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I’ve been inundated with rabid pro-George Zimmerman fans who were allegedly liberals, even though Zimmerman is a Right Wing Hero (judgment is not a forte of the Right). These fans just so happened to believe that all of George’s victims were liars and fakers, and that poor George was set up. They lectured me from on high about how George needed a good hug and some therapy and it was super cruel of me to call out his crimes. He was a target. A victim. I was “bullying” George Zimmerman. It’s almost as if I waved a gun at him and locked him out of his house but not – because he was nowhere around, since he was in jail for allegedly doing exactly that to his girlfriend.
George Zimmerman is a predator. He is dangerous. He should come with a flashing warning light on his forehead and no, I don’t care about his feelings.
I do not care about his psychological problems. That is his problem to deal with if he ever chooses to do so. I care about the innocent people whose lives he takes, destroys, ruins, threatens, poisons, and more. The damage from his behavior is much deeper than a police report.
Trayvon Martin is dead. His family will never hug their son again. Trayvon Martin doesn’t get to go to therapy. That choice got taken away from him by a deranged sociopath.
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Shellie Zimmerman may not seem innocent to many people, but she is a victim of George’s manipulations and lies. Yes she covered for him in court, but it’s not Shellie’s fault that George got off for the killing of Trayvon. The fault for that lay in the underhanded, agenda ridden scheme of the prosecutor’s office. It is not Shellie’s fault that George Zimmerman profiled Trayvon Martin, followed him, and instigated an altercation with him that resulted in him murdering Trayvon.
George Zimmerman just needs a hug? Get real. I’d like to note that only someone who has never had to stare down the barrel of a gun pointed at them by a deranged person can afford to be so sunshiny, foolishly blind about the reality that some people are dangerously unwell. Bad things happen in an instant to good people. Some people are killers. Sometimes, way too often, that killer is someone the person knows well.
Sometimes that killer lays in wait for a target/victim. They choose someone they think others will find it easy to blame. They do this deliberately. Imagine someone planning your death for no reason other than you did not fetch their drink fast enough, or you were walking down the street with Skittles in your hand.
Do you think your family would want to hug that person after they stalked and murdered you because you seemed like a good victim, an easy target?
Oh, too gory? It happens every day in America. It’s going to happen again with George Zimmerman unless someone has the courage to put him behind bars where he belongs.
If these defenders of Zimmerman had their child gunned down for holding Skittles, would they be able to stop themselves from hating someone who condemned their son while defending his killer? This is more than an awful story. This is real. This happened. And now that same man continues on his rampage against humanity – aiming his rage at other vulnerable victims – never a rich, large, white man. He seems to have learned after assaulting the police officer to only prey on the vulnerable – that’s how to get away with it.
And society lets him. All of the people defending him are complicit. The people blaming his wife and girlfriend are complicit. The people blaming Trayvon Martin are beyond complicit – they are reprehensibly damaged and not fit for society.
I dare them to go to Trayvon Martin’s grave and say these things. I dare them to say these things if Zimmerman murders one of the women he’s targeting right now. Tell us all about how he needed a hug. Tell us all about how unfair life is for poor George. Tell us all about how he was victimized as a child.
Many people are abused as children and they do not grow up to be predators. But no matter — a crime is a crime. A death is a death. We reserve cutting slack for someone who made one mistake, not for a serial predator who leaves devastation in his wake and yet doesn’t hesitate to strike again.
Hug Trayvon Martin’s family. Hug his friends. Hug the many people emotionally and spiritually wounded by the lack of regard so many Americans showed for that young boy’s life. Can we even fathom the psychological damage his murder and the way it was treated has inflicted on a generation? Young black children have been told just what we think of them and they are now even more aware that their lives are at risk just walking down the street. It’s not safe. This is not a safe world in which to be black and eating Skittles.
Hug Shellie Zimmerman. Hug George’s girlfriend. Oh, they’re not worthy because they were “dumb” to be with him — but he is worthy of all forgiveness? Neither of these women deserve to be threatened or harmed. They have done nothing wrong. They are not the predator. They might not be the most self-aware or even bright people, but then George wouldn’t hook up with a woman who was on to him. He’s not stupid.
I’m told it’s justified for George to wave guns at anyone who irritates him because you see, he is being “targeted and pushed”. The rules of humanity do not apply to George for some reason. Trayvon Martins’ family, however, is expected to tolerate all of the incredibly offensive, sick things Zimmerman fans dish out, and never retaliate.
Only George gets to wave a gun around any time someone “pushes him” with media “bias”. Do not apply this logic to young black men, because it won’t work. Do not apply it to the young black woman shot in a Detroit suburb by a white man. Only right wing hero George Zimmerman gets to wave a gun around. He’s been “pushed”. The rest of us have it so easy. Travyon Martin’s family knows nothing about being pushed. Shellie Zimmerman, who stood by this predator only to be betrayed, ditched when the shoe was on the other foot and lied to, knows nothing of being “pushed”. The girlfriend George allegedly choked knows nothing of being “pushed”. The cousin he allegedly molested knows nothing of being “pushed”. These abuses don’t count.
There is no level to which some people won’t stoop in order to excuse and justify a dangerous predator who has ALREADY KILLED AN INNOCENT YOUNG PERSON. George Zimmerman needs to be off the streets. He needs to be in jail.
It’s not often that I use phrases like “STFU”, but I can think of no other way to express my contempt for and deep disappointment in the Zimmerman Fan Club. STFU.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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