George Zimmerman’s brother, Robert, appeared on On The Record last night where he spoke condescendingly of Trayvon Martin’s family, made race-baiting comments about their attorneys, offered no remorse over the tragic situation that took their son – and instead focused on how difficult it is for the Zimmerman family to live with the burden of having “had to take someone’s life.” Predictably, Greta Van Susteren didn’t challenge a word of that jaw-dropping heartlessness, nor did she tell viewers about any of the racist tweets Robert Zimmerman has sent since George shot and killed African American Martin.
At about the 5:00 mark in the video below, Van Susteren asked if there were “moments of great sorrow and nervousness” during the trial.
Robert Zimmerman replied, “It’s unfortunate that race has any role in this situation at all.”
This, from the guy who likened Martin to the African American murderer of a woman named Sherry West and then tweeted:
POTUS spoke of his Mom acting like a “typical” white woman when encountering blacks. The fate of Sherry West might B why.
That was just one of several racist tweets sent by Robert Zimmerman. But it was a point of racial hypocrisy that seemed to completely escape Van Susteren. Instead, she moved on to ask, “Do you ever think of the Martin family, the Trayvon Martin family?”
Zimmerman’s response was both telling and terrifying.
Absolutely. We expressed our condolences in a statement September of 2012. If I ran into Sybrina or Tracy (Trayvon's parents), I would give them a hug. I would express my condolence, condolences to them. I’m inclined to believe George would do the same thing.
That right there is shockingly condescending. The Zimmerman family issued “a statement” expressing its condolences a year ago and that was the last time they thought of Trayvon Martin’s family? But while he indicated no remorse, no sorrow from anyone in the family over what they must be going through and have gone through during the trial, he’d nonetheless “give them a hug” if he ran into them?
But wait there’s more. Zimmerman went on to describe the Martin-family advisors as racist “things.”
…Now, these things that surround Sybrina and Tracy: Mr. Crump, Ms. Jackson, these people who, who I think really exploited very pure grief - and other race profiteers like the NAACP, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, that’s how I see them. I wouldn’t give them a hug.
Then, Zimmerman went on to suggest that the only grief and sorrow he ever thought about was that of his own family:
But Sybrina lost her son and so did Tracy and you know, now that we have this verdict of not guilty, I think what I will always remember is the rawness of the emotion, the deafening silence when you hear your brother took someone’s life in self defense, it still hasn’t gone away. You know, the tension of having him on trial is gone. …But whenever I look at George, I’m always gonna see and he’s always gonna have to live with – just as anyone who had to take someone’s life – that they have to carry that burden around for the rest of their life now.
You’d think that the Zimmerman family would show some graciousness at this hour, extend a hand of reconciliation to the African American community, ask for forgiveness and understanding or something to soothe the psychic wounds George Zimmerman caused by shooting and killing an unarmed black teenager. But no. While calls for calm and peace have come from African American leaders and the Martin family attorney, Robert Zimmerman fanned the flames. And Fox News helped.
In any case, all the information I’ve read over the past year, including – most tellingly, Zimmerman’s own statements, points in one direction: Guilty as hell.
Zimmerman saw a lanky black kid in a hoodie and decided to play cops and robbers in the dark. While following the kid, he called 911 and was told politely to back off (“we don’t need you to do that, Sir”). He ignored that suggestion and kept on following the kid. That kid’s now dead but it doesn’t take much to realise that he got scared, decided against running for fear that would get him a bullet in the back and confronted his stalker. The kid winds up dead with a bullet in his chest.
Bottom line for me: had Zimmerman listened to the police dispatcher and backed off, that kid would still be alive and this excuse for a trial would not have embarrassed America throughout the world.
The silver lining on this travesty of justice is that no police department in its right mind will ever give him a chance to play cops and robbers for real. That’s small consolation for the death of a child at the hands of a person who apparently never grew out of the phase of playing cops and robbers.
“Bang! Bang! You’re dead! You’ve got to fall down!! Mommyyyyyyyy, Joey’s dead but he won’t fall down!”
“But first, I would call 911 to report suspicious black people in the area . . .”
.
Frankly, I agree with that part, because what kind of person talks about how they’re gonna profit from killing someone as soon as the trial is over?
For that matter… Who talks about profiting from murder in the first place, other than mobsters and hitmen? Even people who kill their rich spouses for the money don’t talk go around advertising it.
Obviously, these statements by Zimmerman’s brother are shocking and designed to continue the narrative of portraying Trayvon Martin as a criminal punk who deserved to be shot to death. He’s also clearly trying to head off a potential civil suit by continuing to repeat the notion that Zimmerman had no choice.
Now, to be fair, Zimmerman’s parents gave an interview as well, and they gave a sincere apology from what I heard of it. I’ll wait to see a full playback to know for certain, but the clip that I saw included what looked to me to be a heartfelt sentiment. Sadly, the brother is doing nothing of the kind.
I would think he would be a little more careful in tempting the Martin family toward litigation. While I don’t know that the DOJ will actually bring civil rights charges against Zimmerman, I do know that the Martin family has every right to sue Zimmerman in civil court for his behavior. And civil litigation operates under very different rules than criminal cases – they don’t have to prove Zimmerman’s fallacies beyond a reasonable doubt. A jury in a civil trial could assign him a proportionate amount of responsibility or even a complete amount of responsibility, given that he chose to leave his vehicle, chase, stalk and confront Trayvon Martin even after being expressly told not to do so. Now, I had thought that the Martin family might avoid such a suit, mostly due to the fact that Zimmerman doesn’t have any money to hand over. They’d be winning a judgment against a person who is likely to declare bankruptcy and never pay it. But if Zimmerman and his brother were to be making provocative, condescending and even gleeful comments like this in public about the matter, the Martin family may well decide to take up the lawsuit anyway.
I’m sure Fox Nation is disappointed that we didn’t have a repeat of the reaction that happened after the first Rodney King verdict. Living in Los Angeles at the time, I remember it well. Except for a few acts of violence mostly it’s been peaceful protest, and following the President’s words of advice that we can disagree, but must accept the jury’s decision.
Since the 2004 election the right has had very few victories recently, with this being considered a victory for them tells you how low their expectations have become. While everyone has to right to peacefully protest, I still believe the ballot box is where your voice is heard more clearly and loudly.