Black Friend Defends Shooter of Florida Teen

NY Times ^ | March 25, 2012

[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.

[hinckley buzzard]

Not to mention that if you are on your back getting your face punched, you aren't likely to fire a "warning shot" either. My fricking word.

[rlmorel]

Must be cold...

[greatvikingone]

Don’t forget Tiger Woods - who is more Chinese than anything else but he is a great “black golfer”.

[Melas]

You are incorrect, and as asked I will show you the way. Hispanic doesn’t come the Island of Hispaniola, it comes from Hispania, the Latin term for what is now Spain.

If you want to see white hispanics, Spain is the place to go. Whites abound who are solely hispanic in ever form of culture. Hispanic has never been limited to the mestizo’s we think of when we think of Mexico.

[USAF80]

I think test run for Oct/Nov. Occupy now this stuff. Get the dummies riled up because its easy then cancel all elections.

[swamprebel]

This hispanic was a “white” man??? So he has two ethnic descriptors? Does that make sense?

[cynwoody]

On a hunch, I went and fished Trayvon "SLIMM" Martin's deleted Twitter account out of Google's garbage can. The Google cache, dated Feb 6, 2012 12:29:45 GMT, is here. Turn off JavaScript before clicking to avoid getting redirected to Twitter's 404 page.

The background picture he chose to set the tone for his online presence gives us a better idea of where he was coming from:

That heroic role model turns out to be Corey Miller, a rapper known as C-Murder, who is doing life without parole for beating up and shooting to death 16-year-old Steve Thomas in 2002 at a night club in Harvey, Louisiana. If Zero had a son, he'd look like ...

Trayvon's page lists his name as SLIMM, his location as YO HOE CRIB, and his (favorite?) website as LIES.COM. Dude liked caps. I had thought Slimm was his middle name, but apparently, it was his nickname. His actual middle name was Benjamin.

And, lest anyone question whether it is really his page, the Google snapshot shows a 15-hour-old birthday greeting from the lovely and charming EatYhurBrainz, aka Kia. Kia turns out to attend the same high school as Martin. And her greeting would have been sent on the evening of 5 February. Martin was born on 5 February 1995.

[brityank]

“What is a “white Hispanic?” It really is ridiculous to have such inconsistent labels. There is one race. My heritage is Jewish, European, Cherokee, and African - what am I dear census bureau???

I am English by birth, Irish by inclination, and Scotch by absorption - with some Viking, Polish, and Afrikaans mixed in too from aways back!

The biggest, loudest, most visible RACIST in this land of the Americas is the U. S. Federal Government. They MANDATE that each individual be categorized by ethnicity and skin-color. They no longer help create a vast "melting-pot" of like-minded Citizens, but a "salad-bowl" polyglot of disparate, enforced groupings that they can pit against each other. FedGov issues Rules and Regulations and Money to enforce its Racist vision.

[hinckley buzzard]

I dunno what they are, there just are a gaggle of them who want to lynch Zimmerman. For some reason they can't hold their water until the facts are known.

[JPG]

I used to be a tan White but now I’m just a white White.

[SampleMan]

I’m pretty certain that “white hispanic” is code for “racist cracker”.

[JLAGRAYFOX]

My point is that HIspanic is related to so many other ethnics around the world. South America is loaded with Italians, Germans, Chinese, Japanese, Orientals, etc. The vast actions of intermarriage has expanded the Hispanic reference. It’s like the bogus term of calling American Blacks, African-Americans. The only African-Americans here in the USA are those folks that migrated from Africa or other Black nations to the USA. The overwhelming number of American Blacks are simply just plain old Americans. I love my ethnicity of being Italian, German & Austrian, but I am nothing but an American, period. This use of the hyphen is just pure and simple hogwash!!!

[Chickensoup]

This hispanic was a “white” man??? So he has two ethnic descriptors? Does that make sense?

__________________________________

Hispanic men are white when it serves the leftist agenda.

[cynwoody]

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

They're called mestizos. Their Native American genes are why they don't look as European as His Majesty Juan Carlos I.

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

It does. The more groups the better!

[drpix]

"Obama is universally described as “Black.” Yet, his mother was white."
" Zimmerman's father was white. Why isn't Zimmerman described as being completely “Hispanic?”
"Bill Richardson has a non-Spanish surname, but he is always called Hispanic.

Simply understood by the following Leftwing calculus (which works on every instance I've come across):

50% Black/Hispanic + 50% White + 100% hero of the Left = Black/Hispanic.
50% Hispanic + 50% White + 100% villain of the Left = White.
50% Black + 50% White + 100% villain of the Left = Oreo/UncleTom.

OR for the dumbed down minds of the Leftwing masses: Good = Black/Hispanic. Bad = White.

[Las Vegas Ron]

Hispanic doesn’t come the Island of Hispaniola, it comes from Hispania, the Latin term for what is now Spain.

No, sorry but you are not correct. Hispania comprises the two individual Countries Portugal and Spain, Hispaniola is made up of The Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Hispanic is derived from the conquest of Spaniards and Italians and their prodigy.

My family, a royal one, is from Spain. I am not Hispanic.

Spanish yes, the politically correct Hispanic, no.

[duffee]

You don’t use warning shots or shoot to wound, that’s in the movies. There appears to be some evidence if what I’ve read is true that only one shot was fired from the semi-automatic handgun and that the empty shell casing was in the chamber and had not been ejected. This could be and most likely, caused by someone (probably the “victim” in a struggle for the gun) having a tight grip on the slide as the gun was fired preventing the shell casing from being ejected and the chamber being re-loaded. Close quarters and a struggle for the gun would preclude warning or wounding shots.

[TankerKC]

The pic on that twitter page looks more like Martin that any of the other bunk ones, but it is posted in several place with one I know came from a Trayvon Martin of Savannah GA...a middle schooler. That Martin has lots of recent friends from all over the country (same may even attend the HS in Miami). These folks are mistakenly thinking they are friending the deceased.

[PalmettoMason]

We don’t kill completely unarmed people without first firing warning shots or at least shots that would cause non-lethal injuries.

Source?

Any thug that expects a warning shot from me had better be wearing a vest.

How does one guarantee "non-lethal" injuries?

Also, Martin was obviously not "completely" unarmed. He was able to inflict injury on Mr. Zimmerman.

Sheesh.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

“Zimmerman, 28, a white Hispanic ... How is someone a white Hispanic ???”

That is a most idiotic question to say the least!!!

It is like asking “How is someone a white Amercan???”

Good greif!!!