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 ...
What if Zimmerman had been Korean? Would he be a “white Korean”?
I understood your point. Since he did something “bad”, he is white Hispanic. If he save a kids life, he would be Hispanic.
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.
Does this mean Obama is the first White-Black president?
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?
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.
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.
“A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can put its shoes on.” — Mark Twain
Nice high beams
Words mean things and the Left, since Marx, have been the masters of disingenuous and politically motivated semantics.
Nope
You mean the Leftist FReepers?
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.
It’s probably a very exciting soccer match.
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.
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.
Barack looks black so any negative comments against his policies is racist.
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.
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.
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?
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