Posted on 04/25/2012 1:23:22 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
(Reuters) - A pit bull named Big Boi began menacing George and Shellie Zimmerman in the fall of 2009.
The first time the dog ran free and cornered Shellie in their gated community in Sanford, Florida, George called the owner to complain. The second time, Big Boi frightened his mother-in-law's dog. Zimmerman called Seminole County Animal Services and bought pepper spray. The third time he saw the dog on the loose, he called again. An officer came to the house, county records show.
"Don't use pepper spray," he told the Zimmermans, according to a friend. "It'll take two or three seconds to take effect, but a quarter second for the dog to jump you," he said.
"Get a gun."
That November, the Zimmermans completed firearms training at a local lodge and received concealed-weapons gun permits. In early December, another source close to them told Reuters, the couple bought a pair of guns. George picked a Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm handgun, a popular, lightweight weapon.
By June 2011, Zimmerman's attention had shifted from a loose pit bull to a wave of robberies that rattled the community, called the Retreat at Twin Lakes. The homeowners association asked him to launch a neighborhood watch, and Zimmerman would begin to carry the Kel-Tec on his regular, dog-walking patrol - a violation of neighborhood watch guidelines but not a crime.
Few of his closest neighbors knew he carried a gun - until two months ago.
On February 26, George Zimmerman shot and killed unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in what Zimmerman says was self-defense. The furor that ensued has consumed the country and prompted a re-examination of guns, race and self-defense laws enacted in nearly half the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I thought he was a self appointed black teen asassin. So much for the mainstream news..
Great article!
He bought the gun to protect him and his wife from a pit bull. I love a success story!
1/16 Black, 7/16 Arab.
keyboard spew alert
As in laughter at or disgust at my comment? I was being very sarcastic in my comment up-thread. I don’t think the media should ignore black-on-black crime. But the fact is they do.
Why don’t you guys ask Beckwith about how reliable a source Kenneth Lamb is? He asked Lamb for proof several times back in ‘08. To the best of my knowledge, Lamb never responded. I saw a pic of Hussein’s daddy, and at least to the best of my knowledge, he didn’t look Arab at all.
Just about tired of hearing about "neighborhood watch guidelines." That's just another freedom-sucking, rights-stealing federal jack-booted-thug program designed to disarm citizens and get them dependent on unconstitutional non-peace-officer police.
As in irony, I suppose. Is that safe? (I don’t dare venture to say yes these days.)
if this the post-racial world, I want the pre-racial one.
Neighborhood Watch :
Sanford Police Department (they organize and issue the signs)
Sponsored by the National Sheriffs’ Association, Neighborhood Watch can trace its roots back to the days of colonial settlements, when night watchmen patrolled the streets. The modern version of Neighborhood Watch was developed in 1972 as a response to requests from sheriffs and police chiefs
Click on this link,
then click “...more menu options..”
then click “Crime Prevention”
http://www.sanfordfl.gov/police/index.html
Seems like they had a major problem with the ferals. And only Trayvon gets shot?
Zimmerman probably didn't think of himself as Afro-Peruvian.
That was a part of his family past, not his own identity.
It only comes out now that he's in the news.
Maybe he was "post-racial" (or pre-post-racial) before all this happened.
And the "pre-racial" world -- how many millennia ago was that?
Do you realize that since his grandmother is a product of a racial mixed marriage like our president, Zimmerman is more of a match to “son of Obama” then TM.
This is an excellent article. Thanks for posting it.
An amusing anecdote about profiling - before Bush came to office in 2001, the disproportionate scrutiny of air travelers who looked Middle Eastern or wore traditional Muslim garb was standard in the American airline industry, due to the historical experience of hijackers and terrorists in fatal attacks against American airlines being mainly Middle Eastern and Muslim. Just before 9/11/01, Bush forbade this increased scrutiny, criticizing it as this fundamental injustice. Then 9/11 happened. 10,000 dead Americans and $1T in war-related expenditures later, the country’s self-appointed elites are still engaged in a campaign of fulmination against profiling.
Yep, falters somewhat at the end but overall better than I expected from Reuters.
So, why is Al Sharpton trying to lynch a black man?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.