Actually a lot of these quotes seem to come from Martin’s father when he recounts his interview with the police detective. It is kind of confusing that they both gave interviews on the same night.
The Martin interview actually sounds like a garbled version of the police report with some dramatic dialog added. I can’t tell what parts are added by the detective and what parts are added by Martin. It tends to show why the police try to interview witnesses as soon as possible after the incident occurs.
We don’t have access to all the evidence yet, so maybe it’s in there.
; )
I can see why people think it makes his story look less believable. I honestly do. and I agree. It doesn’t lend any credibility in fact it does the opposite–(it collects credibility ?).
But I know from personal experience that being plausible is different than being true. Truth is stranger than fiction sometimes.
I’m watching the video over and over and* there simply isn’t any wound there*. You get multiple views of the back of Zimmerman’s head and none show a big black welt or laceration. That frame is showing a shadow or something.
Unless Zimmerman is frickin’ Wolverine, there is simply no way he sustained a serious wound to the back of his head. It isn’t there.
As to the issue of what Zimmerman claims Martin said, I don’t see the relevance. Yes, it’s preposterous and difficult to believe; it sounds like shit from a comic book. But it really has very little to do with the law and, frankly, it’s the sort of embellishment that Zimmerman, or anyone, might add unconsciously, without intending to lie… heck, might even add even if the shooting was entirely justified. While it was an infinitely worse event for Trayvon Martin, it’s still worth noting that it’s probably the most shocking and traumatic thing to ever happen to George Zimmerman. If his memory is backfilling stuff or blowing Trayvon Martin up into a supervillian in his mind’s eye, frankly, that’s to be expected.
I’m not relying on it, I’m relying on my eyes and good sense. The police report is confirmation.
I did not reject the reports of his back being “wet and covered in grass as if he’d been laying on his back on the ground”, (by the way, actual grass on his back, which is what the report says, vs. grass stains is meaningful: wet grass clippings can cling from the gentlest touch, while grass stains occur from rubbing the grass hard enough to break the cells of the blades and cause them to stain- an intense struggle can be suggested by stains, wet grass suggests nothing except that he was on his back on the grass) nor did I reject as fabricated the report that he was bleeding from the nose and the back of the head.
What I reject is the idea that he was so badly injured as to justify shooting Trayvon. “bleeding from the nose and the back of the head” and in fact Smith’s report specifies that he was able to observe these things “while I was in such close contact with Zimmerman”, making it highly likely that Zimmerman’s bleeding was so minor as to be unnoticeable unless one was as close to him as Smith was, making it even more likely that there was no shirt covered in blood, either his or Martin’s.
I’m not picking and choosing, I’m looking at all of it. And all of it makes it clear that Zimmerman did not change his shirt, the shirt he was wearing in the video was the shirt he was wearing when the cops found him, and that shirt looks clean as a whistle, nobody’s blood anywhere. And to believe that he was being beaten severely enough to shoot Martin while he was on his back and Martin over him, the man needs to have somebody’s blood on his shirt.
My guess is that it’s like most rumors: a distortion of the truth. The truth is that he still has his gun today (I think?) and he still has his permit for it (I’m sure)- and that probably got telephoned into the police never taking it from him at any point.
Adding; if Zimmerman had injuries, wouldn’t the prudent thing for the SPD be to take pictures of him? You don’t have to arrest him and get a mug shot, just say “George, we want to take a picture of those cuts and bruises, gimme 20 seconds to take a few photos, k?” It strikes me as being a routine move.
Well, Zimmerman’s dad did quote Trayvon as saying some variation on, ‘Tonight, you die.’ So we’re getting closer to his true supervillainy being revealed.
I mean, obviously that’s your personal standard, but why do think that’s the law, especially in light of the Garcia case I mentioned earlier, where Garcia had NO injuries at all and was found to have legally killed in self-defense? If Garcia’s no injuries did not bar his self-defense claims, why wouldn’t ANY blood on Zimmerman operate to support self-defense?
And they probably do have those pictures, somewhere. There were arguments made in this thread or the other that they haven’t been leaked because they don’t support a self-defense theory, and therefore would be bad press for the SPD.
I’m not sure I buy into that theory, but I do think that Zimmerman’s lawyers would have gotten their hands on those pictures by now, and if they showed anything other than minor scrapes and bumps, they’d be all over the place.
I think it may take a month or so, but eventually we’ll all be privy to decent quality shots of these injuries.
There’re similar effects on the other bald guy there. The mark is only visible in that one set of frames, not in the other sets closer to the camera where we get to see the same area.
I don’t, I didn’t frame it as being a matter of legal standards, just what makes sense. And you and I have agreed, I believe, that the law does not necessarily define what makes sense.
Garcia didn’t claim that getting jumped and beaten up was why he feared for his life. Having blood on his closes and injuries would lend credibility to Zimmerman’s account of what happened.
A lot of what has been leaked/released lately hasn’t favored Z imho.
And the leaking/releasing is coming from someone w/ access to official channels.
I think the SPD is in cya mode. all imho.
Have spoken with a journalist who said that there’re interviews going on w/ cops which are not-for-attribution, background only, etc.
So they want their sideS to come out, but they don’t think they can come out with it. I doubt the PD is monolithic about this.
To me, it seems entirely unreasonable for Zimmerman to believe that Martin was going to punch him to death. Especially since he knew the cops were on the way. All he would have to do is put his arms in front of his face to block the punches until the police arrived.