Re: Florida vs. Zimmerman - Q.E.D????????
what I would like to know ... why has this case been released to - or by - the media in drips and drops? within a week after the police and prosecutors knew the basic facts. they had photos, forensics, witnesses, etc.
when I first heard of this case it went like this - black kid shot in the back by white man in upscale gated community. then pictures of the cute little 12 old. then it wasn't upscale anymore. then the white guy is hispanic. the kid isn't a kid anymore. there was a cellphone call. or not. there were witnesses. or not.
my point is - why has this been allowed to turn into a media circus by the painfully slow release of information?
Early on, there was a co-ordinated PR effort led by the lawyers and media advisors for the parents. Most of that early reporting reflected the family spin. Such as the initial release of the surveillance video at the police station (which didn't appear to show any injuries to Zimmerman) and the subsequent "oops, now we have an "enhanced" verson that clearly shows something out of the ordinary on the back of his head." There are numerous other examples.
Think back to the repeated (and continuing) use of what appear to be 7th grade pictures of Martin. We know there are other photos. But for weeks all we saw was this smiling little boy. At the time of his death, Martin was over 6 feet tall and weighed in the neighorhood of 150-160 pounds. No longer a little boy. Yet the constant use of those photos helped reinforce the narrative that "this innocent black child, who was only getting some "Skillets" was gunned down by a racist "white Hispanic" who profiled him, followed him, and shot him." Despite the obvious efforts to sell this narrative, and my doubts that it's true, it's possible. Presumably the trial will help us make up our minds.
Similarly, that booking photo of Zimmerman from several years ago, made him look very bad. We were informed (repeatedly) that Zimmerman vastly outweighed Martin (thus casting doubt on his claim that Martin attacked him-- especially if he was that little boy). That turns out not to be true, of course, but who noticed? NBC and other networks chipped in too, with phony stories and maliciously edited audio.
The repeated media use of the phrase "gated community" was deliberate, and designed to advance the anti-Zimmerman narrative. "Gated community" conjurs up wealth, exclusivity and whiteness. Except none of that is true here. They evidently have gates, but the ratio of whites to minorities is around 50/50 and lots of folks are renting and do not own their apartments. So the notion that the rich, white residents of that property turned a racist gun toting monster loose to shoot an N-word on spec, is simply not true.
