Half Sigma

Good gun for home defense

Half Sigma recommends the Remington 750.

It looks like a friendly hunting rifle with the wood finish, so it won't make juries think that you're some kind of vigilante military nut. But it's good for 5 shots, so in case you miss once, or there is more than one criminal invading your home, you have 4 more shots.

But remember: it's better to just let the criminals just take some stuff rather than shoot them (the cost of hiring a criminal defense attorney is a lot higher than the cost of replacing whatever they are going to steal from you), and never shoot anyone in the back because that doesn't look like self defense.

* * *

Peter provided a link to this article that supports my choice of a semi-automatic rifle for home defense.

IS .223 BETTER?

Some commenters have convinced me that the .243 rifle might be too powerful and you might be better off with a .223 semi-automatic rifle like the Ruger Mini 14 Ranch Rifle. The version with the wooden handle has a very traditional non-military look to it, good for creating the impression that you're not some gun-nut-militia-survivalist-vigilante type.

There's a version with a 20-bullet magazine, ideal for taking down a small gang, but that may create the wrong impression. "Who would need a 20-bullet magazine to go hunting? He must have been planning a massacre."

OR .22LR

Less expensive and less powerful is the Ruger 10/22 series of rifles.

Some say that .22LR isn't powerful enough to stop a bad guy with a single bullet. On the other hand, it's least likely to cause permanent hearing loss if used indoors without ear protection.

Who is Matt Gutman?

ABC News reporter Matt Gutman attended the elite Williams College and he comes from a wealthy family. His grandfather Alvin Gutman founded a textile company.

Matt’s father, Paul J. Gutman, died in a plane crash in 1990. I get a little bit of schadenfreude out of that, because regular middle class people never die while flying in Cessnas.

Anyway, this demonstrates once again that our news media is dominated by the children of the wealthy and elite. And this class of people is really out to get high-prole/lower-middle-class people like George Zimmerman (even when they have Jewish last names, are half Hispanic, are registered Democrats, and mentor black youth in their spare time).

Al Sharpton threatens riots

As reported by the Orlando Sentinel:

If George Zimmerman is not arrested in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin soon, the Rev. Al Sharpton will call for an escalation in peaceful civil disobedience and economic sanctions. . . . "I will speak about how the National Action Network will move to the next level if Zimmerman isn't arrested," Sharpton said, who founded the organization. He added that it was the Martin family and lawyers who first asked him to get involved and nationalize this story.

Will Angela Corey cave in to this intimidation and charge Zimmerman before the “peaceful” disobedience happens?

The last sentence is probably true to the extent that Ben Crump got Sharpton involved. It’s false to the extent it implies that the Martin family is actually running the show.

* * *

There’s also a reported in the NY Daily News that between 2001 and 2005, Zimmerman worked as a security guard at private parties, and he was fired because he had anger issues.

But remember that this happened seven years ago.

Student loans for kindergarten

As reported at SmartMoney:

It used to be that families first signed up for education loans when their child enrolled in college, but a growing number of parents are seeking tuition assistance as soon as kindergarten. Though data is scarce, private school experts and the small number of lenders who provide loans for kindergarten through 12th grade say pre-college loans are becoming more popular.

Parents taking out these loans understand that sending their children to a public kindergarten could ruin their lives.

The Ben Crump / Matt Gutman connection

Blogger Gucci Little Piggy has a series of posts on his blog about the alleged phone call between Trayvon and his girlfriend Deedee, and the ABC reporter Matt Gutman.

It seems that this whole incident became national news because Ben Crump was able to get the attention of Gutman, and Crump has been feeding Gutman information since. Gutman was the reporter who got the scoop on the conversation between Trayvon and Deedee, and also the videotape of Zimmerman being taken into custody at the police station.

As far as I can tell, Ben Crump got to Deedee first, and then made a tape recording of her telling Ben about the phone call. It’s not clear if the police ever followed up with their own interview. It has been misreported that there’s a recording of the phone conversation between Trayvon and Deedee when in fact there’s just a recording of Deedee talking to Ben Crump, and who knows how Ben Crump prepped her for that?

I’ve wondered where the video of Zimmerman being taken into custody at the police station came from, but now my best guess is that Ben Crump somehow got hold of it, and then he gave it to Gutman. But how did Crump get it?

* * *

So as we see, Ben Crump has been the mastermind behind the story from the beginning. His accomplishments probably include:

• Getting ABC news to initially report the story.
• Creating the imagery of Trayvon being armed only with Skittles and an Arizona Iced Tea, even though there has been no police report released about what Trayvon was carrying with him. It doesn’t matter if it never happened that way, the national media don’t care about the real facts.
• Getting Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson involved.
• Making a recording of Trayvon’s girlfriend in which she tells a story casting Trayvon in a favorable light.
• After a bunch of news articles appear talking about how Zimmerman was beat up and had a broken nose, somehow he obtains a police video in which Zimmerman doesn’t look so bad and hands it off to Matt Gutman at ABC News.

Don't own a gun for self-defense

After reading a reader comment posted at Lawrence Auster’s blog, I think I need to endorse the whiny liberal point of view on this.

Statistically, incidents of guns being used successfully in self-defense are extremely rare. The following events are a lot more likely:

• Criminal gets hold of your gun and uses it against you.
• The gun gives you a psychological feeling of self-confidence that will cause you to get into bad situations you otherwise would have avoided if you did not have the gun.
• Use of a gun in an ambiguous situation will get you in prison for murder, which is worse than getting beaten up.
• Being prosecuted for murder will ruin your life even if the jury finds you not guilty.

The Zimmerman incident is a good example of the truth of the above. The video showed that Zimmerman wasn’t beaten up that bad. Without the gun, Travyon probably would have run away after giving him a good but not life-threatening beating. And according to Zimmerman’s father, Trayvon saw the gun, which caused an escalation in the altercation.

Yes, Travyon deserved being shot for beating up an innocent man, but the problem with giving people the just deserts of their crimes is that the system then comes down hard on you for being a “vigilante” and ruins your life.

* * *

Even cops get in trouble for shooting suspects, but cops have many advantages over you, such as:

• The system gives them a lot more deference because they are law enforcement officers and not vigilantes. This deference is especially true for other cops who hate vigilantes and always stick up for fellow cops, but it also applies to prosecutors and judges. • Cops usually work in teams, so that there is seldom just one cop against one violent criminal. • Thugs usually avoid attacking cops in the first place. Do you think Trayvon would have been so stupid as to attack a cop for looking at him the wrong way? I don’t think so. • They have more training and experience in taking down criminals.

This is why only 56 cops were killed in the line of duty in 2010 which was an especially unlucky year for cops. Being a cop actually isn’t as dangerous a job as I thought. There are 700,000 cops in the country, which means the death rates for cops was only 8 per hundred thousand. In contrast, the murder rate in Washington DC was 24 per hundred thousand in 2009. So just living in Washington DC is three times more dangerous than being a cop.

Who’s Ben Crump?

Ben Crump is often identified as the “Martin family attorney.” This implies that the Martin family always had some attorney they used for routine matters like setting up trust funds and managing their portfolio of real estate investments.

But that’s not the case at all. Ben crump is profiled in the FSU Law alumni magazine. He’s a partner in a successful “African-American” owned personal injury law firm, and he is longtime buddies with the Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson as seen in the many pictures accompanying the article.

So that explains why the threesome are involved together in the same case. They’re three race hustlers working together. Crump is probably not doing this for charity, but because he hopes to score a big lawsuit against somebody.

It should also be noted that Crump has never practiced criminal law, even though he has been putting himself forth as some sort of expert on the subject of George Zimmerman’s guilt.

* * *

Lexus Liberal writes:

This is a lost case, why would any rational individual hire a non-criminal attorney for a criminal case? It's an insult to all lawyers, especially since criminal vs. civil proceedings differ greatly.

It would have made more sense to hire a reputable criminal attorney to get the conviction then hire a civil liability attorney for compensation.

1. I’m pretty sure that Ben Crump insinuated himself and it was not the Martin family who used their high IQs to figure out the best attorney to hire.

2. Ben Crump’s angle may be to sue the homeowner association.

3. The Martins don't need a criminal attorney anyway. I haven't heard that they are being accused of any crimes.

The mystery of the 7-11 and the Skittles

A reader sent me links to two interesting blog posts.

The first is by a former police investigator who gives some insights into what probably happened at the crime scene. Most if it isn’t really relevant to understanding what happened before the police got there, although it’s relevant to whether you think the cops were a bunch of incompetent racists—there’s no evidence that the cops were incompetent racists.

But this sentence makes you think:

The media says he walked to 7-11 to buy an iced tea and some skittles. According to Google the nearest 7-11 is almost two miles away and it was dark and raining. My kids wouldn’t walk next door on a rainy night, but then I’m from California. What time did he arrive at 7-11? There should be a register receipt showing a purchase of an iced tea and Skittles with a time and date stamped on it.

Did Trayvon really got to a 7-11 and buy Skittles and an iced tea?

Law professor William Jacobson doubts the story:

One key part of the narrative of the Martin shooting is that Skittles and Arizona Ice Tea were being carried by Martin. This ABC News report is typical: “He [Martin] has no weapons on him, only a pack of Skittles and a bottle of iced tea.” The Sanford Police incident report makes no mention of finding such items. What is the source of this fact that Skittles and a bottle of ice tea were found with Martin?

It came out in the comments that family lawyer Benjamin Crump reported this to the media. But we really don’t know if that’s merely what Trayvon told his family, or if the police actually found those items on Trayvon’s person.

I also wonder what else they found on Trayvon’s person. Maybe Trayvon just left the condo to do some drugs? That sounds more likely than walking 2 miles in the rain just to get some candy. And it would explain why Trayvon had a guilty mind which caused him to run away when he saw Zimmerman looking at him from his car.

* * *

Looking at a map, it seems like the nearest 7-11 is only one mile away. Still, it seems like a really long walk in the rain just to get Skittles and an ice tea. The story makes no sense. Trayvon making up some excuse to leave so he can do some drugs makes a lot more sense. And would be consistent with Zimmerman's comments on the phone call that Trayvon looked like he was on drugs. And the fact that Trayvon was on a ten-day suspension from school for drug activity.

* * *

People assumed that Zimmerman is just too stupid and racist to know the difference between a guy on drugs, and a sweet innocent kid walking home with candy for his little brother, but maybe Zimmerman was right about that part. I'd love to find out what's in the toxicology report.

Laceration on the back of Zimmerman's head

The Daily Caller has enhanced a still from the Zimmerman arrest video to show the laceration on the back of Zimmerman’s head.

George Zimmerman’s father speaks

Robert Zimmerman gives exclusive interview with WOFL Fox 35. He says that Trayvon walked up to Zimmerman and asked “Do you have a fuckin’ problem?” George said “No, I don’t have a problem.” George started to reach for his cell phone, but Trayvon punched him in his nose, breaking his nose, and George was knocked to the ground, where Trayvon proceded to beat on him for a minute. Trayvon noticed George’s firearm. Trayvon then said “You’re going to die now” and continued to beat George. Finally, George was able to pull his pistol and shoot Trayvon point blank.

How did ABC get the video?

Why does this video suddenly show up? How did ABC get it?

Did the Powers decide to release this fuzzy low-resolution video because it appears to contradict the unauthorized leak about Zimmerman being beaten up?

Surely they also took higher resolution photos of his injuries. Why not release those?

Video of George Zimmerman’s arrest; not so fat

Exclusive ABC News scoop. The take of the accompanying article is that George doesn’t look so bad. There are no obvious signs of him being badly beaten up, but then it’s a very low-resolution video so it’s hard to tell.

I’m sick and tired or people saying that Zimmerman wasn’t “arrested.” He was taken to the police station in handcuffs. You can see in the video police leading the handcuffed Zimmerman into a questioning room. It’s that’s not being arrested, I don’t know what is.

And I'm sure the police read him his Miranda rights before questioning him. Otherwise, whatever stupid stuff he said they won't be able to use against him at the trial.

* * *

Also, Zimmerman weighs a LOT less than we have been led to believe. There's no way that he's anywhere close to 250 pounds.

No grand jury for George Zimmerman

Angela Corey, the crone-like special prosecutor, announced yesterday that she would not take the case to the grand jury, that she would make the decision to prosecute by herself.

As you ought to know, but perhaps don’t, the right to grand jury indictment is the only constitutional right of the criminally accused that has not been incorporated to the states. Apparently, Florida only requires indictment by grand jury if the defendant is to be charged with a crime punishable by death. Probably, Zimmerman is going to be charged with a lesser type of murder, such as “manslaughter,” that’s not subject to the death penalty.

Most states, like Florida, have done away with the requirement of a grand jury. New York State still requires a grand jury. Tom Wolfe famously had a character in his novel Bonfire of the Vanities say that a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich. Well Corey isn’t taking any chances with that.

Too many people are visiting this blog

Blog traffic has doubled since I started blogging about Trayvon Martin. Despite some readers who think I love it when that happens, in fact I don’t. The blog has no advertising, so I don’t make any money if more people find it. And non-regular readers leave annoying comments which I have to delete. Usually I can spot them right away; they have atrociously poor spelling and grammar and stick up for Trayvon Martin. I’ve been deleting these comments because the purpose of this blog is to have a discussion of like-minded intelligent readers.

I’ve also deleted some moronic comments that were pro-Zimmerman, but they are heavily outnumbered by the pro-Trayvon moronic comments.

When a comment doesn’t look like it was written by a moron, but is still pro-Trayvon, then I do some more investigation to see if the comment is from a regular reader. If I find evidence that the comment was left by a regular reader, then I let it pass. Otherwise I delete it.

More Trayvon Martin thoughts

Today on Capitol Hill, black lawmakers continue to call the incident a hate crime and they demand action. The principle of innocent until proven guilty, or the wise policy of not speaking about the issue without knowing all of the facts doesn’t apply.

Now people who have been reading my blog for a while know that I occasionally become obsessed with topics and write about them for longer than some of my readers would like. But I don’t think I’m making that mistake with the Trayvon Martin incident. I think this is a major event that has a lot of implications for the future of our nation, and I’m not entirely sure how it will turn out.

I’m pretty certain in my assumption that the real facts of the case, which will come out before the jury, make it likely that a jury would find in favor of the defendant. Remember that at this time, most of facts are hidden because the police have not released to the public any details of their investigation except for the report filled out by the first on-scene responders (who are presumably patrol officers and not involved in homicide investigations). However, we do know that the case was reviewed by prosecuting attorneys and they told the police to let George Zimmerman go and not to book his arrest as an official arrest. This either means the state attorneys are racist (very unlikely) or that based on the facts they thought it very likely they would lose the case. State attorneys are like the characters in the Tom Wolfe novel Bonfire of the Vanities who relish the idea of being able to prosecute a rich white guy for the murder of a black. Yes, Zimmerman is not rich, and he’s half Hispanic, but a middle-class half-Hispanic is a good-enough stand-in for the more desirable rich white defendant.

So what looks like a strong possibility is that Zimmerman will soon be arrested (again) and charged with homicide and held in jail until his trial. Let’s hope that he doesn’t get beaten up or even killed while he’s in jail. At his trial, there’s a strong chance the jury will find him not-guilty. This verdict won’t be accepted by the blacks, who will riot, and perhaps, unlike the Rodney King riots which were local to Los Angeles, these riots will be nationwide riots and not limited to Florida.

An unanswered question is how Hispanics think about these events. With all of the news attention being paid to this story, I have yet to read a single article about the Hispanic community’s reaction to these events. If we are lucky, the Hispanics will side with Zimmerman. I say this would be good luck because it’s bad for the future of the country as well as the future of Hispanics in this country if they think of themselves as black and vote like blacks. It’s much better for Hispanics to aspire to be like Zimmerman, a guy with a wife, a house, a job, who attended college part-time, and who cared enough about his community to volunteer for a citizen’s watch.

Trayvon Martin and the end of free speech

Another victim of the suppression of free speech:

A New Orleans police officer has resigned after being suspended for posting a comment on a local television station's website about the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin in which he suggested the Florida teen died like a "thug."

Jason Giroir used his full name and identified himself as a New Orleans Police Department employee when he wrote, "Act like a thug die like one!" in response to a WWL-TV article about a rally supporting Martin.

Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas suspended Giroir indefinitely without pay Monday. On Tuesday, Giroir resigned after being told allegations against him had been sustained and a hearing to begin his termination was in motion.

As a cop, Giroir probably knows a lot about thugs.

* * *

The most common comment I received to this post is “Giroir was stupid for saying what he thought about Trayvon, using his real name, and including the name of his employer.” And yes, of course, he was.

The second most common comment is “You have a constitutional right to free speech, but you don’t have a constitutional right to a job.” I think this comment is both too annoyingly smug while at the same time too simplistic.

Firstly, Giroir works for the police which is a government agency, so his employer does owe him a certain amount of constitutional rights.

Secondly, Congress has passed a lot of laws which give employees rights, with respect to their employers, that are equivalent to specific constitutional rights. For example, employers are not allowed to fire employees for their religious beliefs, or their race. So this means you cannot fire someone for saying “Allah is great” but you can fire them for saying “George Zimmerman is great.” It’s easy to see why people could get confused.

I’m sure the police department could come up with a rational reason for why it was “necessary” to fire Giroir. They might argue that the perception that the department is racist would hamper their ability to police the community.

Remember that Giroir would also be fired for saying that blacks are, on average, less intelligent than whites, which is a true scientific statement. It’s important for those of us in the HBD blogging community to support an absolute freedom of speech, because we’re next in the targets of the PC enforcers.

The importance of this post, however, is to remind people that we do not live in “free” country. If you go through life thinking that you live in a police state, one in which the police have absolute authority and you can be punished for saying anything critical of the majority beliefs, then you will be a lot more likely to avoid trouble and live a happy and successful life.

I’m sympathetic to Giroir because I’m as stupid as he is; I keep this blog.

* * *

Because it’s impossible to have a normal life without a job, this means that your right to non-pseudonymous “free speech” is limited to saying what television shows, movies and musical groups you like (so long as this doesn’t include any racist media). You’re not truly free to express minority political views.

UPDATE

Here’s a link to a more detailed story which may change your mind. This additional information makes Giroir seem much less sympathetic and a lot more “boneheaded” to quote his own lawyer. The implied threat of death by a police officer is indeed inappropriate behavior.

This information should have been in the CBS news story—not reporting the full context of what happened simply misinforms the public. I guess the liberal moron at some news agency figured that merely expressing his dislike of Trayvon was so damning that there was no need to include any additional context. Or, maybe there was the more sinister goal of trying to scare people into not saying anything negative about Trayvon.

Police wanted to press charges

ABS News reported today:

The lead homicide investigator in the shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin recommended that neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman be charged with manslaughter the night of the shooting, multiple sources told ABC News.

But Sanford, Fla., Investigator Chris Serino was instructed to not press charges against Zimmerman because the state attorney's office headed by Norman Wolfinger determined there wasn't enough evidence to lead to a conviction, the sources told ABC News.

This proves false the theory about “racist” cops. It was SWPL attorneys with law degrees who decided not to press charges.

New news about the Medieval Warm Period

Here’s some new news about the Medieval Warm Period

Current theories of the causes and impact of global warming have been thrown into question by a new study which shows that during medieval times the whole of the planet heated up.

It then cooled down naturally and there was even a 'mini ice age'.

A team of scientists led by geochemist Zunli Lu from Syracuse University in New York state, has found that contrary to the ‘consensus’, the ‘Medieval Warm Period’ approximately 500 to 1,000 years ago wasn’t just confined to Europe.

In fact, it extended all the way down to Antarctica – which means that the Earth has already experience global warming without the aid of human CO2 emissions.

Compelling evidence that I have been right about global warming being bogus.

Obamacare before the Supreme Court

A reader wrote:

Are we all so hyped up over a shooting between a twenty-something and a 17 year old in Florida, that we have no care for what the Supreme Court decides on universal healthcare?

The Supreme Court hasn’t found a major piece of economic legislation unconstitutional for violating the enumerated powers of Congress since the 1930s. And the Supreme Court today is truly conservative, not in the liberal-conservative sense, but in the sense that they don’t want to make big waves and they generally accept prior Supreme Court precedent.

So I find it hard getting excited about this when I am nearly certain the outcome will be that Obamacare is upheld.

Trayvon Martin: what REALLY happened

At least this is my best guess based on the evidence I have so far.

Martin is walking around the community snooping at the condos. As a guy who has previously committed theft (the suspension in which he was caught with stolen girls’ jewelry and a screwdriver he presumably used to pry open lockers), he’s thinking about all of the criminal possibilities.

Then he notices some guy in a car tailing him. This is not the first time that people have found him suspicious. In fact, it’s a typical reaction from security guards, shopkeepers, and various regular middle-class people. If anything, Trayvon delights in intimidating middle-class people, because it give him a feeling of power. That’s why he purposefully cultivates a threatening demeanor which includes tattoos, gold teeth, a hoodie, and a badass attitude.

So when he notices he’s being tailed, he has a guilty mind and therefore runs away. But after running away, he feels angry at himself for such a cowardly act. He’s the badass Trayvon Martin, how dare some middle-class white Hispanic guy in a car make him run away like a girl. He is determined to go find the guy and teach him a lesson for looking at him the wrong way.

“Yo, why you be follin’ me?” Trayvon asks threateningly.

George Zimmerman is a little bit scared now. He tries to put up a bold front by asking “What are you doing around here?”

Travyon smells his fear, and then he attacks. We know the rest of the story based on previous blog posts about the evidence. One punch to his face breaks George’s nose, then Trayvon tackles him and bashes his head against the ground.

* * *

By the way, if you read the police report, you will see that the cops approached Zimmerman with guns drawn, and that Zimmerman was then handcuffed and brought back to the police station and questioned there, so the notion that he wasn't "arrested" because the cops are racist is merely semantics. The police chose not to call it an arrest after they determined that there was overwhelming evidence in favor of self-defense.

The police also held onto his gun as evidence.

Also, note that the cop states he heard Zimmerman say "I was yelling for someone to help me, but no one would help me." If someone had just come to help, Trayvon would still be alive and be yet another black youth charged with felony assault. But people, wisely self-interested, decided not to get any more involved than calling 911.

UPDATE, NEW INFO

There’s some additional evidence posted at the Orlando Sentinel last evening which I missed:

Zimmerman told them he lost sight of Trayvon and was walking back to his SUV when Trayvon approached him from the left rear, and they exchanged words.

Trayvon asked Zimmerman if he had a problem. Zimmerman said no and reached for his cell phone, he told police. Trayvon then said, "Well, you do now" or something similar and punched Zimmerman in the nose, according to the account he gave police.

Zimmerman fell to the ground and Trayvon got on top of him and began slamming his head into the sidewalk, he told police.

Zimmerman began yelling for help.

I think this somewhat contradicts Trayvon’s girlfriend’s account, but in both accounts they exchange words and then there’s a fight, no doubt started by Trayvon.

Also:

One witness, who has since talked to local television news reporters, told police he saw Zimmerman on the ground with Trayvon on top, pounding him — and was unequivocal that it was Zimmerman who was crying for help.

Zimmerman then shot Trayvon once in the chest at very close range, according to authorities.

When police arrived less than two minutes later, Zimmerman was bleeding from the nose, had a swollen lip and had bloody lacerations to the back of his head.

The key new info here is that the shot was at "very close range" and in the chest, which adds further evidence to my suspicion that Zimmerman did not have the opportunity to run away and that the "stand your ground" law is irrelevant and this would be self defense in any jurisdiction. Not that a shorter out-of-shape overweight injured man had much chance running away from a much taller younger guy who plays football.

Did Trayvon Martin punch a bus driver?

Information about the tweet from his cousin's tweet is now showing up on more mainstream news sources:

"Yu ain't tell me you swung on a bus driver," Martin's cousin wrote to him on Feb. 21.

This incident is in addition to the incidents that got Martin suspended from school on multiple occasions.

18 USC 249

Regardless of the subtlety of previous civil rights laws and the requirements in some cases that the perpetrator be a state actor or that the victims be involved in specially protected activities, that’s no longer relevant today, because of 18 USC 249 which was signed into law October, 2009 by Obama (long after I graduated from law school):

(a) In General.—
 (1) Offenses involving actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin.— Whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, a dangerous weapon, or an explosive or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person—
  (A) shall be imprisoned not more than 10 years, fined in accordance with this title, or both; and
  (B) shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life, fined in accordance with this title, or both, if—
   (i) death results from the offense; or
   (ii) the offense includes kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill.

So this is a catch-all statute that allows a federal do-over in any criminal case in which it’s perceived that the defendant committed the crime “because of” the race of the victim.

It feels like a violation of the principal of Double Jeopardy, but no one cares about stuff like that when there’s the goal of putting evil racists behind bars.

Anyway, the point of this post is that this statute will be used to prosecute George Zimmerman a second time if he’s acquitted by the state jury.

Look how at least one black girl is riled up by the Trayvon Martin shooting

This YouTube video demonstrates how race-mongers like Al Sharpton have successfully riled up the blacks over the Trayvon Martin shooting.

If you watch the video to the end, you will see the black girl assault the white guy who tells her to leave.

According to an accompanying article, she was eventually tasered by Florida Atlantic “University” police.

This video also demonstrates why you don’t want to go to a bogus school like that. Whenever you read some stupid blog post recommending how you can save money by having your kid attend a community college for two years before transferring to a four-year college, you should tell the blogger to watch the video so he can see the quality of classmates at that type of school.

* * *

With this kind of anger among blacks, will they ever accept the truth of self defense, or will they riot?

Trayvon Martin, MULTIPLE suspensions

The Miami Herald reports:

According to the report, on Oct. 21 staffers monitoring a security camera at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School spotted Trayvon and two other students writing “W.T.F.,” an acronym for “What the f---,” on a hallway locker, according to schools police. The security employee, who knew Trayvon, confronted the teen and looked through his bag for the graffiti marker.

Trayvon’s backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, according to the report, which described the screwdriver as a burglary tool.

Trayvon was asked if the jewelry, which was mostly women’s rings and earrings, belonged to his family or a girlfriend.

“Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,” according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend.

. . .

That suspension was followed four months later by another one, in February, in which Trayvon was caught with an empty plastic bag with traces of marijuana in it, the boy’s family’s attorney has confirmed. A schools police report obtained by The Miami Herald specifies two items: a bag with marijuana residue and a “marijuana pipe.”

The suspension was the third for the teen. On Monday, the family also acknowledged Trayvon had earlier been suspended for tardiness and truancy.

It’s also mentioned in the article that the marijuana suspension was a 10-day suspension, and not five days as incorrectly reported previously.

The more we learn about this kid, the more he appears to be a hoodlum. No wonder why Zimmerman thought he looked suspicious.

The real Trayvon Martin story comes out

Reported a short while ago in the Orlando Sentinel:

With a single punch, Trayvon Martin decked the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who eventually shot and killed the unarmed 17-year-old, then Trayvon climbed on top of George Zimmerman and slammed his head into the sidewalk several times, leaving him bloody and battered, authorities have revealed to the Orlando Sentinel.

That is the account Zimmerman gave police, and much of it has been corroborated by witnesses, authorities say.

Zimmerman has not spoken publicly about what happened, but that night, Feb. 26, and in later meetings he described and re-enacted for police what he says happened.

In his version of events, he had turned around and was walking back to his SUV when Trayvon approached him from behind, the two exchanged words then Trayvon punched him in the nose, sending him to the ground, and began beating him.

* * *

Zimmerman also claims that Martin tried to take his gun.

And there’s an account from the 13-year-old witness:

In addition, an eyewitness, 13-year-old Austin Brown, told police he saw a man fitting Zimmerman's description lying on the grass moaning and crying for help just seconds before he heard the gunshot that killed Martin.

The latter paragraph confirms my hunch that Zimmerman was on the ground and not in a position to run away, thus the “stand your ground” law is irrelevant, Zimmerman’s actions would be self defense in any jurisdiction.

Trayvon was suspended for marijuana

The Miami Herald reports:

Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin was suspended from school because he was caught with an empty plastic bag with traces of marijuana in it, the boy’s family attorney has confirmed.

Was it for his personal use, or was Martin a drug dealer as was suggested elsewhere on the alt-right internet?

When Zimmerman said on the 911 call that he thought Martin was on drugs, maybe he was right? The police have not released the results of Martin’s toxicology report.

George Zimmerman had a broken nose

Reported by ABC News, Zimmerman's lawyer says that Zimmerman suffered a broken nose.

This looks more like a case of a tall agressive black who was suspended from school beating up a short overweight non-agressive white-collar worker.

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Also, Matt Drugde is running with the picture of Trayvon with the gold teeth and wifebeater shirt.

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Meanwhile, a black lynch mob is forming:

It was announced by Mikhail Muhammad, leader of a small militant organisation called the New Black Panther Party, who said he was seeking up to 10,000 black men willing to form a militia to find Mr Zimmerman and administer what they regard as justice.

Asked if he was inciting violence, Mr Muhammad said: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." To the sound of cheers from followers, who wore black uniforms, he promised: "If the government won't do the job, we'll do it."

Only the rich can afford to work

There an article in yesterday’s NY Times about international internships:

Intrax’s internship programs cost from around $5,600 to $7,900. That includes placement, visa help, housing, a global skills training course, cultural activities, insurance and individual support, he said. Airfare is extra, and very rarely are students paid. “Some companies offer a stipend; we don’t arrange that,” Mr. Roma said.

Karl Marx predicted this with his famous line. In fact, it’s worth repeating the whole paragraph:

In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly—only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!

Today, those with no useful skills happily collect welfare, while for the rich, labor is not about making money but about “life’s prime want” which they want so badly that they are willing to pay more money for the opportunity to work for two months than most poor people in the world earn in a year.

Karl Marx was wrong in predicting the end of the bourgeoisie—in fact, only the bourgeoisie get to experience the joy of self-actualizing work—but he deserves much credit for getting some of it right. The future is a very hard thing to predict.

Jeb Bush and the coming race riots

When I saw the headline that said Jeb Bush says 'stand your ground' law doesn't apply in Trayvon Martin shooting, I thought that maybe Jeb was reading my blog. But then I read the article:

Speaking Friday in Texas, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said "stand your ground" doesn't apply to this case."Stand your ground means stand your ground. It doesn't mean chase after somebody who's turned their back," Bush told The Dallas Morning News.

Bush is giving out the false impression that Zimmerman shot Trayvon in the back while he was running away. As far as I know, Trayvon was shot in the chest from the front, and as I wrote in a previous post, I have the impression that Zimmerman may have been on the ground when he shot Travyon, which means that the Florida “stand your ground” law is irrelevant because you can’t run away if you’re on the ground.

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There’s a strong possibility that this case could lead to race riots. I think it is almost guaranteed that Zimmerman will be prosecuted. Why else bring on a prosecutor, one known for her hardball tactics? Any day now, Zimmerman will be arrested and will be held in jail until his trial.

However, the jury will have to consider the actual facts of the case, and they will be told that Zimmerman’s guilt has to be proven “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Zimmerman’s previous arrest (for which the charges were dropped) will probably not be allowed into evidence. However, any evidence of Trayvon’s propensity for violence and misbehavior will be allowed into evidence. This is not a rape trial, so rape shield laws don’t apply here.

Remember that law enforcement officials, based on evidence we are not completely privy to, thought this was such an open and shut case of self-defense that they didn't even bother to arrest him. It’s said that the cops only let him go because they are “racist,” but even racist cops wouldn’t let a Hispanic guy with a gun and a dead body just walk away like that unless the evidence was pretty compelling in favor of self-defense.

So this is a setup for race riots of the type not seen since the cops in the Rodney King trial were acquitted.

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Lawrence Auster suspects that Trayvon may have been suspended from school for punching a bus driver. That would be exactly the type of evidence introduced at a criminal trial that would make a jury of law-abiding whites and Hispanics sympathetic to Zimmerman.

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I accidentally deleted a comment in which the commenter said that the feds would get Zimmerman on "civil rights" charges. My response is that Zimmerman is a private citizen and not a state actor, so it's not illegal for him to disregard people's Constitutional rights.

They may find some other federal offense, violating the spirit of Double Jeopardy, but it has become common practice when there's a defendant whom no one likes.

I can't believe that it has been almost 18 years since I graduated from law school. Yet I still remember most of this stuff.

George Zimmerman's mother is Peruvian

According to his friend who was interviewed by Good Morning America, George's mother is Peruvian.

I still don't have any solid source for his father's ethnicity. I think that people are just making assumptions because the name sounds German or Jewish.

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And it says here:

Zimmerman, one of four siblings, grew up in Manassas, Virginia. His father was a former military man who raised the children in a very strict, respectful household, a neighbour recalled.

His mother, Gladys Zimmerman, was a courts employee of Peruvian descent. The family worshipped at All Saints Catholic Church, where Zimmerman served as an altar boy, neighbours said.

Zimmerman’s father doesn’t sound very Jewish to me. But he could be a Catholic German.

Zimmerman’s father is also said to be a “retired Virginia Supreme Court magistrate judge.” I think this is a position that doesn’t necessarily require a law degree or any formal educational credentials, but nevertheless it sounds like a good white collar job. If Zimmerman's father does have a law degree, then George is kind of a disappointment to not even have a college degree.

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Some interesting evidence and conjecture at this blog post about the real Trayvon Martin.