I want to know where that armed assholic is.
Oh word salad, how I love your comments! They are just cynical enough without being mean spirited. And smart!
There are indeed a lot of loose cannons. And she said he felt emboldened when he not only got away with murder but everything that followed.
Do you think O’Mara’s recent desire to open up a racial discussion could be tied in? As in, covering his sorry ass? Because that is just counter productive to his future as a criminal defense lawyer. Why would a potential client want to hire a defense attorney whom just one year after getting his client off, now wants to “open up a racial dialogue” which was entire focus of previous client’s entire defense.
I hope this new switcharoo by honeypot and O’Mara has to do with Feds.
Oh word salad, how I love your comments! They are just cynical enough without being mean spirited.
Oh, I assure you that there’s plenty of mean-spiritedness in me; I have to watch myself all the time. It’s one of the advantages of writing over speaking: because I type rather slowly, I can usually ‘censor’ myself.
There are indeed a lot of loose cannons. And she said he felt emboldened when he not only got away with murder but everything that followed.
Yup, he doesn’t seem to have really learned anything ‘positive’ from this experience. On the one year anniversary of his acquittal, he tweeted that he was “thankful.”
Not thankful enough to treat his wife and the other people who went way out on a limb for him decently, though. Just ‘thankful’ enough to tweet that he was thankful so that his new ‘friends’ (read: twitter twits) will think he’s a swell guy.
Or maybe not thankful at all, maybe he just wanted to rub his acquittal in the face of everybody who thinks he’s guilty of manslaughter or worse.
There, was that mean-spirited enough for ya?
Do you think O’Mara’s recent desire to open up a racial discussion could be tied in? As in, covering his sorry ass? Because that is just counter productive to his future as a criminal defense lawyer. Why would a potential client want to hire a defense attorney whom just one year after getting his client off, now wants to “open up a racial dialogue” which was entire focus of previous client’s entire defense.
Maybe that talking-head gig on CNN isn’t lucrative enough to offset the way people look at O’Mara when he walks down the street.
I hope this new switcharoo by honeypot and O’Mara has to do with Feds.
It might, we’ll just have to wait and see. As others have already observed, nothing may happen until after the fall elections (because like it or no, everything is affected by politics). Then too, the feds are a mill that grinds slowly.
We continue to hope it happens!
Whatever the feds ultimately do, I want to bear witness.
2dogsonly
July 24, 2014 at 11:22 AM
You may already know this but his attorney has filed an appeal in the media case. Both are dicks but you can bet the attorney is doing it for future business and lawsuits take a toll on everyone. So I think , and I may be just wishing, that this constant interaction with the legal system is grinding tubs down.
Jesus, how do you continue holding yourself out for ridicule like he does? This next loss will be fun cause he will lose. 90% of appeals are lost.
You may already know this but his attorney has filed an appeal in the media case.
Thanks, I only just now saw the Orlando Sentinel article, and indeed the Seminole County Clerk of Courts detailed case view now reflects that a notice of appeal was filed on July 22.
So, let’s see: GZ tweets a homily about his ‘struggle’ on the same day his lawyer files an appeal. Oh, and alleged girlfriend SS takes a powder on twitter. Hmmm…
She also ruled that Zimmerman would never be able to prove another claim: that the network falsely reported that he used a racial epithet during the call.
That’s because, Nelson wrote, an FBI team of audio experts had already studied the recording and could not identify the word at issue.
The feds may have officially opined that they couldn’t identify the word at issue, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have an opinion about what the word was not. Even a layperson can hear that it sure as hell wasn’t punks.
Oh, and did ‘anybody’ notice the judge currently assigned to the appeal? Why, it’s Jessica Recksiedler. You know, the judge that recused herself from GZ’s homicide case at O’Mara’s request (because of her husband’s professional relationship with Mark NeJame).
Just keep pushing it killer boy!! Could not say it better. Come on judge, grant that appeal so we can see his fat ass answer some civil court case questions. And then take a fucken powder, I mean tubs.
Thanks for. Posting this.
Almost a year to the day that the shooter, George Zimmerman, was acquitted of the killing, an Arkansas woman was arrested for threatening two young boys in the name of the victim.
Yelena Goforth-Buyalova allegedly brought the boys to tears after she told them they deserved “to be treated like Trayvon Martin” after they reportedly threw trash on the stairs in front of her apartment. She later called the police and told the dispatcher the boys “did not deserve to live in the apartments and they should be in prison because they were black.”
Goforth-Buyalova says that the responding officers made up the comments in their report. She was arrested for disorderly conduct and harassment.
As everybody should know, eight-year-olds can be noisy and messy. It’s part of being eight.
But what’s the common link between these two eight-year-olds, and TM?
Was TM eight at the time of his death? No, that ain’t it.
Was TM making noise, and a mess? No, that ain’t it, either.
Hmmm.
Goforth-Buyalova alleges that the police “made up” the inflammatory remarks. She called the police dispatcher, so there should be a recording, yes?
He has a ten percent chance of succeeding, according to News 96.5 legal expert Steven Kramer.
“He wants to win, because he doesn’t have a normal life,” Kramer added, calling Zimmerman one of the most hated people in America.
I don’t think he had a ‘normal’ life before he killed TM, and if he is “one of the most hated people in America,” it’s not just because he killed somebody, and then lied up a storm about it, but because he’s also an obvious grifter and general assholic.
A recent example of his assholism is the way he went after would-be pol Mike Dickinson on twitter.
Insofar as I can tell, Dickinson hadn’t said anything about GZ–until GZ tweeted to him that he was a “perverted douchebag.” After that, Dickinson did make remarks about GZ.
Whereupon GZ formed a posse to try to get Dickinson kicked off of twitter.
Hmmm, let’s see: GZ provokes somebody, and then says that it’s the other person’s fault. (Well, and not to mention, he tries to get others to help him with the ‘problem.’)
Have we seen this behavior before from GZ? (Oh hell, yes.)
Since the trial Zimmerman admitted that he cannot find work and is living off the generosity of friends.
Too bad his ‘generous’ friends can’t give him a a job. Then again, maybe one or more of them has offered him a job, but he didn’t like what was on offer. Or maybe his ‘friends’ don’t want to give him a job, because they know he’s a loose cannon. Better to give him charity on the end of a stick.
Police Depts. should require and train that every shooting be treated as a criminal homicide during the investigation and collection of evidence. Great care should be taken despite the claims of the shooter & regardless of a State´s self defense laws.
Absolutely, and the collection of evidence should include sobriety testing, not just for the killed, but the killer.
Kudos to all those who are closely following the Theodore Wafer trial (for the homicide of Renisha McBride) and providing information, especially “yahtzeebutterfly” at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog.
The thing that disturbs me (once again) is the focus on the errors of the killed instead of the killer. Yes, McBride was clearly intoxicated, and shouldn’t have been out driving around, but I sure would like to know more about Wafer’s actions.
He claims to have fallen asleep in a recliner in a back room of his house. OK, I can see how that might happen, but was it just the result of a hard day at work (the shooting occurred during the wee hours of a Saturday morning), or something other? We don’t know because no toxicology was done on the killer.
Here’s a side view of the home at 16812 West Outer Drive. You can see that there appears to be two outside doors on the side of the house, and next to rear-most one, there is a window filled with glass privacy blocks (where was this back room with the recliner located?):
Oops, gave cops a PO box as his address when they asked him what he was doing behind the store that was recently robbed of 15k in guns, etc.
Tubs had tweeted “where’s all my Deland buddies.” Last week.
Is it even legal to give a PO Box address as your address? Someone on twitter is checking.
Would not be surprised to learn he was the robber.
It’s a pretty informative piece, and here are some of my ‘favorite’ bits:
Pompano Pat’s spokesman Tim Franklin said in a statement faxed to The Daytona Beach News-Journal on Tuesday afternoon that the reports and allegations that Zimmerman was hired or working as a night watchman at the business are false and are “nothing more than a negative political campaign stunt” intended to hurt Johnson’s run for mayor of DeLand.
Porter questioned whether Johnson, a 48-year-old political newcomer, was perhaps being targeted in a politically-motivated plot to expose his connection to Zimmerman ahead of the Aug. 26 election against Apgar, 67, who is seeking his fourth term.
“Two days ago [Johnson] turned in someone for corruption and now this is popping up in national news,” Porter said. “The phone has been ringing off the hook.
It couldn’t possibly be because Johnson’s business is being ‘patrolled’ by a notorious assholic killer. Nope.
Johnson offered in July 2013 to replace the gun authorities had seized from Zimmerman in the Martin case as evidence. Johnson was going to give Zimmerman a Kel-Tec PF-9 for free. At the time, Johnson told The News-Journal “the violence needs to end” and that his offer to give a gun was neither racially nor politically motivated, and was not a publicity stunt.
Oh, ‘classic.’ The “violence needs to end,” so Johnson offers a killer another gun.
My condolences to the decent citizens of Florida.
“Zimmerman explained that he was at the business with his dog in order to keep an eye on it after the recent burglary,” the report continued. “According to Zimmerman, Johnson had requested that Zimmerman leave his dog inside of the business, however, Zimmerman offered to wait in the parking lot with the dog.”
We know tubs never does anything for anyone. No thanks to any of his supportive bloggers or his uncle Duddley who gave him 2500.00 personally, bt. his suits, and on. No thanks ever not even ONE to financial contributors so my guess is friend let him live out of his car as long as he stayed in rear.
Oops! Or tubs was going to rob place cause he tweeted out twice ” where are my Deland friends”. These tweets happened 4 days ago. Police question was 2 days ago.
Don’t need Deland friends to watch store. Nothing to do w/ politics just the media rep. putting some kind of spin on this latest fiasco.
Cop wrote in his report he was cooperative. Hey LE, he is an expert at remaining pleasant. don’t you know Sanford police are saying please don’t return to our city.
News is getting ready to be headlined on Jax. News. Heads up idiots, he is nuclear. Can you’ll get a clue. That shop owner was damn lucky tubs didn’t ” protect” his business.
Yeah, the various news organs are picking it up now.
Here are some more interesting tidbits about/from the owner of Pomano Pat’s, Pat Johnson (not going to provide the URLs and risk this post getting hung up in moderation):
UPI:
Before opening Pompano Pat’s, Johnson had a ten-year career in local law enforcement including SWAT, undercover narcotics investigation and internal affairs.
Click Orlando:
“I didn’t OK it. I didn’t know about it. I didn’t authorize it. I didn’t pay for it,” Johnson said. “He had just watched Facebook and the news and just took it upon himself to come up here and sit.”
Johnson added that although he knows Zimmerman, he has not hired him as a security officer.
“I sent him a text message telling him not to come back to the store anymore,” Johnson said.
Oops, I put the wrong URL in an HTML link in post #9048. Here’s the correct one for the Daytona News-Journal Online’s article about the incident (there are links on that page both for a PDF of the police report and a PDF of Johnson’s statement:
Some more tidbits from the News-Journal Online article:
Johnson is challenging incumbent Mayor Bob Apgar in the Aug. 26 election.
Reached Tuesday afternoon, Apgar said Franklin’s statement is confusing to him.
“As I understand it, there is a video of the officers’ discussion with Mr. Zimmerman that has been made public,” Apgar said. “Mr. Zimmerman made statements to police that would indicate he was there with my opponent’s knowledge.
“I am just perplexed, that with such a video out there, that someone can think someone can fabricate something relative to this encounter with Mr. Zimmerman by police who were on patrol,” Apgar said.
DeLand police Deputy Chief Randel Henderson sent out a statement Tuesday afternoon saying, “Every indication illustrates that Mr. Zimmerman was at the store with the knowledge of the owner.”
A video was released by DeLand police. In low-volume, only the voices of Zimmerman and an officer can be heard and neither can be seen.
Woo hoo! Good catch by towerflower at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog about Johnson’s “Media Relations” guy Tim Franklin changing the text of his posting about GZ’s ‘patrolling’:
Yeah, they probably thought they were going to get some political mileage out of the situation, but now they’re having to back-paddle.
The only sympathy-worthy creature in that situation is poor Oso the dog.
I can actually believe that Johnson might have asked GZ to leave Oso in the store at night.
Johnson might have seen that as a ‘win-win” situation if he paid GZ, or agreed to feed Oso in return for having a formidable-looking dog on the premises.
What Johnson might not have factored into his thinking is that a dog is unconditional love, and GZ probably doesn’t want Oso out of his reach because of that.
I guess I’ve long known (since way back before the GZ homicide case, actually) how utterly human and fallible individual law enforcement personnel are, but it’s an unsettling reminder.
20140722: GZ tweets a homily about struggle and success
20140722: SS deletes her samantha_khope twitter account
20140725: GZ tweets looking for ‘shout-outs’ from his DeLand ‘friends’
20140727: GZ is questioned by police behind Pompano Pat’s in DeLand, FL
Was GZ spending the night in his truck after being kicked out of SS’s place and having failed to find a DeLand couch on which to crash?
I’m really torn about following the Theodore Wafer trial (for the shooting homicide of Renisha McBride). I almost can’t bear to watch because I fear that as with so many other cases, there will be too many questions that will never be answered.
Wafer has already told at least one big lie: that the Mossberg 500A shotgun went off accidentally (per experts, not possible).
Does Wafer have anger issues? He allegedly bought the homicide weapon in response to a paintball vandalism incident (unreported to the police). It’s understandable that one could be angry over vandalism done to one’s property, but buying a firearm like that in response?
More and more questions in my mind about the McBride-Wafer case. An old Daily Beast piece had information from a former friend of Wafer (its sounds like the ex-girlfriend against whom he filed a restraining order):
Wafer is apparently pretty near-sighted. Was he wearing any kind of prescription vision aid that night?
Given that tidbit about the $3,000, it sounds like Wafer has a conscience. Will it ultimately make him come clean about this case? Dunno.
It’s also come to my attention that McBride’s great aunt might have been living on the same block as the auto accident. Was McBride trying to get to her relative’s house when she had the accident?
Wow, firearms expert David Balash testified that the screen could not have been in place at the time Wafer fired the shotgun because of the height of the hole in the screen, Wafer’s height, and McBride’s height (adjusted for her standing on the porch, which was below the level of the screen door):
<From the photos, I think the 5 1/2 inches was a step up into the house. What Wafer calls a “porch” does not appear to be anything more than a step.
That’s my sense of it. If McBride had been standing on that top step (4-5 inches lower than the bottom of the screen door, per idabeewells at twitter), it effectively would have made the 64 inch tall McBride only about 59-60 inches relative to Wafer’s 73.
My speculation? Renisha thought she was home, and seeing Wafer open the door and realizing it was not her house, turned to walk away when he shot her, which is why only one side of her face was shot.
Yes, tragically McBride was probably not only disoriented from intoxication, but possibly the accident as well. That ‘spider-web’ fracture of the windshield in her Ford Taurus seems likely to have been caused by impact with her head, airbags or no. She might have been unconscious for a awhile, then later went looking for help.
Wafer was flat-out lying when he said the shotgun accidentally discharged, and possibly lying when he said he hadn’t realized it was loaded. However, the possibility that the screen was not in the door frame at the time of the gun shot (hole in screen 53 inches high) would lend credence to Wafer’s claim that he heard “metal breaking.”
Total speculation here, but if McBride’s great aunt really did live at the time in the same block of the site of the auto accident, the former might well have been trying to visit the latter. McBride had had an argument with her mother, and might have hoped for a sympathetic ear from the equivalent of a grandmother.
Then when the accident happened, McBride may have panicked, and decided to get away from the scene. She might have walked to the nearby park (it was six blocks away), and passed out there. Upon regaining consciousness, she might not even have had any clear recollection of what happened or where she was.
Wafer’s house superficially looks like the McBride one in that it’s brick. The side door(s) are on the ‘wrong’ side relative to the McBride house, but who knows what shape McBride was in hours after the auto accident? The subsequent gun shot wound made it difficult or impossible to assess her head properly with regard to the auto accident.
I don’t know how the screen in Wafer’s door might have come out (besides from the gunshot itself, that is), but possibly McBride was getting frustrated, and pounded on it vigorously enough to dislodge it.
There is a bar at 16515 Outer Drive (across from one of the entrances to the park), and Google Street View makes it look like it was still doing business as late as July 2013:
However, I would think that if it were still open in November 2013 (a) had McBride walked in there after her auto accident, she would have excited notice (b) the police would have checked with the staff/patrons.
Well I was just about to announce my retirement from the whonoze blog, thinking GZ had actually gone away for good, and then the Pompano Pat’s story hit my email today via a dailykos feed I only check once in awhile. The kos post linked to this page on ClickOrlando:
You MUST watch the video, as it contains info not covered in the text: The cops were ‘star struck’ on discovering it was GZ outside Pompano Pat’s, bought his claim that he had Pat’s approval without hesitation, and let him stay on the scene. But not before they took the opportunity to admire prints of his American flag painting that he hauled out to show them.
Yup, this is a real Channel 6 news story, not a parody from The Onion. The reporter is just barely keeping it together, though.
The comments thread shows that some people are just now figuring out GZs a pathological liar. He still has his champions, though, calling Pompano Pat Johnson the liar, claiming he’s trying to smear GZ for political expediency (Johnson’s running for Mayor). The usual delusional. A few comments admit GZ has proven to be ‘someone who does dumb stuff’ yet insist none of this reflects at all on the Martin case.
Some folks are asking themselves why GZ keeps showing up in the press:
“I think he gets bored when he is out of the news for a while so he does something to get him back in the headlines.”
But WE know this is REALLY just a liberal MEDIA CONSPIRACY to keep George in the spotlight so they can TAKE AWAY OUR FREEDOM, and push that SOCIALIST Obamamonkey’s plan for DEATH PANELS!
Let’s hear it for Muricah! (MURICAH!)
Let’s hear it for Guns! (BUSHMASTER!)
Let’s hear it for More Guns (DON’T FORGET THE HIGH CAPACITY MAGAZINES THAT ARE OUR RIGHT FROM GOD!)
Let’s hear it for making concealed carry required for school attendance from the 3rd grade on up! (silence)
Except for towel-heads, fucking coon thugs and…(drowned out by deafening cheers)
Make some freedom noise, Muricah! (rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat)
……………
Shit.
I.
Just.
Can’t.
I can’t follow the Wafer trial. I can’t have the mania of which GZ is just the tip of the iceberg keep taking minutes/hours/days/weeks/months/years of my life. It never stops.
The blog will stay here. It’s basically been wordsalad’s blog for awhile now anyway. If anyone wants to ask for a new thread or anything, just embed three links in a comment and I assume WordPress will flag me. I might drop in to see if anyone’s still here at some point in the future, especially if some ‘news’ related to the blog bashes its way into my consciousness with something too outre to ignore. Maybe I could transfer the ownership to wordsalad, or make wordsalad an admin, if wordsalad wants, assuming WordPress allows that, which I’m too behind the 8-ball to check at the moment.
I apologize for never getting around to some of the analyses of the uses and misuses of A/V material in Martin/Zimmerman-related media reports and whatnot that I’d intended or promised.
So it goes.
………………
I thank everyone who has ever shared a thought here. It has been my privilege and honor to have you good folks peruse my humble musings, and participate in these threads. Shout-outs to Unitron for posting the first comment here, to tchoupi for his genius with headlamps, and wordsalad and 2dogs for hanging in there. But everyone who has posted here is ‘special.’
I cannot write that without thinking of that (unintentional, I’d guess, for the record, not that it matters) piece of neo-Fascist crap ‘The Incredibles’ and it’s signature quote “If everyone is special, then no one is.” Of course, in pure logic terms, the proposition is both true, and meaningless, as its tautological. But in practical terms, we know what it really means: only a select ‘few’, the ‘incredible’ ones, can truly be special. The pretenders among the common people can only drag them down.
The truth is that most of us are both special in some ways and as common as dirt in others, and some of each are probably good and probably bad. Whatever may be special about George Zimmerman is nothing I want to award a ribbon, and what is bad in him is all too common. This blog has had special and common, both good and bad. But I fancy that the good special and the good common have been in the majority among the comments, and I have virtual ribbons for you all.
………………..
This little blog, a mere dust spec in the Internet cosmos, will no doubt be washed away eventually, not just gone, but forgotten. I am less certain about how the memory of Trayvon Benjamin Martin will carry forward. How long will his name be known? What will it signify? How much will anyone care? The answers, in inverse order, may well turn out to be Not at all, Nothing, and Who? Injustice, cruelty, insanity and the rest of the terms in the dictionary of our darkness march on, our brains can only hold so much. How many Trayvon’s of the past do we know nothing of, their stories having been pushed out of the collective human memory in perfectly justifiable attention to What’s Happening Now? We are creatures bound in time. And we used some of OUR time to question the untimely death of a human being named Trayvon Martin. We raised our voices. We would not accept the notion that he was just another statistic. We demanded truth, we demanded meaning, we demanded justice.
We got short-changed on all three.
So it goes.
We were not the first, nor will we be the last. Some of us probably expected as much, or at least weren’t surprised. Some may have felt the sting for the first time. If so. I wish I could tell you it gets easier to handle next time. I can’t. In my experience it gets worse.
And so we beat on…
As Joe Don Baker used to say on TV, “We done good.” But tomorrow is another day, and each dawn asks us “what is to be done?” I submit we owe something to Trayvon Martin, all the rest of the people who have been wronged that we can remember, and all of them who were forgotten before we were born. A debt we must continue to honor in days to come. A debt that can never be repaid in full.
We will get worn down. There will be wrongs we can’t handle. I’m worn down on the shooting deaths of African-American teenagers. I can’t do Renisha McBride. I’m glad there are people who can. But there is no shortage of outrages. No matter how worn down we get, as long as some nub of humanity remains, I submit our debt obliges us to find SOMETHING that really matters, and to demand truth again, demand meaning again, demand justice again. I submit we must make those demands over and over, not just in spite of knowing we can’t expect them to be met, but BECAUSE we know we can’t expect them to be met. Maybe things will always be that way. Maybe. But they surely won’t change if we stay silent.
I submit we must weather all the stings and denials and continue to raise our voices because we owe it to the living, and to the not-yet-born as much as the dead. And I submit that, in the end, the people we owe it to the most are ourselves.
……..
For my parents; for Walter Benjamin; for Sandy Scheuer, Will Schroeder, Jeff Miller and Allison Krause; for Matt — all of them gone — because in remembering them I confront my debts, and that keeps me human, and alive. And for all of you, for reminding me that memories are really about the future, not the past, and for keeping me company through times I can’t imagine having had to bear alone.
With regard to the idea of me stepping in as administrator of this blog: thank you for the honor, but I’d rather not.
If I really wanted to continue running my mouth on the Net, I could put on my big girl panties, and create my own blog. };-)
If you don’t want to continue administering this blog, perhaps you should shut it down, considering that the owner/operator has access to sensitive information about all of the contributors.
Regardless of what you decide, thanks for everything.
Strictly entre nous, darling, how are you?
And how are all those little dreams that never did come true?
Awfully glad I met you, cheerio, tootle-oo
Thank you, thank you
Professor, for you to give me a shout out put me in tears. I am so honored by your acknowledgement. I guess this is how people feel when they’ve won a prize for something close to their heart. And from you…someone so very well read and intelligent.
Please don’t close it out. But if you feel it’s time, here is some bright news.
Eric Garner’s death has been ruled a homicide by the NY ME. He’s the man killed by police putting him in a choke hold. It is a real step forward and I think it’s due to Mayor De Blassio who also terminated stop and frisk.
Is it ok to cross post this over at xena’s blog?
I am so very proud.
Your words are beautifully written.
The post seems too lengthy for me to quote in its entirety, and most of it is too technical with regard to firearms for me to attempt to recapitulate, but the conclusions seem quote-worthy:
He either opened the door and stepped back. Which would mean he opened his interior door all the way to fit the length of the gun.
Or the screen was in place and he jammed the gun through the screen making it fall in the process of him removing the barrel
That sounds right to me. Anybody trying to fire a long gun would need more ‘maneuvering’ room than they would with a hand gun.
Apropos of nothing, I read somewhere that the dislodged screen had dropped 7-8 inches. I’m not sure where this fits in with the information that the top of the cement stoop was about 4-5 inches below the bottom of the screen door frame. I guess one would have to see photographs of the scene. (The dislodged screen was perhaps resting on the stoop at a tilt?)
…this would also explain why McBride was injured on that side and was found aside of the door.
I’m not sure I understand that part.
For where McBride was found on the porch leads me to believe she may have been looking at the door but moving away from the door prior to being shot.
This sounds like what Xena had already suggested: that McBride, upon seeing Wafer, was turning to leave.
Also explains why her shoe was ripped.
I’m not sure I understand that part either, except that McBride’s boots were not work/safety boots, but rather ‘fashion’ boots, and hence more fragile.
I await MurphysSpork’s further observations with interest.
…After 21 months of collecting evidence, I told those in authority to proceed because if we waited until they stopped, they would be waiting forever…
I can’t help but wonder whether there will be some surprises in store in terms of the identities and agendas of the cyber-bullies.
The bold extortioner has his own problems right now. An article is pending by one of his victims to tell how it started and what the courts have decided.
This one in particular I really wonder about. The guy obviously isn’t well, but I have to wonder whether he hasn’t been making some money on the side through his malicious, provocative behavior. That would tend to turn it into an ‘affirming’ experience for him.
You tube of ABC news RE: Eric Gardner. It has some very interesting information concerning previous law suits against the under cover policeman who did the choke hold, how it is now banned and how dangerous it is (by actual medical experts). This is towards end.
Also, what the EMS worker failed to do. They are now suspended w/o pay. It will go to Stanton Island DA.
H/T to Phil Owens for this
Well, I’m not getting a good feeling from the Wafer trial, and for a number of reasons.
As ever in these trials, there are still too many unanswered questions for me.
(I wanna know more about this unreported paint-balling incident, for instance. Also, if somebody is going to keep a firearm in a front-room closet for safety/security reasons, how about also installing a power outlet and a charging station for their cell phone?)
Another is that I get the unsettled feeling that defense teams in general are ‘learning’ from the Internet. That is to say, they’re learning from past trials about what to say, and what not to say.
Last, but certainly not least, I suspect that this trial like others before it will be about race.
Unlike the GZ case, it’s not at all clear to me that there was a racial element when Wafer killed McBride, but his lawyers will play the race card (however subtly) if they think it will get them some traction. Based on the GZ case, it will.
I found this piece from the Guardian to be thought-provoking:
The Guardian article totally screwed up the facts on the Marisa Alexander case. As for this Detroit killing I don’t have a real feeling that he was not terrified and it had nothing to do with race and more to do with the total economic devastation of the city.
I live in Jax. And the NEW reporting or misreporting of the Alexander case is unbelievable. There was no warning shot, she did not call 911, she went to her car and returned shooting at her husband and two step children. She did not surrender, it took Swat to get her out. And in spite of the court order to stay away except to pick up children, she went to his home and blackened his eye resulting in her re-arrest. Last thing, she was offered a 3 yr. plea which she refused. A respected AA minister has delivered a letter requesting for the previous plea offer to be offered again as the facts of the case have not changed.
Honestly, I thought the Guardian had higher quality reporters than HUFF PO or HLN. Crazy is crazy and strong black woman reporting is not any less racist than scary black teen.
Thanks for the info on the Alexander case. I thought that I’d remembered reading some similar detail over at the blackbutterfly7 blog, and perhaps it was you who had posted it.
My impression is that The Guardian generally has good journalistic standards, but nobody is infallible.
As to the article that I linked please remember that it’s an opinion piece.
I do think McFadden has a point in that there is a perception among many that black people in general and black women in particular have some sort of ‘inhuman’ strength. That is to say, a good thing can be twisted into something bad.
People in general are usually as strong as they need to be, and they only find out how much over the course of a lifetime of ‘testing.’ Some get tested more than others.
Good news for the Eric Garner family. The DOJ has officially confirmed they are monitoring this case. You know the Stanton Island police followed the brave sole who videoed and then posted the killing via chokehold and now it’s being reported he had illegal guns. However, the video is the proof of the homicide via chokehold. And no, nothing can change that. So, yes I would say cops learned about obscuring the real issue with but but but the truth teller ain’t so clean either. Sorry, cops. Cannot change what was recorded and posted to you tube and for the angel of payback mfs, it went viral!
Honestly, I would think the cops would expect to be recorded as most people have smart phones and you tube has thousands of these “cops misbehaving badly” vids. Apparently, Stanton island cops have failed to come to terms that people tape every damn thing and upload it to you tube.
Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if smart phones had recorded tub’s murdering Tray? Been much harder for that case to be thrown. 2012 to 2014 has everyone taping and uploading everything. As Jon Stewart said get a clue, cops. When you see this ( smart phone recording) stop beating the crap our of a citizen or whatever you may not be proud of doing. 😉
The jury is still out in the Wafer trial. They’ve requested a number of things, including a laptop, and a tape measure (approved), as well as the plastic clips from the screen door (not approved because those weren’t admitted into evidence).
It looks like the jurors are really trying to assess Wafer’s credibility with regard to having shot McBride because he’d been fearful. The request for the tape measure and the door clips are worrisome to me because it might mean that they’re considering the possibility that McBride <i/did dislodge the screen.
I myself think that Wafer was afraid. No, not afraid that McBride would huff and puff and blow down his brick house with steel doors, but that he might not look like a man if he tolerated any more ‘tom-foolery’ in his neighborhood.
During testimony Monday, he said he loaded the gun about a month before the fatal shooting. He did so after three people doing drugs in the neighborhood confronted his neighbor, who had asked them not to do drugs there, and the neighbor pulled a gun.
In October, the month before the shooting, Wafer’s vehicle and his neighbor’s were hit with paint balls.
“That put me a little on edge,” he said. “I didn’t know if someone was targeting us.”
I’ve got a lot of questions about those “doing drugs” and “paint ball” incidents. They probably won’t get answered…
I thought I’d remembered reading that Wafer had bought the 12 gauge Mossberg 500A shotgun in response to the paint ball incident, but he’s had that firearm for about six years. He reportedly bought it because at the time he viewed it as ‘affordable’ security.
Well, if you end up in the slammer, that doesn’t seem ‘affordable.’ Even if you don’t, it doesn’t.
I’m relieved that Wafer isn’t going to walk, but I don’t want to do a dance of glee.
There have been way too many people getting away with killing other people, and making an example out of Wafer doesn’t bring them back, nor give justice to the families of all the other victims.
Hopefully, though, it will send a message to any ‘new’ fools who think a firearm makes them cock of the walk.
I tend to agree with the legal experts who are surprised that Wafer was convicted of second degree murder, rather than ‘just’ voluntary manslaughter. M2 seems over the top, and I hope it doesn’t mean that the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater (so to speak) on appeal.
No way should Wafer get a get-out-of-jail-free card.
The difference in Mi law and Fl. Is amazing. It does seem excessive but I did not follow the case. Wonder how they got around the 22 blood level alcohol three hours after her DUI crash and run? That is close to comatose level and over 3 hrs.after she took her last booze shot?
Do you have any links to legal experts opinions. Would really love to read some.
Some explication of why the jurors in Michigan vs Theodore Wafer might have found the defendant guilty of murder in the second degree instead of voluntary manslaughter (boldface font my edit):
Under Michigan law, voluntary manslaughter IS second degree murder, the third variant of which is simply: “knowingly created very high risk of death or grave bodily harm knowing that death or such harm would be the likely result of his actions.”
The second charge with which Wafer was faced was involuntary manslaughter, added after closing arguments as a (I presume) potential compromise verdict. It would never have been a rational verdict, however. Either the jury believed SD, in which case they would acquit, or they did not, in which case Wafer met conditions for M2/voluntary manslaughter.
And now we know the[y] did not believe SD.
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
The basic article by Branca is fairly “bloodless” (not at all like his twitter style which tends towards maladjusted fourteen-year-old–what is it about twitter?), and is worth a read, as are the comments thereon, so long as you can tolerate a certain amount of angry-white-guy BS.
Thank you for his link. Always thought he was just a racist gun nut just really based on twitter dishing him as pretending to be a lawyer when he clearly says he’s not but is well versed in self defense laws. And clearly advises against what happened to Trayvon.
I even read the comments and they were extremely coherent and rational. One poster was attacked for making a halfway racist comment but clearly he is intelligent and knows what must occur in most states to not end up in prison. He also clearly believes Wafer was not acting in self defense and makes me understand how his changing his story from accidental shooting to self defense hurt him as they are not the least bit compatible. If you’re terrified, you don’t open your door.
One poster gives a good link on what to do if someone is knocking saying they’re out of gas.
Don’t open door, back away while answering questions, and call 911. The caller of 911 is assumed to be the victim until proven otherwise. Of course tubs, never called 911, he called NEN but that and his changing stories was not presented by the experienced 30 yr. toughest State Prosecutor in Jax.
Did you know he sent his book to Jr.. Asked him if he received it and Jr. replied:”Oh hey, bud, read it as soon, uh I mean it’s great”!;-)
Apparently, he had to ask Jr. If he received it as dipshit never even sent a thank you. That entire family is rife with self- entitlement and lack of gratitude. Thanks papa Z and Gladys the child abuser.
If I owned a gun, I would indeed buy his book on new laws of self defense.
You’re welcome. I thought Branca’s article about the verdict in Wafer’s trial was fairly restrained and temperate, and some of the comments thereon insightful and informative. However, some of them were infuriating.
Some seemed to think that standing on somebody’s porch without an invitation was enough justification for shooting.
Honey, please. We’ve all had unwelcome visitors, and have probably made some mouth-noises about wanting to ‘kill’ them, but shooting? Really?
Then there were those who tried to use McBride’s DUI as justification, saying that she was the criminal in that situation.
I want everybody who has never, ever driven while over the legal BAC limit to stand up. Then I want nine out of ten to sit their behinds back down, because they’re lying, if perhaps mostly to themselves.
Yes, McBride was obviously intoxicated, and moreover possibly disoriented from a head injury incurred in the auto accident.
My further five-cent analysis is that she was probably over-indulged by both parents, possibly because they were no longer a couple.
But does any of that mean she ‘deserved’ to be shot to death? Oh, hell no.
I want everybody to think about their loved ones, and think about a possible situation where one of them has been in an accident or is in danger, and needs to knock on a stranger’s door.
I myself can easily imagine a scenario in which a lone female pedestrian finds herself being followed by a creepy stranger, and pounds frantically on the doors of another stranger’s home for help.
Yeah, it’s sad, but I guess I’m trying to focus on the good.
Peter Travers at Rolling Stone magazine said that his young son once answered the phone at home, and was heard laughing uncontrollably because it turned out that it was Williams calling, and he was doing impressions of all the child’s favorite cartoon characters.
Williams’ idol was said to be Jonathan Winters, but even Winters was amazed by Williams.
I thought that I’d wait at least a few heartbeats before chiming in on the Ferguson homicide.
As ever, there are unanswered questions for me. For instance, according to the witness who was walking with Brown, their response to an order to get out of the street and up on the sidewalk was to explain that they were very close to their destination.
I don’t understand that. Was there something wrong with getting up on the sidewalk? Not that the death penalty is appropriate for jaywalking…
As to Anonymous hacking and trying to extort the police chief: the police officer that killed Brown and his boss may both be terrible people (and in fact criminals), but I’m disinclined to side with a group that repeatedly commits crimes, yet tries to cast itself in the role of the good guy.
Oh, sorry, was I unclear? I can see how that could be confusing, because right now the Ferguson police department isn’t looking too good. However, for the moment I’m talking about Anonymous.
And the people vandalizing and looting? Aside from the fact that vandalism and looting are in my opinion “malum in se,” the people doing those things are playing right into the hands of those who are only too happy to characterize an entire group of people as thugs. If I were a law-abiding member of that group, I would be none too well pleased.
The feds are looking into the situation in Ferguson, so everybody else needs to take a deep breath and chill. Not forever, but for the short run.
My condolences to Brown’s family. Regardless of the details of how he died, he’s dead, and that has got to hurt.
Jaysus, now the Ferguson police are using tear gas on residents in their own backyards (link courtesy of Xena and her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog)?:
The thing is, once you have wide-spread vandalism and looting, law enforcement might use that as ‘justification,’ for tear gas, regardless of whether it actually is justified.
Yup, trouble in River City, and it ain’t billiards.
It probably is time for the National Guard to step in.
Just heard the Mayor or Ferguson speak live…and no it’s going to sound like it’s from The Onion because how could a Mayor with 4 days to speak live say the following ( fair warning be seated)
Direct quotes:
1.” The residents of this apartment complex are transients who move in and out too fast to build a relationship with the police. Actually first said the “demographics of this area are changing.”
…had no idea it was a citizen’s responsibility to build a relationship with the police? Maybe tubs can show them how this is done?
Saving the best for last. When reporter asked the Mayor:” if it was reasonable to think a teen getting ready to start college on Monday would struggle with a policeman and then try to grab his gun?” Mayor of Ferguson replied ( please be sitting down):” I don’t know, I don’t know this young man’s history or record.” Bye, the Mayor of any town is the boss of the chief of police.
Has O’Mara contacted him to tell him how to dig out or in case there is none, how to make shit up so the kid looks like someone needing to be shot.” 😉
Meant btw ( not bye) chief of police answers to the mayor of any town. So, for the Mayor to say he didn’t know Mike Brown’s history, nor, apparently,his name as he referred to him as ” this young man” not his name. Is possibly the most inappropriate obvious lie any politician has ever uttered. And yes, I include Sarah Palin and whichever GOP briefly nominated lady’s “I am not a witch” said.
Just heard the Mayor or Ferguson speak live…and no it’s going to sound like it’s from The Onion because how could a Mayor with 4 days to speak live say the following ( fair warning be seated)
Direct quotes:
1.” The residents of this apartment complex are transients who move in and out too fast to build a relationship with the police. Actually first said the “demographics of this area are changing.”
<
blockquote>Actually first said the “demographics of this area are changing.”
Oh, no he didn’t say “demographics of this area are changing?!”
To use that expression on the heels of the Wafer trial? Among other things, exactly how clueless is the mayor?
…had no idea it was a citizen’s responsibility to build a relationship with the police?
Yup, more ‘Freudian’ phrasing.
Maybe tubs can show them how this is done?
Girl, don’t go there. GZ’s most recent tweet (On August 1st) made it sound like he might finally have a job. Or, you know, he’s just completely delusional…
Saving the best for last. When reporter asked the Mayor:” if it was reasonable to think a teen getting ready to start college on Monday would struggle with a policeman and then try to grab his gun?” Mayor of Ferguson replied ( please be sitting down):” I don’t know, I don’t know this young man’s history or record.” Bye, the Mayor of any town is the boss of the chief of police.
Ferguson obviously has some long-term problems, but I feel like I have to address further something that is probably already painfully obvious in hindsight to 22-year-old witness Darian Johnson:
About 20 minutes before the shooting, Johnson said he saw Brown walking down the street and decided to catch up with him. The two walked and talked. That’s when Johnson says they saw the police car rolling up to them.
The officer demanded that the two “get the f—k on the sidewalk,” Johnson says. “His exact words were get the f—k on the sidewalk.”
After telling the officer that they were almost at their destination, Johnson’s house, the two continued walking. But as they did, Johnson says the officer slammed his brakes and threw his truck in reverse, nearly hitting them.
When you’re dealing with an angry person who has a badge and a firearm (not to mention a multi-ton motor vehicle)–that is not an optimal time to question authority. Just get the f–k on the sidewalk. You can always file a complaint about the LE and his street-side manner later, because you’ll (hopefully) still be alive to do so.
Has O’Mara contacted him to tell him how to dig out or in case there is none, how to make shit up so the kid looks like someone needing to be shot.” 😉
Well, I wonder whether O’Mara will feel ‘compelled’ to comment on this situation in his capacity as a CNN talking head.
Police Chief just announced they will have a protest area with porta potties. He actually said ” we are changing our tactics” so that’s good!
Mr. Crump moved his news conf. To this afternoon.
Wonder where in the hell a town buys war type tanks?
Thru a grant via pentagon. When Iraq war ended, pentagon made equipment available along with other funds. Ah yes, the law of un intended consequences. I also believe they are hiring former MP thinking they’re already trained. Well, in war yes. In community police they have to be completely re-retrained and many can’t. It costs 3 million dollars to train an army Lt. And that is how to shoot to kill. A lot of the PTSD is coming home with the war mindset only now it’s aimed at your family or neighborhood or community police dept.
This year, I have ,myself, had a policeman ask me ” don’t you know how to change a tire? I was waiting on AAA.i just looked at him saying, uh, I’m a grandmother but I didn’t know how to change a tire when I was young. He was white, I’m white so it wasn’t racial. He barked well, put on your hazard lights ( it’s a new Car that looks
like a jet plane) .i said I don’t know where they are. He reached in to turn them on and smart ass,me, said ” oh, sir, just overlook the pot”. 😉 He snapped you almost got me. Got in his police car and drove away. If this cop treats a well dressed older white lady like this, imagine how he treats young AA.;-(
About 10 min. later another older also white policeman and an AA fuel delivery guy drove up. The older policeman was outraged that a policeman would ask anyone, didn’t they know how to change a tire.? Insisting on changing it, telling me to cancel AAA call. Had to force money onto the young AA citizen.;-)
If cities are hiring former MP thinking they will be already trained, they need to re-think that along with giving Pentagon back their military equipment.
Wonder where in the hell a town buys war type tanks?
Thru a grant via pentagon. When Iraq war ended, pentagon made equipment available along with other funds.
Dunno, but I recall an incident in my last long-term neighborhood that started with an alleged armed robbery of a Mom-and-Pop convenience store, and the ‘perp’ reportedly escaped on foot. I was out-and-about shopping, and when I got home, I found that I couldn’t actually ‘get home’ because my neighborhood was in a ‘cordon’ area. When they finally let the residents back in, I was chilled to see one of those armored vans with an armed SWAT-type guy sitting on top.
My tiny point here is that this incident preceded the ‘end’ of the Iraq war.
BREAKING Wash. Post reporting: . FBI has already interviewed witness. Cannot take over investigation as they don’t have authority. The Wash Post says it’s very unusual for FBI to move in this early. Usually, they “oversee” but they have interviewed witness to killing.
blockquote>This year, I have ,myself, had a policeman ask me ” don’t you know how to change a tire? I was waiting on AAA.i just looked at him saying, uh, I’m a grandmother but I didn’t know how to change a tire when I was young. He was white, I’m white so it wasn’t racial. He barked well, put on your hazard lights ( it’s a new Car that looks
like a jet plane) .i said I don’t know where they are. He reached in to turn them on and smart ass,me, said ” oh, sir, just overlook the pot”. 😉 He snapped you almost got me. Got in his police car and drove away. If this cop treats a well dressed older white lady like this, imagine how he treats young AA.;-(
You naughty granny, you. Yeah, I don’t know that I personally would have gotten ‘smart’ with them that way, and a young male (let alone a minority group one) doing so probably would have been cruising for a bruising–so to speak.
About 10 min. later another older also white policeman and an AA fuel delivery guy drove up. The older policeman was outraged that a policeman would ask anyone, didn’t they know how to change a tire.? Insisting on changing it, telling me to cancel AAA call. Had to force money onto the young AA citizen.;-)
See now, that LE guy was either very gallant or very PR-savvy–or both.
You’ve touched here on what I think is possibly a very valid problem:
I also believe they are hiring former MP thinking they’re already trained. Well, in war yes. In community police they have to be completely re-retrained and many can’t. It costs 3 million dollars to train an army Lt. And that is how to shoot to kill. A lot of the PTSD is coming home with the war mindset only now it’s aimed at your family or neighborhood or community police dept.
Military and civilian police forces do have to have some skills in common, but they do not have the same mission. Not yet, anyway…
The latest chapter in the GZ saga is that medical examiner Dr. Shiping Bao has put out a book on the homicide case–a thirty-seven page e-book in which, according to the Orlando Sentinel article, he uses pseudonyms like “Doris Crabtree” for “legal reasons” (no, I am not making that up).
However, the most interesting tidbit to me is this:
Dr. Bao said he has been questioned this summer by the U.S. Department of Justice in their investigation into whether George Zimmerman violated Trayvon Martin’s civil rights when he shot Martin in February 2012.
(Reuters) – Missouri’s governor moved on Thursday to calm days of racially charged protests over the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager, naming an African-American captain of the Highway Patrol to oversee security in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson.
Captain Ron Johnson, who grew up in Ferguson told reporters he would take a new approach after complaints that police have used heavy-handed tactics, arresting dozens of protesters and using teargas and pepper pellets to break up crowds.
Hopefully the citizens of Ferguson will find this reassuring.
The report released Friday does not appear to shed light on the details of Brown’s death, and it is unclear how the officer could have been certain of Brown’s involvement in the robbery earlier that morning
In an interview with MSNBC shortly after the report was released, Johnson’s lawyer confirmed that Brown had taken cigars from the store.
“We see that there’s tape, that they claim they got a tape that shows there was some sort of strong-armed robbery,” said Freeman Bosley, Johnson’s attorney. “We need to see that tape; my client did tell us and told the FBI that they went into the store. He told FBI that he did take cigarillos, he told that to the DOJ and the St. Louis County Police.”
According to the police report, the officer who shot Brown was responding to a description provided by police dispatch searching for a suspect in the robbery nearby. The officer was identified as Darren Wilson, who is white, and has been on the police force for six years. He is currently on paid administrative leave.
Why did Ferugson Police Chief call the stealing of cigars a “strong armed robbery” instead of just saying that the store clerk was PUSHED when he tried to stop them?
Was it to get the words “armed” and “robbery” right next to each other?
Why not say he was shoplifting and pushed the store clerk on the way out?
This words choice is very telling as to the Police Chief’s agenda. It is a “word game” strategy….. “buzz” words at play here.
There is a world of difference legally between shoplifting and armed robbery.
The stills from that store video are not at all flattering: they suggest a large man bullying a much smaller one. In addition to shoplifting, I would think Brown also could have been charged with assault (however, I’d like to see all of the footage first).
But if Brown and Johnson were indeed suspected by LEO Wilson of being the perpetrators, why would Wilson have acted in the manner Johnson and other witnesses said he did?
When you have two suspects (and one of them quite large), why not call for backup? And why wait an entire week to release the incident report?
The category of Robbery—Strong-arm—Hands, Fists, Feet, etc., (3d) includes muggings and similar offenses in which only personal weapons such as hands, arms, feet, fists, and teeth are employed or their use is threatened to deprive the victim of possessions….
In the absence of force or threat of force, as in pocket-picking or purse-snatching, the offense must be classified as larceny-theft rather than robbery. However, if in a purse-snatching or other such crime, force or threat of force is used to overcome the active resistance of the victim, the offense must be classified as strong-arm robbery (3d).
The following scenarios illustrate incidents known to law enforcement that reporting agencies must classify as Robbery—Strong-arm (3d):
During a purse-snatching, a thief shoved a woman to the ground and took her purse. The thief escaped.
A juvenile was observed by a store security guard concealing compact discs under his shirt. When he was confronted, the youth punched the security guard and fled the store, leaving the compact discs behind.
Firearm
Knife or Cutting Instrument
Other Dangerous Weapon
Strong-arm—Hands, Fists, Feet, etc.
Definition: The taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear.
Robbery is a vicious type of theft in that it is committed in the presence of the victim. The victim, who usually is the owner or person having custody of the property, is directly confronted by the perpetrator and is threatened with force or is put in fear that force will be used. Robbery involves a theft or larceny but is aggravated by the element of force or threat of force.
“Because some type of assault is an element of the crime of robbery, an assault must not be reported as a separate crime as long as it was performed in furtherance of the robbery…>Justicia dot com
Seeing as Michael Brown is no longer alive to give us his version of events, I think both Darren Wilson (of the Ferguson Police Department) and Darian Johnson have a lot of explaining to do.
Nobody should die over a fifty dollar box of cigarillos, but neither should anybody be robbed of one.
Not to mention the chucklehead(s) that torched a convenience store co-located with a gas station. How many people potentially could have died from a fire compounded by an explosion?
I see that there are now picture of Ferguson Police Department Sergeant Darren Wilson out there. While it’s interesting to see what he looks like, I don’t want to post links to pictures of him, because I don’t want to contribute, however inadvertently, to vigilantism. There’s been too much violence already.
Wilson needs to be accountable for his actions, and I continue to hope that will happen.
I’ll probably never again be able to sing along naively with Baby Gum “Meet Me in St. Louis,” but they haven’t yet harshed “The Trolley Song” for me:
Voluteers help the owners of Sam’s Meat Market clean up Saturday after their business was looted following protests over the shooting death of Michael Brown. Looters ransacked several businesses.
The owners and employees at a Ferguson beauty supply store are preparing to close, at least temporarily, after the store was ransacked overnight in the unrest that has followed the shooting death of an unarmed black teen by a white police officer.
“It’s not worth it,” Tanya Littleton, manager of Feel Beauty Supply, said Saturday. “Right now our safety is more important than anything.’
Benny Billups, who does small repairs for the store, said looters entered by shattering a glass door.
“They tried to get into the cash register, stole hair items and some jewelry,” Billups said. “I’m just frustrated because these people are not understanding how this affects others when they come with this foolishness. There was a tragedy, yes, but this not how you deal with a tragedy.”
Employees at the store said their jobs are mostly part time.
“I’m crushed,” said one employee. “This is my living. I have to take care of my family. This is not good. It’s not fair.”
Littleton said she doesn’t know if Feel Beauty Supply will open again. She said the owners are scared and simply want out.
Mark O’Mara opines about the situation in Ferguson, saying that prosecutors should allow a grand jury to evaluate possible charges against Darren Wilson:
“I said in Zimmerman and I have to echo it here today, we know so little about what led up to this, what happened between them,” O’Mara says.
Yup, just keep talking about the lying killer that you (by hook or by crook) helped beat all charges against him, because you deserve to be yoked to him for all eternity.
I lifted my head from my personal real world long enough to read that the National Guard has been sent into Ferguson, MO. My heart aches for the peaceful citizens of that community.
St. Louis Alderman Antonio French put it best, explaining the dramatic descent from order to chaos: “The man/boy ratio was off.”
In other words, there weren’t enough men willing to take the risk and try to reason with hotheads who don’t respect their elders or the police and don’t see the value in playing by the rules. The community has to do a better job, he said, of growing grass-roots leaders.
…I’m not judging Ferguson by a handful of hoodlums, but by the residents who risked their safety and stood between looters and the stores they tried to ransack, and the volunteers who showed up every morning to comfort business owners and sweep up broken glass.
I also read that the (soundless) video from Ferguson Market & Liquor doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story of the incident there (Brown apparently paid for merchandize).
Instead of just releasing information related to the ‘cigarillo’ incident, how about the Ferguson Police Department releasing the incident report of Brown’s homicide?
greetings old un-indicted co-conspirators…. sad but heart felt greetings. Where are you guys going to get the best intel on #Ferguson? Vice News is doing a good job, but is there a good blogger on the scene? All I can find is twitter and video, not someone trustworthy and intelligent with some perspective. Or a dedicated blogger hosting a good forum of non-hotheads, like we had here at one time.
One thing i can say, given what we learned from the Trayvom Martin killing (murder) is that AG Holder’s presence in Ferguson means NOTHING unless it is followed up with a solid court case.
best tweet so far: “three eyewitnesses tell one story, one police chief tells three stories”
Heh! Now, now, the various contributors to the bcclist/bcclist diaspora were never really ‘conspiratory,’ were they?
Long time, no see. I hope you’re doing well these days. I wasn’t posting at the time you lost all of your photography gear to a thief, but I was lurking, and felt your pain. Hopefully, things have gotten better since then.
Where are you guys going to get the best intel on #Ferguson?
A good aggregator of info about the situation seems to be vox dot com (hat tip to Xena’s blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the link):
And yes, Alderman Antonio French is the most sane voice on the scene so far. I wish him continued strength and I hope he gets the support he deserves. A man like him could emerge as a national leader from the rubble if the cards fall right. He’d do better than most.
All right, this situation in Ferguson, MO is getting me down, and I need some levity.
Fox is running a Simpsons marathon–twenty-five years of episodes.
Like many if not most people, I have my favorite moments, so many that I find it impossible to choose a single all-time favorite, but this one rates pretty highly with me.
It involves Professor Frink as a substitute teacher–for kindergarteners (Season 6, Episode 21, “The PTA Disbands”):
Professor Frink takes over the kindergarten class, drawing equations and
free-body diagrams on the blackboard to explain the workings of one of
those things that kids push which makes the balls pop.
Frink: N’hey hey! Ahem, n’hey, so the compression and expansion of the
longitudinal waves cause the erratic oscillation — you can see
it there — of the neighboring particles.
[a girl raises her hand]
[sighs] Yes, what is it? What? What is it?
Girl: Can I play with it?
Frink: No, you can’t play with it; you won’t enjoy it on as many levels
as I do.
[he chuckles as he plays with it] The colors, children!
Except I remember it as Professor Frink telling the little kid, “No, not until you can appreciate it on as many levels as I do.”
I couldn’t find a You Tube clip of it, and the people who compile the info at that snpp dot com site seem like some serious Simpsons freaks (ahem, that is to say, ‘scholars’), so whatevah…
Interrogating the evidence in high-publicity 'hate crimes', and the way it has been used and misused in the media, and by parties to the matter..
This site also has a broader goal: in the tradition of the Errol Morris film "The Thin Blue Line" it aims to use the specific case at hand to shed a bit of light onto broader questions of epistemology: how is it that we come to think we 'know' something, and what kinds of errors lead to bad conclusions? This site also has a more specific interest in what can an cannot be concluded from audio/visual media, and the many mistakes of omission and commission commonly made in the interpretation of A/V material
COMMENT POLICY
Comments offering actual evidence in the cases under discussion, or rational analysis of either evidence or news coverage, are welcome. All comments will be moderated, and reviewed before appearing on the site (which might take me awhile,sorry). Any comments expressing bigotry against any parties will be deleted, and the authors will be banned. Any 'facts' derived from external sources must be clearly attributed with proper citations. A certain degree of speculation is allowable, as long as it is consistent with known facts, and clearly labeled as speculation.
whonoze 
Looks like I fell off of and then back on the email notification of new thread list.
Let me go see what I missed.
You and me both unitron, I didn’t know people were still talking about GZ back in the other thread.
Heh. Thanks for the new thread, Perfesser whonoze.
And hat tip to the Xena and Rachael at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the news about Rachel Jeantel graduating from high school:
Yahoo 20140530
You go, Rachel girl. Of course, you didn’t really have to prove anything to anybody other than yourself.
I bet most of the ‘scholars’ making fun of Jeantel for not being able to read cursive handwriting can’t read Latin.
Latin was still part of a standard grammar school education back in my grandfather’s day, but has long since disappeared as a requirement (unless one is going to become a doctor or priest, etc.).
Well, it’s been over a month now (20140430) since GZ tweeted:
the ‘real GZ at twitter
What’s he been up to lately, inquiring minds want to know?
Is he working?
Still in Florida?
Still living with SS?
And on that last subject, what’s SS been up to lately?
Is she working?
Still in Florida?
Still living with GZ?
Actually pregnant?
If they’re a soap opera, it’s their own doing…
Madness:
Mother Jones 20140515
Boldface font my edit for emphasis:
What she said.
Gun rights activists always point to the Second Amendment and the intentions of the Founders. Did the Founders want to ensure freedom from tyranny? Sure.
Freedom from tyranny should include freedom from armed assholics. I feel certain that they had assholics even back in the era of the Founders, but back then they were largely limited to the damage they could cause with a muzzleloading rifle or a musket–a far cry from modern assault weapons:
Long Rifle per wikipedia
Well, at least nobody got shot. Yet, that is:
Click Orlando 20140602
Hat tip to crazy1946 at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the link to the article about the NRA retracting their recent statement about open carry:
Talking Points Memo 20140603
Here’s the comment I liked:
Here’s the law on open carry of long guns in Texas (boldface font my edit for emphasis):
wikipedia
Yes, we have a Bill of Rights, but the enumerated rights therein are not ‘carte blanche.’
Free speech doesn’t allow the frivolous yelling of “Fire” in a crowded theater because that would be “calculated to cause alarm.”
Carrying one’s high-powered, semi-automatic rifle into Chipotle just to try to make a ‘point’ is frivolous, and “calculated to cause alarm.”
Can’t leave a comment? Trying to alert with two posts@bcc.list @websleuth
@ 2dogsonly,
Not sure as to what your difficulty is. I looked at bcclist for recent activity, but didn’t see anything. If you’re having difficulty there, you could email “Crick” (thelist ‘at’ bcclist.com).
Is it that you tried to post something here on whonoze’s wordpress blog, and it’s hung up in moderation? If so, Perfesser whonoze gets automatic email notification when something is hung up in moderation.
Just doing some ‘catch-up’ (in order to initiate a search of Fresno Superior Court’s records, one must use the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser):
Fresno Superior Court 20140602
Hopefully, everybody will stop these unproductive ‘games.’
Dunno who all has seen this, but Stutzman and Weiner of the Orlando Sentinel put together a “Where are they now?” piece about GZ, Judge Nelson, O’Mara, former Chief Lee, TM’s parents, Jeantel, Crump, Corey, and the jurors. It was mostly enlightening to me for the updates on O’Mara and Lee. although I did find it interesting that the jurors reportedly met for dinner around Christmas 2013 (I bet Juror B-29 didn’t attend):
Orlando Sentinel 20140607
Belated kudos, however, to radio host Tom Joyner who’s been financing Jeantel’s continuing education. What a classy guy.
Comment won’t post trying two links to alert admin. @bcc.list and @websleuths
Looks like Jim Hoft of thegatewaypundit dot com got sucked in by a relatively old News Nerd satire piece (Will Smith was allegedly making a movie about the GZ/TM case, starring his son Jayden and GZ was getting paid 3.2 million as a consultant):
thegatewaypundit dot com 20140608
News Nerd 20140512
As one might expect, the piece at the right-wing thegatewaypundit site has a lot of rabidly pro-GZ commentary, but this one was just funny to me:
You just can’t make up sh*t like this.
Oops, my bad, I didn’t realize that Xena had already quoted the OS “Where are they now?” piece on her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog:
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress 20140608
As to this:
Dunno, good question, but in poking around, I found this ‘interesting’ client recommendation (boldface font my edit for emphasis):
AVVO dot com
Actually, the reviews for West at AVVO dot com are full of interesting tidbits.
Test to alert admin. Won’t post using two links just to alert professor @bcc.list and @websleuths
Well that posted. I wrote a long post about how good Avvo is. Doesn’t charge clients to use.
Hat tip to Xena at her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the reminder that June is Black Music Month, not to mention videos of the fabulous Big Mama Thornton:
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress 20140611
Here’s the fabulous John Lee Hooker:
John Lee Hooker’s 1948 Boogie Chillen’ at YouTube
Ruby Dee dies at age 91:
Chicago Sun-Times 20140612
RIP, Ruby. I hope you’ll forgive a white girl playing a song performed by a white boy in your honor, but Little Richard’s mother apparently thought well of his rendition:
Ruby Baby at YouTube
On her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog, Xena details some of the history and specifics of the harassment she’s received at the hands of various people because of her stance on the GZ case:
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress 20140613
Stay strong, Xena.
On another front, the next action in GZ’s case against NBC Universal Media LLC is supposed to be a hearing on Thursday, June 19, 2014 at 930 AM (Eastern Time):
Seminole County Clerk of Courts Case 2012CA006178
Is this why GZ seems to have kept his cake-hole shut since the end of April 2014?
The lawyer who got GZ off the murder/manslaughter hook opines about gun control in his new capacity as a talking head for CNN:
CNN 20140611
Editor’s note: Mark O’Mara is a CNN legal analyst. He is a criminal defense attorney who frequently writes and speaks about issues related to race, guns and self-defense in the context of the American criminal justice system. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
Like Trayvon Benjamin Martin in Florida at the hands of your client George Michael Zimmerman, you son of a Mara.
GZ Versus NBC Universal Media LLC:
Orlando Sentinel 20140619 1103AM
Being that the hearing is now over, I hope somebody will report on specifically which of the “four” it was that got tossed:
WaPo PDF Copy of 24 Page Lawsuit
Hat tip to Xena at the blackbutterfy7 wordpress blog for the specifics on what was thrown out of the lawsuit:
blackbutterfly7 20140619
Rene Stutzman at twitter
mysteryquest1 over at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog opines:
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress 20140620
It would be great if that lying killer GZ finally took the stand.
Are the feds licking their chops?
Where in the World is Gunman Sans Decency? (Boldface font my edit for emphasis.):
Channel 9 WFTV 20140619
GZ should have thought about that before he went strutting around with a pint-sized, 9mm chunk of courage on his hip.
Hat tip to Xena at her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the link to the Orlando Sentinel update on GZ’s parents’ lawsuit against Roseanne Barr:
Orlando Sentinel 20140624
Not to mention that they told the OS that they’d left their home long before Barr retweeted their published address. Also, their lying killer son GZ didn’t actually go on the lam (although he appears to have come close to doing so), so they didn’t lose their house when they put it up for his bond.
These triple dippers (insofar as I can tell, Mother Gladys has a government pension, and Father RZSR has two, one from his military service, and another from his time as a magistrate) don’t appear to be suffering overly much, other than from their delusion that they’re victims.
GZ’s lawyer is going after Al Sharpton’s and Angela Corey’s records:
Orlando Sentinel 20140626
Hmmm. I could ‘kind of’ understand going after comm records for those who have dealings with NBC, but what’s up with going after Corey’s records? Not that I have any great love for her, but what does she have to do with NBC?
Ya know, it’s true that the first time GZ described TM as black was prompted by an inquiry from the dispatcher, but later on in the same call he volunteered that information again with no prompting at all.
Oh, and when I say ‘kind of,’ I mean if I were a lawyer trying to win a case regardless of whether it had any actual merit:
NBC’s broadcast excerpts from GZ’s Non Emergency Number police call didn’t make me think GZ was a racist stalker; GZ’s full, unexpurgated NEN police call did that.
When you really listen to it, you know damned well he didn’t say “Fcking punks,” but rather “Fcking *oons.”
As to “stalker,” I hope NBC talks to the Retreat resident who said GZ used to follow him every time he went jogging. Hey, there are all kinds of things NBC could go after, being that this is a civil case.
I agree what is with going after Angela Corey’s records? I would say it was an effort to run up his bill but tub’s lawyer will never see a dime. She threw his case and this is his typical thank you to anyone who tries to help him.
2dogsonly,
Yeah, I have to wonder how it is that any lawyer will take on a case for GZ, given his record of stiffing his legal representatives on the bill.
Heh!:
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress
As a sidebar, I’m sorry to read that Xena is feeling under the weather. Take care of yourself, and get back to one hundred percent, girl.
Hat tip to Xena at her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the link to an Orlando Sentinel update on the Z divorce (boldface font my edit for emphasis):
Orlando Sentinel 20140627
What a ‘class’ act.
Is it too much to hope for that the two hundred clams a month GZ allegedly spends on mental health counseling has put a dent in what’s really wrong with him (narcissism)? Probably.
All this because a hollow shell of a human being needed hollow-point bullets to feel like a man.
“Hollow shell of a human needed hollow point bullets to feel like a man” that is a perfect explanation. Thank you!
Judge Nelson has ruled further in the GZ versus NBC Universal Media LLC case today (boldface font my edit for emphasis):
WFTV 20140630
Is it over? Dunno, the Seminole County Clerk of Courts detailed case view hasn’t updated yet:
SCCoC Case 2012CA006178
A Click Orlando piece has more info:
Click Orlando 20140630
PDF of decision:
Click Orlando PDF Blob
Hat tip to towerflower at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the link to a WESH copy of Nelson’s ruling in GZ versus NBC:
WESH Fifteen Page PDF
Myself, I’m not doing a dance of glee over the decision, but rather feel a certain grim satisfaction.
It’s obscene that GZ has gotten as much money as he has already for killing somebody, and giving him more would have been beyond obscene.
He needs finally to learn that he doesn’t always get a free pass in life. Perhaps if GZ had learned that hard lesson earlier in life, TM would still be alive.
All right, I’m trying not to laugh, but given GZ’s penchant both for the “Zim” meme and posting sanctimonious tweets, this from Yahtzee at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog just makes me wheeze (boldface font my edit for emphasis):
A href=”http://blackbutterfly7.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/zimmermans-suit-against-nbc-dismissed/#comment-31552″>blackbutterfly at wordpress
Hat tip to yahtzee at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the link to the Washington Post piece about a potential appeal of the decision in the GZ versus NBC Universal Media LLC lawsuit:
WaPo 20140701
I’m inclined to agree with yahtzee, and not invest too much energy into the possibility of an appeal unless and until we see some hard evidence thereof. I notice that while WaPo blogger Wemple quoted attorney Beasley, the statement “An appeal is coming.” was not a quote from Beasley.
I also notice that Junior tweeted a link to the WaPo piece, and if anybody had more information on the subject, I would think it would be Killer Boy’s bro. GZ himself and his alleged girlfriend Sam are both still silent (on twitter, anyway).
The Seminole County Clerk of Courts updated the case:
SCCoC Case 2012CA006178
Oh, and a wave to racerrodig. “The Evelyn Woodhead Sped Redding Course.” Heh.
I was about to nominate Manjoo for President of the Shetland Pony Rescue League (the ‘joke’ is that when an optimist finds a pile of manure, they start digging enthusiastically, looking for a Shetland pony) until I read the final paragraph of his piece:
The Bright Side of Facebook’s Social Experiments on Users-New York Times 20140703
Good to read that Xena is home from the hospital and on the mend. Take a cue from this critter, girl:
The Atlantic 20140703
Cashill’s at it again:
World ‘News’ Daily 20140702
Two words for ya, Jack: Fucking coons. Your boy GZ said them, and further scrutiny of this case would expose that.
I think the reality is that Nelson tried to make this lawsuit go away because the state of Florida doesn’t want ‘sunshine’ on all the corruption in this case.
I wonder how many people in Florida, regardless of their views on race and gun laws, are silently cursing GZ, because in his own little dysfunctional way, he’s exposed so many to scrutiny and risk.
Make no mistake, though, GZ isn’t innocent by a long shot. Listen to his non-emergency phone call, watch his ‘re-enactment,’ read the transcripts of his interviews, and hey, by all means, read up on his ‘history’: he’s a lying killer who’s been enabled by an untold number of people with various agendas.
Happy Independence Day to all.
I hope that love of country will make everybody remember the motto “E pluribus unum.”
The ‘real’ GZ is back tweeting. It looks like the afternoon of July 2nd, because his first tweet since April 30th was actually a retweet, and I can’t tell the time on retweets:
the ‘real’ GZ at twitter
Two things about GZ’s breaking of his twitter ‘fast’:
Of course, we still haven’t heard from the feds…
As they might say in Lombardy, let yourself out, boy.
Hat tip to Xena at her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the information that Frank Taaffe might be talking to the feds soon:
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress 20140704
That business about FT getting a call frm GZ immediately after the homicide is interesing. What phone did GZ allegedly use to do that (we have the list of calls from that night for his main cell phone).
Sure would be nice to hear that interview, although I hope Uncle Frank isn’t just spouting lies in a pathetic attempt to garner attention.
I poked around, and the screen capture of what is allegedly Taaffe’s Facebook with the info that he’ll be talking to the feds on the 16th seemed a bit hinky in that the picture changed:
NavyDad0007 at twitter 20140706 07:42AM
I just went back to find the earlier posting with the different picture capture, but failed. Hmmm…
Google Manhattan Beach shark
There is so much wrong with the story about a guy bit by a great white shark at Manhattan Beach, California that it’s difficult to know where to start, but a couple of things jump out at me.
First, to the people who try to insert politics into absolutely everything: Shut! Up!
Second, I find it disturbing that some people on the pier were allegedly laughing at the prospect of somebody being bitten by a shark. This is not a Hollywood movie, you insensitive clods.
I’m sure the poor man was indeed terrified; however, I also felt sympathy for the seven-foot juvenile shark who’d only just been freed from a half-hour-plus fight at the end of a fishing line.
Finally, the fisherman who hooked the shark was allegedly hoping for a bat ray using a sardine as bait (and not “chumming”). I hope he was planning to eat that hypothetical ray, because the idea of ‘sport’ fishing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
All right, now that I’ve calmed down somewhat:
Politics are a fact of life, and it is of course the First Amendment prerogative of everybody to comment on news stories, but unmitigated assholics who make observations like “I hope sharks eats all the (insert derogatory nickname for the unfavored group of your choice), help nothing and no one, including themselves.
wonkette 20140630
For those at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog who are puzzled by references to GZ’s fiancee–I believe that would have been Veronica Zuazo, and the reference to VZ being told by a female caller that GZ had been questioned by the police might well have to do with the incident involving the ‘undercover’ law enforcement agent. The timing would be roughly correct.
Thank you for clearing that up. So, his long time ago “fiancé”? Makes much more sense!
Could you post that at xena’s blog. Thanks!
Hat tip to Xena and her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the update on the case of Curtis Reeves who has been charged with second-degree murder for the shooting death of fellow movie theater patron Chad Oulson in January 2014:
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress 20140709
I have to wonder if Reeves has always had a short temper. I suspect he’s always been a control-freak, and retirement didn’t afford him enough opportunities to micro-manage other people, so he ‘had’ to invent some.
Hat tip to Xena for the story about the needless and tragic death of a three year old at the hands of somebody trying to use a high-powered rifle as a crutch(!):
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress 20140711
And kudos to Yahtzee for zeroing in on a major problem that needs fixing:
Lobbying is out of control:
wikipedia on lobbying in the U.S.
Gad, that story about a couple being stripped-searched over a three-buck pair of earrings is just sad. If the proprietor truly believed they were shoplifting, why could they not first look at the surveillance footage–and why would the couple not insist on that before consenting to a search? Just sad all the way round:
And that horrifying story about a NM woman’s ordeal after a visit to Mexico makes one not want to travel abroad–well, it does me, anyway:
blackbutterfly7 20140710
Interesting piece about nostalgia for the 1990s from Vanity Fair contributor James Wolcott:
Vanity Fair August 2014
I like the late, great Frank Zappa’s theory about nostalgia:
Zappa dot com
I myself wonder if we’ll someday be nostalgic for tomorrow.
(Please understand that I personally am nostalgic to a near-crippling degree.)
Well, GZ has mostly retweeted others since breaking his tweet-fast, but in one of his recent ‘original’ tweets, he was in his usual form:
the ‘real’ GZ at twitter 20140710
At a glance, I can’t see what “VoteMike2014′ might have tweeted to cause GZ to tweet at him.
(Mike) Dickinson does appear to be yet another person who should stay off of twitter because he doesn’t know how to act like a mature, decent human being–but GZ calling him a “perverted douchebag?”
That strikes me as being analogous to the cannibal-orgy-sized cauldron calling the tea kettle black.
Link to Lisa Bloom’s article just published. It’s short
http://www.booksincommon.org/author-interview-lisa-bloom/?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_campaign=hootsuite
Ooo, thanks, 2dogsonly.
Today’s chortle comes courtesy of Turner Classic Movies, Bob Hope, and imdb (boldface font my edit for emphasis).
The movie is a kind of quasi-noir (but you know it has to be comedy because of Hope), and Hope’s character is doing voice-over narration of a flashback. He’s explaining that he wanted to become a detective:
imdb on My Favorite Brunette (1947)
Kudos to Xena and her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for this piece on Trayvon Martin and the impact his death has had on our country:
The Impact of Trayvon Martin’s Death on America
Speaking strictly for myself, I feel sorrow for our entire nation.
It’s been a sad eye-opener for me to realize how much racism persists in the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”
An interview of Rachel Jeantel by Matt Gutman will be aired on ABC’s This Week (also features U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder):
ABC This Week
GZ is now trying to get people on twitter to report “votemike2014”:
the ‘real’ GZ at twitter 20140711
The thing is, I’ve gone back through Dickinson’s twitter feed, and while there’s been plenty of recent mentions of GZ in it, none of them seem to predate GZ calling him a “perverted douchebag.”
It looks like GZ is trying to shut down Dickinson because the latter is running for congress in Virginia.
Did GZ finally find a ‘job?’ Is ‘somebody’ paying him to do this?
Last night was the one year anniversary of the realization the state would be willing to let a teen be murdered and the killer walk out with a not guilty verdict.and what this new law called SYG means.
In that year the Maetins and Fultons have taken their son’s murder and used it for good.
The killer, who walked free, used the last year to commit adultery, beat his father in law, destroy his wife’s IPAD, threatened and be arrested for DV on new girlfriend, get 3 tickets, hold pixs at gun show, hire himself out to be in a faux MMA match, run away when he found out he would actually have to participate, copy a copyright painting, sue media, loose case, parents sue somebody for something. Not one single act of good or gratitude expressed to anyone who helped him.
I’d say this latest is not a job, just another bid for attention by a massively bit of stupid humanity. File it under the ignore trash.
2dogsonly,
Well, either that, or it’s something akin to a mentality frequently found in penitentiaries:
“I might be a mother stabber/father raper, but I’m not as bad as that guy who (fill-in-the-crime-of-your-choice).”
So, yes, it probably is another bid for attention. He wants the public to find somebody else to despise.
‘Unfortunately,’ unless Dickinson deliberately killed somebody, and then lied up a storm about it, there’s no way he’s worse than GZ.
Rachael speaks to The Grio. Feels guilty about tubs going free.;-(
http://mobile.thegrio.com/all/2014-07-14-rachel-jeantel-blames-herself-for-zimmermans-acquittal#1
A short but illuminating piece about Mike Dickinson (twitter votemike2014):
Slate 20140710
His DickinsonForCongress dot com website appears to be disabled, as it redirects to something that tells you as much. Here’s some of the text from the Google cache copy:
That sounds good, but his twitter feed doesn’t measure up.
Of course, with regard to GZ calling Dickinson nasty names, I think the cauldron/kettle analogy still stands.
Happy Fourteenth of July (“Bastille Day” to Americans). Here’s the tiny (according to some sources, only 4’8″ in height) but powerful Edith Piaf:
You Tube- Piaf Performing Padam Padam
French Morning dot com explanation of ‘de quatorze-juillet’
Oh, I love her. Here’s another
2dogsonly,
She was great, wasn’t she? She was one of those singers who didn’t have to ‘grow on me;’ I liked her immediately.
Here’s one she did in English:
You Tube – Piaf- Simply a Waltz
Thanks word salad. Never heard her sing in English. Such a voice.
Didn’t Junior say that he was going to stop talking about his brother’s homicide case?:
rzimmermanjr at twitter 20140408
Ah, my mistake. He wasn’t going to address it on twitter. Apparently, he’ll still have his case pie hole open in other media:
USATODAY 20140713
Maybe that’s because the only evidence that GZ was attacked by TM is GZ saying so. And his family parroting him.
“[c]oreshift” of the annettekblog wordpress blog opines on twitter:
coreshift at twitter 20140714
I myself look forward to the day when people can no longer kill somebody, give the weakest excuses ever, yet still walk.
I don’t know if I can hope for a day when:
Brilliant comeback!
I look forward to the day when a moron actually reads our bill of rights. As for tubs, there was more than enough proof he was targeting young AA, including his own friend., FT” he was sick of it”. Fucken coons. Asking what he was doing here”? Torturing the fellow Carmax Muslim coworker who had to pull off the side of the road when he heard who had killed a young AA. His own my space words on hating Mexicans.
He hated anyone who he felt he could bully, including his gay brother.
2dogsonly,
Make no mistake, I think GZ is very conflicted about race, but he’s also a calculating opportunist. You’ve touched on something here:
Anytime GZ sees what he thinks is an opportunity to ‘better’ his own position by preying on a vulnerable person, he’ll do it.
I think he made fun of that fellow CarMax employee because he perceived that his own desired ‘in-crowd’ didn’t like the guy.
Right now, he appears to be trying to form a posse of twits on twitter to get that Dickinson guy shut down for no better reason other than that it’s ego-gratifying for him to get other people to do things for him.
I strongly suspect what happened on Sunday, February 26, 2012 is that GZ was ‘suffering’ from a number of failures: (a) his education was stalled (b) he was in debt up past his beady eyeballs, and probably couldn’t even cough up the rent money for March (c) he felt humiliated because he’d bungled a ‘collar’ earlier in February, and somebody else got the ‘glory’ (d) last but not least, he felt threatened with the cutoff of his primary narcissistic supply, his estranged wife.
I think he went out that evening hunting for some Neighborhood Watch instant gratification, and lo, what should he see but somebody who looked like an ‘ideal’ target: a black male teenager.
I think GZ calculated that the idea of a black male teenager being ‘up to no good’ would be an easy sale with the police.
It doesn’t have to be unmitigated racism to be ugly, especially when somebody ends up dead.
Exactly!
The really fascinating bit about the Carmax co-worker is he was from mid west state. He explained he was very used to being ragged on after 9/11 but tub’s over the top made him question whether he should punch him and then suffer the consequences.
And when manager brought them in, tubs was so convincing the Carmax guy questioned himself…manager said work it out but tubs being tubs started calling the corp. office on his own SUPERVISOR saying he could run the Carmax store so much better and called so many times, he was ” eased out”. They, the corp. office said they had never had an employee call to report so many times. This whole thing was years prior to 2012 yet the Carmax co- worker had to pull his car off the road when he heard tub’s name.
Tubs was jealous cause he out sold him. I think the co-worker was hired after tubs and received some bonus that fatty didn’t get.
I’m a clinical social worker so human nature and odd stories fascinate me. The fact this guy was American citizen but Muslim, in used car selling business ( a tough as nails business ), born and raised in mid west ( not exactly a love thy brother state), and tub’s ridiculeing in the height of the recession…made him go home each day and have a talk with himself to not punch the holy shit out of tubs and then question whether he could be losing his perspective ( because tubs was such a great actor when boss called them in)
Here’s an interesting tidbit from the past that I uncovered while trying to determine whether Junior’s politics had changed since his brother committed homicide:
NPR dot org 20130226
(MARTIN is Michel Martin, and JR is, well Junior):
I do wonder how deep GZ’s Democrat roots were–and did he really get his family, who appear to be dyed-in-the-wool Republicans, to vote for Obama?
Eh, then again, this is Junior talking, so who knows how much of it is real?
He and Gracie made fun of him on the jail calls for being gay.called him useless.
But I’m glad to know he filled out his own registration card. 😉
It’s being reported Taffe is speaking with DOJ today. Nowadays, I take everything with a wait and see attitude.
2dogsonly:
I think it’s all of a piece with GZ. Those nasty comments about Mexicans on his old MySpace page were probably his way of ‘distancing’ himself from a group that his desired ‘in-crowd’ at the time didn’t like: “Hey, I might be Latino, but I’m not like them.”
That I wasn’t aware of (I didn’t listen to/read transcriptions for all the jailhouse calls). About the only thing I recall is GZ’s insinuation that Junior liked to party at the drop of a hat.
I found that to be a curious statement from Junior.
Thanks for the reminder; it was supposed to happen on the 16th, wasn’t it? Yeah, I ain’t holdin’ my breath or nothin.’
Sorry to read that Xena continues to receive harassment at her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog, and as a result feels a need to limit commenting access to those with wordpress accounts:
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress 20140716
The harassers must somehow feel ‘threatened’ by what Xena and the other contributors at her blog have to say. If they had a legitimate complaint, they wouldn’t feel a ‘need’ to try to circumvent administrative controls to post abuse.
H/t to Xena for posting this. Poor tubs and his grifter family can’t catch a break, you know other than walking free after killing a kid.
http://m.wesh.com/video/judge-dismisses-lawsuit-against-spike-lee-from-zimmerman-tweet/26987842
2dogsonly,
Thanks (boldface font my edit for emphasis):
Actually, I don’t think this “Central Florida couple” is GZ’s parents, it’s another couple. Lee tweeted their address, thinking it was the Z’s.
Still, they had already settled with Lee for ten grand. Go away now. Don’t be grifters like the Z’s.
Speaking of the Z’s, am I imaging this, or did one of the recent news articles featuring Junior reported that he was living in Lake Mary? What are the odds that he isn’t living in his parent’s house? You know, the one they own, but can’t live in, because they’ve been too ‘terrorized?’
You are correct. Should have noticed since it was so little, it wouldn’t be from tub’s parents. Thanks for clarification!
This Clutch magazine piece gets it right (boldface font my edit for emphasis):
Clutch Magazine 20140715/a>
Not to mention the State not preparing her properly for the ordeal of testifying.
Wow, Johnny Winter died:
NPR dot org 20140717
RIP, Johnny.
Oh, word salad thank you for this!!
. Long white flowing hair. And he’s right about going to AA blues clubs and feeling welcomed. We used to go to the Peacock club in Atlanta in mid 60’s and never felt like we didn’t belong.
RIP Johnny Winter and thank you for your gift.
John Olivier explains wealth gap. hilarious!
!
Cue the music from “Jaws.” Uncle Rupe is trying to acquire Time Warner:
Los Angeles Times 20140719
Hum. I wonder whether this was aimed at anyone in particular:
the ‘real’ GZ at twitter 20140722
(the text of an image)
Alleged girlfriend Samantha Scheibe’s twitter feed (samantha_khope) has been silent since May 18th.
Well, since I checked it this morning, the twitter feed of GZ’s alleged girlfriend (samantha_khope) has disappeared. All that breathless, undying love–gone. Where is she these days, inquiring minds want to know?
Yep, says doesn’t exist. Wonder if she changed her twitter name?
2dogsonly,
Could be, but to what, and why?
I find it curious timing: GZ tweets that little homily about struggle, and suddenly, SS’s samantha_khope twitter feed disappears (it was still there this morning).
Well, not to mention that GZ’s multi-million dollar lawsuit against NBC Universal Media LLC was dismissed at the end of June.
Do you remember her tweet about getting her babies ( plural) out safely and that pix I think was taken at his Spanish radio interview of her in a hotel room looking puffy.? The baby, if she meant babies and was telling the truth when she said she was preggers when they had that blowup? The baby would be due any day. Someone pointed out she posted that fancy hotel room pix in May and that was true but that could just have been when she posted it. The interview took place around Nov. Remember, the beach pix she and Jr. posted only had one couple on the beach so it was chilly when she looked puffy.
Why else would she take it down now when there’s no controversy or law suit?
Do you think we need a life? 😉
2dogsonly,
Well, the cynic in me says that honeybee left honeypot when she figured out that there wouldn’t be anymore honey (money, that is) forthcoming.
They probably got into a fight, and she deleted her sweet-talk-laden twitter feed out of spite. (I would ‘hope’ she’s smart enough to realize that deleting it because of the feds wouldn’t do her any good.)
If it were just the two of them, I’d say that they deserved each other, but there’s at least one child involved. Aside from basic physical safety, what is that kid learning about relationships?
Eh maybe. I’ve said that I didn’t care about the minutiae of GZ’s life, and that’s still basically true. I’m mostly just treading water until the feds come out with their final decision. However, there is one exception–I want to know where GZ is because he’s a loose cannon.
In truth, the world is full of loose cannons, and I may already have one next door without realizing it.
The difference with GZ? Well, not only has he killed, he’s ‘gotten away with it.’ That makes him doubly dangerous, and I want to know where that armed assholic is.
Oh word salad, how I love your comments! They are just cynical enough without being mean spirited. And smart!
There are indeed a lot of loose cannons. And she said he felt emboldened when he not only got away with murder but everything that followed.
Do you think O’Mara’s recent desire to open up a racial discussion could be tied in? As in, covering his sorry ass? Because that is just counter productive to his future as a criminal defense lawyer. Why would a potential client want to hire a defense attorney whom just one year after getting his client off, now wants to “open up a racial dialogue” which was entire focus of previous client’s entire defense.
I hope this new switcharoo by honeypot and O’Mara has to do with Feds.
We continue to hope it happens!
2dogsonly,
Oh, I assure you that there’s plenty of mean-spiritedness in me; I have to watch myself all the time. It’s one of the advantages of writing over speaking: because I type rather slowly, I can usually ‘censor’ myself.
Yup, he doesn’t seem to have really learned anything ‘positive’ from this experience. On the one year anniversary of his acquittal, he tweeted that he was “thankful.”
Not thankful enough to treat his wife and the other people who went way out on a limb for him decently, though. Just ‘thankful’ enough to tweet that he was thankful so that his new ‘friends’ (read: twitter twits) will think he’s a swell guy.
Or maybe not thankful at all, maybe he just wanted to rub his acquittal in the face of everybody who thinks he’s guilty of manslaughter or worse.
There, was that mean-spirited enough for ya?
Maybe that talking-head gig on CNN isn’t lucrative enough to offset the way people look at O’Mara when he walks down the street.
It might, we’ll just have to wait and see. As others have already observed, nothing may happen until after the fall elections (because like it or no, everything is affected by politics). Then too, the feds are a mill that grinds slowly.
Whatever the feds ultimately do, I want to bear witness.
You may already know this but his attorney has filed an appeal in the media case. Both are dicks but you can bet the attorney is doing it for future business and lawsuits take a toll on everyone. So I think , and I may be just wishing, that this constant interaction with the legal system is grinding tubs down.
Jesus, how do you continue holding yourself out for ridicule like he does? This next loss will be fun cause he will lose. 90% of appeals are lost.
2dogsonly,
Thanks, I only just now saw the Orlando Sentinel article, and indeed the Seminole County Clerk of Courts detailed case view now reflects that a notice of appeal was filed on July 22.
So, let’s see: GZ tweets a homily about his ‘struggle’ on the same day his lawyer files an appeal. Oh, and alleged girlfriend SS takes a powder on twitter. Hmmm…
The OS piece:
OS 20140724
Here’s the bit I ‘like’:
The feds may have officially opined that they couldn’t identify the word at issue, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have an opinion about what the word was not. Even a layperson can hear that it sure as hell wasn’t punks.
Just keep pushing it, killer boy.
Oh, and did ‘anybody’ notice the judge currently assigned to the appeal? Why, it’s Jessica Recksiedler. You know, the judge that recused herself from GZ’s homicide case at O’Mara’s request (because of her husband’s professional relationship with Mark NeJame).
Just keep pushing it killer boy!! Could not say it better. Come on judge, grant that appeal so we can see his fat ass answer some civil court case questions. And then take a fucken powder, I mean tubs.
Thanks for. Posting this.
Too bad it can’t be Judge Judy. Love her show.
2dogsonly,
Judge Judy: why do I think that she would not suffer GZ gladly?
Well, this is a troubling story:
WebProNews 201407
As everybody should know, eight-year-olds can be noisy and messy. It’s part of being eight.
But what’s the common link between these two eight-year-olds, and TM?
Was TM eight at the time of his death? No, that ain’t it.
Was TM making noise, and a mess? No, that ain’t it, either.
Hmmm.
Goforth-Buyalova alleges that the police “made up” the inflammatory remarks. She called the police dispatcher, so there should be a recording, yes?
Hat tip to Xena at her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the link to this story about GZ’s NBC Universal Media LLC lawsuit appeal:
News 965 20140724
I don’t think he had a ‘normal’ life before he killed TM, and if he is “one of the most hated people in America,” it’s not just because he killed somebody, and then lied up a storm about it, but because he’s also an obvious grifter and general assholic.
A recent example of his assholism is the way he went after would-be pol Mike Dickinson on twitter.
Insofar as I can tell, Dickinson hadn’t said anything about GZ–until GZ tweeted to him that he was a “perverted douchebag.” After that, Dickinson did make remarks about GZ.
Whereupon GZ formed a posse to try to get Dickinson kicked off of twitter.
Hmmm, let’s see: GZ provokes somebody, and then says that it’s the other person’s fault. (Well, and not to mention, he tries to get others to help him with the ‘problem.’)
Have we seen this behavior before from GZ? (Oh hell, yes.)
Too bad his ‘generous’ friends can’t give him a a job. Then again, maybe one or more of them has offered him a job, but he didn’t like what was on offer. Or maybe his ‘friends’ don’t want to give him a job, because they know he’s a loose cannon. Better to give him charity on the end of a stick.
Kudos to towerflower at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the informative, thoughtful piece on Florida’s poorly-conceived 10-20-Life law:
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress 20140725
Kudos to “dannywarrior” at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for this observation:
blackbutterfly7 20140727
Absolutely, and the collection of evidence should include sobriety testing, not just for the killed, but the killer.
Kudos to all those who are closely following the Theodore Wafer trial (for the homicide of Renisha McBride) and providing information, especially “yahtzeebutterfly” at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog.
The thing that disturbs me (once again) is the focus on the errors of the killed instead of the killer. Yes, McBride was clearly intoxicated, and shouldn’t have been out driving around, but I sure would like to know more about Wafer’s actions.
He claims to have fallen asleep in a recliner in a back room of his house. OK, I can see how that might happen, but was it just the result of a hard day at work (the shooting occurred during the wee hours of a Saturday morning), or something other? We don’t know because no toxicology was done on the killer.
Here’s a side view of the home at 16812 West Outer Drive. You can see that there appears to be two outside doors on the side of the house, and next to rear-most one, there is a window filled with glass privacy blocks (where was this back room with the recliner located?):
Google Street View July 2013
Not related to wafer but I know everyone would be thrilled to learn tubs has a job as a security guard in Deland
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/report-george-zimmerman-finds-work-security-office/ngqLk/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Update. Tubs was not hired. Cops asked why he was behind store. Gave them a Poor box as his address.
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/george-zimmerman-patrolling-central-florida-shop-after-gun-theft/27202982
Oops, gave cops a PO box as his address when they asked him what he was doing behind the store that was recently robbed of 15k in guns, etc.
Tubs had tweeted “where’s all my Deland buddies.” Last week.
Is it even legal to give a PO Box address as your address? Someone on twitter is checking.
Would not be surprised to learn he was the robber.
2dogsonly,
Apparently, GZ’s ‘friends’ in DeLand are at Pompano Pat’s, because the shop offered him a free gun after his acquittal in the shooting death of TM:
Click Orlando 20130718
‘Nice,’ huh?
Somebody please give this assholic a job that doesn’t involve firearms.
Hat tip to yahtzeebutterfly at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for this article about GZ’s recent incident at Pompano Pat’s gun shop in DeLand:
Daytona News-Journal Online 20140729
It’s a pretty informative piece, and here are some of my ‘favorite’ bits:
It couldn’t possibly be because Johnson’s business is being ‘patrolled’ by a notorious assholic killer. Nope.
Oh, ‘classic.’ The “violence needs to end,” so Johnson offers a killer another gun.
My condolences to the decent citizens of Florida.
Poor Oso.
We know tubs never does anything for anyone. No thanks to any of his supportive bloggers or his uncle Duddley who gave him 2500.00 personally, bt. his suits, and on. No thanks ever not even ONE to financial contributors so my guess is friend let him live out of his car as long as he stayed in rear.
Oops! Or tubs was going to rob place cause he tweeted out twice ” where are my Deland friends”. These tweets happened 4 days ago. Police question was 2 days ago.
Don’t need Deland friends to watch store. Nothing to do w/ politics just the media rep. putting some kind of spin on this latest fiasco.
Cop wrote in his report he was cooperative. Hey LE, he is an expert at remaining pleasant. don’t you know Sanford police are saying please don’t return to our city.
News is getting ready to be headlined on Jax. News. Heads up idiots, he is nuclear. Can you’ll get a clue. That shop owner was damn lucky tubs didn’t ” protect” his business.
2dogsonly,
Yeah, the various news organs are picking it up now.
Here are some more interesting tidbits about/from the owner of Pomano Pat’s, Pat Johnson (not going to provide the URLs and risk this post getting hung up in moderation):
UPI:
Click Orlando:
I’ll supply the URL on this one:
News-Journal Online’s PDF of Police Report
Oops, I put the wrong URL in an HTML link in post #9048. Here’s the correct one for the Daytona News-Journal Online’s article about the incident (there are links on that page both for a PDF of the police report and a PDF of Johnson’s statement:
Daytona Beach News-Journal Online 20140729
Some more tidbits from the News-Journal Online article:
Woo hoo! Good catch by towerflower at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog about Johnson’s “Media Relations” guy Tim Franklin changing the text of his posting about GZ’s ‘patrolling’:
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress 20140729
Yeah, they probably thought they were going to get some political mileage out of the situation, but now they’re having to back-paddle.
The only sympathy-worthy creature in that situation is poor Oso the dog.
I can actually believe that Johnson might have asked GZ to leave Oso in the store at night.
Johnson might have seen that as a ‘win-win” situation if he paid GZ, or agreed to feed Oso in return for having a formidable-looking dog on the premises.
What Johnson might not have factored into his thinking is that a dog is unconditional love, and GZ probably doesn’t want Oso out of his reach because of that.
Hat tip to towerflower at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the link to the background story about Pompano Pat’s owner:
News-Journal Online 20140730
I guess I’ve long known (since way back before the GZ homicide case, actually) how utterly human and fallible individual law enforcement personnel are, but it’s an unsettling reminder.
So let’s look at a smallish time-line here:
20140722: GZ tweets a homily about struggle and success
20140722: SS deletes her samantha_khope twitter account
20140725: GZ tweets looking for ‘shout-outs’ from his DeLand ‘friends’
20140727: GZ is questioned by police behind Pompano Pat’s in DeLand, FL
Was GZ spending the night in his truck after being kicked out of SS’s place and having failed to find a DeLand couch on which to crash?
I’m really torn about following the Theodore Wafer trial (for the shooting homicide of Renisha McBride). I almost can’t bear to watch because I fear that as with so many other cases, there will be too many questions that will never be answered.
Wafer has already told at least one big lie: that the Mossberg 500A shotgun went off accidentally (per experts, not possible).
Does Wafer have anger issues? He allegedly bought the homicide weapon in response to a paintball vandalism incident (unreported to the police). It’s understandable that one could be angry over vandalism done to one’s property, but buying a firearm like that in response?
More and more questions in my mind about the McBride-Wafer case. An old Daily Beast piece had information from a former friend of Wafer (its sounds like the ex-girlfriend against whom he filed a restraining order):
Daily Beast 20131115
Wafer is apparently pretty near-sighted. Was he wearing any kind of prescription vision aid that night?
Given that tidbit about the $3,000, it sounds like Wafer has a conscience. Will it ultimately make him come clean about this case? Dunno.
It’s also come to my attention that McBride’s great aunt might have been living on the same block as the auto accident. Was McBride trying to get to her relative’s house when she had the accident?
Wow, firearms expert David Balash testified that the screen could not have been in place at the time Wafer fired the shotgun because of the height of the hole in the screen, Wafer’s height, and McBride’s height (adjusted for her standing on the porch, which was below the level of the screen door):
oralandar_DN at twitter
I wonder whether the prosecution saw that coming, and that’s why they seemed to question Balash’s credentials.
Court adjourned until Monday.
Xena opines at her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog:
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress 20140731
That’s my sense of it. If McBride had been standing on that top step (4-5 inches lower than the bottom of the screen door, per idabeewells at twitter), it effectively would have made the 64 inch tall McBride only about 59-60 inches relative to Wafer’s 73.
Yes, tragically McBride was probably not only disoriented from intoxication, but possibly the accident as well. That ‘spider-web’ fracture of the windshield in her Ford Taurus seems likely to have been caused by impact with her head, airbags or no. She might have been unconscious for a awhile, then later went looking for help.
Wafer was flat-out lying when he said the shotgun accidentally discharged, and possibly lying when he said he hadn’t realized it was loaded. However, the possibility that the screen was not in the door frame at the time of the gun shot (hole in screen 53 inches high) would lend credence to Wafer’s claim that he heard “metal breaking.”
Dunno, the whole thing makes me ill.
Total speculation here, but if McBride’s great aunt really did live at the time in the same block of the site of the auto accident, the former might well have been trying to visit the latter. McBride had had an argument with her mother, and might have hoped for a sympathetic ear from the equivalent of a grandmother.
Then when the accident happened, McBride may have panicked, and decided to get away from the scene. She might have walked to the nearby park (it was six blocks away), and passed out there. Upon regaining consciousness, she might not even have had any clear recollection of what happened or where she was.
Wafer’s house superficially looks like the McBride one in that it’s brick. The side door(s) are on the ‘wrong’ side relative to the McBride house, but who knows what shape McBride was in hours after the auto accident? The subsequent gun shot wound made it difficult or impossible to assess her head properly with regard to the auto accident.
I don’t know how the screen in Wafer’s door might have come out (besides from the gunshot itself, that is), but possibly McBride was getting frustrated, and pounded on it vigorously enough to dislodge it.
The whole thing is tragic and awful.
There is a bar at 16515 Outer Drive (across from one of the entrances to the park), and Google Street View makes it look like it was still doing business as late as July 2013:
Google Street View July 2013
However, I would think that if it were still open in November 2013 (a) had McBride walked in there after her auto accident, she would have excited notice (b) the police would have checked with the staff/patrons.
Howdy:
Well I was just about to announce my retirement from the whonoze blog, thinking GZ had actually gone away for good, and then the Pompano Pat’s story hit my email today via a dailykos feed I only check once in awhile. The kos post linked to this page on ClickOrlando:
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/george-zimmerman-patrolling-central-florida-shop-after-gun-theft/27202982
You MUST watch the video, as it contains info not covered in the text: The cops were ‘star struck’ on discovering it was GZ outside Pompano Pat’s, bought his claim that he had Pat’s approval without hesitation, and let him stay on the scene. But not before they took the opportunity to admire prints of his American flag painting that he hauled out to show them.
Yup, this is a real Channel 6 news story, not a parody from The Onion. The reporter is just barely keeping it together, though.
The comments thread shows that some people are just now figuring out GZs a pathological liar. He still has his champions, though, calling Pompano Pat Johnson the liar, claiming he’s trying to smear GZ for political expediency (Johnson’s running for Mayor). The usual delusional. A few comments admit GZ has proven to be ‘someone who does dumb stuff’ yet insist none of this reflects at all on the Martin case.
Some folks are asking themselves why GZ keeps showing up in the press:
“I think he gets bored when he is out of the news for a while so he does something to get him back in the headlines.”
But WE know this is REALLY just a liberal MEDIA CONSPIRACY to keep George in the spotlight so they can TAKE AWAY OUR FREEDOM, and push that SOCIALIST Obamamonkey’s plan for DEATH PANELS!
Let’s hear it for Muricah! (MURICAH!)
Let’s hear it for Guns! (BUSHMASTER!)
Let’s hear it for More Guns (DON’T FORGET THE HIGH CAPACITY MAGAZINES THAT ARE OUR RIGHT FROM GOD!)
Let’s hear it for making concealed carry required for school attendance from the 3rd grade on up! (silence)
Except for towel-heads, fucking coon thugs and…(drowned out by deafening cheers)
Make some freedom noise, Muricah! (rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat)
……………
Shit.
I.
Just.
Can’t.
I can’t follow the Wafer trial. I can’t have the mania of which GZ is just the tip of the iceberg keep taking minutes/hours/days/weeks/months/years of my life. It never stops.
The blog will stay here. It’s basically been wordsalad’s blog for awhile now anyway. If anyone wants to ask for a new thread or anything, just embed three links in a comment and I assume WordPress will flag me. I might drop in to see if anyone’s still here at some point in the future, especially if some ‘news’ related to the blog bashes its way into my consciousness with something too outre to ignore. Maybe I could transfer the ownership to wordsalad, or make wordsalad an admin, if wordsalad wants, assuming WordPress allows that, which I’m too behind the 8-ball to check at the moment.
I apologize for never getting around to some of the analyses of the uses and misuses of A/V material in Martin/Zimmerman-related media reports and whatnot that I’d intended or promised.
So it goes.
………………
I thank everyone who has ever shared a thought here. It has been my privilege and honor to have you good folks peruse my humble musings, and participate in these threads. Shout-outs to Unitron for posting the first comment here, to tchoupi for his genius with headlamps, and wordsalad and 2dogs for hanging in there. But everyone who has posted here is ‘special.’
I cannot write that without thinking of that (unintentional, I’d guess, for the record, not that it matters) piece of neo-Fascist crap ‘The Incredibles’ and it’s signature quote “If everyone is special, then no one is.” Of course, in pure logic terms, the proposition is both true, and meaningless, as its tautological. But in practical terms, we know what it really means: only a select ‘few’, the ‘incredible’ ones, can truly be special. The pretenders among the common people can only drag them down.
The truth is that most of us are both special in some ways and as common as dirt in others, and some of each are probably good and probably bad. Whatever may be special about George Zimmerman is nothing I want to award a ribbon, and what is bad in him is all too common. This blog has had special and common, both good and bad. But I fancy that the good special and the good common have been in the majority among the comments, and I have virtual ribbons for you all.
………………..
This little blog, a mere dust spec in the Internet cosmos, will no doubt be washed away eventually, not just gone, but forgotten. I am less certain about how the memory of Trayvon Benjamin Martin will carry forward. How long will his name be known? What will it signify? How much will anyone care? The answers, in inverse order, may well turn out to be Not at all, Nothing, and Who? Injustice, cruelty, insanity and the rest of the terms in the dictionary of our darkness march on, our brains can only hold so much. How many Trayvon’s of the past do we know nothing of, their stories having been pushed out of the collective human memory in perfectly justifiable attention to What’s Happening Now? We are creatures bound in time. And we used some of OUR time to question the untimely death of a human being named Trayvon Martin. We raised our voices. We would not accept the notion that he was just another statistic. We demanded truth, we demanded meaning, we demanded justice.
We got short-changed on all three.
So it goes.
We were not the first, nor will we be the last. Some of us probably expected as much, or at least weren’t surprised. Some may have felt the sting for the first time. If so. I wish I could tell you it gets easier to handle next time. I can’t. In my experience it gets worse.
And so we beat on…
As Joe Don Baker used to say on TV, “We done good.” But tomorrow is another day, and each dawn asks us “what is to be done?” I submit we owe something to Trayvon Martin, all the rest of the people who have been wronged that we can remember, and all of them who were forgotten before we were born. A debt we must continue to honor in days to come. A debt that can never be repaid in full.
We will get worn down. There will be wrongs we can’t handle. I’m worn down on the shooting deaths of African-American teenagers. I can’t do Renisha McBride. I’m glad there are people who can. But there is no shortage of outrages. No matter how worn down we get, as long as some nub of humanity remains, I submit our debt obliges us to find SOMETHING that really matters, and to demand truth again, demand meaning again, demand justice again. I submit we must make those demands over and over, not just in spite of knowing we can’t expect them to be met, but BECAUSE we know we can’t expect them to be met. Maybe things will always be that way. Maybe. But they surely won’t change if we stay silent.
I submit we must weather all the stings and denials and continue to raise our voices because we owe it to the living, and to the not-yet-born as much as the dead. And I submit that, in the end, the people we owe it to the most are ourselves.
……..
For my parents; for Walter Benjamin; for Sandy Scheuer, Will Schroeder, Jeff Miller and Allison Krause; for Matt — all of them gone — because in remembering them I confront my debts, and that keeps me human, and alive. And for all of you, for reminding me that memories are really about the future, not the past, and for keeping me company through times I can’t imagine having had to bear alone.
whonoze, 7/31/2014
Wow, Perfesser whonoze.
With regard to the idea of me stepping in as administrator of this blog: thank you for the honor, but I’d rather not.
If I really wanted to continue running my mouth on the Net, I could put on my big girl panties, and create my own blog. };-)
If you don’t want to continue administering this blog, perhaps you should shut it down, considering that the owner/operator has access to sensitive information about all of the contributors.
Regardless of what you decide, thanks for everything.
Thanks for the Memory at You Tube
Song Lyrics dot com
Professor, for you to give me a shout out put me in tears. I am so honored by your acknowledgement. I guess this is how people feel when they’ve won a prize for something close to their heart. And from you…someone so very well read and intelligent.
Please don’t close it out. But if you feel it’s time, here is some bright news.
Eric Garner’s death has been ruled a homicide by the NY ME. He’s the man killed by police putting him in a choke hold. It is a real step forward and I think it’s due to Mayor De Blassio who also terminated stop and frisk.
Is it ok to cross post this over at xena’s blog?
I am so very proud.
Your words are beautifully written.
Some very interesting observations from “MurphysSpork” at the blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog:
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress
The post seems too lengthy for me to quote in its entirety, and most of it is too technical with regard to firearms for me to attempt to recapitulate, but the conclusions seem quote-worthy:
That sounds right to me. Anybody trying to fire a long gun would need more ‘maneuvering’ room than they would with a hand gun.
Apropos of nothing, I read somewhere that the dislodged screen had dropped 7-8 inches. I’m not sure where this fits in with the information that the top of the cement stoop was about 4-5 inches below the bottom of the screen door frame. I guess one would have to see photographs of the scene. (The dislodged screen was perhaps resting on the stoop at a tilt?)
I’m not sure I understand that part.
This sounds like what Xena had already suggested: that McBride, upon seeing Wafer, was turning to leave.
I’m not sure I understand that part either, except that McBride’s boots were not work/safety boots, but rather ‘fashion’ boots, and hence more fragile.
I await MurphysSpork’s further observations with interest.
Congratulations to Xena, as it looks as though she’s making some progress against cyber-bullies:
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress 20140801
I can’t help but wonder whether there will be some surprises in store in terms of the identities and agendas of the cyber-bullies.
This one in particular I really wonder about. The guy obviously isn’t well, but I have to wonder whether he hasn’t been making some money on the side through his malicious, provocative behavior. That would tend to turn it into an ‘affirming’ experience for him.
You tube of ABC news RE: Eric Gardner. It has some very interesting information concerning previous law suits against the under cover policeman who did the choke hold, how it is now banned and how dangerous it is (by actual medical experts). This is towards end.
Also, what the EMS worker failed to do. They are now suspended w/o pay. It will go to Stanton Island DA.
H/T to Phil Owens for this
Well, I’m not getting a good feeling from the Wafer trial, and for a number of reasons.
As ever in these trials, there are still too many unanswered questions for me.
(I wanna know more about this unreported paint-balling incident, for instance. Also, if somebody is going to keep a firearm in a front-room closet for safety/security reasons, how about also installing a power outlet and a charging station for their cell phone?)
Another is that I get the unsettled feeling that defense teams in general are ‘learning’ from the Internet. That is to say, they’re learning from past trials about what to say, and what not to say.
Last, but certainly not least, I suspect that this trial like others before it will be about race.
Unlike the GZ case, it’s not at all clear to me that there was a racial element when Wafer killed McBride, but his lawyers will play the race card (however subtly) if they think it will get them some traction. Based on the GZ case, it will.
I found this piece from the Guardian to be thought-provoking:
Guardian 20140804
Is there such a thing as being too ‘strong?’ I think there’s a perception that there can be, and sometimes it is racial.
The Guardian article totally screwed up the facts on the Marisa Alexander case. As for this Detroit killing I don’t have a real feeling that he was not terrified and it had nothing to do with race and more to do with the total economic devastation of the city.
I live in Jax. And the NEW reporting or misreporting of the Alexander case is unbelievable. There was no warning shot, she did not call 911, she went to her car and returned shooting at her husband and two step children. She did not surrender, it took Swat to get her out. And in spite of the court order to stay away except to pick up children, she went to his home and blackened his eye resulting in her re-arrest. Last thing, she was offered a 3 yr. plea which she refused. A respected AA minister has delivered a letter requesting for the previous plea offer to be offered again as the facts of the case have not changed.
Honestly, I thought the Guardian had higher quality reporters than HUFF PO or HLN. Crazy is crazy and strong black woman reporting is not any less racist than scary black teen.
2dogsonly,
Thanks for the info on the Alexander case. I thought that I’d remembered reading some similar detail over at the blackbutterfly7 blog, and perhaps it was you who had posted it.
My impression is that The Guardian generally has good journalistic standards, but nobody is infallible.
As to the article that I linked please remember that it’s an opinion piece.
I do think McFadden has a point in that there is a perception among many that black people in general and black women in particular have some sort of ‘inhuman’ strength. That is to say, a good thing can be twisted into something bad.
People in general are usually as strong as they need to be, and they only find out how much over the course of a lifetime of ‘testing.’ Some get tested more than others.
Good news for the Eric Garner family. The DOJ has officially confirmed they are monitoring this case. You know the Stanton Island police followed the brave sole who videoed and then posted the killing via chokehold and now it’s being reported he had illegal guns. However, the video is the proof of the homicide via chokehold. And no, nothing can change that. So, yes I would say cops learned about obscuring the real issue with but but but the truth teller ain’t so clean either. Sorry, cops. Cannot change what was recorded and posted to you tube and for the angel of payback mfs, it went viral!
Honestly, I would think the cops would expect to be recorded as most people have smart phones and you tube has thousands of these “cops misbehaving badly” vids. Apparently, Stanton island cops have failed to come to terms that people tape every damn thing and upload it to you tube.
Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if smart phones had recorded tub’s murdering Tray? Been much harder for that case to be thrown. 2012 to 2014 has everyone taping and uploading everything. As Jon Stewart said get a clue, cops. When you see this ( smart phone recording) stop beating the crap our of a citizen or whatever you may not be proud of doing. 😉
2dogsonly,
I don’t really like to think about how many people in law enforcement might be jumped-up assholics with authoritarian fantasies like GZ.
I’m still not getting a good feeling about the Wafer trial.
The ‘race issue’ is there, however subtly.
Who was it that said Wafer’s neighborhood had ‘changed?’ What does that mean?
If the change is that there’s more crime, then say as much.
Wafer said that he couldn’t believe a woman could make sounds like that. What does that mean?
The ‘inhumanly’ strong black woman?
If your car got paint-balled, why would you not file a police report? Nuh-uh, the ‘logical’ reaction is to buy a shotgun. eyes roll
The jury is still out in the Wafer trial. They’ve requested a number of things, including a laptop, and a tape measure (approved), as well as the plastic clips from the screen door (not approved because those weren’t admitted into evidence).
It looks like the jurors are really trying to assess Wafer’s credibility with regard to having shot McBride because he’d been fearful. The request for the tape measure and the door clips are worrisome to me because it might mean that they’re considering the possibility that McBride <i/did dislodge the screen.
I myself think that Wafer was afraid. No, not afraid that McBride would huff and puff and blow down his brick house with steel doors, but that he might not look like a man if he tolerated any more ‘tom-foolery’ in his neighborhood.
That’s not a reason to kill anybody.
Per this USA TODAY piece, the paint-ball incident was about a month before the homicide:
USAT
I’ve got a lot of questions about those “doing drugs” and “paint ball” incidents. They probably won’t get answered…
I thought I’d remembered reading that Wafer had bought the 12 gauge Mossberg 500A shotgun in response to the paint ball incident, but he’s had that firearm for about six years. He reportedly bought it because at the time he viewed it as ‘affordable’ security.
Well, if you end up in the slammer, that doesn’t seem ‘affordable.’ Even if you don’t, it doesn’t.
Wow. Courtesy of Xena at her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog, I’ve learned that Theodore Wafer has been found guilty on all counts:
blackbutterfly7 20140807
I’m relieved that Wafer isn’t going to walk, but I don’t want to do a dance of glee.
There have been way too many people getting away with killing other people, and making an example out of Wafer doesn’t bring them back, nor give justice to the families of all the other victims.
Hopefully, though, it will send a message to any ‘new’ fools who think a firearm makes them cock of the walk.
Oops, not quite all charges, per the Daily Mail article:
Daily Mail 20140807
I tend to agree with the legal experts who are surprised that Wafer was convicted of second degree murder, rather than ‘just’ voluntary manslaughter. M2 seems over the top, and I hope it doesn’t mean that the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater (so to speak) on appeal.
No way should Wafer get a get-out-of-jail-free card.
The difference in Mi law and Fl. Is amazing. It does seem excessive but I did not follow the case. Wonder how they got around the 22 blood level alcohol three hours after her DUI crash and run? That is close to comatose level and over 3 hrs.after she took her last booze shot?
Do you have any links to legal experts opinions. Would really love to read some.
Just WOW..
2dogsonly,
Unfortunately, I don’t have any at the moment, and real life is calling me. This is the source of my “legal experts” comment:
Alexis G. Stodghill at twitter
Some explication of why the jurors in Michigan vs Theodore Wafer might have found the defendant guilty of murder in the second degree instead of voluntary manslaughter (boldface font my edit):
Legal Insurrection 20140807
The basic article by Branca is fairly “bloodless” (not at all like his twitter style which tends towards maladjusted fourteen-year-old–what is it about twitter?), and is worth a read, as are the comments thereon, so long as you can tolerate a certain amount of angry-white-guy BS.
Thank you for his link. Always thought he was just a racist gun nut just really based on twitter dishing him as pretending to be a lawyer when he clearly says he’s not but is well versed in self defense laws. And clearly advises against what happened to Trayvon.
I even read the comments and they were extremely coherent and rational. One poster was attacked for making a halfway racist comment but clearly he is intelligent and knows what must occur in most states to not end up in prison. He also clearly believes Wafer was not acting in self defense and makes me understand how his changing his story from accidental shooting to self defense hurt him as they are not the least bit compatible. If you’re terrified, you don’t open your door.
One poster gives a good link on what to do if someone is knocking saying they’re out of gas.
Don’t open door, back away while answering questions, and call 911. The caller of 911 is assumed to be the victim until proven otherwise. Of course tubs, never called 911, he called NEN but that and his changing stories was not presented by the experienced 30 yr. toughest State Prosecutor in Jax.
Did you know he sent his book to Jr.. Asked him if he received it and Jr. replied:”Oh hey, bud, read it as soon, uh I mean it’s great”!;-)
Apparently, he had to ask Jr. If he received it as dipshit never even sent a thank you. That entire family is rife with self- entitlement and lack of gratitude. Thanks papa Z and Gladys the child abuser.
If I owned a gun, I would indeed buy his book on new laws of self defense.
Thanks for posting this.
2dogsonly,
You’re welcome. I thought Branca’s article about the verdict in Wafer’s trial was fairly restrained and temperate, and some of the comments thereon insightful and informative. However, some of them were infuriating.
Some seemed to think that standing on somebody’s porch without an invitation was enough justification for shooting.
Honey, please. We’ve all had unwelcome visitors, and have probably made some mouth-noises about wanting to ‘kill’ them, but shooting? Really?
Then there were those who tried to use McBride’s DUI as justification, saying that she was the criminal in that situation.
I want everybody who has never, ever driven while over the legal BAC limit to stand up. Then I want nine out of ten to sit their behinds back down, because they’re lying, if perhaps mostly to themselves.
Yes, McBride was obviously intoxicated, and moreover possibly disoriented from a head injury incurred in the auto accident.
My further five-cent analysis is that she was probably over-indulged by both parents, possibly because they were no longer a couple.
But does any of that mean she ‘deserved’ to be shot to death? Oh, hell no.
I want everybody to think about their loved ones, and think about a possible situation where one of them has been in an accident or is in danger, and needs to knock on a stranger’s door.
I myself can easily imagine a scenario in which a lone female pedestrian finds herself being followed by a creepy stranger, and pounds frantically on the doors of another stranger’s home for help.
Wow, Robin Williams is dead:
Seattle P-I 20140811
Rest In Peace, Robin (OK, just rest if you care to).
Robin Williams destroys pres. bush
Man every you tube site is crashing.
This is soo sad. Sounds like he hung himself.;-(
Yeah, it’s sad, but I guess I’m trying to focus on the good.
Peter Travers at Rolling Stone magazine said that his young son once answered the phone at home, and was heard laughing uncontrollably because it turned out that it was Williams calling, and he was doing impressions of all the child’s favorite cartoon characters.
Williams’ idol was said to be Jonathan Winters, but even Winters was amazed by Williams.
I thought that I’d wait at least a few heartbeats before chiming in on the Ferguson homicide.
As ever, there are unanswered questions for me. For instance, according to the witness who was walking with Brown, their response to an order to get out of the street and up on the sidewalk was to explain that they were very close to their destination.
I don’t understand that. Was there something wrong with getting up on the sidewalk? Not that the death penalty is appropriate for jaywalking…
As to Anonymous hacking and trying to extort the police chief: the police officer that killed Brown and his boss may both be terrible people (and in fact criminals), but I’m disinclined to side with a group that repeatedly commits crimes, yet tries to cast itself in the role of the good guy.
Oh, sorry, was I unclear? I can see how that could be confusing, because right now the Ferguson police department isn’t looking too good. However, for the moment I’m talking about Anonymous.
And the people vandalizing and looting? Aside from the fact that vandalism and looting are in my opinion “malum in se,” the people doing those things are playing right into the hands of those who are only too happy to characterize an entire group of people as thugs. If I were a law-abiding member of that group, I would be none too well pleased.
The feds are looking into the situation in Ferguson, so everybody else needs to take a deep breath and chill. Not forever, but for the short run.
My condolences to Brown’s family. Regardless of the details of how he died, he’s dead, and that has got to hurt.
The looters were out of town anarchist , not even from Ferguson. Just taking advantage like any shameless looter.
Jaysus, now the Ferguson police are using tear gas on residents in their own backyards (link courtesy of Xena and her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog)?:
Riverfront Times 20140812
The thing is, once you have wide-spread vandalism and looting, law enforcement might use that as ‘justification,’ for tear gas, regardless of whether it actually is justified.
Yup, trouble in River City, and it ain’t billiards.
It probably is time for the National Guard to step in.
Per twitter user Matt Frederick, a group of Ferguson residents cleaned up at the site of the burned Quick Trip convenience store:
Matt Frederick at twitter 20140811
Bless their hearts (and I definitely don’t mean that in the nasty way). They’re people who are trying to make things better. It gives me hope.
Just heard the Mayor or Ferguson speak live…and no it’s going to sound like it’s from The Onion because how could a Mayor with 4 days to speak live say the following ( fair warning be seated)
Direct quotes:
1.” The residents of this apartment complex are transients who move in and out too fast to build a relationship with the police. Actually first said the “demographics of this area are changing.”
…had no idea it was a citizen’s responsibility to build a relationship with the police? Maybe tubs can show them how this is done?
Has O’Mara contacted him to tell him how to dig out or in case there is none, how to make shit up so the kid looks like someone needing to be shot.” 😉
Meant btw ( not bye) chief of police answers to the mayor of any town. So, for the Mayor to say he didn’t know Mike Brown’s history, nor, apparently,his name as he referred to him as ” this young man” not his name. Is possibly the most inappropriate obvious lie any politician has ever uttered. And yes, I include Sarah Palin and whichever GOP briefly nominated lady’s “I am not a witch” said.
2dogsonly,
<
blockquote>Actually first said the “demographics of this area are changing.”
Oh, no he didn’t say “demographics of this area are changing?!”
To use that expression on the heels of the Wafer trial? Among other things, exactly how clueless is the mayor?
Yup, more ‘Freudian’ phrasing.
Girl, don’t go there. GZ’s most recent tweet (On August 1st) made it sound like he might finally have a job. Or, you know, he’s just completely delusional…
Ferguson obviously has some long-term problems, but I feel like I have to address further something that is probably already painfully obvious in hindsight to 22-year-old witness Darian Johnson:
MSNBC 20140812
When you’re dealing with an angry person who has a badge and a firearm (not to mention a multi-ton motor vehicle)–that is not an optimal time to question authority. Just get the f–k on the sidewalk. You can always file a complaint about the LE and his street-side manner later, because you’ll (hopefully) still be alive to do so.
Well, I wonder whether O’Mara will feel ‘compelled’ to comment on this situation in his capacity as a CNN talking head.
Well, somehow I knew that I’d muff the HTML on that last post, but what the hey…
Police Chief just announced they will have a protest area with porta potties. He actually said ” we are changing our tactics” so that’s good!
Mr. Crump moved his news conf. To this afternoon.
Wonder where in the hell a town buys war type tanks?
Thru a grant via pentagon. When Iraq war ended, pentagon made equipment available along with other funds. Ah yes, the law of un intended consequences. I also believe they are hiring former MP thinking they’re already trained. Well, in war yes. In community police they have to be completely re-retrained and many can’t. It costs 3 million dollars to train an army Lt. And that is how to shoot to kill. A lot of the PTSD is coming home with the war mindset only now it’s aimed at your family or neighborhood or community police dept.
This year, I have ,myself, had a policeman ask me ” don’t you know how to change a tire? I was waiting on AAA.i just looked at him saying, uh, I’m a grandmother but I didn’t know how to change a tire when I was young. He was white, I’m white so it wasn’t racial. He barked well, put on your hazard lights ( it’s a new Car that looks
like a jet plane) .i said I don’t know where they are. He reached in to turn them on and smart ass,me, said ” oh, sir, just overlook the pot”. 😉 He snapped you almost got me. Got in his police car and drove away. If this cop treats a well dressed older white lady like this, imagine how he treats young AA.;-(
About 10 min. later another older also white policeman and an AA fuel delivery guy drove up. The older policeman was outraged that a policeman would ask anyone, didn’t they know how to change a tire.? Insisting on changing it, telling me to cancel AAA call. Had to force money onto the young AA citizen.;-)
If cities are hiring former MP thinking they will be already trained, they need to re-think that along with giving Pentagon back their military equipment.
2dogsonly,
Dunno, but I recall an incident in my last long-term neighborhood that started with an alleged armed robbery of a Mom-and-Pop convenience store, and the ‘perp’ reportedly escaped on foot. I was out-and-about shopping, and when I got home, I found that I couldn’t actually ‘get home’ because my neighborhood was in a ‘cordon’ area. When they finally let the residents back in, I was chilled to see one of those armored vans with an armed SWAT-type guy sitting on top.
My tiny point here is that this incident preceded the ‘end’ of the Iraq war.
BREAKING Wash. Post reporting: . FBI has already interviewed witness. Cannot take over investigation as they don’t have authority. The Wash Post says it’s very unusual for FBI to move in this early. Usually, they “oversee” but they have interviewed witness to killing.
Ugh! Real life is calling me back into action. I will return.
2dogsonly,
<
blockquote>This year, I have ,myself, had a policeman ask me ” don’t you know how to change a tire? I was waiting on AAA.i just looked at him saying, uh, I’m a grandmother but I didn’t know how to change a tire when I was young. He was white, I’m white so it wasn’t racial. He barked well, put on your hazard lights ( it’s a new Car that looks
like a jet plane) .i said I don’t know where they are. He reached in to turn them on and smart ass,me, said ” oh, sir, just overlook the pot”. 😉 He snapped you almost got me. Got in his police car and drove away. If this cop treats a well dressed older white lady like this, imagine how he treats young AA.;-(
You naughty granny, you. Yeah, I don’t know that I personally would have gotten ‘smart’ with them that way, and a young male (let alone a minority group one) doing so probably would have been cruising for a bruising–so to speak.
See now, that LE guy was either very gallant or very PR-savvy–or both.
You’ve touched here on what I think is possibly a very valid problem:
Military and civilian police forces do have to have some skills in common, but they do not have the same mission. Not yet, anyway…
The latest chapter in the GZ saga is that medical examiner Dr. Shiping Bao has put out a book on the homicide case–a thirty-seven page e-book in which, according to the Orlando Sentinel article, he uses pseudonyms like “Doris Crabtree” for “legal reasons” (no, I am not making that up).
However, the most interesting tidbit to me is this:
News 13 20140812
Reuters 20140814
Hopefully the citizens of Ferguson will find this reassuring.
The Grio 20140815
Kudos to yahtzeebutterfly for this insightful observation:
blackbutterfly7 20140815
There is a world of difference legally between shoplifting and armed robbery.
The stills from that store video are not at all flattering: they suggest a large man bullying a much smaller one. In addition to shoplifting, I would think Brown also could have been charged with assault (however, I’d like to see all of the footage first).
But if Brown and Johnson were indeed suspected by LEO Wilson of being the perpetrators, why would Wilson have acted in the manner Johnson and other witnesses said he did?
When you have two suspects (and one of them quite large), why not call for backup? And why wait an entire week to release the incident report?
That term “strong-arm” actually appears in the police incident report. Dunno how credible this is, but here is a definition:
Justia dot com
Oh, nice. There are apparently two LEOs named “Darren Wilson” in the St. Louis area:
ChiefSLMPD at twitter 20140815
Well, at least the two Darren Wilsons should be relatively easy to distinguish from one another:
New York Daily News 20140815
Oh, and with regard to a theoretical secondary charge of assault–no, because:
Justia dot com Uniform Crime Reporting Handbook
Seeing as Michael Brown is no longer alive to give us his version of events, I think both Darren Wilson (of the Ferguson Police Department) and Darian Johnson have a lot of explaining to do.
Nobody should die over a fifty dollar box of cigarillos, but neither should anybody be robbed of one.
Not to mention the chucklehead(s) that torched a convenience store co-located with a gas station. How many people potentially could have died from a fire compounded by an explosion?
I see that there are now picture of Ferguson Police Department Sergeant Darren Wilson out there. While it’s interesting to see what he looks like, I don’t want to post links to pictures of him, because I don’t want to contribute, however inadvertently, to vigilantism. There’s been too much violence already.
Wilson needs to be accountable for his actions, and I continue to hope that will happen.
I’ll probably never again be able to sing along naively with Baby Gum “Meet Me in St. Louis,” but they haven’t yet harshed “The Trolley Song” for me:
The Trolley Song at YouTube
hometownlife dot com 20140816
Mark O’Mara opines about the situation in Ferguson, saying that prosecutors should allow a grand jury to evaluate possible charges against Darren Wilson:
US News 20140815
However, he also says this which tightens my jaw:
Yup, just keep talking about the lying killer that you (by hook or by crook) helped beat all charges against him, because you deserve to be yoked to him for all eternity.
I lifted my head from my personal real world long enough to read that the National Guard has been sent into Ferguson, MO. My heart aches for the peaceful citizens of that community.
I ‘like’ this:
LA Times 20140819
I also read that the (soundless) video from Ferguson Market & Liquor doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story of the incident there (Brown apparently paid for merchandize).
Instead of just releasing information related to the ‘cigarillo’ incident, how about the Ferguson Police Department releasing the incident report of Brown’s homicide?
greetings old un-indicted co-conspirators…. sad but heart felt greetings. Where are you guys going to get the best intel on #Ferguson? Vice News is doing a good job, but is there a good blogger on the scene? All I can find is twitter and video, not someone trustworthy and intelligent with some perspective. Or a dedicated blogger hosting a good forum of non-hotheads, like we had here at one time.
One thing i can say, given what we learned from the Trayvom Martin killing (murder) is that AG Holder’s presence in Ferguson means NOTHING unless it is followed up with a solid court case.
best tweet so far: “three eyewitnesses tell one story, one police chief tells three stories”
Heh! Now, now, the various contributors to the bcclist/bcclist diaspora were never really ‘conspiratory,’ were they?
Long time, no see. I hope you’re doing well these days. I wasn’t posting at the time you lost all of your photography gear to a thief, but I was lurking, and felt your pain. Hopefully, things have gotten better since then.
A good aggregator of info about the situation seems to be vox dot com (hat tip to Xena’s blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for the link):
vox dot com
And as you say, Alderman Antonio French is a “sane voice on the scene.” He needs to be cloned, because Ferguson needs all the sanity it can get.
And yes, Alderman Antonio French is the most sane voice on the scene so far. I wish him continued strength and I hope he gets the support he deserves. A man like him could emerge as a national leader from the rubble if the cards fall right. He’d do better than most.
All right, this situation in Ferguson, MO is getting me down, and I need some levity.
Fox is running a Simpsons marathon–twenty-five years of episodes.
Like many if not most people, I have my favorite moments, so many that I find it impossible to choose a single all-time favorite, but this one rates pretty highly with me.
It involves Professor Frink as a substitute teacher–for kindergarteners (Season 6, Episode 21, “The PTA Disbands”):
snpp dot com
Except I remember it as Professor Frink telling the little kid, “No, not until you can appreciate it on as many levels as I do.”
I couldn’t find a You Tube clip of it, and the people who compile the info at that snpp dot com site seem like some serious Simpsons freaks (ahem, that is to say, ‘scholars’), so whatevah…
New thread: