Trayvon Martin Shooting - George Zimmerman

[American Patriot]

Trayvon Martin case 911 call: Screams not George Zimmerman's, 2 experts say

Audio experts analyze the 911 tapes from the night Trayvon Martin was shot and conclude that Zimmerman was not the one crying for help. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports.

By msnbc.com staff
Updated at 2 p.m. ET: The voice heard crying for help on a 911 call just before Trayvon Martin was shot to death was not that of George Zimmerman, according to two forensic voice identification experts, one of whom told MSNBC on Sunday that he believes the evidence is strong enough to use in court.

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"The tests concluded that it's not the voice of Mr. Zimmerman," Tom Owen, of Owen Forensic Services LLC and chair emeritus for the American Board of Recorded Evidence, told MSNBC.
Asked if he thought such tests would be admissible in court, Owen said "yes" and noted he had recently used similar testing in testimony at a Connecticut murder case that involved 911 call.

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The conclusions of Owen and another audio expert were first reported by the Orlando Sentinel on Saturday.
Zimmerman told police that he screamed for help during his confrontation with Martin, 17. He claims the shooting was self-defense.
The 911 call, reposted in this YouTube clip, came on the night of Feb. 26 from a woman who reported someone crying out for help in a gated community in Sanford, Fla.
In the recording of her phone call, panicked cries and a gunshot are heard.
The Sentinel said it had contacted the two audio experts.
Owen told the newspaper he used software called Easy Voice Biometrics to compare Zimmerman's voice to the 911 call screams.
"I've run it against 300 voices and it was better than 99 percent in all cases," he told MSNBC when asked about its accuracy.
Owen told the newspaper that the software compared the screams to Zimmerman's voice and returned a 48 percent match. He said he would expect a match of higher than 90 percent, considering the quality of the audio.
"As a result of that, you can say with reasonable scientific certainty that it's not Zimmerman," Owen told the Sentinel.
But he also said he could not confirm the voice as Trayvon's, because he didn't have a sample of the teen's voice.
The Sentinel said that Ed Primeau, a Michigan-based audio engineer and forensics expert, used audio enhancement and human analysis and came to the same conclusion.
Thousands of Trayvon supporters march to police station

The 911 call mentioned in this story can be heard approximately six minutes into this clip.

"I believe that's Trayvon Martin in the background, without a doubt," Primeau told the newspaper. "That's a young man screaming."
On Feb. 26, Zimmerman, a white Hispanic, had called 911 to report a "suspicious" person and followed Martin against the dispatcher's advice. Martin and Zimmerman grappled, and Martin was shot in the chest.
Zimmerman told police that he was walking back to his vehicle when Martin attacked him and slammed his head against the ground and that he shot in self defense. Police declined to arrest Zimmerman citing Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, which gives wide latitude to use deadly force when a threat is perceived.

[American Patriot]

Apr 02, 2012 Police reports released on Trayvon shooting





By Douglas Stanglin, USA TODAY
Updated 17m ago



CAPTION

By Roberto Gonzalez, Getty Images

The Orlando Sentinel has posted online partial police reports by Sanford, Fla., officers who responding the night George Zimmerman shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

READ: The police reports on the Trayvon shooting


For anyone following the details of the case closely, there are no dramatic findings in the reports, simply a more detailed rundown of what the officers say they observed on arriving at the scene of the Feb. 26 shooting.
Among them:

• Trayvon was laying face down on the ground, with his "hands underneath his body." Attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful;
• Zimmerman's hand gun was placed into evidence;
• Zimmerman was reported to be "bleeding from the nose and back of his head."

[American Patriot]

Police Report

[American Patriot]

Looks to me like Zimmerman did exactly what he SAID he did. Looks to me like the police verified he:

1) Shot the kid (as far as they can determine at the scene though they don't mention locating or looking for shells as evidence).

2) Zimmerman WAS injured, face and back of head.

3) Zimmerman was cooperative with the Police.

4) Zimmerman was placed in detention until more investigators could interview him.

5) Was eventually questioned "Downtown"....

So - he defended himself against the kid. Open and shut case in my book.

[American Patriot]

Peterle. You obviously have not followed this story very well.

Mr. Zimmerman is actually Jewish.

/chuckles

His Mother is Peruvian. His Dad is Jewish. He was adopted as far as I can tell from everything I've read about him.

[American Patriot]

Yeah... funny. ha ha.

LOL

The problem is thus. Zimmerman is actually Hispanic. My son-in-law is also Hispanic. I asked him a few nights ago during the discussion about this incident with some of the adult family members whether he considered himself "A White Hispanic". he simply laughed and said "I'm an American". Which he is. He was born in Texas to parents that are "hispanic" and he speaks fluent Spanish and English but has no claims to being "hispanic", only American.

When it comes right down it it... both Martin and Zimmerman are AMERICAN.

So this bullshit about calling him a "White Hispanic" (this is the Left trying VERY hard to spin this whole story that White People are Killing Black People again) and it's ludicrous.

[American Patriot]

Of course, they didn't SHOW the actual photo (I saw it on video a bit ago).

Enhanced video shows Zimmerman head wound after Trayvon scuffle: ABC

Gash, but no blood or injury to shooter's nose

Comments (1) By Matthew Lysiak AND Helen Kennedy / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, April 2, 2012, 3:41 PM

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George Zimmerman being taken into custody following the shooting of Trayvon Martin.


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ABC News, which first broadcast video showing George Zimmerman appearing uninjured after his scuffle with Trayvon Martin, reported Monday that enhancing the video shows a wound on his head.
“There was no obvious sign of any injury to Zimmerman's head or face on the video until it was enhanced,” the network said.
The new CSI-style improved video shows a “gash or mark,” ABC said.
The enhanced video does not show any injury to Zimmerman's nose, nor any blood on his shirt.
Zimmerman, 28, says Martin, 17, decked him with a punch in the nose and repeatedly slammed his head into the ground before he shot the teenager Feb. 26.
His lawyer says Zimmerman’s nose was broken and the back of his head had two gashes. A police report said his nose and the back of his head was bleeding.
The police surveillance video of Zimmerman arriving at the police station in Sanford, Fla., appeared to show him uninjured. Trayvon’s family seized on it as proof that Zimmerman was lying about being attacked by Trayvon.
“When we looked at the video, it was obvious that there were no visible injuries,” Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, told CNN last week.
The true extent of Zimmerman’s injuries is crucial because he claimed he shot Trayvon in self-defense after the teenager jumped him.
Zimmerman was treated by paramedics at the scene and was not hospitalized.
The Daily News obtained EMS documents last week showing that a call from the scene for a second ambulance to treat Zimmerman was canceled.
His injuries were also apparently light enough for cops to take him to the station with his hands cuffed behind him, and allow him to walk unaided to an interview room.
The Miami funeral director who prepared Trayvon’s body for burial said the teenager had no bruising on his knuckles or any other sign that he had been in a brawl.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...#ixzz1qunVzSjO

[American Patriot]

At heart of Trayvon Martin death, a one-minute mystery

In a fast-paced world of 24-hour cable news and non-stop social media, what happened the night of Feb. 26 when 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer, has become both common knowledge and a blur of unattributed rumor accepted as fact.
By Frances Robles
McClatchy Newspapers

PREV 1 of 3 NEXT


J PAT CARTER / AP
Mohawk Gaz wears his memorial to a 17-old-boy killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer as thousands gathered in downtown Miami, Sunday, demanding justice for Trayvon Martin during a rally that featured national civil rights leaders.



Related

• Trayvon Martin family asks DOJ for prosecutor probe
• Trayvon Martin's parents say they don't believe police report
• Rumors in Trayvon Martin case abound, but here are facts
• Details of alleged attack on man who shot Trayvon Martin

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SANFORD, Fla. — Sunday evening, Feb. 26: It was raining in Central Florida while the NBA All Stars game and the Oscars were about to begin on TV.
A 17-year-old high school junior from Miami Gardens serving a 10-day suspension went to 7-Eleven to get candy. It was the third time Trayvon Martin was disciplined at school, so this time his parents sent him up to a quiet, racially mixed gated community in Sanford, Fla., with his dad to get his priorities straight. He was black and wore a hoodie.
George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer who routinely called police to report anything awry, had just made dinner and told his family he was headed to Target. He was Hispanic and wore a holstered Kel Tek 9mm semiautomatic handgun.
The brief encounter between the two at the Retreat at Twin Lakes community would leave one dead and the other in hiding, give rise to a social movement and, at least temporarily, cost the local police chief his job. In the next 30 days, the name "Trayvon" would be tweeted more than 2 million times.
In a fast-paced world of 24-hour cable news and non-stop social media, what happened that night has become both common knowledge and a blur of unattributed rumor accepted as fact. A controversial police report incited conspiracy theories and failed to definitively resolve what everyone wants to know: Who picked the fight? Armchair crime scene investigators around the nation insist on access to the evidence, and millions more demand an arrest in a case now being looked at by at least three different agencies, including the FBI.
The protagonists in the saga gripping the nation are Zimmerman, a man with a history of going after suspects in hot pursuit, and Trayvon, a chronically tardy teenager who liked aviation, was making plans for college and got suspended for having an empty baggie containing marijuana residue. Their story begins when Zimmerman got out of his vehicle and pursued Trayvon on foot.
But in the tale pieced together from 911 calls, witnesses, police, Zimmerman's family and the girl who was on the phone with Trayvon in the last minutes of his life, a key one-minute gap remains a mystery that may never be solved: Who approached whom? Who threw the first blow?
And the key question a special prosecutor in Jacksonville, Fla., is now tasked to investigate: Did Zimmerman justifiably take Trayvon's life to save his own?
Trayvon, a junior at Dr. Michael M. Krop High, was a lot like most teenagers: He spent an inordinate amount of time on the phone. On that Sunday, he talked for nearly five hours.
Earplugs in his ears, Arizona iced tea in hand and a cellphone, Skittles and $22 in his pockets, he chatted the whole way back from the store. It started raining harder as he walked, so he pulled up his hood and sought shelter at one of the buildings in the townhouse complex, the girlfriend he was chatting with on the phone told attorneys.
At 7:11 p.m., Zimmerman, who was in his truck, spotted Trayvon. There had been a rash of burglaries in the neighborhood attributed to young black men, and Zimmerman was wary of someone he did not recognize walking along the path that goes through the back of the townhouses, his father later told a local TV station.
Zimmerman called police. Records show it was the fifth time in a year that he had alerted authorities to the presence of a black male he found suspicious. This one, he said, looked high and had something in one hand while he kept the other in his waist as he peered at houses.
"Hey, we've had some break-ins in my neighborhood, and there's a real suspicious guy," he told the police operator. "This guy looks like he's up to no good, or he's on drugs or something. It's raining, and he's just walking around looking about."
Trayvon spotted something suspicious, too: He was being followed.
A T-Mobile phone log provided by the family's attorney shows Trayvon's girlfriend called him again at 7:12 p.m., just moments after having hung up with him. "I think this dude is following me," Trayvon told her, according to her account to family attorney Benjamin Crump.
The girl says she offered Trayvon advice: "Run!"
"When he say this man behind him again, he come and say, this look like he about to do something to him," the girl told ABC News. "And then Trayvon come and said the man was still behind him, and then I come and say, 'Run!' "
Trayvon did just that.
At 7:13, two minutes into Zimmerman's call, he tells the police operator: "S — , he's running."
A beeping sound is heard, indicating that he has opened his car door. Zimmerman went after Trayvon and, out of breath, muttered profanities. He lost sight of him.
"Are you following him?" the operator asked.
"Yeah."
"OK, we don't need you to do that."
Zimmerman spent almost two more minutes offering directions to the operator. He said he'd meet police by the mailboxes and then, just before hanging up, apparently thought better of it. "Actually, could you have him call me, and I'll tell him where I'm at?" he said three minutes and 50 seconds into the call. At 7:15, he hung up.
Lawyers for Trayvon's family say Zimmerman's decision not to wait for police by the mailboxes and instead be reached by phone proves he planned to keep looking for the teen instead of simply waiting for a patrol car.
The two met up along a dark paved path that runs between the back of two rows of townhouses.
The girl on the phone told Crump that she heard the two exchange questions, like "Why are you following me?" and "What are you doing here"
Zimmerman's dad told an Orlando TV station that it went more like, "Do you have a f — ing problem?" to which George Zimmerman replied no and reached for his phone to call police a second time.
Zimmerman, a married insurance underwriter who studied criminal justice at Seminole State College, told police that Trayvon approached him from behind as he was returning to his car. He told police, his family and his attorney that Trayvon decked him in the nose hard, causing him to hit the ground. Then, he says, Trayvon started punching him and slamming his head on the concrete.
"It's my understanding Trayvon Martin got on top of him and just started beating him in the face, in his nose, hitting his head on the concrete," Zimmerman's father, Robert, told Orlando's Fox 35.
The girl who said she was talking to Trayvon told the attorney that she heard a scuffle until the line went dead. Her four-minute call ended at 7:16.
Although the Sanford Police would not reveal the times, from 911 tapes it is known that the first of the calls from residents came while Zimmerman and Trayvon were still fighting. Desperate wails are heard in the background of at least one 911 call. Two witnesses have come forward to say they saw the encounter, but their stories contradict each other.
One man interviewed by a local Fox news station, who asked to be identified only as John, said he saw the man wearing a red jacket — Zimmerman — on the ground, being beaten by someone on top of him — Trayvon.
"The guy on the bottom, who I believe had a red sweater on, was yelling to me 'Help, help,' and I told him to stop and I was calling 911. I got upstairs and looked down, the person that was on top beating up the other guy was the one laying in the grass, and I believe he was dead at that point," he said.
But last week another unidentified man told CNN that he saw a larger man on top and a boy underneath. There wasn't much movement, he said.
Zimmerman's father told the Orlando TV station that as his son was being beaten he tried to move from the concrete onto the grass. In doing so, he said, the gun his son kept in a holster on his waist was exposed.
"Trayvon Martin said something to the effect of 'You're going to die now' or 'You're gonna die tonight' — something to that effect," Robert Zimmerman said. "He continued to beat George. At some point, George pulled his pistol and did what he did."
Seven calls came in to 911.
"They're wrestling right in the back of my porch," one caller said. "A guy is yelling, 'Help.'.... I'm pretty sure the guy is dead."
"I saw a man lying on the ground and he needed help, screaming," one 13-year-old boy told 911. "I heard a loud sound, and the screaming stopped."
Selma Mora Lamilla heard no fighting, only what she says was the wail of a child and the distinct crack of gunfire that silenced it. She ran outside her back porch, where she said she saw Zimmerman standing above Trayvon, apparently holding him down.
"I asked him, "What's happening here? What's going on?" Mora said. "The third time, I was indignant, and he said, 'Just call the police.' Then I saw him with his hands over his head in the universal sign of: 'Oh man, I messed up.' "
The police arrived at 7:17. Trayvon was dead.
The first officer to arrive was Timothy Smith, who found a white man in a red jacket and jeans standing and a black male in a gray hooded sweat shirt face down in the grass.
Smith later wrote: "Zimmerman stated that he had shot the subject, and he was still armed.... Located on the inside of Zimmerman's waist band, I removed a black Kel Tek 9mm PF9 semiauto handgun and holster. While I was in such close contact with Zimmerman, I could observe that his back appeared to be wet and was covered in grass, as if he had been laying on his back on the ground.
"Zimmerman was also bleeding from the nose and back of his head."
Officer Ricardo Ayala and Sgt. Anthony Raimondo attempted CPR on Trayvon until Sanford Fire Rescue arrived. A paramedic pronounced Trayvon dead at 7:30.
Zimmerman was handcuffed and placed in the back of Smith's patrol car. Sanford Fire Rescue administered first aid.
"While SFD was attending to Zimmerman, I overheard him state, 'I was yelling for someone to help me, but no one would help me,' " Smith wrote.
That someone shouted is corroborated by 911 callers, who reported hearing screams for help just before they heard gunfire. One woman sobbed for 14 minutes, because she felt guilty for not having given aid.
It remains unclear which of the two cried out for help. All the callers now believe the person who cried for help is the one who ended up dead; the parents of Zimmerman and Trayvon are each convinced that it was their son screaming for help.
Zimmerman was taken to the Sanford police department in handcuffs. A time stamp on the precinct security camera video shows Zimmerman got to the police station at 7:52 p.m. An officer patted him down at that time.
The video shows no obvious sign of injury or blood stains on his clothes, although one shot shows an officer examining the back of Zimmerman's head, then wiping his hands on his uniform pants.
Meanwhile, police fingerprinted the dead teen, who carried no I.D. He had never been arrested, so 12 hours passed before anyone knew his name.
"I have never seen a crime scene cleaned up so fast," Trayvon's father, Tracy Martin, told The Miami Herald. He came home that night just before 11 p.m. and saw no trace of a crime. It was not until he called police the next morning that a major crimes detective went to the townhouse where his girlfriend lives to break the news.
Zimmerman, in the meantime, had been questioned by police and released without charges.
Police stressed that Zimmerman was interviewed at least three times and gave a videotaped statement and a walk-through of what happened. Zimmerman, whose father is a retired Virginia magistrate, never asked for an attorney or changed his story, former Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee said.
The investigation began, with detectives interrogating Zimmerman and patrol officers canvassing the 911 callers.
One caller said he had seen a man with a white T-shirt on top of the other. Neither Zimmerman nor Trayvon wore white T-shirts.
Another caller, Mora's roommate, Mary Cutcher, phoned police after the gunshot and said the black man was standing over another man, which would have been impossible, because Trayvon was already dead.
Cutcher later blasted the Sanford police, saying detectives did not return her phone calls because she clearly believed that the person crying was the boy, and that was not the story investigators were looking for. Police issued a news release saying she had given an "inconsistent statement."
ABC News later reported that a boy who witnessed part of the incident said he saw someone matching Zimmerman's red-jacket description lying on the grass, suggesting the shooter had told the truth when he said Trayvon had knocked him down. But the boy, 13-year-old Austin McLendon, gave 911 and The Miami Herald a different account.
"He never said he saw someone in a red shirt or someone on top of another person — someone is switching his story," said Austin's mother, Cheryl Brown. "The police came here and asked him leading questions like, 'The first person had a red shirt?' because they wanted him to say, 'Yes, the person had a red shirt.' "
Brown said she will hire an attorney to demand a copy of the audio statement her son gave to prove he has never wavered, and never claimed to see Zimmerman on the ground.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators were at the gated community last week, re-interviewing witnesses. The probe is also expected to lean heavily on audio experts to try to determine whether it was Trayvon or Zimmerman crying in the first 911 call.
Several days passed before police released a report with an account that said Zimmerman had blood on his nose and the back of his head, fueling suspicion that the department was attempting to bolster Zimmerman's story and defend the lack of an arrest.
The report listed the height and weight of every person, including the 911 callers. The only person whose size is not noted is Zimmerman. At 5-foot-9, Zimmerman was much shorter but heavier than Trayvon. The report listed Trayvon at 6 foot and 160 pounds, though his family said he was actually 6-foot-3 and weighed at most 150 pounds.
Although some people thought they heard two shots, a review of the confiscated weapon showed only one shot was fired, a police spokesman told The Miami Herald. Much has been made by people critical of the investigation of the fact that Zimmerman was not tested for drugs or alcohol, although Miami police experts say homicide suspects are rarely tested unless it's a DUI case.
The Seminole County State Attorney's Office was called the night of the shooting, as is routine with all killings, but no one from the office went to the scene. It is unclear who gave the order to let Zimmerman go.
Although police publicly said there was no probable cause to arrest Zimmerman, it was later revealed that early on investigators did request an arrest warrant from the State Attorney's Office, which held off for further review. The case has since been reassigned to a special prosecutor in Jacksonville.
The Sanford police and the Seminole State Attorney have referred questions to special prosecutor Angela Corey. Her office said it will not answer any inquiries about the case.
Much of the evidence, such as the autopsy report, which would show results of Trayvon's toxicology test, are not yet public record. Police have declined to release Zimmerman's statements or that of the witnesses. The Fort Lauderdale funeral director who handled the arrangement for Trayvon's family has told reporters that he saw no bruises or blood on the teen's knuckles. Police said Zimmerman provided medical records to support evidence of his injuries.
In an interview two weeks after the incident, Chief Lee said witness statements and physical evidence backed up Zimmerman's version of events. He suggested that based on the timing of the call, he believed that Trayvon went out of his way to approach the person tailing him and mouth off.
"If Trayvon has made it that far, and Zimmerman is getting out of his truck, why doesn't Trayvon keep walking?" Lee said. "He's 70 yards from his house. I think based on the timing of the call and Zimmerman losing sight of him, that he had made it to that 'T' (at the end of the path) and was starting to walk towards his house.
"My wish is that he would have kept walking."
In midst of the public fury over his handling of the incident, Lee stepped down from his post. Reached by The Herald on Friday, he declined to discuss the case.
"We can't discount (Zimmerman's) story, based on — not evidence we put anywhere, not testimony we put in anybody's mouth — but testimony of witnesses who were there, that called, and the physical evidence that's there. You can't refute it," Lee said in the early interview. "The conclusions that are drawn from the basic information is that George Zimmerman shoots a 17-year-old kid with a bag of Skittles and an Arizona iced tea can. And you know, those are facts: George Zimmerman did shoot Trayvon Martin, and Trayvon Martin did have a bag of Skittles and an Arizona iced tea.
"The fact that he had a bag of Skittles and an Arizona iced tea does not have anything to do with the facts of why George Zimmerman thought he needed to use deadly force."

[American Patriot]

Lawmakers target gun laws, neighborhood watch in wake of Florida teen shooting


Published April 02, 2012
| FoxNews.com

• 
  AP
  March 27, 2012: Rep. Frederica Wilson, left, holds hands with Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, on their way to speak at a news conference on Capitol Hill.

Capitol Hill lawmakers are doing more than donning hoodies on the House floor to respond to the death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin. Members of Congress are pushing new legislation calling for everything from gun control to restrictions on neighborhood watch groups.
The legislative steps in the wake of the fatal shooting face an uncertain fate. So far, they come exclusively from Democrats in the Congressional Black Caucus -- not power-wielding Republicans who would no doubt be leery of a hasty legislative response, particularly with an investigation still underway.
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But the sponsors are working on the measures over spring break and plan to push them when lawmakers return later this month. They claim they're trying to prevent another killing like the one that has touched off a raging national debate about race and the justice system.
"I am tired of burying young black boys," Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., said on the House floor. Martin lived in Wilson's district.
Wilson, who organized a rally in Miami Sunday calling for an arrest in the case, is taking a well-traveled path in response to a high-profile case -- she's forming a commission.
A spokesman confirmed that Wilson plans to call for the creation of a commission to study racial disparities among black men and boys in America.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, is meanwhile working on a bill that would require neighborhood watch groups -- like the one for which shooter George Zimmerman was a volunteer -- to register.
"No one's registered," Jackson Lee spokesman Michael McQuerry told FoxNews.com.
He said staff members were meeting Monday to try to work out some of the details, such as what entities neighborhood watch groups should register with, and whether that should happen at the federal, state or local level.
Asked whether the proposal would call for neighborhood watch outfits to meet specific standards, McQuerry said it's still "being worked out."
CBC members last week introduced a separate resolution calling on states to repeal so-called "Stand Your Ground" laws. The law, a version of which was enacted in Florida in 2005, allows for individuals to use deadly force -- even outside their home -- if they feel threatened.
The proposed resolution on Capitol Hill, in addition to calling for repeal, "condemns" anybody who played a role in proposing the Stand Your Ground laws. The language in the measure makes blunt assertions about shooter Zimmerman, including a statement that says his "unfounded assumptions and racial bias led to the use of deadly force."
The case, though, is still being investigated at the local level and by federal Justice officials.
Tim Lynch, director of the Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice, questioned whether it was prudent to push for any concrete legislative changes without knowing all the facts.
"Holding a hearing would be fine," he noted. But he called the proposals on the Hill "premature."
"My impression is that they're rushing into something," Lynch said.
The media frenzy surrounding the shooting has turned up several conflicting accounts. Zimmerman, who has gone into hiding and has not been charged, reportedly has claimed he shot in self-defense. Others claim Zimmerman followed the unarmed teen and should be charged.
As for the renewed debate over Stand Your Ground legislation, backers of the laws have said the legislation doesn't apply in the case of Zimmerman and Martin.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said last month that "stand your ground means stand your ground -- it doesn't mean chase after somebody who's turned their back."
Even Zimmerman's attorney has said the issue at play is self-defense, not Stand Your Ground.
Vice President Biden, in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation," backed efforts to reconsider the laws.
"But that's a decision for the state to make," he added.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012...#ixzz1quoV0FV7

[vector7]

Trayvon Martin: Enhanced Zimmerman video shows possible head wound

5:58 p.m. EST, April 2, 2012|By Jeff Weiner, Orlando Sentinel



In the twisting and turning controversy surrounding the Trayvon Martin shooting, even evidence that appeared to support one side lastweek can tell a different story this week.A newly enhanced version of surveillance video from the night the teenager was shot in Sanford more clearly shows a possible gash or injury on the back of shooter George Zimmerman's head.

ABC News debuted the new video on Monday, in which an apparent wound of some kind can be seen on Zimmerman's head when he turns away from the camera.

The video is an enhanced version of surveillance tape released by the Sanford Police Department last week. It shows Zimmerman being taken into SPD headquarters after the shooting.

Though legal experts downplayed its importance at the time of its release, the videowas taken as evidence that Zimmerman had exaggerated or falsified his self-defense claim.

Zimmerman told investigators in the case that the South Florida teen attacked him, punched him to the ground and slammed his head into the pavement in the moments before he fired the fatal shot.

At ABC News' request, the video was enhanced by Forensic Protection Inc., a California video and audio enhancement firm.

FPI president Douglas Carner said the video released by police had very little so-called "noise" — a term for the grainy, excess pixels that sometimes appear in such video, particularly at night.

Carner told the Sentinel in an interview Monday that the largest issue with the video was the focus. The cameras were focused on set points inside and outside of the police department and not on Zimmerman's head.
Here's how FPI says it conducted the enhancement:

Carner said they used the badges on officers'uniformsto refocus the video. Once a setting was foundat which the badges appeared clearly, they applied it to Zimmerman's head.

Carner compared it to work he's done inbar fight video. In bars, he said,the camera is usually focusedon the register.


"They'll be video of a fight in front of a bar," Carner says. By digitally refocusing, he says, "the cash register goes out of focus and the fight scene slides into clearer view."

Zimmerman was seen by paramedics after the shooting, a police report indicates. An initial police report noted that he was bleeding from the nose and the back of his head.He was interviewed and released without beingarrested. A special prosecutor is currently reviewing the case.

Slur, or no slur?
In a Sentinel report on Sunday, two forensic audio experts analyzed a 911 call made on the night of the shooting and said it was not George Zimmerman crying for help in the moments before the fatal gunshot was fired.

The report challenged a key element in Zimmerman's self-defense claim and sparked an increased focus on the audio evidence in this case.

A call Zimmerman made that night, in which he reported Martin as suspicious, has fueled the controversy in several ways.

"This guy looks like he's up to no good, or he's on drugs or something," Zimmerman told a police dispatcher as he watched Martin minutes before the shooting.

Based on that description — and the fact that he was quickly suspicious of the teen — many have accused Zimmerman of racial profiling, or worse.

But some insist that he went a step further, uttering a racial slur under his breath during the call.

The portion of the call with the potential slur lasts less than a second, but may have an impact on the controversy. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice arelooking into possible civil rights violations.

So what does Zimmerman say?

"I believe I know what I'm hearing, and I believe it is [the slur]," says Ed Primeau, a Michigan-based voice forensics expert who provided the Sentinel an enhanced version of the audio.

The Sentinel is not publishing the slur that some say they hear on the recording. However, the excerpt that Primeau provided can be heard online at OrlandoSentinel.com. "I used some equalization to remove some of the wind noise," Primeau says, producing a clearer sample of the audio. Then he compressed the audio and re-listened to it, taking the events that lead to the moment into account.

However, Maine-based audio engineer and forensic audio enhancement expert Arlo West also analyzed the audio, and he came to a different conclusion.

West declined to reveal last week what he thinks Zimmerman says. However, he said he hears Zimmerman say three words — not two, as those who hear the slur claim.

Both West and Primeau are working members of the American College of Forensic Examiners International in the field of recorded evidence.

In an interview last week, West said a number of issues can come into play when he's tasked to coax words from a recording like the Zimmerman tape.

Environmental factors, such as background noise and other sounds with similar frequencies to human speech can make separating a voice from a recording difficult, he said.

In the 911 call, Zimmerman is breathing heavily, and he says the phrase in question very quietly.

"Let's face it, whispering is whispering," West says. In teasing out difficult-to-isolate speech, "you have to be very careful as an expert that you don't make it worse."

[vector7]

April 2, 2012
Holder's Revenge

By John T. Bennett



Reverse discrimination against whites has just begun, according to Attorney General Eric Holder. Now, the exploitation of Trayvon Martin's death has thrown the cycle of racial resentment and favoritism into overdrive.

There has been much poisonous rhetoric following Trayvon Martin's death, and more is sure to come. It is hard to imagine that any other current topic could result in racial madness exceeding that tragedy. Nonetheless, an exceptionally ominous and instructive remark was recently made by Attorney General Eric Holder -- a remark more outlandish than any heard so far in our national conversation about Martin.

Attorney General Holder recently addressed the question of affirmative action, and for how long it would be required. He answered, stunningly, that reverse discrimination has only just begun: "Affirmative action has been an issue since segregation practices," Holder said. "The question is not when does it end, but when does it begin[.] ... When do people of color truly get the benefits to which they are entitled?"

We see in these remarks the soil out of which rises the bitter fruit of racial resentment. Holder's attitude is best summed up as the elite victim mentality. The belief is one of perpetual entitlement, fueled by bitterness, and given the stamp of official approval by politicians at the highest levels of national office. The Trayvon Martin upheaval is made possible by this carefully cultivated attitude, which exists within all income levels. Whether it's under the guise of injustice, inequality, underrepresentation, or white supremacy, the effect of the attitude is the same: sheer resentment towards the majority and its institutions.

Not all minorities share this attitude, while many non-minorities do. For instance, Professor William B. Eimicke of Columbia University supports a lawsuit against New York City because the city doesn't have enough black firefighters. Eimicke, who is white, says, "The reality is the [fire] department should look like the city it serves."

In other words, the fire department has something wrong with it because there are not enough blacks employed. This is an example of an educated, mainstream leader promoting an arbitrary standard of underrepresentation. Such standards will only fuel more demands for special treatment, and more resentment when the arbitrary standard proves predictably impossible to meet.

Take the example of Eimicke's fellow Columbia faculty. Of the 70 core faculty members in Prof. Eimicke's department, there are 3 blacks.

Seventy-five percent of the faculty is white, and 4% is black, whereas New York City is 45% white and 27% black. Presumably, the principle that a fire department "should look like the city it serves" also applies to the faculty of a tony university. If the faculty "should look like the city it serves," then Columbia needs to expedite the removal of white professors. Will Eimicke enlist in the righteous cause of minority representation and quit? Or is that a sacrifice he prefers to delegate to students or middle- and working-class whites? We all know the answer: elite liberal hypocrisy protects many academics and politicians from the application of their own dogmas.

Columbia's faculty will never match the ethnic makeup of New York City because professors are typically protected from purported racial favoritism, while firemen are fair game.

As the attorney general's remark shows, the cycle of elite liberal hypocrisy and racial favoritism will never end, so long as liberals control racial discourse.

In the meantime, the results will become increasingly absurd. The attorney general's daughters, and each successive generation, will continue to benefit from affirmative action to the same degree as truly disadvantaged minorities. This incongruity grows more and more evident, as Democratic Senator James Webb pointed out in his famous Wall Street Journal editorial piece.

Sen. Webb noted that affirmative action policies have "expanded so far beyond their original purpose that they now favor anyone who does not happen to be white." Racial preferences extend to business startups, prestigious academic admissions, job promotions, and expensive government contracts. Many of these preferences have no relationship to discrimination, oppression, or even socioeconomic class level; they even benefit recent immigrants whose ancestors never faced discrimination in America. Instead, we are actually creating a government-sanctioned nobility -- a favored class of citizens with officially endorsed, race-based hereditary privileges.

Under the sway of of identity politics and racial grievance, even the most privileged members of our society will hold onto petty gripes. In a 2009 commencement address, the First Lady complained about her childhood experience with the University of Chicago. Recalling that she grew up right near the campus, she stated:

[T]hat university never played a meaningful role in my academic development. The institution made no effort to reach out to me -- a bright and promising student in their midst -- and I had no reason to believe there was a place for me there.

That she felt entitled to be "reached out to" in the first place is astonishing. The egomaniacal sense of entitlement contained in her remarks will strike most people as utterly foreign. Yet this way of conceiving of one's own position in society is commonly shared. Amongst the lower class, this attitude takes the form of demands for "Obama money" and other such hilarity.

Perhaps Michelle Obama should have made an effort at some point to understand why young white students, many of whom were not from Chicago, would have been reticent about venturing out into the South Side of Chicago. The reasons are not hard to discover. Immediately after their report on the First Lady's address, CNN aired a segment on violent crime on the South Side.

Chief Ernest Brown of Chicago's Organized Crime Division explained the high rate of youth violence by saying that "their behavior is just inconsistent with civility." With that in mind, many students -- of all races -- may not feel that it is their place to step into another community and attempt to help its youth. In fact, not even Dr. Martin Luther King and his family stayed in urban Chicago for long after starting to work in the city in 1966. Cohen and Taylor write that Coretta Scott King was concerned about violence in the neighborhood, and the Kings spent little time there [1].

Our own attorney general, ostensibly committed to even-handed enforcement of the nation's laws, referred to blacks as "my people."

Strangely, it is socially acceptable for only certain groups to proudly claim ethnic group membership. If similar tribal loyalties were publicly boasted by a white ethnic, that would be seen as sinister. Just imagine the reaction if a President Bush had identified -- on the basis of race -- with a victim of minority-on-white crime by saying, "Channon Christian looks like my daughters."

Identifying with an ethnic group as one's own "people" will lead in most cases to in-group favoritism. Cultural pride is one thing, but proclaiming exclusive ethnic group affiliation while occupying a position of public trust is another. This tendency is too often written off as a harmless cultural tic or a healthy form of therapeutic identity formation. The trouble is that there is a worldview lying beneath the "my people" language.

In his remarks, the attorney general has provided the most explicit statement of ethnic favoritism and racial grievance by a high public official in American history.

And the racket has just begun: "When do people of color truly get the benefits to which they are entitled?" asks Holder. The question is rhetorical, and his constituents know the answer.

In this liberal, racialized conception of society, minority groups are supposedly not getting "benefits to which they are entitled." The danger in this attitude is not just that people are asking for free stuff from the government. The danger is that minority group members are made to believe that society is purposefully withholding benefits from them due to their racial group membership. Hence the resentment and latent animosity lurking at the core of the welfare state, and its ever-expanding legion of dependents.

This menacing fact was once openly recognized by sociologists. Decades ago, Edward C. Banfield wrote that urban social problems will increasingly come to be regarded as the fault of "callousness or neglect by the 'white power structure'" [2].

Just as expected, we now have a cult of anti-white resentment named Critical Race Theory being taught in law schools around the nation.

The constant use of physical metaphors like "white power structure" will guarantee that some people view themselves -- usually falsely -- as being intentionally excluded from that structure. Of course, structures comprise people, so real human beings will inevitably become targets of the resentment originally intended for abstract "power structures."

The victim mentality feeds off racial bitterness, which is constantly politicized and enflamed. We see this in the rhetoric of Congresswoman Frederica Wilson (D-Florida), who said that Trayvon Martin was "hunted down like a dog." The attorney general and president are doing their part to sow the seeds of bitterness, entitlement, and racial favoritism. By acknowledging those seeds, one begins to understand why racial double standards and potential violence are so easily stirred up amidst controversies such as the current one involving Trayvon Martin.

[American Patriot]

Entitled?

Who the fuck says anyone is ENTITLED to anything?????

Asswipe

[American Patriot]

I know you are going to hate me but seen from here NONE of you are Americans.

Out of 'Sitting Bull' and his relatives.



Take the language for example: you dont even have one, you speak English and Spanish but you forget both English and Spanish are European.

Therefore to say : "Black run America" or "White run America" or "Yellow run America"

It has no sense.

That's bullshit. No, I don't hate you. But it is a stupid thing to say and only the Left in America perpetuates this bullshit.

no, Peterle, let me explain this to you.

My WHITE EUROPEAN relatives that "came to America" came here in the 1600s. I can indeed trace my ancestry back pretty far. I know when and where they came over. I also can tell you that many of my ancestors were actually those "American Indians" which you just pointed out.

So I have Irish, Scottish, English and American Indian ancestors. In fact, a lot of "Americans" have some ties to American Indians.

No... Peterle, this nonsense of "True Americans" is continually perpetuated as is the nonsense of "Blacks are oppressed in America" by precisely the same people.

I was born here, in Detroit Michigan. Detroit belonged at various times to the English, to the French, to the Indians, and back to the English, and finally to the Americans. That's my "home town".

I don't go back there much, if I don't have too. I am more a citizen of the United States now, I've lived in a half dozen cities (Detroit Mi, Barbourville Ky, Oklahoma City, Del City, Midwest City OK, I've lived in Dale City and Woodbridge Va, Washington DC proper, Colorado Springs). I've lived in Michigan, Kentucky, Virgina, DC, Colorado - and I've visited roughly (I don't know now) at least 300 cities in this country.

No, Peterle, I am a REAL AMERICAN.

You have an ill perceived view of what America really is and I'm sincerely afraid that you, like all the "hyphenated" people out there really don't truly understand what "American" is.

[American Patriot]

You say "Hispanic" to say man from South America,

what a confusion!?

Hispanic is man from Spain. (Not from Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela...)

No, untrue.

The book definition of Hispanic is "Spanish Speaking" from all those places. This is based on the US Census here. I don't care what YOU think it is, I'm going by our own US Census. Each time there has been a census (every ten years since the beginning of the country) there have been definitions assigned to help determine the lineage of people.

This term is no longer directly related, at least not here in the US, to those from Spain alone. Rather any cultural connection.

Unfortunately, while I AGREE with you that it SHOULD be ONLY related to someone from the Iberian Peninsula, it isn't and it's a cultural thing. Just like this nonsense about "African-American".

Sorry. You are either American.. or you are African. You are not both. You are either Korean, or you are American. You are not both. You, are Italian... because you live in Italy. You are not something you aren't.

I am "American". Just like Ryan, Mal, Luke, Backstop, and everyone else that was born and lives here.

[American Patriot]

Ok

One can say: My grandgrandgrand father was Indian.

0.001 % native American.

Might be a tad bit more than .001%, but there's a way to work that out through genealogy. Look it up if you're interested

But, the point is, you don't claim "American Indian" since it was WAY back there. I don't "claim" it either because I'm not CULTURALLY connected to my families previous tribes (Cherokee and Blackfoot indians). Both of my Great Grandmothers were right off of reservations. One from Oklahoma and one that was in Ky for a time (and later moved somewhere, but she remained in KY).

Point being, I'm simply not going to make a claim to that any more than I am being "Irish" (I'm significantly more Irish and Scottish than anything else and can actually trace my Scottish background all the way to the 1400s, Irish to the 1600s) I can ONLY trace my "Indian ancestry" to my Great-Grandmothers (one on each side)....

So - you and I don't CLAIM to be "Indian" (and I wouldn't). I DO claim a LOT of Irish and Scottish Blood (proven sometimes by my temper I suppose) and my body type, ability to fight, my likes and dislikes....

I suppose people genetically are similar to various races, that's what makes my Son-in-Law "hispanic" in that respect. His Grandfather was originally from Mexico. I think his grandma was too. He speaks fluent spanish, looks "Mexican" and so do his children. My daughter is a blonde woman. Her kids are all dark skinned like Dad, except one who is dark skinned and BLOND and looks Mexican hahaha.

[American Patriot]

People outside USA do not read US Census book.

In some way...one from Mexico was from Spain if he is white and Spanish speaker.

________________________

If US census is based on languages then

You speak English > you are British

You speak Spanish > you are Hispanic

________________________

What a REAL AMERICAN should speak???

That's my Point....

English.

American English, not British English or bastardized ghetto brotha speek.

[American Patriot]

And if you wish to get technical about it...

Americans actually SPEAK British English as it USED TO BE SPOKEN... the Brits are the ones who are fucked up (Not me saying that, not opinion, several language experts have stated this in the past....)

[American Patriot]

So you're a "German-Italian" in the language of "America" then, right?

LOL

My whole point is that:

1) Zimmerman has a German name (even you caught this).
2) His MOTHER is from Peru (Spanish settled there, hence from Spain)
3) Father is Jewish (German Jew, named Zimmerman) who technically adopted George.
4) We don't know who George Zimmerman's biological father is - but that isn't relevant because adopted people rarely know who was their Dad (or Mom).
5) George is "Not White" and "Not Caucasian". Rather he considered as "Hispanic" in America.

Therefore, those who are calling him a "White Hispanic" are making shit up. They are lying. They are attempting to connect him to "White People" who "hate blacks". This is a pervasive and hateful thing to do, since most "White People" don't actually HATE anyone.

The truth is this is a story being used by the LEFT in America and Blacks to make this whole thing into a "race related HATE crime" when in fact according to the facts we've heard so far, this is FAR from the case.

I guess it comes down to this...

1) The man (Zimmerman) is being "Tried in a court of Public Opinion" which is NOT what should happen.
2) The LEFT is demanding he be arrested and I ask "For What?" because he killed someone while DEFENDING himself? Once the police determined what happened they let Zimmerman go (he WAS actually arrested, by the way, but the media keeps failing to MENTION this little tid bit).
4) Trayvon Martin might have actually ONLY being going to the store for Skittles and iced tea - but was ACTING suspicious. Why?
5) Zimmerman followed him, then LOST him and turned around to head back to his car, THEN was attacked. That makes Martin the aggressor at that point, followed or not. If (as was stated by witnesses) that Martin Punched Zimmerman first, that exacerbates the whole situation - and then knocking Zimmerman to the ground and beating his head into the concrete makes him guilty of assault with intent to do bodily harm --- and in that case, ANY ONE OF US would have SHOT him.

I would have. My wife would have. Ryan would have. You in all likelihood would have shot him.

So - all this big bullshit public battle about "Arrest him!" is nothing more than an attempt by the left to further insert itself into the American mentality to create a bigger, deeper rift between blacks and whites.

Zimmerman ISN'T EVEN a WHITE GUY!

(Which is the whole logical point here)

[American Patriot]

Legally both are citizens with rights and duties, right.

For the law there is no difference between Pedro and Zimmerman.

In the peoples mind it is not like in the law.

Martin saw 'Spanish-Pedro' not 'German-Zimmerman'.

In truth, if you LOOK at him yourself you can see the "Spanish features" in his face. People who claim you can't (or shouldn't) see such things here in America are the real racists.

But, this is beside the point. I didn't KNOW his name when I first saw his pictures. I didn't know Martin's name when I saw HIS pictures.

And what the Media did was to show images of Martin as a 13 or 14 year old child. He wasn't a child any more, he was 17, BIG and POWERFUL.

The media tried to make it sound as if Zimmerman stalked and killed a little kid.

That ain't what happened.

[American Patriot]

Truth is, Peterle if someone were following me as I was walking home from work, store or whatever, like that, I'd have been nervous too. However, having a cell phone in my hand, I'd likely have called the police rather than confront the guy.

I don't want to have to shoot someone, or fight them, or get robbed. I will do what I MUST to survive - even at the cost of the other guy's life though.

But, if the damned cops are there for a reason then why aren't they doing their job?