George Zimmerman Shouldn't Have Had A Gun

By Amanda MarcotteMonday, July 15, 2013 10:49 EDT

It's hard for me to post on the outcome of the George Zimmerman trial without just repeating what everyone else has said about racism, our screwed up court systems, the lack of regard for the lives of young black men. Absent racism, there would be no debate over who is the "thug" in this situation. We wouldn't have to know anything about the backgrounds of Zimmerman or Trayvon Martin to know that the "thug" is the guy who chases an innocent teenager down and provokes a fight with him for the hell of it, and then uses that as a pretext to murder him-and not the teenager who was only out to buy candy to eat while watching the game. But we do know more about the victim and his killer, and every step of the way, it's become clear that Zimmerman is the violent thug, and he and his meathead family are a bunch of simmering rage machines that have built up paranoid visions of the world to justify being hateful and, in Zimmerman's case for sure, violent.

And that's what I keep coming back to: With Zimmerman's history of violence, the fact that he had access to a gun and a right to concealed carry in the first place is beyond the pale. The gun industry knows that violent, paranoid people are a steady source of profits for them, and therefore they have lobbied hard to make sure that said people can continue to give them money without being impeded. If the Florida government wasn't in the thrall of gun manufacturers' remorseless pursuit of profits over human life, Trayvon Martin would be alive today. Here is some of Zimmerman's past that has been covered up in the racist bloviating from wingnuts over this case:

In July 2005, he was arrested for "resisting officer with violence." The neighborhood watch volunteer who wanted to be a cop got into a scuffle with cops who were questioning a friend for alleged underage drinking. The charges were reduced and then waived after he entered an alcohol education program. Then in August 2005, Zimmerman's former fiance sought a restraining order against him because of domestic violence. Zimmerman sought a restraining order against her in return. Both were granted. Meanwhile, over the course of eight years, Zimmerman made at least 46 calls to the Sanford (Fla.) Police Department reporting suspicious activity involving black males.

Under common sense gun regulation, Zimmerman would have permanently lost his right to concealed carry when he assaulted a cop. If not then, then when the state granted a restraining order. (His retaliatory restraining order is further evidence of his paranoid mind set that should be taken into consideration when evaluating this case.) If a case is serious enough that the state can force you into an alcohol education program, then it should be serious enough to take your gun away from you. If, as the gun lobby claims, they are only protecting the rights of responsible gun owners, people who have a colorful history of irresponsibility should absolutely not have the right to own guns.

What makes all this even more unsettling is that you look at this history, and you see a man who is being told, over and over again, that he gets to be a violent asshole and no one will do anything to stop him. They'll even make sure that he's free to strap a gun on again and pretend that he's roaming around in a war zone. The odds that a man like this will retire from a career of violence quietly are pretty low. Let's just hope that if he assaults or, god forbid, kills again, the heightened attention will make it much harder for him to get away with it next time.

Warning to trolls: I'm very low on patience today, so don't even bother. Take your racist garbage elsewhere.

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Carney hints Obama is open to another Zimmerman prosecution

White House spokesman Jay Carney claims the president is passively waiting for the Department of Justice to decide whether it will file federal charges against George Zimmerman, who was just acquitted of murder charges by a Florida jury.

"This is a decision made by the Justice Department, by career prosecutors," he told reporters Monday. "All questions... should be directed there, and that is something the president does not involve himself in," he said.

However, statements from President Obama and Carney show the White House is open to a renewed effort to convict Zimmerman in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

On Sunday, for example, Obama issued a statement saying "we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken." His use of "a jury," instead of "the jury," suggests that he would not oppose the creation of another jury to hear more charges against Martin.

That phrase, "a jury" was repeated today by Carney.

Also, Obama's Sunday statement did not mention Zimmerman, or offer any reassurances of protection for him against terrorist threats or another trial.

When asked today about the Zimmerman's absence from the statement, Carney said that "everything the president has to say was contained within that statement."

The Obama administration has taken an active interest in the Zimmerman case throughout its history. Soon after the shooting, Obama broke with a general historic policy of presidents not commenting on local legal matters by announcing to reporters, "If I had a son he'd look like Trayvon."

"The president commented on the death of a young man... he didn't comment about the disposition of an investigation or a case," Carney claimed.

In early 2012, Attorney General Eric Holder sent aides to Florida to work with protestors on a series of demonstrations including one that was headlined by longtime race baiter and Tawana Brawly hoaxer Al Sharpton. Holder also met with the leaders of the African-American lobbies while they were demanding a reversal of the local jurisdiction's decision not to press charges ( Related: Docs: Justice Department facilitated anti-Zimmerman protests)

After the demonstrations and Holder's visit, the city fired a top law-enforcement official and charged Zimmerman with murder.

A 2012 Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into the case turned up no evidence that could be used to build a federal civil rights case against Zimmerman, whose mother is Hispanic and who has been described as a "white Hispanic" in media coverage.

More clues might be revealed Tuesday, when Holder is slated to give a speech to the NAACP, and is expected to discuss the case.

During the Monday press conference, Carney repeatedly declined to elaborate on the president's response to the verdict, which was slammed by African-American lobbies, such as the NAACP.

The NAACP and other African-American groups say Zimmerman committed a crime when he shot Martin in February 2012.

The Florida jury, however, heard evidence that Martin assaulted Zimmerman, knocked him to the ground and was sitting on top of him when he was shot.

Holder sees racism in Zimmerman Martin shooting

The nation's top law-enforcement officer told an African-American sorority Monday that he would lead an effort to change Americans' beliefs and judgments about race, following George Zimmerman's Sunday acquittal in the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin.

Attorney General Eric Holder blamed racial attitudes for the killing.

"We are resolved, as you are, to combat violence involving or directed at young people, to prevent future tragedies, and to deal with the underlying attitudes, mistaken beliefs and stereotypes that serve as the basis for these too-common incidents," Holder told the long-scheduled meeting of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Martin was a 17 year-old black youth in Florida.

"I believe that this tragedy provides yet another opportunity for our nation to speak honesty about the complicated and emotionally charged issues that this case has raised," Holder said, while pointing his finger for emphasis.

"We must not, as we have too often in the past, let this opportunity pass," he said, reminding listeners of the episode in 2009 when he called Americans "a national of cowards" for not talking about race in the way he wished.

Holder did use the speech as an opportunity to explain beliefs that he believes are mistaken, nor to offer data that shows suspect attitudes and stereotypes are either commonplace or incorrect.

Holder was appointed as the nation's chief law enforcement officer in 2009 by President Barack Obama.

Holder's effort to blame racial misunderstanding for the initial shooting is unjustified, said several lawyers.

"State prosecutors... tried to prove that throughout their entire case and there was no evidence of it," said Hans Von Spakovsky, a former justice department lawyer now at the centrist Heritage Foundation.

"The jury didn't buy it," he told the The Daily Caller.

Moreover, "FBI reports are now also out in the public domain and the FBI itself admitted there was no racial animus," he added.

"The Sanford Police Department did not indicate race was a factor when they were originally investigating the case," Ron Christie, a lawyer and a former official in President George W. Bush's White House, told TheDC.

"There's zero evidence that for Zimmerman...race was a motivation," said Tom Fitton, president of the civil rights law firm Judicial Watch, adding that there is even some evidence suggesting Zimmerman had no racial animus.

Daily Caller News Foundation

Daily Caller News Foundation

A recently implemented plan that allows Alabama to use race-based benchmarks for student progress is drawing harsh criticism from conservative education reformers and minority parents.

Last month, the federal Department of Education approved Alabama's Plan 2020, which alters the state's federally-required system of measuring K-12 students' college readiness. Students will now be broken into predominantly race-based categories - American Indian; Asian or Pacific Islander; black; English language learners; Hispanic; multiracial; poor; special education; and white - and expectations will be lower or higher depending upon the group.

For example, 91.5 percent of white third-graders should be proficient in mathematics, whereas only 85.5 percent of Hispanic students and 79 percent of black students will be expected to pass, according to the Tuscaloosa News.

Minority parents were not pleased with the new measurements.

"I think it's dumbing our race down and preparing our boys for prison," said Tim Robinson, a black man and father of two elementary school children. "The teachers aren't even going to teach all of them anymore. Not the black boys and girls. And if we sit by and let this happen, it's on us."

Other minority parents echoed his concerns.

Elois Zeanah, president of the Alabama Federation of Republican Women, condemned the race-based standards.

"Isn't this discrimination? Doesn't this imply that some students are not as smart as others depending on their genetic and economic backgrounds?" she asked in a statement.

State superintendent Tommy Bice disagreed that the standards were discriminatory. He said that all subgroups were expected to become 100 percent proficient eventually, but the reality is that students of certain ethnicity are lagging behind.

"Some groups have farther to go," he said in a statement. "We are actually putting more expectation on ourselves and on those students who are behind to increase at a greater rate."

Alabama is just the latest state to receive approval from the federal government to alter its college-readiness measurements. Some 38 states already transitioned to comprehensive measurement systems, and most use different measurements from certain racial groups, according to a report.

Alabama's new plan, however, has been approved at a time when the efficacy of national education curriculum and testing systems are increasingly being called into question. Common Core - a set of federally-backed national curriculum standards being implemented in most states - has prompted a substantial public backlash.

Conservatives fear that the new standards were approved too hastily and amount to a massive federal overreach; and liberals don't like the idea of holding teachers accountable to a national standardized test. Others find the curriculum stifling.

Follow Robby on Twitter Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Research lets people experience what it feels like to be a cow

Daily Caller News Foundation

Would experiencing a day in the life of a cow make you less likely to eat meat? How would chopping down a tree affect your paper usage? These are questions that Stanford University researchers are using virtual reality to answer.

"If somebody becomes an animal, do they gain empathy for that animal and think about its plight?" asked Jeremy Bailenson, director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab. "In this case, empathy toward the animal also coincides with an environmental benefit, which is that [not eating] animals consumes less energy."

Bailenson is heading research at Stanford in which participants don virtual reality helmets and walk on their hands and feet. They are then able to see themselves as a cow in a virtual mirror. They experience what a cow does on its way to being slaughtered and then record what they eat for the next week to see if being a cow reduced meat consumption.

This is just one experiment Bailenson is conducting, but all his experiments are tailored to finding new ways to encourage environmental conservation.

E&E News reports: "Volunteers also have virtually chopped down a tree, a study aimed at examining attitudes toward paper use. Others took a virtual reality shower while eating lumps of coal - literally consuming it - to gain insight into how much was needed to heat the water."

Some researchers argue that virtual reality can alter people's behavior and change their attitudes with respect to environmental issues like global warming. In fact, the National Science Foundation has doled out $748,000 to universities, including Stanford, to conduct four experiments using virtual environments.

"It's just a much more compelling way of getting people to understand the effects of their behavior now on the future," Tim Herron of the Decision Theatre lab at the University of British Columbia. "It's about visualizing the data for people. Once people can see it, it's amazing how much it changes things. People begin to really understand the necessity to make some changes now to prevent these sort of things."

The results of the virtual cow experiment are still inconclusive, reports E&E News, but comments from some study participants indicate that they now empathize with cows.

"Once I got used to it I began to feel like I was the cow," wrote one participant. "I truly felt like I was going to the slaughter house towards the end and I felt sad that I (as a cow) was going to die. That last prod felt really sad."

According to Bailenson, he has seen some students become more environmentally conscious. Students who had gone through the virtual reality lab of cutting down trees used 20 percent less paper when cleaning up a pre-staged mess than those who had simply watched a video of a tree being cut down.

Bailenson also noted that he gets emails months after people go through the experiment saying they can't walk through the toilet paper aisle of the grocery store without thinking of a falling tree.

Update: This experiment did not receive any of the NFS grant, as previously reported. The NFS and Stanford University have confirmed to TheDC news Foundation that no taxpayer dollars went towards the virtual cow experiment. The article has been corrected to reflect this information. Follow Michael on Twitter Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallrnewsfoundation.org.

Morsi supporters hold protests across Egypt

Tens of thousands of Islamists rallied Friday in cities across Egypt, vowing to sustain for months their campaign to restore deposed President Mohammed Morsi to power.

Ten days after the military coup that toppled him, however, Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and its allies appear to have failed to bring a significantly wider segment of Egyptian society into the streets on their side.

The new military-backed administration of interim President Mansour Adly, along with the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the most prominent Sunni Muslim institution, floated offers for "national reconciliation." Newly appointed Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi is reportedly promising to finish assembling his Cabinet by next week, a government official told Egypt's state news agency. A presidential spokesman has said the Muslim Brotherhood will be offered posts.

The Brotherhood remains steadfast in its opposition, saying its supporters will stay in the streets for as long as it takes to force the reinstatement of Morsi, who was overthrown July 3 after four days of massive protests demanding his ouster.

At the main Islamist rally in Cairo, the crowd poured into a large boulevard in front of the Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque, where Morsi supporters have been camped for two weeks.

Egyptian flags, which were fewer in their previous rallies, outnumbered the usual green Islamic banners emblazoned with the Muslim profession of faith - a move to show their movement's broader appeal. Chants and slogans focused on the military, many branding the army chief a "traitor."

"We are ready to stay for a month, two months, a year, or even two years," ultraconservative Salafi cleric Safwat Hegazi told protesters from a stage.

The demonstrators there seem to have dug in for a long sit-in. Tents have been erected and toilets have been set up with brick walls for privacy. Protesters with helmets, homemade body shields and sticks guarded the site, which has drawn Morsi supporters from other provinces.

Egyptians gather to break their fast on the third day of Ramadan, in Tahrir Square, many portesting against ousted President Mohammed Morsi. (Nasser Shiyoukhi/Associated Press)

Army troops are staying about a kilometre away to avoid direct confrontations. On Monday, there were clashes with security forces near the Republican Guard headquarters not far from the site, with more than 50 people killed. Both sides blamed the other for the bloodshed.

Friday's call for demonstrations had sparked fears of further clashes but no violence was reported.

Now that the holy month of Ramadan has begun, when Muslims abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset, many of the protesters rested in their tents, reading the Quran or sleeping. After nightfall, the crowd got renewed energy.

"We have a daily routine of prayers and Quran recitations, then marches around the sit-in," said Hassan al-Ghandoor, a tailor from the Nile Delta who arrived on the day of the military coup and hasn't left since.

"The level of spirituality of this place helps us put up with the daily difficulties," he said. "We are here for an objective, and we will stay here until it is accomplished."

Rallies across the country

Thousands more rallied across the Nile River in city of Giza, and Morsi supporters held a series of marches around the capital, converging on the main site. Protests were held in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and other cities.

The Brotherhood and other Islamists face the question of how to step up their campaign. So far, they have succeeded in bringing out strong numbers of their own ranks - but there has been little sign of attracting a larger segment of the population.

Morsi supporters have touted their movement as a defence of democracy against a military coup that removed an elected leader, warning that the army is turning Egypt back to dictatorship.

At the same time, however, many of its leaders use the rhetoric that appeals mainly to their political base.

Those opposed to Morsi were able to bring out millions in protests that began June 30 and demanded the president's removal.

Since his fall, those rallies have tapered off, although a crowd was in Tahrir Square on Friday evening for the traditional fast-breaking meal at sunset. The gathering was not intended to be a show of strength by the anti-Morsi camp.

The new administration is moving quickly with its transition, in part to force the Brotherhood to accept it and to show that Egypt is pressing ahead toward democracy.

At the same time, authorities are making allegations aimed at showing Morsi supporters are linked to violence and militancy.

While speaking of reconciliation, the interim leadership has intensified its crackdown on the Brotherhood, starting criminal investigations against Morsi and issuing arrest warrants for other members of the group.

A number of Brotherhood leaders with arrest warrants issued against them are staying at a medical center connected to the Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque, Brotherhood spokesman Ahmed Aref told EgyptbracesforviolenceasMorsisupport.blogspot.com, although he underlined that they are not hiding from arrest.

The Brotherhood's top leader, Mohammed Badie, is not at the site, Aref said, adding that he did not know where he was.

Morsi has been held in an undisclosed military facility since the coup.

U.S. calls for ousted president's release

On Friday, the U.S. joined Germany in calling for his release. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the United States agrees with the German Foreign Ministry, which has urged an "end to all restrictive measures considering Morsi."

Five other Brotherhood leaders are also in detention on various charges, and 10 others -- including Badie --have arrest warrants against them on accusations of inciting violence.

Gehad el-Haddad, the group's spokesman, said in a message posted on his Twitter account that those in detention are "denied visitation, or delivery of clothes, food. All held in solitary confinement."

Prosecutors said they will investigate allegations that Morsi and 30 others Brotherhood leaders escaped from prison in 2011 with help from the Palestinian militant group Hamas. That jailbreak occurred amid the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Anger at the military was rife at Friday's rallies. Posters emblazoned with the word "Traitor" depicted army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi with blood coming from his mouth. Some banners appeared aimed at the foreign media, with English slogans such as, "Legitimacy is a red line" -- emphasizing Morsi's win at the ballot box.

"Did el-Sissi sell his religion cheaply?" one speaker on the Rabaa al-Adawiya stage asked.

"Leave, el-Sissi!" the crowd replied.

"We are designated martyrs," the speaker added. "We call on el-Sissi and those who participated in this grand treason to repent."

Speaking to the AP, the Brotherhood spokesman el-Haddad said the rally was growing, a continuation of the 2011 uprising that had been centered at Tahrir Square.

'We can disagree on whether this is a coup or a revolution, but there is a reality on the ground, and we have to deal with it not in a negative way.'-Amro Mekki, a senior Al-Nour figure

"This is exactly what we did in Tahrir during the revolution. We are doing it here," he said, adding that the Brotherhood can "keep functioning under a repressive police state."

He said its support was growing, "and more locations in Cairo will come. We are not talking in weeks - we are talking in months."

Mostafa Youssef, 27-year-old cleric, described interim President Adly Mansour and his administration as "puppets while the real power is in the hand of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces. Civilians are just a facade."

Officials in the sole Islamist party that backed Morsi's removal, the Salafi Al-Nour, argued that the Brotherhood had to accept reality and said the party was reaching out through mediators to try to convince it.

"I know the Muslim Brotherhood has stamina," said Amro Mekki, a senior Al-Nour figure. "We can disagree on whether this is a coup or a revolution, but there is a reality on the ground, and we have to deal with it not in a negative way."

He said the Brotherhood needs to move into an opposition position within the new system.

Why is Joshua Chellew less important than Trayvon Martin?

Who's Joshua Chellew? The fact that you don't know his name is the whole point. But that's not your fault.

Marietta Daily Journal, 7/3/13: Four south Cobb teenagers are in custody in connection with the beating death of a 36-year-old Mableton man on Mableton Parkway early Sunday morning...They have been accused in the beating death of Joshua Heath Chellew, 36...According to the warrant, the four teenagers are accused of starting a fight with Chellew at a Chevron gas station in the 6200 block of Mableton Parkway near Community Drive at about 1:20 a.m. Sunday. They repeatedly punched and kicked him, according to police.While attempting to escape, Chellew backed into the center five-lane highway and was pushed to the ground and knocked unconscious, the warrant states.They then walked away from Chellew, "leaving him helpless," and he was eventually hit by a car, the warrant states.

A horrible, senseless murder. Why hasn't it received wider attention?

This might be why. Joshua Chellew:

The men who murdered him:

If Obama had four more sons...

Courtesy of Top Conservative News, which notes:

If the races had been reversed, this would be the biggest news story in the United States. It would have knocked the Zimmerman trial out of the news.

Yep. Or, if Chellew had been able to defend himself against one or all of them, he'd be the new George Zimmerman. We'd be seeing baby pictures of his attackers. Al Sharpton would be marching. Jay Carney would be filibustering away all questions about Obama's latest race-baiting. MSNBC would be on full alert.

But Chellew wasn't able to defend himself. He probably deserved it, right? I mean, just look at him. You can't get any whiter than that.

Just another creepy-ass cracker.

Update: In related news, Victor Davis Hanson examines "Supposed Crimes of the Mind."

Update: Thomas Sowell notes, "I am so old that I can remember when most of the people promoting race hate were white."