No evidence found that Zimmerman is a racist; nevertheless, Trayvon Martin’s family insists that the shooting of their son was racially motivated
The feds have been waiting in the wings to prosecute Zimmerman in case he beats the state murder charge. But with no evidence that he is a racist, how can they charge the stupid jerk with violating Trayvon Martin’s civil rights?
If the Florida authorities had not been overwhelmed by the media hype and the black community’s outrage, Special Prosecutor Angela Corey probably would not have rushed to judgment. The murder charge was filed because Corey was led by media accounts and black anger to believe that Zimmerman took action only because Martin was black.
FBI INTERVIEWS: NO EVIDENCE ZIMMERMAN A RACIST
By Jeff Weiner and Rene Stutzman
Orlando Sentinel
July 12, 2012
Federal civil-rights investigators interviewed dozens of George Zimmerman's friends, neighbors and co-workers, and no one said he was a racist, records released Thursday show.
FBI agents spread out across the state, talking to three dozen people, including gun-shop employees, Zimmerman's ex-fiancée and the Sanford police detective who led the investigation into the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old.
None said he or she had ever known him to show racial bias. A co-worker who saw him the day after the shooting said Zimmerman was "beat up physically and emotionally."
Chris Serino, the police detective who interviewed Zimmerman the night of the shooting, told agents he thought Zimmerman had pursued Trayvon "based on his attire" and not "skin color." Zimmerman, he said, has a "little hero complex" but is not a racist.
Zimmerman's account sounded "scripted" to him, Serino said. Even so, he did not have enough evidence to justify an arrest, he told an FBI agent, even though he was getting pressure from a small number of officers within the department to file charges.
Zimmerman's ex-fiancée, who filed a domestic-violence injunction against him in 2005, described Zimmerman as "protective and territorial" toward her and "having a bad temper," but he was no racist, she told the FBI.
He socialized and played basketball with white, black and Hispanic men and "never exhibited any biases or prejudices against anyone and did not use racial epithets of any kind," an agent quoted her as saying.
Co-workers also said they saw no signs of ethnic or racial bias. They described Zimmerman as "pleasant" and "outgoing."
The FBI got involved after the Department of Justice launched a civil-rights investigation into Trayvon's shooting.
That followed weeks of protests and rallies around the country where national civil-rights leaders, including the president of the NAACP, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and several members of Congress, accused Sanford police of doing a shoddy, racially biased investigation and refusing to arrest Zimmerman.
Zimmerman says he shot Trayvon in self-defense after a confrontation on a sidewalk in Zimmerman's neighborhood. Special Prosecutor Angela Corey contends it was second-degree murder, the charge she filed against him April 11.
She alleges Zimmerman, a Neighborhood Watch volunteer, saw a black teenager in a hoodie, assumed he was about to commit a crime, followed him, then murdered him.
The new batch of evidence includes nearly 300 pages plus police-dispatch audio and crime-scene photos. Defense attorney Mark O'Mara received it last month.
Most of the new evidence appeared to favor Zimmerman.
The new records also document that Zimmerman's subdivision, where he led the Neighborhood Watch, had a bona-fide problem with burglaries.
Between March 2010 and March 2012, the new records show, there were seven burglaries reported in the townhouse community, as well as several larcenies and drug offenses.
That's important because Zimmerman says he became suspicious of Trayvon because of all the neighborhood burglaries.
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