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Black Friend Defends Shooter of Florida Teen
NY Times ^ | March 25, 2012

Posted on 03/25/2012 1:04:38 PM PDT by Steelfish

Black Friend Defends Shooter of Florida Teen

March 25, 2012

SANFORD, Florida (Reuters) - George Zimmerman cried for days in remorse after shooting dead a black Florida teenager, a family friend of Zimmerman said on Sunday, offering a sympathetic portrayal of the man at the focal point of a national uproar.

Zimmerman, 28, a white Hispanic, shot Trayvon Martin, 17, in what he said was self defense during an altercation in the gated community Zimmerman was watching on February 26 in Sanford, Florida. After barely going noticed for weeks, the case has since galvanized the country and renewed a national discussion about race.

"He couldn't stop crying. He's a caring human being," Joe Oliver, 53, a former television news reporter and anchor in Orlando who has known Zimmerman for several years, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"I mean, he took a man's life and he has no idea what to do about it. He's extremely remorseful about it," Oliver said, relating stories told to him by Zimmerman's mother-in-law, a close friend of Oliver's wife.

Oliver's account counters the withering criticism Zimmerman has sustained from demonstrators across the country who have demanded his arrest and accused him of racial bias in targeting Martin. Celebrities have taken up the cause of justice for Trayvon, and President Barack Obama said "all of us have to do some soul-searching" as a result of the tragedy.

"I'm a black male and all that I know is that George has never given me any reason whatsoever to believe he has anything against people of color," Oliver said.

Sanford police did not arrest Zimmerman, saying the evidence could not disprove his account of self-defense, though the case is under review by a state special prosecutor and the U.S. Justice Department.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: cmurder; enemedia; esmit; georgezimmerman; getwhitey; joeoliver; medialynching; nytimes; raceagitators; racebaiters; racebaitingleft; racepimps; raceprop; racialagitators; racialdividers; racistleft; slimm; trayvon; trayvonmartin; twitter; whiteafrican; whiteblack; whitehispanic; whitekenyan; zimmerman; zimmermanfriends
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To: ColdOne

What if Zimmerman had been Korean? Would he be a “white Korean”?


61 posted on 03/25/2012 1:48:54 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: RedCell

I understood your point. Since he did something “bad”, he is white Hispanic. If he save a kids life, he would be Hispanic.


62 posted on 03/25/2012 1:49:29 PM PDT by EEGator
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To: Steelfish

Are you that freakin’ dumb? “Warning shots???”....”Shots that would cause non lethal injuries???” Not one accredited firearms instructor, or use of lethal force expert/attorney has EVER advised your idiotic remarks be followed. If the weapon is ever drawn and it is pointed/directed at a human being by you it means you feel your very life is in the most severe jeopardy at THAT point. (And you had better be DAMN sure it is/was). You shoot to 100% stop that threat to your life at that time then. “Warning shots”? Wise up.


63 posted on 03/25/2012 1:50:02 PM PDT by bobby.223 (Retired high up in the mountains of the American Redoubt and it doesn't get any better than that!)
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To: Steelfish

Does this mean Obama is the first White-Black president?


64 posted on 03/25/2012 1:50:08 PM PDT by zeestephen
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To: Las Vegas Ron

So now Hispanics are to be labeled White Hispanic and Black Hispanic. Thinking like that makes me wonder if we what Obama would be. Is he a white-black man or a black-white man?
Or is color only skin deep and the worst way to judge a person?


65 posted on 03/25/2012 1:50:12 PM PDT by This I Wonder32460
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To: zeestephen

When the gubmint reports crime stats, a “white” Hispanic is one that can be reported as “white” when he’s the perp, but if he’s the victim, he will be reported as “Hispanic.” This has been going on for years.


66 posted on 03/25/2012 1:50:22 PM PDT by thulldud (Is it "alter or abolish" time yet?)
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To: Lmo56
Is the NYT gonna start calling Obama a white African-American ???

Here is one for ya. If a White South African couple have a kid that was born here, what will happen when the kid fills out a form and checks the African-American block?

They are African thru the parents and they are American thru birth. So AA but they are white thru genes.

67 posted on 03/25/2012 1:51:37 PM PDT by USAF80
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To: Steelfish

“A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can put its shoes on.” — Mark Twain


68 posted on 03/25/2012 1:51:36 PM PDT by Albion Wilde ("Real men are not threatened by strong women." -- Sarah Palin)
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To: EEGator

Nice high beams


69 posted on 03/25/2012 1:51:55 PM PDT by al baby (Hi Mom)
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To: All
The “White Hispanic” label if referring to someone who did something bad, implies that the evil “Republican” white side overpowered the angelic and loving “Democrat” Hispanic side and forced it to be it's partner in crime.

Words mean things and the Left, since Marx, have been the masters of disingenuous and politically motivated semantics.

70 posted on 03/25/2012 1:52:01 PM PDT by Happy Rain ("With Newt now hopelessly out of the running, all who bash Rick are in the tank for Mitt.")
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To: Las Vegas Ron

Nope


71 posted on 03/25/2012 1:53:41 PM PDT by al baby (Hi Mom)
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To: hinckley buzzard

You mean the Leftist FReepers?


72 posted on 03/25/2012 1:53:58 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: JoSixChip
is fun watching you santorum supporters twist your self into pretzels

It is interesting, and very instructive. The phenomenon is classic cognitive dissonance and presents a problem--what do you do when everything you've been stuck on turns out to be bogus?

Do you simply admit you have been sold a bill of goods? Some might, but where the ego-involvement is too intense, that is not an option. The next option is simply to ignore or deny the discrepant information as if it didn't mean what it plainly does. Another tactic is to minimize the significance of the discrepant information--"well, maybe so but it don't mean nuttin."

We see all of these defensive maneuvers as the Santorum clique desperately seeks to hold together a crumbling view of their deeply flawed candidate.

73 posted on 03/25/2012 1:54:32 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: al baby

It’s probably a very exciting soccer match.


74 posted on 03/25/2012 1:55:39 PM PDT by EEGator
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To: Steelfish
“Gingrich and Obama both need to stop making racial capital off this tragic case.”

This is just nuts. You have officially gone off the deep end trying to justify everything Rick says and attack everything Newt says even if it means making things up.

Accusing Newt of trying to make racial capital off of this is dishonest and offensive.

75 posted on 03/25/2012 1:56:00 PM PDT by Amntn
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To: TigerClaws

Kudos for doing the “Right Thing” in the face of race hustlers. Also being a Good American. Props to him. Prayers up. He will need them.


76 posted on 03/25/2012 1:56:32 PM PDT by MotorCityBuck ( Keep the change, you filthy animal!)
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To: This I Wonder32460
I guess you can claim whichever race you look like. Zimmerman look white so the media is all over it.

Barack looks black so any negative comments against his policies is racist.

77 posted on 03/25/2012 1:56:57 PM PDT by USAF80
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To: Gumdrop
IMO, the libs, the media, the whole last 50 years has everything turned upside down, in side out, bass ackward that they can't even keep up with their own maniacal BS, this case, as you have pointed out proves it.

The Country is so confused it doesn't know which way to think and I think that is the entire objective.

One thing is for sure, this whole thing shows how easy it is to whip up an ignorant mob.....test run or warm up??

Dat be some scary sheite in its self....prepare accordingly.

78 posted on 03/25/2012 1:56:57 PM PDT by Las Vegas Ron (Rush Limbaugh = the Beethoven of talk radio - http://www.istandwithrush.org/)
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To: Gumdrop
She refers to herself as a Latina,and never uses the word Hispanic to describer herself.

A distinction without a difference. Although, I must say, there are Hispanics and there are Hispanics. They are anything but an undifferentiated monolithic group

George Zimmerman’s family name sounds either German or Jewish (or both?)

George used to be an altar boy. His father was a magistrate judge in Virginia, and his mother worked as a court translator.

79 posted on 03/25/2012 1:57:27 PM PDT by cynwoody
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To: Steelfish

I can’t find the link, but I read earlier that Zimmerman’s mother has indigenous South American relatives.

So, that makes Zimmerman a White-Hispanic-Native American?


80 posted on 03/25/2012 1:57:37 PM PDT by zeestephen
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