Posted on 01/19/2015 5:12:05 AM PST by SJackson
The Real George Zimmerman
Posted By Ari Lieberman On January 19, 2015 @ 12:38 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 11 Comments
George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, is unsurprisingly in the news again. It seems he just can’t get his act together. This time he’s accused of throwing a wine bottle at his girlfriend – who has described him as a “psychopath” – and smashing her cell phone, which earned him an aggravated assault charge. Zimmerman, who appeared in handcuffs and a blue prison uniform during his arraignment, was released on $5,000 bond.
This isn’t Zimmerman’s first brush with the law since his July 2013 acquittal on second degree murder charges. In fact, menacing with firearms and bouts of domestic violence are recurring themes in Zimmerman’s checkered history. Shortly after the July 2013 trial, for instance, Zimmerman’s now ex-wife Shellie made a panicked phone call to police alleging that Zimmerman had threatened her with a firearm, smashed her iPad and punched her father in the face. “He’s in his car and he continually has his hand on his gun and he keeps saying, ‘Step closer’ —he’s just threatening all of us with his firearm and he’s going to shoot us,” Shellie Zimmerman frantically told a 911 dispatcher before police arrived at the scene. A weapon was never recovered in this case, but 911 audio demonstrates a sincere belief on the part of Shellie Zimmerman that her estranged husband had a gun in his possession and that her life was in danger.
A few months after the altercation with his ex-wife, Zimmerman was also accused by another girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe, of threatening her with a shotgun and engaging in a destructive tirade which ended in Zimmerman barricading himself in Scheibe’s home. Scheibe told police that Zimmerman had broken some of her belongings and then pushed her outside of the residence, locking the door. Yet another girlfriend, former fiancé Veronica Zuazo, filed for and was granted a restraining order against Zimmerman in 2005 over domestic violence allegations. Zimmerman cross-claimed with his own accusations of domestic violence and was granted a restraining order against Zuazo.
In September 2014, Zimmerman was again in the news over a road rage incident in which he allegedly followed another motorist and harassed him while both were driving. The alarmed driver pulled off the road to call 911, telling the dispatcher that Zimmerman had threatened to shoot him. According to the other driver, whose identity was not released to the public, Zimmerman fled before police arrived. A few days later, the same driver made another call to police alleging that he saw Zimmerman in his truck outside his place of work.
Criminal charges in the above cases were either dropped or never filed, but they do give a strong indication of the real character of George Zimmerman. The latest altercation coupled with the previous incidents paint a portrait of a troubled man with, to say the least, some serious anger management issues. While this does not render him a murderer, it certainly does chip away at his credibility. And since there were only two antagonists in the Trayvon Martin shooting case, one of whom is dead, credibility is a central issue.
As noted by David Horowitz in a July 2013 article, “Is the Zimmerman Case Really Open and Shut?”, there were a number of facts in this case that were indisputable. Zimmerman lied during the proceedings. He schemed with his wife to conceal the fact that he had received well over a hundred thousand dollars in donations. He disingenuously stated that he had no knowledge of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law when it was established that he in fact did know of the law. And he stated that Martin jumped out at him from the bushes, when there were no bushes in that area. Moreover, Zimmerman sustained very superficial injuries – some minor scrapes and bumps – and these injuries are not entirely consistent with the life and death struggle that Zimmerman described.
Trayvon Martin, who had made a purchase at a local convenience store, was unarmed when he was killed. Zimmerman, a cop wannabe, marked Martin as “suspicious,” because, as we now know, he was young, black and wearing a hoodie. Prosecutors asserted that Zimmerman disregarded a police dispatcher’s specific instructions to stop following Martin, though Zimmerman disputes this and claimed that he was merely trying to verify his location. Whichever version is accurate, it is indisputable that by initially exiting his vehicle and following Martin, Zimmerman put into motion a sequence of events that ultimately culminated in a confrontation which led to the tragic death of an unarmed 17-year-old youth with no criminal record.
As observed by Horowitz, Zimmerman inexplicably stated in an interview with Sean Hannity that he would not have done anything differently that night because “it was God’s plan.” That bizarre and heartless response speaks volumes about Zimmerman’s character. Surely Zimmerman had a multitude of alternatives. For one thing, he could have placed a 911 call from his car and left it at that.
Horowitz was criticized by numerous Frontpage readers in the comment section of his article for ostensibly taking too liberal of a position. But Zimmerman’s repeated post-acquittal run-ins with the law – where his rage and aggression are central and undeniable themes – have vindicated Horowitz’s position that this case was far from clear-cut in terms of Zimmerman’s alleged “self-defense.” There was, in fact, ample reason to question Zimmerman’s account of events and the legal process needed to take its course.
This is not to say that Zimmerman’s version of events was untrue and his acquittal wrong. The defense did an excellent job in raising reasonable doubt, but some myopic conservatives were clearly too quick to assume Zimmerman’s innocence, ignoring an abundance of inculpatory evidence while focusing instead on exculpatory evidence. In many ways, their reactions mimicked those of radical leftists and race-baiters like Al Sharpton, who automatically assumed that Zimmerman was guilty regardless of the sufficiency of the evidence and ramped up an unassuageable campaign of lynch mob justice.
Zimmerman was perfectly in his rights as a neighborhood watch volunteer to try and see what Martin was doing. From all we know, he did everything correctly when told to by the police dispatcher. I guess the simple fact that Zimmerman was armed has some conservatives alarmed. The question is...why?
I have 3 empty houses right around me in kind of a block. After one of them was broken into (local teenagers)the police put me into contact with the owners and realtors and now I keep an eye on those places.
I walk around them a couple times per week and look for obvious signs of damage or break in. I also shine a light around about one night per week. I’ve got a remote for all the outside floodlights at the house behind me. It lights the place up like a prison yard.
What I’m not going to do is confront someone over an empty house. If I see them in the process of breaking in or snooping around I might give a shout to scare them off but I’m not going to try to hold them. If someone is inside I’m just going to stay out of sight and call the police to deal with it.
Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice, by Z's cheap gun jammed on ejecting the brass after the first shot. Hope he got a better gun.
Geeze you people are easy to bait.
Despite the slanted portrayal of the actual events and proceedings, the author fails to deliver on the premise of the title.
What is the "cautionary tale?" What is it that conservatives are supposed to take away from this?
The author never says.
-PJ
Before very long, these who would trash Zimmerman’s actions will be crying for a hundred just like him; mental problems or not. The whole of law enforcement is being neutralized by racists who want the law and rules of society to apply to everyone except them.
If someone is bashing my head against a sidewalk and I have a gun, he is going to be shot; in my own case, probably more than once. And what part of neighborhood watch is not understood by these racist whiners? The times are coming when we’re going to need neighborhood watchmen and women if we live where there is any population at all. Either that or you can pile your belongings on the front porch with a sign that says “free stuff” so perhaps they won’t invade your home.
If George Zimmerman had shot a white man, we would never have known his name. Neither would we know his name if Martin had succeeded in taking Zimmerman’s gun and killing him. Zimmerman lost any hope of a normal life because he shot someone in self defense who was the wrong color. And now our entire body of law enforcement, who is our only defense against criminals of all colors and stripes(except for Zimmerman types, i.e. gun owners) is expected to offer up their lives, their family’s, and the protection of law abiding citizens in order to not appear “racist” Please!
Is Zimmerman a hero of mine? Not a hero but someone of whom I say “There but for Grace, go I.”
I live in a weekend “get away” community north of Houston. My neighbors’ house sits empty 85% of the year, because he live in Houston and usually only comes up during the summer months.
I have ran people off of his property, with my rifle in-hand! Because the county Sheriffs are at least 30 minutes away!
You have every right to suppress crime in your area, and in your manner; and I have every right to suppress crime in my area, and in my manner.
Part of his psychosis is that his own have rejected him, and he's rootless and emotionally wandering. He probably still has his Leftist Regressive Democrat beliefs.
I’ll put it more bluntly. Level headed, intelligent men aren’t doing a whole lot today to combat evil.
Defense in my mind doesn’t count anymore. It’s time for some offense. I’ll take some dumb, mean-streak guys who are sick of what they are seeing and have had enough as opposed to the civil.
That’s it. Every time this clown threatens a wife or girlfriend he should be taken to task.
Well said. Just because he (rightly) defended himself against a thug does not mean he's a hero. I have always thought that Zimmerman should not have followed Trayvon in the first place. It's still Trayvon's fault that he got shot; but as an armed guy, I think Zimmerman should have stayed back after calling it in. What he did was not criminal; but he opened himself to too many legal issues.
It doesn’t matter if Zimmerman is a violent idiot or not. We knew Zimmerman was a pro-Obama liberal Democrat.
But Trayvon Martin was a good shoot and Zimmerman didn’t deserve to go through hell for it.
” I wouldn’t have followed Travon (unless perhaps he was on my property), but even if that was poor judgement, it’s not a depraved mind.”
Don’t forget that he was also the neighborhood watch guy.
“Part of his psychosis is that his own have rejected him, and he’s rootless and emotionally wandering. He probably still has his Leftist Regressive Democrat beliefs.”
Zimmerman has been rejected by any and every spineless coward, Left, Right, Democrat, Republican, who swallows every time the MSM cries “RACIST”.
If you ever find yourself underneath a hoodlum who is intent on bashing your brains in; don’t shoot unless and until you’re sure, 1. He’s not black, yellow, brown, red or any mixture thereof. 2: You’re certain that he only means to beat you, not kill you. 3. That your own psychological profile is above reproach. BTW, these are already the standards being put in place for law enforcement so you might as well comply unless you want to be rejected by your “own”.
You are probably right. After enduring that trial over Trayvon Martin he should have gotten counseling. The stress of that would have pushed me over the edge. He should have moved out of the area maybe out of the state and started over.
It appears that totally unrelated to Trayvon Martin George Zimmerman just may have relationship issues as do many people. He probably does not handle this stuff well and he may end up in a pickle one of these days.
damn that was a powerful post.
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