The more the facts come out, the fishier this looks.....
Police: Zimmerman says Trayvon decked him with one blow then began hammering his head
With a single punch, Trayvon Martin decked the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who eventually shot and killed the unarmed 17-year-old, then Trayvon climbed on top of George Zimmerman and slammed his head into the sidewalk several times, leaving him bloody and battered, authorities have revealed to the Orlando Sentinel.
That is the account Zimmerman gave police, and much of it has been corroborated by witnesses, authorities say.
Zimmerman has not spoken publicly about what happened, but that night, Feb. 26, and in later meetings he described and re-enacted for police what he says happened.
In his version of events, he had turned around and was walking back to his SUV when Trayvon approached him from behind, the two exchanged words then Trayvon punched him in the nose, sending him to the ground, and began beating him.
Zimmerman told police he shot the teenager in self-defense.
Civil rights leaders and thousands of others have demanded Zimmerman's arrest, calling Trayvon a victim of racial profiling and Zimmerman a vigilante.
Trayvon was an unarmed black teenager who had committed no crime, they say, who was gunned down while walking back from a 7-Eleven with nothing more sinister than a package of Skittles and can of Arizona iced tea.
Supporters have held rallies in Sanford, Miami, New York and Tallahassee, calling the case a tragic miscarriage of injustice.
Activist Al Sharpton headlined a rally in Sanford Thursday that drew an estimated 8,000 people. The Rev. Jesse Jackson yesterday spoke at an Eatonville church, where he called Trayvon a martyr.
Another rally is scheduled for 4 p.m. today in Sanford.
Zimmerman has gone into hiding. A fringe group, the New Black Panthers, have offered a $10,000 reward for his capture.
Police have been reluctant to provided details about all their evidence, but this is what they've disclosed to the Sentinel:
Zimmerman was on his way to the grocery store when he spotted Trayvon walking through his gated community.
Trayvon was visiting his father's fianc?e, who lived there. He had been suspended from school in Miami after being found with an empty marijuana baggie. Miami schools have a zero-tolerance policy for drug possession.
Zimmerman called police and reported a suspicious person, describing Trayvon as black, acting strangely and perhaps on drugs.
Zimmerman got out of his SUV to follow Trayvon on foot. When a dispatch employee asked Zimmerman if he was following the 17-year-old, Zimmerman said yes. The dispatcher told Zimmerman he did not need to do that.
There is about a one-minute gap during which police say they're not sure what happened.
Zimmerman told them he lost sight of Trayvon and was walking back to his SUV when Trayvon approached him from the left rear, and they exchanged words.
Trayvon asked Zimmerman if he had a problem. Zimmerman said no and reached for his cell phone, he told police.
Trayvon then said, "Well, you do now" or something similar and punched Zimmerman in the nose.
Zimmerman fell to the ground and Trayvon got on top of him and began slamming his head into the sidewalk, he told police.
Zimmerman began yelling for help.
Several witnesses heard those cries, and there's been a dispute about from whom they came: Zimmerman or Trayvon.
Lawyers for Trayvon's family say it was Trayvon, but police say their evidence indicates it was Zimmerman.
One witnesses, who has since talked to local television news reporters, told police he saw Zimmerman on the ground with Trayvon on top, pounding him and was unequivocal that it was Zimmerman who was crying for help.
Zimmerman then shot Trayvon once in the chest from very close range, according to authorities.
When police arrived less than two minutes later, Zimmerman was bleeding from the nose, had a swollen lip and had bloody lacerations to the back of his head.
Paramedics gave him first aid, but he said no to going to the hospital. He got medical care the next day.
The Department of Justice last week opened a civil rights investigation into what happened, and Gov. Rick Scott appointed a special prosecutor.
It's not clear whether the special prosecutor, Angela Corey, the state attorney for Duval, Clay and Nassau counties, will have Zimmerman arrested, announce that there's not enough evidence to file a manslaughter charge or present evidence to a grand jury.
rstutzman@tribune.com or 407-650-6394.
Copyright ? 2012, Orlando Sentinel
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-03-26/news/os-trayvon-martin-zimmerman-account-20120326_1_arizona-iced-tea-suv-unarmed-black-teenagerI think Derbyshire called this one right.....
05 ? Trayvon Martin case. That brings us to the second story of the week in which the reporting is as much of a story as the story: the Trayvon Martin case.
This all started four weeks ago when Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Florida high school student, was found shot and killed in Sanford, Fla., a town north of Orlando. I'll just pause to look up Sanford on city-data.com. Population 51,000, median household income $42,000, a tad below the Florida average, detached house average price $202,000, 44 percent married, racial breakdown ? white 47 percent, black 30, Hispanic 17. Sounds like a humdrum lower-middle-class community.
OK, so four weeks ago there's Trayvon Martin lying dead of a gunshot wound. The shooter is on site when the cops show up: 28-year-old George Zimmerman, captain of the local neighborhood watch. Mr Zimmerman has a bloody nose, an impact wound in the back of his head, and grass stains on the back of his shirt.
Mr Zimmerman tells cops ? who know him from his neighborhood watch role ? that he killed Martin in self defense. Police do not arrest him, as Florida law does allow you to shoot someone in self-defense.
A couple of weeks go by, and Martin's family is asking for an arrest. Last Friday a local ABC News affiliate published the 911 calls at the time of the shooting. They don't tell us anything much, but people are by now primed to hear what they want to hear in them.
Around this point, it being a pretty slow weekend, the MSM dimbos suddenly wake up to what they've got. What have they got? A Great White Defendant, that's what!
You'll recall Tom Wolfe's 1985 novel Bonfire of the Vanities, in which the Bronx District Attorney's office is so weary and guilt-ridden at processing the steady stream of black and Hispanic perps, when they finally get a white one, it's like Christmas Day for them. The Great White Defendant! This is a recurring phenomenon in the MSM news cycle: the Duke University rape case was a recent example.
Well, once they realized they'd got a Great White Defendant in harpoon range, the MSM went nuts. The story they hastily put together was that a feral white guy had gunned down a harmless young black man for no reason whatsoever! The stories were decorated with pictures of Trayvon Martin as a winsome preteen, no pictures of him at his actual age of 17 apparently being available, or perhaps just not ? suitable. We also got pictures of Zimmerman, fleshy and scowling. No selection going on there at all, guys, I'm sure.
There was a slight hiccup in the accumulating narrative when it turned out that Zimmerman, his name notwithstanding, is actually Hispanic. There are various accounts of this, I don't know which one is true. I've heard he is a Spanish-speaking Guatemalan adopted into a Jewish family, that he is half Jewish, half Puerto Rican, and a couple of other versions. Anyway, the luster came off for the MSM a teeny bit. Hispanic Guy Shoots Black Kid just doesn't send quite the same tingle up the MSM leg as White Guy Shoots Black Kid.
Still, you work with what you've got. Trayvon Martin was undoubtedly dead, and undoubtedly unarmed at the time of the encounter ? other than with a pack of Skittles candy, a very handy prop to go with those winsome kid pictures. We haven't been told much else about him. He stood six feet three, considerably taller than Zimmerman. He was also way fitter than Zimmerman, who is 100 lbs overweight. He played school football, and so presumably spent time in the weight room. He was a "model student," said the first reports; then we learn he was on a five-day suspension from school, presumably not for being a model student.
What about the considerable evidence that at the time of his death, Trayvon Martin had George Zimmerman on the ground and was pounding the bejasus out of him? Whooosh! (That's down the memory hole.)
With all its deficiencies, the story will do. It was time for another Great White Defendant story, and the MSM have stepped up to supply one.
Again, I take no position on the facts of the case, which are mostly unknown or ambiguous, and which I am sure will be clarified in due course. What I'm taking a position on is the fact that the MSM, in full shrieking battle cry, have taken a position on the facts, ignoring known ones that don't fit their narrative, and twisting the ambiguous ones to favor that narrative.
Meanwhile the story continues to metastasize. Activists here in New York City staged a riot on Trayvon Martin's behalf the other day. I assume that's what happened, anyway. The AM New York headline read Protesters clash with NYPD in rally for Trayvon Martin, OWS. If clashing with police isn't a riot, what is? Notice the OWS rabble getting in on the act, too. This show will run and run.
Meanwhile, last weekend, just in the city of Chicago ? the one our young President community-organized with such dramatic results ? in Chicago last weekend gangbangers murdered ten people and wounded another forty. The youngest murder victim is only six years old. The youngest person wounded is only one year old. Many of the victims were pedestrians sprayed with bullets in drive by shootings. Is that news? I guess not. No Great White Defendant there ? heck, not even a Great Hispanic Defendant. Sorry, I'm feeling no tingle up my leg at all.
http://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/RadioDerb/2012-03-23.html#05
