Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Breaking: ABC has obtained video of the the night of the shooting. George Zimmerman taken into custody in cuffs. On first glance, no obvious signs of trauma to the head or face. The video was shot by the patrol car.

See I was thinking that if he had indeed been assaulted by Martin, that he would have taken pictures of his injuries or at least gone to the hospital to get it on record. If I killed someone in self defense with no witnesses, you bet I would be covering my asparagus.

Finished watching a couple of minutes of it right now. There doesn't really seem to be any blood or gashes on the back of his head that I can see.

The video cuts off for me, but the dude is bald even and there is nothing on the back of his head, unless it was just a small gash that they cleaned up maybe? But his face looks perfectly fine too.

From what I can see on the video, he looks absolutely fine.

I wonder if they have very clear close up video/photos at all of the back of his head or nose and if we will ever see those, because I just cannot see a gash or anything. I would at least expect to see blood along the gash/laceration even if it was cleaned up. Also, if it had been cleaned up it seems they would have at least bandaged it at that point.

One of the police officers did glance at the back of George Zimmerman's head, so maybe there is something there like a cut so small or bloodless that it cannot be seen on video? Maybe he was told Zimmerman had a gash on his head and looked for what he expected to see. Reports will probably go out that his wound was cleaned well and that the video isn't high enough quality or something along those lines.

Zimmerman claims the screams for help on the 911 tapes are him, but audio experts say they're not.

Does anyone know how close Zimmerman was to Martin when he shot him? I didn't notice any blood on his shirt or jacket when he was at the police station. Was he allowed to go home first and change clothes?

Have you guys seen George Zimmerman's website??
http://therealgeorgezimmerman.com/Home_Page.php

I think he is insane.

I didn't know his lawyer was claiming his nose was broken. That's simply amazing that he didn't go to the hospital with a broken nose on top of his other, numerous injuries.

Here's some information from the Tampa Bay Times on the FL stand your ground law.
http://www.tampabay.com/stand-your-ground-law/main

Oh, I hate to be a downer but there was an article in the TBT today which quoted his lawyers as saying they quit because Zimmerman wasn't returning their calls but had set up his own website (they were working on one for him per his request), called Sean Hannity, AND the state attorney (that's just weird, not the bad part). Zimmerman is NOT IN FLORIDA. His now ex-attorneys refused to state where he was because they feared for his safety. There is some speculation that he will run.
If I can find the article on their website, I will post it.

That article is full-on. If I've learned one thing, that stupid law needs repealing. And based on precedent, Zimmerman wouldn't necessarily be guilty of a crime in the state of Florida. I guess people have been saying that all along but it was hard for me to understand. We'll see what the prosecutor says soon.

CNN says Zimmerman is in custody, charged with second degree murder.

Sweet Jebus, that is a stupid law.

Also, *holy shiitake* I have never felt so in favor of gun control.

Yeah, I recently got into a brief argument with my mom about the stand your ground laws. She was going on-and-on about how more people should carry guns and use them, especially being supportive of the sheriff in their county (Spartanburg county, where the sheriff told people to arm themselves after a woman was raped and he said you can't expect the police to be there all the time and if the woman had had a gun it wouldn't have happened). As she finished her statements, I pointed out that that kind of thinking is what leads to cases like Trayvon Martin. She said, "but that was a horrible trajedy." Which is exactly my point...most states have the idea of self-defense, but the stand your ground laws make vigilante "justice" allowable (as judges and law enforcement sometimes interpret the law), even when the precipitating event is something not at all threatening (like a teen walking at night). I hope my state never enacts such a stupid law.

Yup. And as the article made clear, the only time frame that really matters (at least the way the law has been interpreted) is the 60 seconds prior to the crime. Which is incredibly dumb, because if one person comes out of the conflict *dead* then that person's murderer gets to be the one who reports how those last 60 seconds went down (unless there are other eye witnesses). This means the fact that Zimmerman was chasing him down ten minutes prior to his death is more or less irrelevant (not from a moral perspective but from the perspective of the law).

Madness.

The authors of that stupid law have publicly said that they don't think that their law is applicable here but apparently they are wrong and don't have a bloody clue how it is being applied.

My fab local paper went to a variety of young, black men in Tampa Bay and asked them for their comments. The printed version was in Sunday's paper.
http://tampabay.com/stand-your-ground-law/young

Just saw this:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/16/f ... t-parents/



My head is just about to forking explode. Florida is doing a bang up job of convincing me that it's a racist hellhole of epic proportions.

it's pretty bad, but it's no arizona or anything.

Yup.

I encountered as much if not more racism in OH. In my part of FL, the neighborhoods are far more integrated than anything I encountered in the midwest.

Race is not the only factor. You have to consider stupid gun laws and the weird culture of gated communities.

I haven't lived in a lot of places but I've actually seen more racism in California than anywhere else. Especially when it comes to 'those brown people who can pick our foods in pesticide-laden fields but why do they need to use our medical facilities?'