Free Republic

ORLANDO, Fla. - A federal grand jury is expected to hear testimony Wednesday surrounding the George Zimmerman case. The hearing is related to whether Zimmerman violated Trayvon Martin's civil rights when he shot and killed the unarmed teen in Sanford in 2012. At least one witness has been subpoenaed to testify. That man is believed to be Zimmerman's former neighbor, Frank Taaffe....

Ben Shapiro exposes the truth behind the media-created myth of Gentle Giant Michael Brown, the unarmed teen gunned down in cold blood by a white racist cop for the crime of walking while black. Except that every part of that story is a lie. TRANSCRIPT: Everything you know about Michael Brown is a lie. The media, the politicians, the race-baiters - they all told you the story of the innocent young, unarmed black teen, the Gentle Giant, murdered in cold blood by a vicious white cop representing the evil establishment. Al Sharpton, who is always first on the scene when...

The fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford ignited a nationwide debate on gun rights, profiling and Florida's controversial self-defense laws. That debate continues today, when a panel of experts convenes in Orlando to discuss the "stand your ground" law as part of an investigation the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights launched after the teen's death became a cause célèbre. Florida was the first state to adopt "stand your ground," and the killing of Trayvon shone a harsh light on it. Though Zimmerman's lawyers disputed that the controversial law played a role in his acquittal at trial last year,...

Editor's note: This column originally appeared in the October issue of Townhall Magazine.Over the past few months we’ve heard an awful lot about the police shooting of “unarmed” teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Before his death, Brown was caught on video in a strong-arm robbery of a convenience store. The video shows Brown was “unarmed” and used his personal strength to push away and assault a store clerk who tried to stop him from stealing a $50 pack of cigars. When Officer Darren Wilson stopped Brown and a friend in the middle of the road, an altercation allegedly occurred....

I’m not a psychiatrist, I haven’t sat down and interviewed George Zimmerman or the cop who shot Michael Brown, I don’t know what their motives are, I don’t know what kind of people they are, what kind of childhood traumas they have experienced. But I don’t think it’s nuts that in a certain way, when that cop killed Michael Brown, and when George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, they were killing Barack Obama.

Few people thought they would, right? Holder’s teased friendly audiences from time to time with vague promises that “justice” would be done but even he’s been at pains to note that civil-rights cases are hard to win. I think that, ever since the Rodney King trials, the public has a hazy sense that if a state prosecutor can’t get a conviction in a racially charged case that’s gotten national attention, the feds will swoop in and file their own charges as a fallback option. It’s not a matter of law, it’s a matter of politics: If people are sufficiently...

The Justice Department is not expected to bring civil rights charges against George Zimmerman in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, according to three law enforcement officials, despite allegations that the killing was racially motivated. The federal investigation of Zimmerman was opened two years ago by the department’s civil rights division, but officials said there is insufficient evidence to bring federal charges. The investigation technically remains open, but it is all but certain the department will close it. …

Winston Churchill once said, “You have enemies? Good. That means you stood up for something in your life.” Is no instance is this quote more applicable than the tenure of Attorney General Eric Holder, who stepped down on Thursday after leading the Department of Justice for six years and in, turn, became a prime target for Republicans intent on destroying everything that both he and the Obama Administration stood for. Despite constant attacks, as well as deliberate misinformation by Republicans, Holder stood strong and for six years became a champion for civil rights, gay rights, and voting rights. Holder himself...

George Zimmerman is in the news again, and to no surprise it's not in a positive way. This Saturday news report shares that the man acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin was recently involved in a road rage incident. Lake Mary Police said that the unidentified victim called 911 before and during the incident. He said that Zimmerman pulled up to him and said "Why are you pointing a finger at me?" When the man pulled into a parking lot, Zimmerman allegedly followed him as he was calling police, but left before the cops showed up on the scene. The man...

(93-PHOTOS-AT-LINK) Evidence photos released by the Fourth Circuit Court State Attorney's Office and the lawyers for George Zimmerman in the shooting death of teen Trayvon Martin. Sanford resident Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder...

Speech at work complaining about alleged anti-white bias in the context of the Trayvon Martin matter = ‘hostile work environment’ harassmentHere’s an excerpt from an administrative decision I just read, DeMay v. Richmond County Dep’t of Social Servs., 2014 WL 4206296 (N.C. Office of Admin. Hearings); it was filed July 2, 2014, but just posted on Westlaw on Wednesday. The petitioner was demoted because of a statement she made at a meeting, and the administrative decision upheld the demotion: SNIP 6. At a momentary pause between topics discussed at the meeting, Petitioner announced that she had a FaceBook post that...

Dear Race Hustlers, Media Activists, and Gainfully Unemployed Anarchists... If Trayvon Martin or Mike Brown never attacked George Zimmerman or Darren Wilson they would be alive today. End of story, good night, Good Morning America! That’s the real tragedy. Why is this concept so difficult to understand? If a black cop shot a white man charging him with the intent to do bodily harm, no one in the black community, the White House or the leftist media would have a problem with it. So why do you now? Excuse my English but that’s called racism where I come from. Self-defense...

Hard line conservatives were the first to mention the “I” word – impeachment — in response to President Obama‘s ongoing pattern of circumventing Congress to enact desired policy, but it has been Democrats who seemed to be obsessed with the idea. In fact, the prospect of impeaching Obama has been a windfall for Democrats, with 21 fundraising emails being sent to supporters during the last week of July alone, according to The Atlantic. And Obama’s allies in the media have been just as quick to make political hay out of impeachment — the blog FiveThirtyEight.com reported the pro-Obama network MSNBC...

NBC should be held liable for the editing of George Zimmerman’s 911 call in ways that made Zimmerman appear to be a racist. In a grotesque and apparently malicious act of misreporting, NBC, in multiple broadcasts, aired doctored, heavily edited versions of the 911 call, misleadingly moving around Zimmerman’s words like a Rubik’s Cube. The result gave a false impression of the tragic incident in which Zimmerman shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, and it exposed Zimmerman to the hatred, scorn and contempt of millions of viewers. Zimmerman is suing NBC and the network is fighting back. But the network’s...

<p>If you weren’t paying attention, you might walk right by it, but there’s a small, secret, metal monument dedicated to Trayvon Martin sitting atop a lamppost in Jamaica Plain.</p> <p>According to WBUR, Matthew Hincman, an associate professor at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, attached the small, cylindrical metal statue to a lamppost a couple weeks ago without any official permission from authorities. It’s located at the corner of Eliot and Center streets in JP’s Monument Square.</p>

In this weeks LA Weekly, the left-leaning free publication and directory for escorts and marijuana dispensaries, provided a cover image depicting various aspects of the conservative coalition, engaged in a tug of war for control of the GOP. One of the illustrated characters among the contingent was the image of a Klansman, donning the white sheet and hood, yet another example of Progressives hinting at the prevalence of racism within the conservative political movement. The campaign to paint conservatives with a broad brush of hate and racism runs in conjunction with their obsession and deception about the nature of so-called...

Merritt Landry, the homeowner who shot an unarmed teenager in the head after finding the intruder on his Marigny property, no longer faces criminal prosecutionOrleans Parish prosecutors on Thursday announced the decision to decline charges following news that Marshall Coulter, 15, who survived the shooting, had been arrested in connection with burglaries in the same neighborhood. The decision also comes after a grand jury failed to take action earlier this year, leaving the viability of the case in doubt."I am ethically obligated not to charge an individual against whom I do not possess evidence that proves beyond a reasonable doubt...

New surveillance video shows a teenager identified by a Marigny resident as Marshall Coulter, the intruder who survived being shot in the head by a homeowner last year, trying to enter a home last Friday afternoon. Twenty minutes before law enforcement and witnesses say Coulter, 15, was caught inside a home in the 2000 block of Royal Street, he lingered on a porch, peered into windows and tried the front door knob at a house two blocks away, on Burgundy Street. The footage shows the teen moving sluggishly on the porch as he looks through the windows and checks inside...

Marshall Coulter, the 15-year-old who survived being shot in the head by a Marigny homeowner last July, is now accused of two separate home invasions, New Orleans police confirmed on Monday. The newest allegation revealed is the first time Coulter, whose family described him as a non-violent thief, is accused of a violent crime.Police say Coulter broke into a house in the 900 block of Frenchmen Street on June 11, 2012, said Officer Garry Flot, a police spokesman. The residents returned home and found the teenager inside the house. The residents had a "struggle" with the teen, who then armed...

A 15-year-old who survived being shot in the head last July by a Marigny homeowner was arrested Friday (May 2) in a residential burglary in the Marigny, according to two law enforcement officials. Marshall Coulter was shot last July by homeowner Merritt Landry, who later told police he believed the teen was breaking into his home.The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the investigation. They said Coulter was detained Friday afternoon by 8th District detectives after a resident in the 2000 block of Royal Street reported a burglary of their home. It...