by Antonio Fuentes, editor, and SDNP staff reporters:
Tensions are growing in the case surrounding the killing of 17 year old Trayvon Martin especially along racial lines. Al Sharpton has called for “escalation” in protests and he’s been condemned by the local NAACP down in Florida for that. Meanwhile, some in the media are trying to portray the shooting as something it apparently is not in an effort to inflame racial tensions in Florida and across the nation. And some media outlets are intentionally and obviously altering the facts surrounding the case such as NBC’s Today Show. Last week they aired the 911 tapes taken when Zimmerman called 911 while he was following Martin in an apartment complex in Sanford, FL. The problem with the 911 tape NBC’s Today Show aired is that it is NOT factual. It was distorted before it was aired so that Zimmerman would look like a racist. In the version aired Zimmerman tells the police dispatcher he’s following the guy and he looks like he’s up to no good. Next you hear Zimmerman tell the dispatcher that the suspect (Martin) “looks black.” But that’s not the truth! NBC altered the 911 tapes. On the unaltered tape the dispatcher ask Zimmerman what color the suspect is. Zimmerman replies by telling the dispatcher that the suspect “looks black.” That’s a far different context. So why did NBC try to make it appear that Zimmerman was being a racist and just offering the dispatcher the fact that the suspect was black when that is clearly and factually NOT the case? Fox News and NewsBusters exposed NBC’s fraud.
Lorinov’s Blog has a great piece up this morning about the case with several links to stories about it. One posts is a link to links. That link is:
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/state/links-background-on-trayvon-martin-case-03232012
According to the police report that can be found on the above link there were several witnesses to the incident in February when Martin was killed allegedly by Zimmerman with a 9mm hand gun. Zimmerman was cooperative with police that night fully. One witness that has come forward says that he saw Martin on top of Zimmerman who was wearing a red shirt. Zimmerman was indeed wearing a red jacket that night. The police report says that Zimmerman had face and head wounds and that he was bloody when police arrived. He was treated by paramedics at the scene and then taken to the police station for questioning. That’s where the infamous video comes in of Zimmerman entering the station with no apparent wounds. But police at the scene say he did have wounds and was bleeding. Further they say his back was wet and covered with grass as if he’d been laying on the ground. If you read the police reports (found at the above link) it becomes clear that what Zimmerman is claiming is consistent with what the police found at the scene. Further, a person can be heard screaming on the 911 tapes. Witnesses at the scene and a neighbor all say that person screaming was Zimmerman and NOT Martin. People are trying to spin that so that it was Martin screaming but it wasn’t. It was Zimmerman screaming for help but no one would help him.
You can find the excellent post about all this on Lorinov’s Blog at:
http://roblorinov.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/trayvon-martin-case-nbc-lies-evidence-supports-zimmerman/
So why did NBC distort the 911 tapes to make Zimmerman look like a profiler and racist? Why are some people trying to spin this whole story so it looks like Zimmerman killed Martin in cold blood? Why are people not waiting for investigators to conclude their investigation before yelling about Zimmerman being guilty of murder? Is this a ploy picked up on my the national media and public figures to start racial problems in this country? Is this Obama’s way of getting re-elected? He knows he can’t do so based on his record. Does he think that he can by causing racial unrest? By the way Zimmerman is NOT what I call WHITE. He’s half Jewish white and half Hispanic! Being half is enough to qualify one as Hispanic. Of course there is a whole debate raging around that now too.
I understand that some information is going to be taken to a grand jury for consideration in this matter. I understand Zimmerman is in hiding out of fear for his life (the Black Panthers have put a bounty on his head). I also understand that the Police Chief in Sanford has resigned “temporarily” because of complaints over the way the SPD has handled this whole case and amid pressure to resign from the mayor and city council there. I strongly suspect the police chief was asked to resign over growing racial tensions more than anything else. After reading the police reports it seems clear that police did just what they were suppose to do in any crime scene. The facts that police found DO NOT support what the media, Sharpton, and others are saying to the contrary. They appear to support Zimmerman’s version of the events on the night in question.
This all sounds like it has been blown out of factual proportion to me. It appears to me that we have some people trying to use this incident as a diversion for personal and political gain. Perhaps that is the saddest point of all in this story. Selfish people trying to stick another feather in their caps. To fan the flames of racial hate further we then have the President of the US, Barack Obama, come out and say that Martin looked like his own son. What? Obama doesn’t have any sons. He only has two daughters so what was he talking about? And, by the way, I compared pictures this morning of Obama and Martin and there is a similarity but I don’t think Obama was the young man’s father!
Speaking of Barack Obama he’s turned out to be a real disappointment to me as a Hispanic American. I thought that his being the first black president would see him trying to heal racial tensions but he’s done just the opposite over the past four years. He’s actually worked hard to inflame such tensions. Does the White House want race riots or something? For him to come out and make such a personal statement like he did was deplorable and detestable. Since when does the US president comment personally on shooting cases specifically?
People are trying to make something out of this case that it is not. Clearly it is not a case of a white man gunning down a black young man in cold blood. If I were sitting on a grand jury I would not indict Zimmerman on murder or manslaughter because it appears to be self defense to me. I base that on the police reports and witnesses AT THE SCENE. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Barack Obama were not at the scene that night in February.
What is sad about this whole matter is that another young black man was killed and he was just one of many that night in America. I don’t know if Martin was burglarizing apartments or if he was just simply walking along minding his own business when he encountered Zimmerman. Most likely we will never know. I understand Zimmerman was part of a neighborhood watch patrol and that he has a history of calling 911. Well I’d assume he frequently called 911 because of his neighborhood watch status and not because he was some “cop caller.”
So once again America is baited and pays the price in my opinion. Hatred is inflamed and fanned once again. We’ve seen the same thing many times before in America. And that hate is the greatest tragedy of all here I believe. Someday America is going to have to confront that hate and I suspect that when we do we are going to find that much of it is based on lies and distortions and not rooted in fact. Hate is a horrible thing. Especially racial hate! I’m Hispanic and I myself know that racial hatred well and have all my life. It’s just not black that are the brunt of hate but every other skin color too! I still remember having to go to the “Mexican church” and wondering why we couldn’t go a few blocks down to the “White church.” And trust me I’ve heard my share of hateful comments about Mexicans too along with all the little choice names people have to refer to Mexicans! Racial hate does not stop with black Americans. It extends to all skin colors. And I’ve heard Hispanics pass out their fair share of hate remarks about other skin colors too. Yes it works BOTH ways. Hate always does.
On the 911 tape that was not edited by NBC you can hear the dispatcher tell Zimmerman not to follow Martin. Zimmerman did NOT comply with that directive and kept following Martin. I think Zimmerman should have complied with that directive. That would have been the wisest thing to do in my opinion but he didn’t. That was a mistake on his part I believe. The police really do not need people tracking suspects as they are perfectly capable of finding the person themselves. Besides it’s dangerous! Zimmerman didn’t know who Martin was or what he was up to. Martin could have had a gun and killed Zimmerman. Would there be a big outcry over that if that had been how things went down? Would the Hispanic community been outraged? I doubt it frankly as not much outrages the Hispanic community to any real degree in this country, sadly.
Myself I will wait for the investigation by the police to be over and come to a conclusion. I believe one is INNOCENT until PROVEN guilty. Calling for Zimmerman to be arrested, jailed, or killed is NOT proving his guilt or lack thereof. It’s called Vigilantism! Is that the low level American society has now sank to? Do we not want JUSTICE anymore because we just what to all be vigilantes? We have laws, police, and courts in this country and we need to let them do their job so we discover the TRUTH whatever that truth turns out to be. The way some people are acting this country is based on “guilty until proven innocent.” That’s the way it was in Nazi German, China, the USSR, and other places where governments ruled by tyranny and oppression. Is that what America is now too? I would hope not.