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Zimmerman protested police coddling of white suspect in 2010?
ORLANDO, Fla. ? George Zimmerman handed out fliers at black Sanford churches a year ago, outraged that a white police lieutenant?s son, captured on video sucker-punching a homeless black man, was not arrested on the spot, family members said.
The fliers urged blacks to go to a Sanford (Fla.) City Commission meeting to protest and demand that the police chief be held accountable.
Robert Zimmerman confirmed that story Wednesday during an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News.
George Zimmerman is the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, in a Sanford neighborhood five weeks ago.
Civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the national president of the NAACP have traveled to Central Florida, calling Trayvon a victim of racial profiling and demanding that Zimmerman be arrested.
Zimmerman had spotted Trayvon walking through his neighborhood, called police and describing him as suspicious. He then followed the teenager and several minutes later, the two got into a fist fight, and Zimmerman pulled out his 9 mm semiautomatic handgun and killed the teen.
Sanford police did not arrest Zimmerman, saying they did not have enough evidence to disprove his claim of self defense.
That decision set off a storm of protest. Marchers have held rallies in Sanford, Miami, Tallahassee, Los Angeles, New York, London and several other cities. Gov. Rick Scott appointed a special prosecutor, and the U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation to determine whether Zimmerman violated Trayvon?s civil rights.
Zimmerman?s attorneys and father say he?s not a racist.
As proof of that, Robert Zimmerman last night told Hannity that his son handed out fliers, protesting the way a homeless black man was treated by Sanford police in 2010.
Sherman Ware, who is black, was standing on the sidewalk when Justin Collison, who is white and the son of a Sanford police lieutenant, came rushing out of a Sanford bar Dec. 4 and punched him in the back of the head.
The blow knocked Ware out and sent him to the hospital. The incident was captured on video by a bystander with a cell phone, and although police saw the video that night, they made no arrest.
Orlando-area news organizations aired the video, prompting calls for Collison?s arrest and the ouster of Sanford Police Chief Brian Tooley.
George Zimmerman on Jan. 2 handed out fliers at black Sanford churches, urging them to go to City Hall and demand that Tooley be held accountable, according to family members.
The following day the commission voted to oust the police chief, and Collison was arrested.
He pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of battery and was sentenced to a year of probation.
Ironically, Tonetta Foster, the sister of Sherman Ware, the man punched by Collison, took part in a Trayvon rally March 19 at the Seminole Criminal courthouse at which protesters called for Zimmerman?s arrest.
"I stand for justice for Trayvon, for Sherman Ware," she said.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/south/view.bg?articleid=1061122645&format=text
Re: Zimmerman protested police coddling of white suspect in 2010?
"I have black friends, I'm not racist!"
How do we know his fliers being handed out didn't have anything to do with his vigilante mindset of being his own authority. Clearly he didn't listen to the 911 rep when they told him to not follow Trayvon. This guy wanted to play his own cops and robbers.
I'm sure this guy handed out these fliers to white churches too, but it probably didn't make the interview.
Zuma Zoom
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It just.doesn't.matter. He could have marched with Dr. King for all I care - he did kill an innocent kid by stalking him likely in part because of his age and his color. He still has not been arrested; still has not been held to account. He is still walking just as free as a bird while a kid is dead. Whether Z is empty-hearted racist or whether there is profound evidence of systemic racism or whether everyone is color blind or color sensitive or whatever... he KILLED A KID and is FREE. There is a problem and no amount of "but but but he's not really racist" really matters.
I am a runner, knitter, scientist, DE-IVF veteran, and stage III colon cancer survivor.
Guys, I really don't think Elena is trying to do any of the above. It is funny in that "wow how the tables have turned" kind of a way. He protested the police not doing their job (as he saw it), and here we are, protesting the same thing, about the same police dept., with him as a suspect.
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No, I know - and I should have prefaced that I was just speaking out of exasperation at the insinuation of Z's father and (to a lesser extent) the author of the article that somehow because someone said that Z is not a racist that we're all square. I know YFM is not using this as evidence of innocence.
I am a runner, knitter, scientist, DE-IVF veteran, and stage III colon cancer survivor.
I mostly posted for the sake of irony.
Although that said, I don't think it's really fair to say "This was likely a race-based killing" but then throw out any evidence weighing against the killer being racist as irrelevant.
To take the previous example, if the Reverend Martin Luther King had killed this boy, would we really be talking about it as a racially motivated killing? Of course the motivations of the suspect matter.
Find me here instead!
Who "me?"
That's exactly how I feel. And honestly, I'm much more worried about the institutionalized racism exhibited by the Sanford Police Dept, than whether Zimmerman's actions were spurred, in part, by racism.