Free Republic

<p>During a speech at Cornell University earlier this week, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry said she hopes Trayvon Martin “whooped the shit out of’ George Zimmerman during the fatal confrontation that led to Martin’s death in 2012.</p> <p>I hope [Martin] tried to stay alive. I hope he knew that he lived in a state with a “Stand Your Ground’ law. And I hope he whooped the shit out of George Zimmerman. And it’s not disreputable because he encountered a stranger who was prepared to kill him, and you know how I know? Because he killed him.</p>

....ABC News has learned Martin’s family will soon be notified that the Justice Department will not be filing charges against George Zimmerman, who shot the 17-year-old after a confrontation in 2012. Thursday marks three years to the day since Martin was killed. Federal prosecutors concluded there is not sufficient evidence to prove Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman in Sanford, Fla., intentionally violated Martin’s civil rights, sources told ABC News.

Joe Scarborough's defense of Brian Williams amounts to a warning to people in the media and politics: I know a lot about many of you, too. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough ominously said: "in over a decade in this news business, it is fair to say looking straight in the camera, I've seen a lot, I know a lot, and I know that there are very few people in this industry or in politics that could live by the standard of perfection. Cast the first stone? I would be careful." View the video here.

An aggravated assault case against George Zimmerman that was opened when his ex-girlfriend said he threw a wine bottle at her has been dropped because she recanted her story and stopped cooperating with investigators, a prosecutor said Friday. State Attorney Phil Archer said he wouldn’t file a formal charge against Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watch leader who was acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin. The killing of the unarmed black teen touched off protests across the country.The ex-girlfriend had made it clear she didn’t want to cooperate with Lake Mary Police officers, and there were no other eyewitnesses to what happened...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Sybrina Fulton is not a household name. But her son, Trayvon Martin, certainly is. Fulton, the mother of the teen who was fatally shot in 2012, took part in Penn's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Interfaith Commemoration on Jan. 22 for an evening of awards, musical performances and a panel discussion. The crowd rose to their feet when Fulton was introduced at Irvine Auditorium. Many Penn community members and West Philadelphia residents were eager to hear from the woman whose son’s death has gained worldwide attention over the past several years. “It’s still very painful for me. But I know...

So, let’s get this straight. At a decisive moment in history when our nation required a strong and unbiased voice from its’ senior law enforcement official, you Mr. Holder, made it your personal mission to join with other racial antagonist and politicize a tragic event, accusing a young white police officer of a racially motivated killing in what we now know was a justified self-defense shooting of a predatory felon. Your behavior is unbelievable. You sir, have sacrificed your integrity on the altar of political expediency. You, Mr. Holder, are the “coward” and hypocrite you so loudly denounce when speaking...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush appears poised for a presidential run and is currently leading the polls among potential Republican candidates for 2016, but the comments he made in 1994 during his first run for Florida’s highest office may come back to haunt him.The Associated Press reports that Bush described himself then as a “head-banging conservative” and used fiery rhetoric — such as claiming he would do “probably nothing” for African-Americans if he became governor — in his ultimately unsuccessful bid. Bush made that statement in response to a question on what he would for African-Americans if elected to office.“It’s time...

SANFORD -- A Seminole County judge has set $5,000 bond for George Zimmerman, who was arrested Friday night in Lake Mary. The 31-year-old was booked around 9:45 p.m. for aggravated assault -- domestic violence with a weapon. According to Don West, Zimmerman's attorney, his client threw a wine bottle during the incident. Zimmerman is prohibited from contacting the victim, returning to her home or entering Volusia County. He must surrender all firearms by Tuesday, but will not have to wear a GPS monitoring device. He is due back in court at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 17 in front of Judge Donna...

SANFORD (CBSMiami/AP) —The man acquitted in the shooting death of a Florida teen has been arrested again. This time he is charged with aggravated assault, Florida authorities said. The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office says the 31-year-old George Zimmerman was arrested in Lake Mary about 10 p.m. Friday and is being held at the John E. Polk Correctional Facility. The facility’s website says Zimmerman is scheduled for a court appearance at 9 a.m. Saturday.

George Zimmerman -- the man acquitted by a Florida jury over the death of Trayvon Martin -- was arrested Friday in Florida

George Zimmerman was arrested and charged with aggravated assault in Lake Mary Friday night, a Seminole County Sheriff's spokeswoman said. Zimmerman, 31, was booked into the John E. Polk Correctional Facility about 9:45 p.m. Friday where he was being held without bond, sheriff's spokeswoman Kim Cannaday said in a statement. Zimmerman is scheduled for a first appearance in court at about 9 a.m. Saturday. More information about the arrest was not immediately available.

For those of us who have managed to survive 2014 with our lives intact and our freedoms hanging by a thread, it has been a year of crackdowns, clampdowns, shutdowns, showdowns, shootdowns, standdowns, knockdowns, putdowns, breakdowns, lockdowns, takedowns, slowdowns, meltdowns, and never-ending letdowns. We’ve been held up, stripped down, faked out, photographed, frisked, fracked, hacked, tracked, cracked, intercepted, accessed, spied on, zapped, mapped, searched, shot at, tasered, tortured, tackled, trussed up, tricked, lied to, labeled, libeled, leered at, shoved aside, saddled with debt not of our own making, sold a bill of goods about national security, tuned out by those...

In late November, the student government at taxpayer-funded Morgan State University sponsored a conference on slavery reparations for black Americans. Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan was the keynote speaker. The Nov. 22 conference, called the 2nd Annual Black United Summit International, occurred on Morgan State’s historically black campus in Baltimore, Md. The conference theme was “Re-Claim, Re-Pair, Re-Form, Re-Produce — REPARATIONS Now!” Total attendance was over 2,000, according to EAGnews.org. Final Call, a Nation of Islam publication, provided a detailed report about convention activities. Farrakhan’s keynote rant lasted over two hours. At one point, he held up what resembled...

With reports that the NYPD is looking into as many as 63 threats against police officers, or the mayor this week alone, news also comes of a lack of motivation among the rank and file, undoubtedly contributing to a significant drop in arrest numbers across the city. “[There’s] just not motivation,” one police officer told [Vice]. “I’m not writing people summonses if I have a chance of getting my head blown off.” When asked if this was his own choice or a precinct-wide initiative, the officer added, “Seems like the entire department is on the same page.” As the New...

n the wake of the Ferguson grand jury’s determination that there was no probable cause to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, incensed rioters took to the streets of that Missouri city and neighboring towns where they burned and looted a number of local businesses. Those riots were preceded by an anguished speech delivered by Brown’s mother who tearfully lamented the grand jury’s decision before a crowd of supporters. She was joined by her husband and Michael Brown’s stepfather, Louis Head, who expressed his grief in a somewhat less constructive way. “Burn this s*** down!”...

They want peace. No really. And the New York Times is just a dispassionate observer looking for reform and change. Not mass murder.But Nicholas Kristof had one of his “Take the Mask Off Moments” when the radical left shows how ugly and unhinged it really is despite its facade of dinner parties and book clubs and that its media outlets promote violence.And so he invited readers to send in poems about the usual stuff. Bunnies. Flowers. Killing all white people and burning America to the ground. And the emphasis was not on the bunnies and flowers.Here’s a deranged screech of...

There is some good debate and conversation happening in the wake of the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases. But there is also plenty of nonsense. Consider this gem from the New York Times editorial of this morning about police arrests: "there can never be a justification for any lethal assault on an unarmed man." How absurd. In Ferguson, there is evidence that Michael Brown was attempting to wrest the officer's gun away. Should Darren Wilson have waited until Brown was successful before defending himself? Whatever the facts from Staten Island, if a single officer finds himself in a struggle...

<p>Decades ago, I taught at a community college. The bunch of us treated our shared office as if it were the neighborhood bar. We’d hang out for hours. That beat going home to our cheap apartments or our parents’ basements and watching TV, which was all we could afford on the pittance adjunct professors are paid. James was a jazz musician. Mo’s nose was always to the grindstone. Patrick was enthralling. I wish I had had a video camera recording our every conversation. His words glittered.</p>

Time Magazine warned of a growing threat to cops nationwide in September 2010. The nationally renowned publication argued that sinister individuals would launch targeted attacks against police officers and even ambush them in their patrol cars. Time alerted readers that these groups and individuals have a disturbing hatred of cops and that there was a real threat of “lone-wolf” attacks. Who are these groups that present such a threat to police? Right-wing militias, according to Time. [Snip] “Scores of armed antigovernment groups, some of them far more radical, have formed or been revived during the Obama years, according to law-enforcement...

Barack and Michelle Obama, speaking to People Magazine, of all disappointments, shared the disheartening news that they have experienced what they called racism. Barack, for example, apparently has had trouble, before he was president, hailing a cab in Chicago, to which an immediate thought might occur to anyone who has been to Chicago: Who hasn't? Also, Barack, at a black-tie event, when he, too, was in festive livery, apparently was asked by another guest if he would get them a cup of coffee. For her recollection, Michelle came up with a visit to a Target store as first lady. She...