Doesn’t the saga of George Zimmerman just get curiouser and curiouser?
Zimmerman’s the guy who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26 of this year. The incident happened in a Sanford, Fla., gated community.
Martin was black; Zimmerman was initially identified in news reports as white, but his dad and others were quick to point out that George Zimmerman is Hispanic, not white.
A quick memo to Robert Zimmerman Sr., George Zimmerman’s father, and others engaged in this attempted hoodwinking: I’ve been to Cuba. I know there are white Hispanics, OK?
But back to George, the hapless side of pork who now finds himself charged with second-degree murder. His story — and he’s sticking to it — is that Martin attacked him in the gated community, giving him a beating so horrific that Zimmerman had no choice but to use deadly force against the youth.
Sanford police bought Zimmerman’s explanation, but Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, the youth’s parents, didn’t. They hired a lawyer, who then found someone who publicized the story and took it national.
And national it went. Now hundreds of people across the land are demanding “justice for Trayvon,” many of them ignoring injustices right under their noses in their own towns.
It wasn’t until mid-April that Florida prosecutor Angela Corey charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder. He was released on $150,000 bail after he and his wife assured a judge that their funds were limited.
Now Zimmerman is BACK in jail, sent there by a judge who accused him of lying about his finances. And here’s the latest development:
Shellie Zimmerman, George Zimmerman’s wife, is now in jail, charged with perjury. The judge says she lied about the couple’s finances too.
George Zimmerman, in published news reports, says he now fears for his wife’s safety. Her arrest mug shot was included in the news reports.
Shortly after the initial incident, George Zimmerman went into hiding. He claims he feared for his life and that he’s received death threats for killing Martin. Zimmerman remained in hiding until he surrendered to authorities after he was charged with second-degree murder.
Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, has hammered away at the theme of his client’s safety. Zimmerman made himself pretty darn scarce after he was bailed out, and will probably make himself pretty darn scarce if he makes bail again.
But O’Mara has another reason he doesn’t want his client available, one that has nothing to do with Zimmerman’s safety. Surely O’Mara realizes by now that George Zimmerman’s greatest liability is George Zimmerman’s mouth.
Police tapes from the day of the shooting reveal Zimmerman saying things like, “These bleepholes always get away,” “these bleeping punks,” and that Zimmerman believed Martin was “up to no good.”
Zimmerman’s police tape comments reveal a guy with a certain mind-set, one who concluded, just by looking at Martin, that the teen was “up to no good” and possibly “on drugs.”
Martin, according to Zimmerman, was also a “bleephole” that always got away. Zimmerman, we can conclude, was determined that Martin wouldn’t get away.
The problem is Martin had committed no crime to get away from. Zimmerman’s most revealing comment, the one that tells us most about his mind-set, came at his bail hearing.
He didn’t know, Zimmerman told Martin’s parents, whether or not Martin was armed.
Zimmerman admitted to police that at one point he went into some kind of Dirty Harry routine, left his vehicle and followed Martin on foot. Now just how crazy do you have to be to follow, on foot, someone who you’re not sure is armed?
It looks like the prosecution’s greatest hope of convicting George Zimmerman will be George Zimmerman’s mouth.
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
