Wednesday, April 11, 2012

George Zimmerman Charged With Murder 2nd Degree

Courtesy of Huffington Post and Mediaite

George Zimmerman In Custody, Charged With Second-Degree Murder In Trayvon Martin Case


George Zimmerman, 28 the shooter of Trayvon Martin
The special prosecutor investigating the death of Trayvon Martin announced Wednesday evening that George Zimmerman, who told police he shot the teen in self defense, has been charged with second-degree murder. Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Authorities said that Zimmerman, who has been in hiding for weeks, was in police custody. Special prosecutor Angela Corey said during a news conference that she would not reveal where Zimmerman was out of concern for his safety. "He is within the custody of law enforcement officers in the state of Florida," Corey said.

The murder charge indicates that prosecutors believe that they can prove Zimmerman shot Martin with malice, though without premeditation. A manslaughter charge would have required prosecutors only to prove that Zimmerman acted unlawfully and with criminal negligence in shooting the teen.

"The difference between murder and manslaughter is your mental state," said Mark Geragos, a Los Angeles defense attorney, who is not connected to the case. "To elevate it to murder, you have to have the element of malice."

Malice is generally defined as showing ill will or "extreme indifference" to human life.

The announcement of the charges comes a day after Zimmerman's attorneys withdrew their counsel, saying they lost contact with him and that he repeatedly ignored their legal advice.
Zimmerman, 28, shot and killed 17-year-old Martin 43 days ago in a gated community in Sanford, Fla., where Martin was visiting with his father and his father's girlfriend. Zimmerman served as the captain of the neighborhood watch and told the police that he shot Martin in self-defense after the teen attacked him.
On the night of the shooting, Zimmerman was questioned at the police station, but he was released shortly thereafter. The police said there was not enough evidence to refute his claims of self-defense.

Martin's death and subsequent handling of the investigation sparked national outrage and calls for Zimmerman's arrest. The case became a flashpoint in the ongoing national debate over racial profiling and gun control.

Trayvon's parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, watched Wednesday's press conference in Washington on a small television. As Corey read the charges, the slain teen's parents held hands and watched. “Thank you, Lord,” said Benjamin Crump, the family's attorney as he patted Tracy Martin's knee.

At a press conference after the charges were announced, Fulton said she was thankful for the outpouring of public support. “I just want to speak from my heart to your heart, because a heart has no color," she said. "It's not black, it’s not white, it's red, and I want to say thank you from my heart to your heart."

Both the defense and prosecution face the challenge of trying a case that has drawn extraordinary media scrutiny, and inflamed passions both for and against Zimmerman. Jury selection will be a crucial and difficult task given the tremendous media coverage afforded to the shooting, experts said.

"This case is won or lost in jury selection," Geragos said.

For some, the prosecution of Zimmerman may also be a symbolic test of Florida's ability to conduct a fair trial in a case that has radically polarized the public and fueled marches and protests across the country. Just last year, Casey Anthony, a young Florida mother accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter, was acquitted of murder, a verdict that many decried as a miscarriage of justice.

"The state of Florida is on trial here, not just Zimmerman," said Kenneth Nunn, a law professor at the University of Florida.

From the start, Martin’s family and their attorneys questioned the impartiality and thoroughness of the police investigation into the teen’s killing.

New Black Panthers "Wanted Poster" off The Drudge Report
Law enforcement experts said that Sanford police made key errors early in the investigation and made crucial decisions before important evidence was gathered. Martin's cell phone records were not immediately checked. Investigators did not talk with key witnesses for more than a week.

While police conducted a criminal background check on Martin, as well as drug and alcohol tests, Zimmerman was not subject the same tests. It was learned later that Zimmerman was arrested in 2005 for assaulting a police officer and has had a history of aggression and violence, including domestic violence.

During her news conference announcing the charges, Corey took an apparent swipe at Sanford police officials, who leaked confidential information about the case that appeared to bolster Zimmerman's claims of self-defense.

"So much information on the case got released that never should have been released," Corey said.




The Sean Hannity Impact: 

You Get The Notion President Barack Obama Will Easily Win Reelection Because of Sean Hannity and His Ongoing Obama Derangement Syndrome.

Seriously?

Why on earth would this conservative agitator get involved in the Trayvon Martin case?

This is the latest bombshell of information that's coming from the two attorneys who recently spoke out on their client George Zimmerman. The Zimmerman legal defense team of Craig Sonner and Hal Uhrig stepped aside after failing to get in contact with him and made the claim that he's no longer in Sanford, Florida. What really upsets them was the private conversation with Fox News host Sean Hannity, and his failure to disclose that to them. The conservative agitator Sean Hannity somehow meddles in the Trayvon Martin case. For what reason? To have the New Black Panthers arrested for making a bounty on the shooter of an unarmed teenager?

This week, George Zimmerman created his own personal website and wanted his supporters pay for his legal expenses. Sean Hannity interviewed the father and urged him to speak out against President Barack Obama and Civil Rights leaders. George Zimmerman's family wants Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the death threats that he's gotten recently. 

Fox News Channel promotes a conservative prospective to most issues. 

This fake "Wanted: Dead or Alive Poster" by the New Black Panther Party for Self Justice is ridiculous. 

They're not taken seriously. They have no decency!

Why is Sean Hannity and most on the right focused on it?

Because it's a rehashing of the events during the 2008 U.S. Presidential Elections. The right has been focused on the incident where two New Black Panthers were at a voting station in Philadelphia. The firestorm started when one of the men waving a baton and hurling racial slurs at two videographers for a conservative agitating website. The U.S. Justice Department dismissed the case and felt there was no intimidation against the voters. 

Even some complained that the media and the two videographers were harassing some of the voters.

Sean Hannity and other conservatives openly support George Zimmerman.
Hannity contacted by shooter in Martin case
By DAVID BAUDER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity has become the second cable news host whose involvement in the Trayvon Martin shooting case has gone beyond merely talking about it on the air.

Hannity acknowledged having a conversation with a man he believed to be George Zimmerman, who shot and killed the black Florida teenager Feb. 26 in a case that has ignited racial tensions. Zimmerman's former lawyers, in quitting the case Tuesday, noted that their client had talked to Hannity more recently than with them.

Hannity, who last week interviewed Zimmerman's father on Fox, said there has been a "rush to judgment" about the shooter.

Over on MSNBC, Al Sharpton has participated in marches and demonstrations in support of Martin while continuing to discuss the case on his evening talk show. There have been stark differences in the attention and focus on the case at the two networks.

A law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press on Wednesday that charges were being filed against Zimmerman and that his arrest was expected. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

Hannity's involvement in the case came to light Tuesday at a news conference held by Zimmerman's former lawyers, Hal Uhrig and Craig Sonner. Hannity, who said on his show Tuesday night that he's been pursuing a Zimmerman interview for weeks, said he was contacted Monday by a man he believes was Zimmerman.

"He reached out to me, we spoke on the phone about his case and I agreed not to report on the contents of that conversation," Hannity said.

On his radio show Monday, Hannity said he had confirmed that Zimmerman was a mentor to minority children. "Now, if you were racist, I don't think you'd be a mentor to minority children," he said.

With Uhrig and Sonner present, Hannity last week on Fox interviewed Zimmerman's father, Robert. Robert Zimmerman's face was concealed during the interview.

During the interview, Hannity told Zimmerman that "I would argue there has been a rush to judgment." He cited statements made by political and civil rights leaders about the shooting being racially motivated —

George Zimmerman's father is white and his mother Hispanic — and mentioned President Barack Obama's comment that if he had a son, he would likely look like Trayvon.

Zimmerman's father said he agreed. "I just believe it's very sad that so many people are not telling the truth for their own agenda," he said.

During the interview, Zimmerman's father said he had never heard his son utter a racial slur and, prompted by Hannity, recalled a time when his son helped a black homeless man.

Hannity also devoted a portion of his show Tuesday to discussing a report that the New Black Panther Party had put a bounty on George Zimmerman's head.

There was no progress to report Wednesday on Hannity's attempt to get a George Zimmerman interview, according to Fox.

Cable news networks had sharply different appetites for the case, according to research by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. From March 19 to 28, MSNBC — where the prime-time hosts are liberal — the network devoted 49 percent of its on-air time to the Martin story. During the same period at Fox, where the prime-time hosts are conservative, 15 percent of the news hole was spent on the case. It was 40 percent at CNN.

On March 26, for example, MSNBC carried 14 minutes of a mid-afternoon news conference by Martin's parents live and uninterrupted by commercials, the project said. CNN aired the news conference for a little more than five minutes. Fox didn't mention the story at all in that hour, the Excellence Project reported.

The topics that drew the most attention about the case on MSNBC concerned gun control and Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, the project said. On Fox, the most time spent was on Martin's background and statements in defense of Zimmerman.

Associated Press writers Kyle Hightower in Sanford, Fla., and Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee contributed to this report.


Monday, April 09, 2012

The Right On Wright!

Conservatives obsessed with Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright
Once again, the fixation on Jeremiah Wright, Jr. the former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ. It's been another week of unrest in Sanford, Florida, and the right wing media is once again flogging this canard.

In particular, one Sean Hannity, the controversial conservative agitator is once again beating this drum. It's been over four years and this commentator is still fixated on it. Hannity spent a majority of his programs name dropping this man every chance he gets. Hannity claims that the mainstream media failed at analyzing the controversy and felt that he deserved the credit for being this issue to light.

The conservatives are going to help President Barack Obama win reelection. Why?

Obama Derangement Syndrome. They're so obsessed with attacking President Barack Obama for every freaking event happening in America, they're going to overwhelmingly turn off independents. The Republicans have no major solutions to solve the problems facing the United States. They're cheering for the economy to fail and want global unrest. They've proven it by allowing some in the media and those in Congress advocating for the president to fail.

Once again, this is an election year. The Republicans are not as popular right now! They are obsessed with the culture wars.

Jeremiah Wright, Jr. has been on a speaking tour for many years. I guess once again a person used their camera phone to record the pastor's sermons. And as usual, the right wing media takes the bait.

Here's the article courtesy of The Blaze.

Rev. Wright Unleashed: ‘White Supremacy’ Drives ‘World Policy,’ Allah & Yahweh Are the ‘Same’…and Clarence Thomas Is Worshipping ‘Some Other God’

Billy Hallowell

  • Rev. Jeremiah Wright delivered three fiery sermons about faith, race and politics at Metropolitan Baptist Church in Charleston, West Virginia
  • Wright said Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas worships “some other God” outside of “Allah and Yahweh” (who are the “same” he says)
  • Obama’s former pastor called Thomas Jefferson “a pedophile”
  • He sees “white supremacy” driving “world policy”
  • Wright condemned the U.S. military, saying, “fighting for peace is like raping for virginity”

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright became a household name during the 2008 presidential campaign. The fiery preacher, who was President Barack Obama’s pastor for two decades, has since retired from his position at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois. However, he’s still an active figure in geopolitical and faith movements, as his bizarre commentaries often offend detractors and inspire intense debate.

Last week, Wright spoke at Metropolitan Baptist Church in Charleston, West Virginia, as part of a week-long revival event. His controversial words took aim at Thomas Jefferson, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the media and plenty of other targets.

He went on to speak about Jesus and Pontius Pilate in John 18 in the Bible, saying that they were speaking “two different languages.“ This sermon quickly delved into his belief that ”the Italian army — Roman soldiers“ were ”occupying Palestinian territory.”

Then, Wright found himself discussing U.S. operations in the Middle East, while also taking aim at FOX News personalities Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity.

“I was in the military six years and neither Hannity or O’Reilly was in the military,” he proclaimed. “Let me tell you one thing they taught us in the United States Marine Corps…fighting for peace is like raping for virginity. Those are oxymorons, but that’s what we do in the name of regime change.”

The controversial preacher also showed no love for Justice Thomas, as he told his audience that, though Thomas “looks like” them, he is “worshipping some other God.” He also made an intriguing comparison about the God of the Hebrew Bible and the Lord depicted in the Quran.

“The god of racists is not the God of righteousness. The god of the greedy is not the God of grace. The god of Wall Street is not the God of Main Street,” Wright proclaimed. “Those are two different gods and I ain’t talking about Allah and Yahweh. Those are the same names for the same God.”

He continued, taking a jab at Thomas and his Christian faith.

“And I’m not talking about black and white…some of ya‘ll think I’m talking about white folk,” he said. “There’s a whole lot of folk who look like you who are worshipping some other God — somebody shout Clarence Thomas. Hallelujah!”

Wright also tackled racial issues, while waging a bizarre accusation at Thomas Jefferson.

“There are politicians who are making decisions about you, about your life, about your future, about your family about your children — and the real tragedy is they live in a different world from your world all together,” he proclaimed. “There are people in power right now who have opinions about you based on their privilege of skin color.”

As he spoke about race, Wright’s rhetoric intensified.

“I am in the text. Pilate was European…Jesus was not European. They live in a world shaped by European standards of beauty, shaped by Moynihan studies, shaped by bell curves — they live in a different world from your world all together,” he told the audience. “They are ignorant and arrogant and these are graduates of Harvard and Yale setting policies over you based on the stupidity of David Hume…Voltaire, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Thomas Jefferson — a pedophile — Theodore Roosevelt and a racist Supreme Court.”

But he wasn’t done there.

“The ignorance and arrogance of white supremacy have the movers and shapers of world policy living in a different world from people of color all together,” Wright raged on. “And the sooner you realize that the better off you’re gonna be.”

Early on in this same address, while speaking about Luke 19, Wright took aim at conservatives, saying, ”You will not hear this passage of John 19 preached on Wall Street. You won’t hear this Luke 19 Scripture exegeted in the comfortable pews of the rich folk, the greedy folk or the Tea Party praisers.”

It is in this chapter that Zacchaeus, a tax collector, encounters Jesus and subsequently decides to change his ways, pledging to give half of his possessions away. Additionally, he offers to give back four times what he owes to anyone he has cheated. Clearly, the preacher sees conservatives as “greedy folks.”

“That is called restorative justice and theology – restore the stuff that the greedy stole from the needy,” Wright continued.

Watch comments cut together from all three of Wright’s speeches, below:





Again, President Barack Obama disavowed Wright and left his church. Is there anything else that matters to this? No. But it irks me that conservatives complain that they're being silenced. In the world of conservatives, anyone who disagrees with them is an enemy of the state. Anyone who speaks ills of the tragedies cause by American influence is a "traitor". Anyone who happens to speak up for injustices to people of color is "a race hustler". Anyone who supports the rights of the independent woman is "playing to the base".

Republicans and its allies in the conservative movement are wrapping their asses and eventually their necks around the American flag in preparedness of a culture war. They need an enemy. The lower class, the middle class, the working class, minorities, moderates, liberals, compassionate conservatives, [independent] women, single parents, GLBT, those who practice in Islam, and the many supporters of President Barack Obama are enemies of the Republican Party and its allies in the conservative movement.

Conservatives are all upset over Jeremiah Wright using his First Amendment right to criticize the United Sates government and the media, but rush to defend the U.S. Marine Gary Stein. In the next article, it describes Stein as U.S. Marine Sargent who is under fire for creating a Facebook page that attack President Barack Obama. And while he's entitled to speak his political views, it's against the policy of United States Military Code to speak against the commander and chief while in military uniform.

U.S. Marine faces dismissal over criticism of Obama on Facebook by Anne Sewell


U.S. Marine Gary Stein Under Fire For Anti-Obama Rant.
Camp Pendleton - U.S. Marine sergeant Gary Stein made the mistake of criticizing President Barack Obama on his Facebook page. That mistake may cause him to be dismissed in shame.

Stein superimposed images of President Obama's face on to a poster advertising the movie "Jackass". According to his lawyers, he had done nothing more than exercise his right to free speech.

Captain James Baehr, a defense lawyer representing Stein, said: "We are truly surprised and disappointed but it was an honor to fight for a hero like Sgt. Stein and every other marine's right to speak freely."


Baehr also stressed that Stein had, in fact, not broken any existing law.

Stein is a member of both The United States Justice Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union and these groups say that his First Amendment rights are being violated.

However the prosecution has said that Stein has repeatedly violated Pentagon policies and should be dismissed because he ignored a warning from his superiors about his various activities on the popular social media network.

Prosecutor Captain John Torresala claims that the marine's anti-Obama Facebook postings and comments could influence junior marines.

The policies of the Pentagon limit the freedom of speech of servicemen, including criticism of the country's commander-in-chief. Personnel in the military are not allowed to set up a political club, nor to openly support any political candidate or party on TV or in a public event.

As well as the Jackass image recently posted to his Facebook page, he has also referred to the "Armed Forces Tea Party" and had superimposed Obama's face on another movie poster, this one for "The Incredibles", which he renamed "The Horribles".

In the meantime Stein has insisted that all the comments and views posted on Facebook were his own, and not the military's and he has also placed a relevant disclaimer on the page.

After a one day hearing at Camp Pendleton for Sgt. Gary Stein, the board recommended that the marine be given an other-than-honorable discharge, meaning Stein would lose his benefits and also, should this come to pass, he will not be allowed on any military base.

In the meantime, until conclusions are reached in the matter, Stein has been removed from his position at the Marine Recruiting Depot in San Diego and has now been assigned a desk job with no computer access.

Could Racism Be A Factor To Easter Tulsa Shootings?

It's getting worse. The city of Tulsa, Oklahoma is relieved that the apparent racially-motivated shooters are held in custody. Is this the sign of more on the way? Since the shooting of Trayvon Martin, more incidents are occurring often and we're noticing! Once again, with the first Black president, Barack Obama, the conservatives are riled up and they're capable of becoming violent.

2 held in deadly Tulsa shooting rampage; no charge

By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS
Associated Press


TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Police arrested two men suspected in a deadly shooting rampage that terrorized Tulsa's African-American community, and said online postings indicated one may have been trying to avenge his father's death.

Jake England, 19 (right), and Alvin Watts, 32 (left), were arrested early Sunday at a home in Turley, just north of Tulsa. Police identified both suspects as white, while all five victims in the early Friday shooting were black. England and Watts, who have not been charged, are expected in court Monday.

Police and the FBI cautioned that it was too early to say whether the attacks in Tulsa's predominantly black north side were racially motivated. Police spokesman Jason Willingham said that based on Facebook postings attributed to England, a wish to avenge the death of his father might have been a factor.

In a Facebook update Thursday that appeared to have been written by England, he blamed his father's death on a black man and used a racial slur. The posting said Thursday was the second anniversary of his father's death.

"It's hard not to go off," given the anniversary and the death of his fiancée earlier this year, the posting said.

"It's apparent from the posting on the Facebook page that he had an ax to grind, and that was possibly part of the motive," Willingham said. "If you read the Facebook post and see what he's accused of doing, you can see there's link between the two of them."

The Facebook page had been taken down by Sunday afternoon.

Jake England, 19 was arrested. Facebook page shows racial rant.
A family friend, Susan Sevenstar, told The Associated Press that England was "a good kid" and "a good, hard worker," who "was not in his right mind" after losing his father and the January suicide of his fiance, with whom he'd recently had a baby.

"If anybody is trying to say this is a racial situation, they've got things confused," said Sevenstar, who described England as Cherokee Indian. "He didn't care what your color was. It wasn't a racist thing."

The Tulsa World reported that England's father, Carl, was shot in the chest during a scuffle with a man who had tried to break into his daughter's apartment. England later died. The man charged in the shooting is serving a six-year sentence on a weapons charge, according to Department of Corrections records.

Acting on an anonymous tip and backed by a helicopter, police followed England and Watts from the home they shared in Turley and arrested them without incident, police said.

Authorities said they planned to charge them with murder and other offenses.

Task force commander Maj. Walter Evans said investigators recovered a weapon but that it was not clear who fired the shots. They also found a truck that had been burned.

It was not immediately known whether the suspects had lawyers.

The Rev. Warren Blakney Sr., president of the Tulsa NAACP, said the arrests came as a relief. Black community leaders met Friday night as fears mounted over the shootings - and the possibility of retaliatory attacks.

"The community once again can go about its business without fear of there being a shooter on the streets," Blakney said.

Police Chief Chuck Jordan said the gunmen appeared to have chosen their victims at random. Police identified those killed as Dannaer Fields, 49, Bobby Clark, 54, and William Allen, 31. Two men were wounded but were released from the hospital, Jordan said.

The shootings come at a fraught moment for black Americans. In late February, an unarmed black teen, Trayvon Martin, was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., raising questions about racial profiling and touching off protests across the nation.

While Tulsa police were reluctant to describe the shootings there as racially motivated, City Councilman Jack Henderson was not.

"Being an NAACP president for seven years, I think that somebody that committed these crimes (was) very upset with black people," Henderson said. "That person happened to be a white person, the people they happened to kill and shoot are black people. That fits the bill for me."



More controversy upon the Trayvon Martin incident. The rise of right wing extremism, proven by the Department of Homeland Security. And it's getting worse.



Trayvon Road Sign_20120409063211_JPGDEARBORN (WXYZ) - A roadside construction sign spotted on the border of Detroit and Dearborn shocked metro Detroit drivers.

Someone changed the electronic sign to read "Trayvon..." followed by a racial slur.

The sign was spotted Sunday night on westbound I-94 near Michigan Avenue.

Police were notified by drivers and the sign was quickly taken down. It was up for about an hour.

Trayvon Martin is the Florida teenager whose death sparked nationwide outrage when he was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer.

His shooter claims the shooting was in self defense.

Martin's death has prompted hundreds of rallies across the country, even some in metro Detroit.


Ohio State University: Long Live Zimmerman Spray Painted On Black Culture Center!


COLUMBUS, Ohio (CBS Cleveland/AP) — Officials say graffiti spray painted on the wall of a black cultural center at Ohio State University likely stems from the nationwide unrest over the fatal shooting of a black Florida teenager.

The graffiti painted early Thursday said “Long Live Zimmerman.” Columbus media outlets report that officials believe it’s a reference to George Zimmerman, the neighborhood-watch captain accused of killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., in February.

Larry Williamson, executive director of The Frank W. Hale Black Cultural Center, wants the person that did this brought to justice.

“We want the person brought to trial, caught,” Williamson told WBNS-TV. “We want to make sure these kinds of things don’t happen.”

Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee says university police are “vigorously investigating.”

“I was really outraged by this on a university that takes great pride in civility and respect,” Gee told WBNS. The graffiti has been removed.

It was discovered the same day a campus rally was held for Martin and Shaima Alawadi, an Iraqi woman who was fatally beaten last month in her El Cajon, Calif., home

Zimmerman is white and Hispanic. His family insists he’s not racist.

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