Reader Daniel R. alerted us to this one. It’s in an opinion piece on ESPN’s Grantland. The story, by Wesley Morris, is about a photograph of the Miami Heat NBA team, all dressed in hoodies to identify with Trayvon Martin.
Several paragraphs down, Morris writes:
He [Martin] triggered the suspicion of the gunman, George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator who, in defiance of police orders, followed Martin for several blocks and shot him.
This version of events is common, but is also probably wrong: Here’s the transcript of the 9-11 call.
Zimmerman: We’ve had some break-ins in my neighborhood and there’s a real suspicious guy. It’s Retreat View Circle. The best address I can give you is 111 Retreat View Circle. 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.
911 dispatcher: OK, is he White, Black, or Hispanic?
Zimmerman: He looks black.
This is the part that NBC deceptively edited, and then apologized for.
911 dispatcher: Did you see what he was wearing?
Zimmerman: Yeah, a dark hoodie like a gray hoodie. He wore jeans or sweat pants and white tennis shoes. He’s here now … he’s just staring.
911 dispatcher: He’s just walking around the area, the houses? OK.
Zimmerman: Now he’s staring at me.
911 dispatcher: OK, you said that’s 1111 Retreat View or 111?
Zimmerman: That’s the clubhouse.
911 dispatcher: He’s near the clubhouse now?
Zimmerman: Yeah, now he’s coming toward me. He’s got his hands in his waist band. And he’s a black male.
So we have on a dark and rainy night, the as of yet unidentified male who has been walking around in a hoodie and staring at houses is now staring at Zimmerman and has his hands in his waistband. If you’re George Zimmerman, how do you interpret this? It was not unreasonable to interpret Martin as a threat, and possibly armed.
Click for pic
Wesley Morris is black. I’m shocked.
Et tu, ESPN?
Bryan, you wrote: “The evidence suggests that Zimmerman did not, as ESPN’s Morris writes, follow Martin for several blocks in defiance of police orders and then shoot him.” I just want to point out that the police order was ambiguous. [I was corrected on this point by a commenter here on PJM.] The dispatcher did not tell Zimmerman to stop, he just said, “We don’t need you to do that.” It would seem that Zimmerman had the option of stopping or not, and whether he did or did not, he would not have been in definace of a police order. Clearly, Zimmerman interpreted the dispatcher’s words to mean, he no longer had to pursue Martin, and so he stopped.
Also, I will once again point out, that if Martin and Zimmerman became separated and out of visual contact of each other, then Martin could have simply stayed out of Zimmerman’s sight and he would be alive today. Instead, he chose to return to where Zimmerman was, confront him and knock him down. IMHO that makes Martin the aggressor.
It should also be pointed out that this:
Trayvon Martin was not up to no good, but happened to be a bit lost in an area where there had previously been break-ins.
While being a common, reasonable and even likely assumption is only that. We don’t and will likely never know if it’s true. Based on the report that one of Martin’s school suspensions involved the seizure of likely stolen woman’s jewelry and a large screwdriver characterized as a “burger’s tool” we could also assume he was casing the units.
We also don’t know what specifically caught Zimmerman’s attention; maybe Martin’s actions were in retrospect consistent with him trying to figure out how get back or maybe they were more. Zimmerman might have explained that when interrogated by the police and we might learn of it if and when that’s released.
Or, you can assume Martin was returning to his fathers house from the store as he was. You morons just don’t get it. Zimmerman had no authority to chase anyone down. That’s the issue. See something suspious? Call the police and then leave it alone.
Well, coming from one of the “morons” so aptly named by “Anonymous”, after reading the transcript from the 911 call, apparently Zimmerman didn’t pursue Trayvon after all and he probably listened to the instructions and was waiting for the police to arrive when Trayvon confronted him.
The truth needs to come out but the inept attempt to protray Trayvon as an innocent little boy who was drinking tea and eating Skittles is just as egregious as protraying Zimmerman as a racist, wannabe, killer of innocent young black men.
I think “moron” is more aptly applied to cowards who post under the pseudonym, “Anonymous”.
The Left has invaded all major media. Withdraw as much support as you can possibly live without. There are plenty of alternatives and there will be more if you don’t support it.
Note also that Tray probably looked much more like the weed-addled gangsta wannabe on his Youtube page than any of the angelic or confident football photos. Being high is bad for your judgment, especially when walking around high in a neighborhood full of middle-class kids who neither habitually get high nor practice slow ghetto-walking.
As if I needed another reason not to watch the NBA…
Right on, right on.
Why is ESPN getting into politics? They’re supposed to be broadcasting sports. What’s gotten into them? Now I’m not interested in watching them at all. Oh, when they write about Tim Tebow why is it necessary to always refer to him as “controversial” or similar language? He’s not controversial but ESPN is.
Why is Jason Whitlock, a writer at Fox Sports, always coming from a racial viewpoint? Why do white sports writers show no interest in how many points a white guy scored? We are talking about two entirely different cultures.
Generally speaking, black Americans are obsessed with race, white Americans don’t really care.
Among white liberals is the idea that if a group is angry enough about something, then where there’s smoke, there’s fire. It doesn’t matter how lunatic it is, it’s addressed.
Then there is the opposite of what’s called the ‘bleeding heart liberal,’ the pragmatic rationalist. The rationalist says, ‘Hey, wait a minute here. I see you’re angry. I also see you have no reason to be angry because what you’re basing it on simply isn’t true.’
Add these 3 things together and you have the problem and the friction. Black Americans see racism and a lynching tree everywhere they look, white liberals say, ‘I with you,’ white conservatives say this is nonsense. In the case of Zimmerman, it IS nonsense.
The Left has some weird view of American history and contemporary life that is simply false. Were one to present both the liberal and the conservative view on this issue in an arena using courtroom rules of evidence, the liberals would be taken to the cleaners. They’d lose on day one, by saying white = racist. Everything would go downhill from there. Statistics from history and today would doom them. This moron who wrote this story lives in an insulated world where black people are unlucky rocket scientists eternally held down and gnawed at by ‘the man.’ There is no such thing as stupidity or failure in his world – one doesn’t need such considerations when you have ‘the man.’
We must never forget that ESPN is responsible for the devil’s spawn, Keith Olbermann. We must never forget nor forgive this liberal bastion of PC operating under the guise of a sports oriented organization is so far to the left, it is surprising that they allow anyone right handed to work there. If Tim Tebow was a satan worshiper, they would be calling him the greatest quarterback to ever come from the collegiate ranks.
I hate to say this but I have a LONG list of left wing assholes in Hollywood that I will not support at the box office with my money. Now it looks like I will have to add a long list of athletic teams to that list. These players have to understand they are telling us that the law and fairness do not matter to them and our opinion is of no importance to them either. Where do the Blacks in America think they are going with this? Do they not understand that Martin is dead because he could not just let it go? He had to be in your face with Zimmerman and it is obvious from the the fact that he STARED at Zimmerman to intimidate him. Does this sound familiar? This is the young tough black method used by most black teens to get “Respect” from some other staring punk.
Don’t think it’s a totally Black thing. “What you looking at?” bully mentality exists in a lot of poor “gangster” neighborhoods. And kids that mimic “gangsters” do the same thing. Wonder how many people have been killed because they looked at someone.
They can search the tapes for possible racial slurs but not notice how the noise level (from following? / running?) clears up immediately after Zimmerman says: ” George. He ran.”
I read that when it came out last week I think. I used to enjoy Grantland but it’s just become another haven for lefty think. I can’t even enjoy mindless sports or pop culture anymore without out some lib throwing his world view into an article.
I think ABC, NBC and CNN are starting to get worried about being sued by Zimmerman. I bet he gets a big settlement just like Richard Jewell. At least the masses online can now see how the main stream media lies, distorts and frames a story to suit their liberal agenda instead of telling the whole truth. Very shameful reporting.
When George W. Bush told American to hate those darky Ay-rabs and Mooooslims, he started white America on a path that led to the death of Trayvon Martin and countless other black children who are hunted down and shot by NRA members that are just itching to cull the entire African-American community.
Excellent parody, but a bit too far. Even most lefties aren’t that stupid.
Would it were true. A large number of them certainly are that dumb.
I think you mean “shot by democrats that are just itching to cull the entire African-American community.” ABC, NBC, and CBS have not stated that Zimmerman is an NRA member, yet… But it has been established that he is a registered democrat.
It wasn’t just the media, it was this president of ours as well. Sharpton and Jesse leading the crowd stirring that pot of hatred and claiming lack of justice.
The facts as they come out later, even fail to turn the tide of righteously
felt indignation. Now they want to change a firearm law.If you can use the anger to achieve something else,Keep working that anger. The black crowds integrity and believability levels are sinking fast. All for Obamma?
Posted here is the very best timeline based on 911 call times and phone records I’ve yet seen. The author has also posted maps of the scene with relevant distances noted.
“The missing 2:30 and DeeDee’s Testimony”, http://www.wagist.com/2012/dan-linehan/the-missing-230-and-deedees-testimony
It was only about 70 yards from the point of fatal encounter to the house where Trayvon was staying. On the other hand, there was 2.5 minutes between George Zimmerman’s 911 call and the 911 calls of the fight with shot fired. This means there was more than enough time for Trayvon to have gotten home. There is only one explanation for the events that fit the timeline and distances involved, and that is that Trayvon, rather than just going home, went back with the express purpose of confronting G.Z..
wildiris – I’ve been making the same point about Martin’s being able to get to his father’s girlfriend’s house and out of harm’s way, but somebody suggested to me that Martin wasn’t able to do that because he couldn’t tell which townhouse that was because the townhouses all looked the same, espcially in the dark. In that case, my alternative scenario is that because Martin and Zimmerman were out of each other’s sight, that Martin could have simply hidden from Zimmerman. Any thoughts on this? Thanks.
Jack. During those 2.5 minutes, Trayvon was on his cell-phone with his girlfriend. If he were lost, you would think that he would have expressed that fact to her. But there is no testimony from her to that effect.
If you look at the map provided, this whole thing took place in the space of one block of townhouses. I don’t see how Trayvon could have gotten lost in that small of an area, unless of course, he was high on something at the time. I will be curious to see the toxicology report for him, if and when it might be released.
It’s a neat attempt–and it’s wrong. It postulates two ‘confrontations’ based on an erroneous reading of the facts.
Deedee called Trayvon twice–she says so in the article and the phone records show it–once at 7:04 and a second time, when he didn’t answer, at 7:12. Those are the two incoming calls that show up.
The fact that there were two calls is important.
Therefore, Trayvon was talking with Deedee while Zimmerman was watching Trayvon, she says she was talking to Trayvon and told him to run–and we hear, from Zimmerman, who’s talking to the dispatcher, that he has run.
And then she lies.
She says that she heard Zimmerman confront Trayvon. But for that to have happened, Zimmerman would have had to confron Trayvone while he was on the line with the dispatcher–and we know that didn’t happen. So she’s lying.
At some point Trayvon hangs up–she says the phone may have been knocked from his hands–the hangup, according to her, is part of the confrontation–but we already know that this is a lie. Either way, there is a point at which Trayvon is not on the phone that we do not have a timestamp for. Zimmerman’s call ends at 7:13. Somewhere after this we have the only confrontation between Martin and Zimmerman.
Wagist also accepts Trayvon’s father’s ‘recollection’ of what Detective Serino said as valid. But it is not–it is contradicted by the recorded call.
I’m starting to believe that Trayvon’s ‘suspicious behavior’ occured when he was talking to Deedee–possibly he was gesturing and moving his head oddly.
“..halted when the dispatcher told him to.”
Actually, the dispatcher did NOT ‘tell’ him to halt. Even this article, and every other article I’ve seen (even those that aren’t hit pieces against Zimmerman), still gets it wrong on this point.
What the dispatcher actually said was “OK. We don’t need you to do that.” Technically, that is not an order to do, or not do, anything. It’s merely a statement by the dispatcher that ‘suggests’ that he probably does not want Zimmerman to follow the suspect.
You can’t kinda sorta suggest something and then act like it was ‘A DIRECT ORDER FROM SOMEONE THAT YOU MUST OBEY!’.
Grantland has, sadly, become basically ESPN’s version of deadspin.com — The place for people to go if they obsessively have to write (or read) about sports mixed with politics, and where the cynical snark is always coming from the left (thebiglead.com tends to be less overtly liberal in its cynical snark, while Grantland’s main drawing card, Bill Simmons, still tends to avoid the I-see-political-angles-in-everything attitude of some of the sites other writers. If you get irked at Simmons, it’s mainly due to his Celtics/Sawx/Patriots/Bruins obsession as The New England Sports Guy).
‘Zimmerman says that intruders in the neighborhood “always get away,”’
I think the term he used was “assholes”.
Now, who’s selectively “editing”?
Um, the surviving murderer doesn’t get to decide what is evidence and what is not. Since he saw to it he would be the only witness, he doesn’t get to tell us what happened. That is why the police should be involved.
I guess blindly defending a killer is how low your cult has sunk. Maybe it will get so small and insignificant, we could drown it in a bathtub. The world – and the future of your children – would be better off.
I’ve called for the police to investigate, and apparently they did and are. YOUR side is the side that keeps discounting new information as it comes up. YOUR side has politicized this beyond all reason. YOUR president has made hash out of it for political gain.
But hey, at least you didn’t trot out the “All this because a black man was elected president” line.
Liar.
Have you read any of this? There were witnesses to the 2d (fatal) interaction. How in the world is anyone to take anything you say seriously? If you have to work something off, go kick the dog or the door, random abuse is so common it’s hard to even hear, anymore.
It is very sad that NO_LIMIT_N*GGA was killed after beating on the neighborhood watch guy (a guy who frequently dialed 911 for many incidences prior to the Martin case).
Also, since OBAMA is Martin’s self-appointed post-mortem father by decree, does that we can call Obama a NO_LIMIT_N*GGA by proxy? Actually, by Obama’s actions, I’m fairly certain he already does believe he is a NO_LIMIT_N*GGA!
Your article is extremely fair to both sides, unlike most media reporting. I think your assessment that this was an incident where initially both guys were innocent, and then circumstances let it get out of hand, with martin beating zimmerman, and zimmerman using his gun to defend himself, is also a fair assessment of the facts. You are also right to dispell the racial slur story, and also point out that the 911 transcript appears to indicate that after the 911 operator told zimmer to stop following, zimmerman did indeed stop, unlike previous reports that said he ignored the 911 request.
Those documented facts you report, no racial slur, zimmerman stopping pursuit after being asked by 911, martin on top beating zimmerman, and only then zimmerman using his gun, would strongly support acquital on self defense. But you also rightly report the only remaining unknown, who actually started the fight. If zimmerman did have a role in starting the fight, then he might be in jeapordy for manslaughter. There is clearly no case at all for anything beyond manslaughter. Martin was definitely not “purposely gunned down like a mad dog by a racist” as too many dem race baiters have said. But zimmerman denies starting the fight, and I have seen no evidence to contradict him. So right now, it looks open and shut for self defense, and that perhaps the prosecutor did indeed make the right decision when he initially decided not to arrest zimmerman.
One other thing I would like to know. Zimmerman said he thought martin might be on drugs. Should martins body be tested for drugs to see if he actually was? If martin was not, that would still not definitely implicate zimmerman, since he had the right to wrongly think martin was on drugs. But if zimmerman was right in thinking martin was on drugs, that would be yet more evidence for zimmermans innocence.
Someone should be building a Hall of Shame, on a reporter-by-reporter and outlet-by-outlet basis, of journolistic malefactors inflaming this story. Something like Zombie’s list of Occupy stories. Screen shots, captures, all of it.
Then, if George Zimmerman lawyers up — or if we get a 20th anniversary rerun of the Los Angeles riots — the list and evidence is available for all those enterprising lawyers to use.
It’s interesting to note that the cover photo in People magazine and many other newspapers shows Trayvon at age 11 or 12, looking like an angelic kid. Yet, at the time of the incident he was 17, 6’1″ and dressed like a thug. Why doesn’t the left wing, america hating, self loathing, liberal media show George Zimmerman when he was a pre-teenager so as to make him look innocent?
Twisted Tributes to Trayvon
Hysterical black congresswomen haven’t been heard from in a few days after venting their rage at the man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida but agitators such as Rev. Jesse Jackson, the New Black Panther Party, and Rev. Al Sharpton haven’t skipped a beat in their vitriolic abuse of George Zimmerman.
Jackson absurdly said Wednesday morning that, ”If a white kills a black we revolt, if a black kills a white it’s jail time, we kill each other it’s Miller time. It’s as if somebody has the right to kill us,” the NBPP reiterated its million dollar bounty on Zimmerman’s head, and Sharpton has been invited to the White House for Easter.
As the city of Sanford nervously awaits the ruling by the special prosecutor assigned to investigate the shooting, Angela Corey, it’s preparing for the worst.
After all the baseless, inflammatory rhetoric that has been spewed, Sanford officials are expecting social upheavals that could rival the aftermath of the Rodney King riots of twenty years ago.
Sanford’s emergency management team has met frequently with Attorney General Holder’s Department of Justice, extra police and fire department officers are on standby, and neighboring towns have been asked to be at the ready.
Considering the extremist and violent threats already made in the matter, Florida’s National Guard could be called out should the special prosecutor find that Zimmerman was justified in shooting Martin and that his jailing would be a miscarriage of justice.
Can’t we all just get along, at least until the investigation is complete and justice served?
Apparently not, based on recent events in Florida and elsewhere.
. To show their solidarity with Trayvon, dozens of students from North Miami Beach Senior High School followed a protest demonstration at the school a week ago by marching through the streets of North Miami and ransacking a Walgreens to the tune of $1100.
. Just east of Sanford, two black men, Julius Ricardo Bender and Yahaziel Isaac Israel, have been charged with attempted first-degree murder, . . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=20824.)
The left and the MSM simply don’t give a damn about truth anymore. They will, eventually, cause the next American civil war. They are a virus.
I’m glad that you picked up Shephard Smith. He is often mis-construed as presenting straight news as opposed to the opinionated Hannity and O’Reilly. But, he does not! He throws in his opinions on virtuallly every news item. Many of his opinions would be more usual on MSNBC,as opposed to those of Hannity,and O’Reilly. Mostly, he shows a lack of knowledge and any deep understanding of the issues.
George Zimmerman was jumped by an ignorant teenager out to prove himself. All he proved is that is one way to be killed. People are arming themselves because they are afraid of thugs. And thugs come in all colors.
Since the community is not big enough to follow Martin for several blocks and shoot him, any halfway good lawyer can easily make millions for Zimmerman for malicious slander!
If you don’t believe the transcript in this article, you can hear the unedited 911 recordings (and see much more unedited to sensationalize) documentation at the City of Sanford web site http://www.sanfordfl.gov/index.html
I do wish that we could break ourselves of using the word “pursue”. The dispatcher asked if he was “following” him, not if he was pursuing him. Pursue is an agressive word. There is nothing to indicate that it was Zimmerman’s intention to “pursue”, confront, or capture which would have been the intended outcome of engaging in a “pursuit”. There is an indication that he initially did want to keep him the young man in sight to be able to direct the police to him, which would best be described as “follow”, not “pursue”. Words do mean specific things.
I believe that Trayvon and Zimmerman are both guilty of racial & sexual profiling!
Trayvon, according to his girl friend, was clearly afraid of the white man following him in a truck. Unfortunately, Trayvon had NOT been informed by the news media or black leaders that whites are very seldom a threat to young black men, in fact 93% of the young black men murdered are murdered by young black men.
Zimmerman was concerned that that Trayvon was just one more young black man, in a never ending series of young black men, who committed crimes against the small community that Zimmerman had been helping to protect during the previous 11 years. There had been 9 houses robbed during the previous 15 months.
Unfortunately, Trayvon did not know that Zimmerman was helping to protect the home Trayvon was visiting and Zimmerman didn’t know that Trayvon was a guest at a home in the community. What could have been done to avoid this tragedy?
If there had been a glow in the dark bumper sticker on Zimmerman’s car that identified Zimmerman as a member of a volunteer security guard for the gated community, would that have helped? Would it have helped if Trayvon’s father had put a glow in the dark “guest” pass on Trayvon’s hoodie?
Perhaps what would have helped the most would have been the sort of conversation that might have occurred if Trayvon and Zimmerman had both been women. Just as most men won’t ask for directions, probably most men wouldn’t be able to talk as MS Trayvon and MS Zimmerman do in the following script, so I recommend that security guards and guests in gated communities have large identification cards or bumper stickers:
MS Zimmerman: (after watching MS Trayvon wandering thru the gated community, yells). “Hi, I’m a volunteer security person for this community, can I help you?”
MS Trayvon: “YES! I can’t find my Dad’s girl friends home! Do you know MS___________?”
MS Zimmerman: “I think so. Is she that tall, beautiful, black woman with shoulder length hair?”
MS Trayvon: “Yes, do you know which condo belongs to her?”
MS Zimmerman: “Yes, of course, this is a small community. Would you like me to drive you to her place or just drive slowly to her place and you follow me. I’m sure your parents have warned you about getting into cars with strangers. It isn’t very far and I’ll drive slowly.”
MS Trayvon: ” You are right. I’ll walk. Thank you so much!”
MS Zimmerman: “I’ll wait until you are safely inside. Blick the lights to signal that everything is OK!”
Perhaps neighborhood security people could practice such conversations. Although in the hills around Oakland, CA or many other places in the USA it might not be safe to have such a conversation unless you were in a locked car at a distance from someone walking thru the community.
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