Free Republic

“Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy,” remarked F. Scott Fitzgerald, as if alluding to the fatal confrontation between George Zimmerman, the watch guard of a beleaguered and oft-burglarized neighborhood, and the unarmed, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who President Obama said would look like his son if he had one. To prevent this painful case from jeopardizing social cohesion, Americans must Think Again before lining up behind their preferred tragic hero like rabid fans of opposing sports teams. All the world’s a stage, and on the rainy night of their deadly clash, neither Martin nor Zimmerman followed...

The fierce defender of Truth, Justice and the American Way has chosen Samantha Power as our his new ambassador to his cherished United Nations. Way to go, Big Guy!An adoring glance at our her beloved benefactor:The charming Ms Power's past comments remain a backdrop to the hearing. Power, a former White House adviser and longtime Obama friend, once likened U.S. foreign policies to those of the Nazis. In a March 2003 New Republic magazine article she argued that American foreign policy needs a "historical reckoning" which would entail "opening the files" and "acknowledging the force of a mantra we have spent...

Black liberals keep bemoaning the danger to their own teenage sons after the "not guilty" verdict in George Zimmerman's murder trial. To avoid what happened to Trayvon Martin, their boys need only follow this advice: Don't walk up to a stranger and punch him, ground-and-pound him, MMA-style, and repeatedly smash his head against the pavement. The Justice-for-Trayvon crowd keeps pretending there hasn't been a trial where the evidence overwhelmingly showed that Trayvon committed the first (and only) crime that night by assaulting Zimmerman. Instead, the race agitators are sticking with the original story peddled by the media, back when we...

There are many lessons to be learned from the media miscoverage of the George Zimmerman shooting of Trayvon Martin. We’ve dealt repeatedly with the false “hoodie” and racial narratives, the ludicrous audio and video analyzes, and the misunderstanding of the role Stand Your Ground played [actually, did not play] in the case. We’ve seen post-trial articles about how the prosecution failed to “humanize” Trayvon, without addressing that the prosecution deliberately didn’t go there because it would have brought into evidence Trayvon’s history of fighting, drug use and illegal weapons possession. Rachel Jeantel’s post-trial interview on CNN also raised the possibility...

A lawyer friend of mine suspects that the Zimmerman trial is a clever trick that has been designed by cunning liberals to strip Americans of their second amendment rights. You all remember Clinton's legalisms in 1998, saying that what happened between him and Monica Lewinsky did not meet the strict legal definition of sex. According to my lawyer friend, it is easy for sneaky liberals to interpret the second amendment as giving Americans the right to own arms, but not the right to use them. Liberals may have figured out that going door-to-door to confiscate guns is too much trouble....

George Zimmeman was found not guilty by a six-woman jury late in the evening of July 13, 2013. To try to understand why they came to that decision, consider the closing statements of the prosecution and defense. In many ways, they forecast that verdict.In this backwards case — defense attorney Mark O’Mara called it the “bizarro case” — the prosecution plumbed improbable depths once more by springing a motion to send an alternate charge of third-degree murder to the jury. Third-degree murder in Florida is murder committed during the commission of a felony. The supposed felony here? Child abuse....

It is Trayvon Martin, no one else, who has put the lie to the notion that he was some innocent child. Trayvon Martin: A Child, or a Thug Wannabe? The New American 15 July 2013 George Zimmerman has been acquitted in the shooting death of "the child," the "young boy," Trayvon Martin. As should go without saying, it is of course a tragedy that our world is such that it regularly claims human life. It is particularly tragic when young people, like Martin, lose their lives in circumstances that could have so easily been avoided. But Martin was no...

Whew, that was a close one! Most people with whom I was in contact leading up to the Zimmerman verdict had been somewhat bitterly hedging their prognostications of his escaping conviction on the murder charge, resignedly saying conviction for the lesser accusation of manslaughter was the most likely outcome, given what we’ve come to expect from mercurial juries in our modern times. For myself, despite being skeptical along the way and even arguing in the later phase that a hung jury was probable, I wound up firmly predicting total acquittal (as I mainly had in numerous articles on the case...

I just have a question that I've not heard anyone address. Its been stated that there had been a bunch of burglaries in George Zimmerman's neighborhood prior to his encounter with Trayvon. I'm curious what happened to the burglary rate in that neighborhood after the shooting? Did it drop, cut in half, pretty much stop all together, etc????

How to Cheat Our System With the not guilty verdict coming down in the Zimmerman Trial, an absolute meltdown is taking place with those that differ in opinion. Individuals are speaking out in the most extreme voice, bitterly questioning the system, and vehemently attacking all who allowed for acquittal. Venting frustration is acceptable. Stirring emotion, understandable. Avoiding facts, inexcusable! Or is it? Our government allows for a trial, a fair trial, not a lynching. And in this case, a unanimous agreement was given. After thorough examination of fact, jurists of his peers found George Zimmerman not guilty. Facts can be...

The day after the George Zimmerman verdict was announced, I was at the supermarket. As always, Americans of all races went about their business. An elderly Asian lady got help from a tall Caucasian kid reaching an item on an upper shelf. A black cashier shared a joke with a white customer. A manager who might be Hispanic helped a patron of indeterminate ethnicity with a return. All was calm and composed. Let's call that supermarket America. There's another America that exists on the TV, radio and the cell phone screen. There, the race baiters, provocateurs, rumormongers, and ratings-mad self-promoters...

If you plan to mount a dummy on TV, it’s wise to not bring yourself down to the level of the dummy. But a wrestler did exactly that when he tried to defend Trayvon Martin by demonstrating a MMA (mixed martial arts) mount on HLN After Dark. On July 10, HLN After Dark Host Vinnie Politan invited a black guest named David Otunga, a WWE Smackdown wrestler, to discuss the George Zimmerman trial. Otunga made a fool out of himself trying to disprove Zimmerman’s claim that he shot 17-year-old Martin out of self-defense. Politan told viewers that he and Otunga...

The verdict in the Zimmerman case was hardly a surprise to those closely following the case. But despite the evidence supporting the jury's decision, unrest and calls for federal charges have already begun. Zimmerman Not Guilty; Unrest and Calls for Federal Charges Begin The New American 14 July 2013 Shortly after George Zimmerman was found not guilty late Saturday of second-degree murder and manslaughter in the self-defense shooting death of Trayvon Martin, unrest hit the city of Oakland as race-mongers like Al Sharpton, the NAACP and even some Democrat members of Congress publicly demanded that the Obama administration pursue...

SANFORD -- After more than 10 hours of deliberations over two days, jurors in the George Zimmerman trial asked the court for a clarification on the manslaughter jury instruction. Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/13/3498415/jurors-resume-deliberations-in.html#storylink=cpy

<p>In San Francisco, demonstrators marched through the Mission District after gathering at the 24th Street Mission BART Station. Hundreds marched down Valencia Street, chanting "Justice for Trayvon Martin."</p> <p>The crowd dispersed peacefully, and officers will "maintain a presence in the Mission District for the time being," said San Francisco police Officer Gordon Shyy, a department spokesman. Another protest was scheduled for 4 p.m. Sunday at Powell and Market streets.</p>

WARNING: What we're about to show you below is a disturbing image. Do not scroll down if you do not want to see it.America is abuzz as Trayvon Martin's case reaches a conclusion. The televised murder trial has been injected with sociopolitical significance as issues of race and gun control orbit around the witness stand. While the jury deliberates and as lawyers continue to call on witnesses, the mundane images of courtroom bureaucracy plaster themselves on televisions around the country, inviting people to watch along as if it were an episode of Law & Order: SUV.While MSNBC covered the case, the last photo taken of...

SANFORD, Fla. – George Zimmerman’s lawyers made one last attempt Friday to convince a jury the neighbourhood watch volunteer shot unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in self-defence, saying the prosecution’s case for murder is built on “could’ve beens” and “maybes.” -snip- Attorney Mark O’Mara told jurors the burden was on prosecutors, and said they hadn’t proven Zimmerman’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecutor John Guy followed with a rebuttal, accusing Zimmerman of telling “so many lies.” He said Martin’s last feeling was fear as Zimmerman followed him in a neighbourhood on a rainy night Feb. 26, 2012. “Isn’t that every...

State Attorney Angela Corey fired her office’s information technology director Friday after he testified last month about being concerned prosecutors did not turn over information to George Zimmerman’s defense team in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. On the same day attorneys finished their closing arguments in that nationally watched trial, a state attorney investigator went to Ben Kruidbos’ home about 7:30 a.m. to hand-deliver a letter stating Kruidbos “can never again be trusted to step foot in this office.” Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-07-13/story/state-attorney-angela-corey-fires-information-techonology-director-who#ixzz2YwFFQrzk

1) How old was Trayvon Martin and how much size difference was there between him and Zimmerman? Initially, old photos of Trayvon Martin were shown in the media that made him appear to be about twelve years of age and Zimmerman's weight has fluctuated dramatically. This has given many people the erroneous impression that a grown man was fighting a child. In actuality at the time of the incident, Trayvon Martin was a 17 year old, 6’2, 160 pound football player while according to his friend Joe Oliver, Zimmerman was 5'8 and 170 pounds. In other words, Martin was younger,...

The Court has released the final Jury Instructions that will be read to the jury this afternoon. For background on the argument leading up to the instructions, see Zimmerman Trial: The Jury Instructions. If Zimmerman wins, these sections of the Instructions likely will be decisive (full Instructions embedded at bottom of post): JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE The killing of a human being is justifiable and lawful if necessarily done while resisting an attempt to murder or commit a felony upon George Zimmerman, or to commit a felony in any dwelling house in which George Zimmerman was at the time of the attempted...