It's Watch!... Neighborhood Watch. Not shoot.

To drum up money for his defense fund. Also liked how he said it was part of "God's" plan. Martins parents say he mus have a different one than the one they follow.

 

Has Zimmerman gone under any mental health testing? I'm no doctor, but the more we learn about Zimmerman, and the more we watch him do inexplicable shit, the more I wonder if all the neurons are firing as intended.

 

‏@BorowitzReport

Remember when that black guy killed that white guy and Fox News did a one-hour interview with him? Me neither.

 

OJ!

 

I wasn't on the board when this crime occurred, but I can't help but look at the initial post and the utter jump-to-conclusions stupidity that shaped this case early....the "choice" of photos of the accused and the victim... that alone is a vivid example of how the media "chooses" to present the facts....

 

Whatever the photos, the facts that have not changed are:

1. White guy with gun, shot unarmed black kid;
2. Guy was told by police to stay away, still shot unarmed black kid;
3. Guy lied to judge.

 

He was told by a 911 dispatcher to stay away.

Maybe a small thing, but when we start labeling things as "facts" . . . the facts can get away from us pretty quickly.

 

What a 911 operator is not the police?

 

Civilian employees, usually affiliated with the Department of Public Safety or some similar agency. Affiliated with police but not always employed by them

 

Whether or not the dispatcher was actually an officer or a municipal/state employee is a minor quibble. Either way, Zimmerman was still told by a government employee to stay away.

 

Sure it's a minor quibble. But it's the kind of erroneous information that plants seeds in people's minds if they read it. The kind we are trained as reporters not to write and as copy editors to be on the lookout for.

Did Zimmerman ignore a police command?

Or did he ignore a suggestion from a dispatcher that his actions "were not needed"?
(the dispatcher's exact words, upon learning that Zimmerman was following Martin, were "OK, we don't need you to do that.")

If you are a reporter, and you write, "Zimmerman ignored a police order to stay away . . . " you have failed in your job to provide an objective account of what happened.

And if you do that, Lynn Hoppes might cut and paste it for the world to see.