Media Thread - NO DISCUSSION

February 27, 2012 news report ( link )

NB: video is in the upper left hand side of the article.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46922042/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times/#.T3lJnLIk6So - "Sanford in the eye of a racial firestorm"

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2017887566_trayvonmartinfacts02.html - "At heart of Trayvon Martin death, a one-minute mystery"

http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article1221799.ece - "Trayvon Martin's killing shatters safety within Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford"

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...eading-to-the-shooting-of-trayvon-martin.html - "The Events Leading to the Shooting of Trayvon Martin" - has a picture of area including the 7 -11. 6 very informative pictures of the area.

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2012/04/0...eraldo-rivera-apologizes-for-hoodie-comments/ "Geraldo Rivera Apologizes for ‘Hoodie’ Comments in Interview With Trayvon Martin’s Parents"

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2...von-martin-case-begins-parallel-investigation - "FBI questions people in Trayvon Martin case, begins 'parallel investigation' "

Feds Looking Into Zimmerman Family Presence on Night of Shooting
In a letter to Roy Austin, the deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, dated April 2nd, attorney Benjamin Crump states that, since their last meeting with Justice officials, the attorneys 'have learned new information which is of paramount importance in considering whether or not a fair and impartial investigation was conducted by the Sanford police department."

"In particular," the letter states, "we learned that on the night of February 26, 2012, within hours of the shooting in which Trayvon Martin was killed, Sanford Chief of Police Bill Lee met with State Attorney Norm Wolfinger. We also believe that family members of shooter George Zimmerman were present at the police department."

Attorney says Zimmerman will turn himself in if charged
"If he's charged, he will be arrested and he will turn himself in. However it goes, he's not hiding from the authorities. If he is asked, he will turn himself in. There's not going to be a manhunt or anything like that," Sonner told Reuters in a telephone interview.

State Attorney "Outraged" by Federal Review Request (WKMG Local 6)

"State Attorney Norm Wolfinger released a statement on Monday saying he is "outraged by the outright lies" contained in a letter by the family of Trayvon Martin's attorney asking for a review of his actions with police in Martin's death investigation.

The Martin family's attorney, Ben Crump, said he is asking the U.S. Justice Department to review the investigation for possible interference by Wolfinger's office Sanford police Detective Chris Serino."

Zimmerman should not have been empowered to enforce the law at the point of a gun. Only police officers who are strenuously trained and tested earn the right to act, under certain conditions, as judge, jury, and executioner on the spot. The "stand your ground law" means that anyone, "reasonable person" or not, who "feels" her/his life is threatened can legally murder a fellow citizen.

Homeowners might be on hook in civil action in Trayvon Martin's death

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/os-trayvon-martin-hoa-20120329,0,6506594.story?obref=obinsite

........If their crime-watch program captain George Zimmerman gets charged with and convicted of killing Trayvon, the community's homeowner association and property-management company will likely be sued by the victim's family regarding the way the watch program was established and operated, said Donna Berger, a lawyer who specializes in homeowner-association law.

Fla. lawmakers divided on Trayvon Martin response

http://www.news4jax.com/news/Fla-la...sponse/-/475880/9721782/-/vht7fe/-/index.html

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -
Florida's political leaders are divided over how quickly the state should respond to the shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin.

Amid protests and a national outcry, black Democrats in the state are calling on for near immediate action, including holding a special session to consider whether to repeal the state's seven-year-old "Stand Your Ground" law which eliminated a person's duty to retreat when threatened with seriously bodily harm or death.

Martin was shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman who has maintained he acted in self-defense.

Republicans — including Gov. Rick Scott — have insisted that the state should wait until ongoing investigations are completed. Last week Scott appointed a new prosecutor to handle the case and announced the creation of a task force that would look at laws related to citizen safety and protection.

Race, Tragedy and Outrage Collide After a Shot in Florida

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/u...pts-a-review-of-ideals.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

........With five weeks’ passage, the fateful encounter between a black youth who wanted to go to college and a Hispanic man who wanted to be a judge has polarized the nation.

And, now this modest central Florida community finds its name being mentioned with Selma and Birmingham on a civil rights list held sacred in black American culture, while across the country, the parsing of the case has become cacophonic and political, punctuated by pleas for tolerance, words of hatred, and spins from the left and right.

The racial divide that once partly defined Sanford, with U.S. 17-92 serving as the inviolable line separating black and white, has faded over the decades, leaving a casually integrated downtown. Yet the sense remains among residents of both races that the Police Department has not come as far as the city as a whole.

Trayvon Martin case: Did Sanford police chief Bill Lee lack the experience to lead?

http://www.thegrio.com/specials/trayvon-martin/trayvon-martin-bill-lee-lacked-experience.php?page=1

......Neither Michael Blow, the dream candidate, nor Sonja White, a deputy police chief from Orlando, who was also African-American, and a graduate of the FBI National Academy at Quantico, Virginia, would be Sanford's new chief, though several people privy to the selection process said their qualifications and those of a third candidate, Robert Musco, who was already serving as a police chief in the small city of Glen Cove Springs, were, in the words of one source, "head and shoulders" above the eventual chief, Bill Lee Jr.
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"He met the minimum requirements," said one participant in the selection process on background, regarding Lee's qualifications to be Sanford's police chief.

Lee holds a Master's in Public Administration (from) The University of Central Florida, but his supervisory experience was scant -- his department consisted of just 20 full time employees, and his department budget of $2.2 million annually was dwarfed by the one managed by Blow, at $23 million.
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Residents who spoke about the chief - both black and white - did have one common impression of Lee -- boiling it down to three words: "good old boy." And the notion that the "good old boy" network is fully in force in Sanford is strong, particularly among it's black residents. At the top of that network, several people said, is Tom George.
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Even in stepping aside, Lee caused a stir. On the day he announced he was standing down, Lee promoted five officers, including Steve Lynch, who was involved in a 2011 shooting of a black man in a Winn Dixie parking lot, for which he was cleared, but which roiled the city's black community, and Randy Smith, who was the sergeant on duty the night police responded to the Trayvon Martin case, but failed to make an arrest.

New evidence emerges in Martin case

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/03/justice/florida-teen-shooting/index.html?iphoneemail

Hope it works now...

Blessings...

Micci

Sorry somehow the link is not showing the right way

MicciStella said:

New evidence emerges in Martin case

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/03/justice/florida-teen-shooting/index.html?iphoneemail

Hope it works now...

Blessings...

Micci

Sorry somehow the link is not showing the right way

Click to expand...

It's ok and thank you for adding to the thread! I copied and pasted in a browser and this should be the same link - http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/03/justice/florida-teen-shooting/?hpt=hp_c1

Trayvon Martin - Before the World Heard the Cries

The story as told by Investigator Chris Serino to Tracy Martin, Trayvon's Father:

...Zimmerman's story was that Zimmerman was of course following him and that Trayvon approached his vehicle, walked up to the car and asked Zimmerman, 'Why are your following me?' Zimmerman then rolls his car windows down, tells Trayvon 'I'm not following you.' He rolls his car windows up.

"Trayvon walks off. Zimmerman said he started running between the buildings. Zimmerman gets out of his car. He comes around the building. Trayvon is hiding behind the building, waiting on him. Trayvon approaches him and says, 'What's your problem, homes?' Zimmerman says ˜I don't have a problem.'

"Zimmerman starts to reach into his pocket to get his cellphone, and at that point Trayvon attacked him. He says Trayvon hits him. He falls on the ground. Trayvon jumps on top of him, takes his left hand and covers Zimmerman's mouth and tells him to 'shut the F--- up' and continues to pound on him.

"At that point Zimmerman is able to unholster his weapon and fire a shot, striking Trayvon in the chest. Trayvon falls on his back and says, 'You got me.'"

Much More at Link

Florida Watch Groups Cautious
“If you want to carry a weapon, you will not be on our patrol group,” said Richard Toneske, president of the Marion Landing community patrol.

Volunteer patrol officers have no arrest powers, no authority to detain or question, no authorization to take actions that law enforcement officers would, such as chases and pursuits, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office Community Patrol training manual.

Toneske said he never leaves the patrol car that the Sheriff's Office gives to volunteers to ride around in their neighborhoods. They are required to wear uniforms while on patrol.

Top Miami/Dade Cop says Trayvon Case Botched
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The former boss of Florida’s largest police department said he believes the Sanford Police Department’s handling of the shooting death of Trayvon Martin was “a rushed haphazard, or botched, or backwards investigation,” either intentionally or because of a lack of training. Former Miami-Dade police director Bobby Parker, who served 33 years in law enforcement before retiring from the department, was blunt in his assessment.
“It has to be either intentional or as a result of a lack of preparing and a lack of training and qualifications for the people that are there,” he said in an interview with CBS4′s Gio Benitez. “It’s one or the other. Either they are intentionally lapse, or lax, in their process or they don’t know any better, one or the other.”

For black Sanford residents, a history of distrusting police

http://www.thegrio.com/specials/tray...f-mistrust.php

When Sanford's black residents talk about the "good old boy" network, they often mean the Sanford police department, which for many, embodies the worst aspects of the old south.

"You've got the Mississippi Delta, and you've got the 'bottom.' This is the 'bottom,'" says community activist Kenneth Bentley, whose family is among the oldest in the black district known as Goldsboro. .......Bentley's aunt, Altomese Bentley, who was a longtime educator in the community.

His words echo many in this community, who have little faith in Sanford police.

Florida medical chief casts doubt on Zimmerman's 'broken nose' claim
This is toward the end of the article -
~Of the claim that 28-year-old Zimmerman's head was bashed against a concrete surface as he and Martin, 17, scuffled, Friedman said, "If somebody had been beating his head against concrete I'd think we'd see more obvious scrapes."~ There is more at the link.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2012/04/03/ac-kth-trayvon-martin-audio-video-tape.cnn - "Key Trayvon Martin evidence enhanced" -

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