Florida special prosecutor Angela Corey plans to announce as early as Wednesday afternoon that she is charging neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, according to a law enforcement official close to the investigation.
It was not immediately clear what charge Zimmerman will face.
No grand jury investigation in Trayvon Martin shooting
The special prosecutor in the investigation of the shooting death of unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin has ruled out using a grand jury to investigate the case, meaning her office alone will decide whether to charge shooter George Zimmerman.
The case has captured national attention, largely because of race. Martin was black and Zimmerman, who has not been charged, is white and Hispanic. The state attorney who was previously investigating the shooting, Norm Wolfinger, had said the case would go to a grand jury on April 10, but Wolfinger removed himself from the case on March 22 and was replaced by Angela Corey.
“State Attorney Angela Corey has decided not to use a grand jury in the Trayvon Martin shooting death investigation,” her office said in a statement.
The grand jury was supposed to convene tomorrow. According to ThinkProgress: “NOTE: Martin family attorneys have been OPPOSED to using a grand jury. It’s a secretive process. They want prosecutor to charge directly.”
Let me get this straight. Millions of outraged Americans are just credulous amateurs fooled by a cynical left wing ploy to stir up racial division? A man murders a kid. The police botch the investigation. Race appears to play a crucial role in both outcomes. Then a bunch of people find out about it and are outraged. And we’re the ones stirring up racial discord? This is the absurdity that the modern ideology of colorblindness will bring you to. Colorblindness has nothing to do with eradicating racism. It is about denying its existence and power. And so when faced with actual racism in such stark form, the colorblindness zealots must cast blame on those drawing attention to the racism. There is a significant segment of white opinion that continues to find efforts to combat racism more objectionable than the racism itself.
I’m just gonna let that last line sink in: “There is a significant segment of white opinion that continues to find efforts to combat racism more objectionable than the racism itself.” (via ethiopienne)
Over the last 48 hours, there has been a sustained effort to smear Trayvon Martin, the 17-year old African-American who was shot dead by George Zimmerman a month ago. Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, said, “They killed my son, now they’re trying to kill his reputation.”
Thus far these attacks have fallen into two categories: false and irrelevant. Much of this leaked information seems intended to play into stereotypes about young African-American males. Here’s what everyone should know:
1. Prominent conservative websites published fake photos of Martin. Twitchy, a new website run by prominent conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, promoted a photo — purportedly from Martin’s Facebook page — that shows Martin in saggy pants and flipping the bird. The photo, which spread quickly on conservative websites and Twitter, is intended to paint Martin as a thug. As Twitchy later acknowledged, it is not a photo of Trayvon Martin. [Examiner]
2. The Sanford Police selectively leaked irrelevant, negative information about Martin. The authorities told the Orlando Sentinel this morning that Trayvon was suspended from school for ten days “after being found with an empty marijuana baggie.” There is no evidence that Martin was under the influence of drugs at the time of his death, nor would prior possession of marijuana be a reason for killing him. It’s unclear what the relevance of the leak was, other than to smear Martin. [Orlando Sentinel]
3. On Fox News, Geraldo said that Martin was dressed “like a wannabe gangster.” Bill O’Reilly agreed with him. The sole evidence is that Martin was wearing a hoodie. Geraldo added that “everyone that ever stuck up a convenience store” was wearing a hoodie. [ThinkProgress; The Blaze]
4. Without any evidence, prominent right-wing bloggers suggested that Martin was a drug dealer. Right-wing blogger Dan Riehl advances the theory, also advanced in a widely linked peice on a site called Wagist. There does not appear to be any evidence to support this claim whatsoever. [Riehl World View]
5. Without any evidence, a right-wing columnist alleged that Martin assaulted a bus driver. Unlike Zimmerman, Trayvon has no documented history of violence. This allegation continues to be advanced by a blogger on the Examiner even after the real reason was leaked to the police and confirmed by the family. [Miami Herald; Examiner]
6. Zimmerman’s friend says Martin was to blame because he was disrespectful to Zimmerman. Zimmerman’s friend Joe Oliver said that Martin would not have been shot to death if Trayvon had just said “I’m staying with my parents.” Of course, Zimmerman was not a police officer, and Trayvon had no duty to tell him who he was or where he was going. [NBC News]
Say What Now of the Day: On this morning’s Fox and Friends, talk show host Geraldo Rivera blamed Trayvon Martin’s shooting on his attire, saying his hoodie was as much responsible for his death as George Zimmerman was.
“I am urging the parents of black and Latino particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies,” Rivera told his unfazed Fox News colleagues.
He went on to claim that the hoodie bears negative connotations that cannot be “rehabilitated.”
“I bet you money,” said Rivera, upping the audacity ante, “[I]f [Martin] didn’t have that hoodie on that nutty neighborhood watch guy wouldn’t have responded in that violent and aggressive way.”
And what is the dress code for young white, asian, and native american kids? Should white guys not have bald heads, because people might think their violent skinheads? Would I be justified for shooting a white bald guy because of that?
This is just out of control and is a completely invalid argument.
What the fuck? POC like this make me sick to my stomach.
I’m tired of people victim blaming, he’s missing the entire point. We need people to know that we need to STOP criminalizing clothing. Clothes don’t equal any particular type of person. I’m tired of this ridiculous argument, dressing in any way that is perceived as “non-White” should not be a death sentence. I have natural hair which is sometimes looked down upon by white people and people of color alike, should I straighten my hair because of that? No, because I don’t fucking want to, it shouldn’t matter.
Convenient. The day after he loses that no-confidence vote, he steps aside because he doesn’t want to “overshadow the process?”
Motherfucker, you ARE the process. YOU tried to cover this up. YOU set that murderer free with his gun while you ran a toxicology report on his victim. YOU tried to tell witnesses they didn’t see what they said they saw. YOU tried to imply that Trayvon was partially at fault. You deliberately sabotaged a murder investigation and you need to answer for it. No stepping aside temporarily (is he still being paid?), no hiding behind gun laws. Those gun laws only made it easier for you to do what you WANTED to do.
When Occupy Wall Street first got the national spotlight they were so worried about the co-option of their message, yet they have no problem co-opting others. A couple of Occupiers recognized me and asked if I noticed some of the nonsense that was happening. I said yes and one of them explained that after this march and two months of working with Occupy, she and her friends no longer wanted to be associated with them.
