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Trayvon Martin

I wonder what the directors of the crockumentary promised the prosecuting attorneys?  Did they shoot long interviews and give them the impression they would be portrayed as heroes of the racial revolution?  If so, imagine their horror when they discovered what the BLM/SJW/BGI (Black Grievance Industry) does to whiteys when they’re no longer useful.  Being thrown under the “let’s all go to the riot” bus doesn’t begin to cover it.

The opening montage consisted of video of many TV trucks, the courthouse–outside shot–and a blur of other predictable images, accompanied by these–among other–voiceovers:

“It [the trial] was a clown show,” this in the video context of attacking the prosecution, followed by “it was a circus,” followed by the solemn “people took this case very seriously; you could see factions.”

The evening’s primary theme was already established: Everybody is still racist, but the trial was a farce because the prosecution didn’t scream “race” and put on a case based entirely on race, the trial was inherently biased against black people.  Two additional ongoing themes also popped up, but here, unlike the previous three episodes, were mercifully brief.  There was a quick clip of a white guy saying something about “Stand Your Ground”–gotta have that–and a quick video of the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre delivering a speech–no idea when, where, or for what occasion–and observing that people believe something is going terribly wrong in America, and “we will never surrender our guns.”

Another quick, two for the price of one, theme was the trial was a turning point in history, which divided America.  That most Americans had no idea the trial was happening, and had never heard Trayvon Martin’s name apparently had no effect on the racial turmoil and historic events that divided America without America being aware of them.

Flash to a black gentleman proclaiming: “hands up, you get shot. Hands down, you get shot.  Run, you get shot, don’t run, you get shot,” followed by the sage observation that blacks think there is nothing they can do to keep from being shot by someone. George Zimmerman, the police, white people in general, it was never clarified.

The scenarios he was proposing had nothing whatever to do with the case, just like SYG or the NRA, but remember, the whole thing was racist, and we were reminded by another voiceover:

“The justice system itself is on trial.”

Judge Nelson

This was quickly followed by a quick clip of Judge Debra Nelson ruling that the prosecution should make no specific mention of racial profiling–it would have been blatantly prejudicial–and there was no evidence any such thing occurred.   The directors disagreed, adding another voiceover: “racial profiling is all this case is about.”  This was punctuated by Al Sharpton observing that taking race out is removing the core of the case.

John Guy
credit: johnguyfacebook

There was a brief clip of prosecutor John Guy delivering his opening statement.  This is the general quality of his arguments:

Trayvon Martin was literally walking home with candy in his hand and he was perceived as a threat…because of his race.

In Update 32 I had this to say about Guy’s opening:

Interestingly the State’s opening was delivered by John Guy, though de la Rionda and Corey were in the courtroom.  I’m not sure if they’re smart enough to realize it was a good idea to have someone somewhat less obviously rabid deliver the opening, or whether they were merely trying to manipulate the all female jury by using a tall, good-looking lawyer from central casting. I don’t mean to disparage the appearance of anyone else, I merely make an obvious observation.  Such things, believe it or not, are considered in trials.

What the State chose to tell the jury closely followed my previous predictions.  Having no real evidence to support their case, they stuck very much with the narrative.  The media pretended to be shocked when Guy spoke the few obscenities delivered by Zimmerman during his call to the Sanford Police.  Of course, those obscenities were expressions of annoyance directed at the criminal vermin that had been plaguing the neighborhood for many months, not that Guy could be bothered with context.  Guy also tried to make entirely reasonable and unremarkable matters seem to be somehow significant and evil, repeatedly stating that Zimmerman’s handgun was fully loaded, as every modern handgun is designed to be, and should be if employed as an instrument of self-defense.

The opening was 30 minutes of innuendo, emotion, and deception, with virtually no fact or evidence bearing on proving the essential elements of the offense.  I suspect this emotional approach was an intentional attempt at manipulating the jury, which being all female, the State is obviously thinking will be swayed by emotional appeals.

Donald West

There was a brief clip of defense attorney Don West speaking to Guy’s diatribe:

It was a very emotional statement, but emotion isn’t evidence.

Angela Corey practices legal ethics with Sybrina Fulton.

From that point forward, the episode was a blur of images and video clips, few, if any, in chronological order.  There were frequent closeups of Tracey Martin and Sybrina Fulton sitting in the courtroom, apparently reacting to what was being said, but there is no way to tell if those shots were actually depicting real time reactions to testimony.  I suspect they were cherry picked instead.  And as in the previous episode, there were frequent emotional statements from both.

There was a brief scene with multiple people criticizing witness sequestration, which was, of course, racist.  Scheme Team lawyer Benjamin Crump claimed “they kicked me out out of spite.”  Not mentioned was the sequestration is the rule rather than the exception in virtually all criminal and civil trials, and Crump was a potential witness.

There was a brief clip of West’s opening where he explained the idea Trayvon Martin was unarmed was false.  He used a concrete sidewalk as a weapon.  A brief clip of Mark O’Mara carrying in a heavy chunk of sidewalk concrete was shown, but that happened many days later in the trial.  This was followed by several people ridiculing the very idea of a concrete sidewalk as dangerous.

This was followed by a brief clip of the testimony of Chad Joseph, who was the son of Tracy Martin’s girlfriend of the time.  The entire thrust of his few seconds of screen time was testifying that he asked Trayvon Martin to bring him Skittles, another item that had no bearing on the case.

This was promptly followed by Trayvon Martin’s hoodie being displayed with this voiceover:

…and then we saw the hoodie.  It symbolized the racial profiling GZ is guilty of.

As I’ve previously noted, the hoodie had no role whatever in the case, other than obscuring Trayvon Martin’s face so that Zimmerman could not tell his race until specifically asked that question by the dispatcher some time after Zimmerman called.

Christopher Serino

The action then jumped, again out of sequence, to the testimony of Sanford Police Detective Chris Serino, who handled the case.  Serino “was supposed to be a star witness for the prosecution,” but the directors complained that he didn’t believe he had enough evidence to support the charges, and noted he was under great political pressure.

They also argued that Serino was lying to protect himself. I covered Serino’s testimony here.

There is no question Serino and the entire SPD were under enormous political pressure, but they found no probable cause for arrest, and didn’t budge, which is why Angele Corey was called in to charge Zimmerman without probable cause.

Mark O’Mara

There was a brief clip of Mark O’Mara getting Serino to say he believed Zimmerman was telling the truth.  This was the final testimony of the day, and the prosecution didn’t object until the next morning.  This was followed by:

Mark O’Mara knew the weaknesses of the state of Florida and he capitalized on them 100%.

This was easy in that there was no evidence to bring charges in the first place.  The prosecution’s entire case was its weakness, made even weaker by terrible witnesses who actually proved the defense case.  One prosecution witness after another shot torpedoes into the hull of the prosecution, leaving West and O’Mara to follow up with a few clarifying questions.

Rachel Jeantel
AKA “DeeDee”

Few were as disastrous for the prosecution as Rachel Jeantel.  I covered her testimony–“she was the prosecution’s star witness”–in Updates 32.2 and 32.4.  I also recommend Update 11, which is an amazing prelude to her trial testimony.

There was mercifully little of her testimony shown, but much rationalizing, including painting her as a girl that was teased in high school, and Trayvon Martin nobly befriended her.  “This was a young woman overcome with grief and guilt.”  The director also tried to portray her as paranoid and panicking, afraid of the police, as a way to excuse her wretched demeanor and horrible testimony.  This was contrast with contemporary footage of Jeantel, who has apparently learned to speak more rationally and politely, something beyond her at the trial.  The directors added:

…the problem was, some of the things she said in the past tripped her up when she tried to correct them in the future.

This was a very forgiving way of saying she was caught in multiple lies, and even perjury.  There was, of course, no possible way she would ever be prosecuted for that.  She added:

I had a serious issue with Don West.  I dislike this man.

The directors showed some footage of Jeantel’s earlier deposition. She was behaving badly, just as she did in the trial, refusing to answer West’s questions.  The theme was West was abusing her, but even the footage–he was not visible–revealed his voice was quiet, level and even, completely calm, just as he was in the courtroom.

There was a brief clip of West pointing out that Jeantel was a “terrible” witness, and that she “did everything wrong,” followed by a clip of the Judge asking how much more time West would need with Jeantel the next day. He replied: “we should plan on at least a couple of hours,” to which Jeantel rudely shouted:

WHAT?!

It was the kind of scene that revealed Jeantel as a complete disaster for the prosecution, but the director almost certainly included it in an attempt to try to portray Jeantel sympathetically, and to continue the idea that everyone involved with the case was a vicious racist.  Another commenter claimed West was racially attacking Jeantel, followed by another clip getting her to admit she couldn’t read cursive, again claiming that to be an unfair attack.

Actually, Jeantel had previously claimed she wrote the letter, and got caught in that lie.  West was merely proving if she couldn’t read her own writing, she obviously could not have written the letter.  Throughout the trial, West was a consummate professional, and handled Jeantel very kindly and gently.  Eventually, at the end of her segment, commentators admitted Jeantel was a disaster.

By this time, another theme developed: no one was allowed to testify about what a saint Trayvon Martin was.  If they had only been allowed to do that, it would have changed everything.  This was, of course, only due to racism.  This was followed by attempts to canonize Martin.  What the crockumentary failed to explain was such testimony about a victim is never allowed at trial, being grossly prejudicial.  There was no racism involved.

Cut to a quick clip of Martin’s uncle in a wheelchair, talking about how Trayvon helped him into bed.  Cut to a longer sequence about Martin’s  budding career in aviation.  This featured many stills of a much younger and smiling Martin, no more than 12 or 13 years old, standing in or near aircraft related stuff.

The Trayvon Martin the Media wants you to remember

Martin’s instructor praised Martin as a potential Chuck Yeager, bizarrely asserting that just like him, “9 out of 10” kids Martin’s age smoked pot, skipped school and committed crimes.  “Trayvon was a carbon copy of me at a younger age.”  What also went unmentioned was there was no mention of Martin’s love of aviation until about 2016. It was not raised at the time of his death, or around the time of the trial.

There was a brief clip of the testimony of Martin’s older brother, Jaharvis.  As I wrote at the time, he presented himself well, but the directors only showed a very brief clip of O’Mara’s questioning of his identifiction of the screaming voice on the 911 call being Travon’s.  O’Mara, treating Jaharvis with kid gloves, was able to get him to admit when he first heard the tape, just like his father, he didn’t think it was Trayvon.  But even this brief sequence was followed by the voiceover that “when it comes to the defense, his family is on trial.”

No, several members of Martin’s family, testifying for the prosecution, were very kindly and gently cross-examined by the defense, again, something that is entirely unremarkable and a foundation of our criminal justice system.

This was followed by a brief clip of Sybrina Fulton’s testimony as she listened to the 911 call being played.  She said–out of sequence–“I can’t imagine someone with a loaded gun calling for help.”

Perhaps not, unless that person was being pinned to the ground and mercilessly beaten, unable to reach his gun, as all the evidence in the trial proved. O’Mara asked her virtually no questions. There was no need.

The last witness was the medical examiner, Dr. Shipping Bao, who was even more of a disaster than Jeantel.  A commentator admitted as much: “he was a complete disaster.” I covered that testimonial train wreck in Update 32.5.  I strongly recommend you read it.  Any rational judge not determined to see George Zimmerman convicted might have dismissed all charges right there.

The episode ended with this from Tracy Martin:  “I started doubting my belief in God.”

The directors are trying to have everything every which way.  In a way, one can’t blame them.  They’re trying to explain away a case that should never have been charged, and some of the most bizarre, unethical, incompetent work by prosecutors I’ve ever seen or heard of by crying “racist!”  As Don West noted, emotion isn’t evidence, and insupportable accusations of racism aren’t evidence either.

I’ll be back with Episode 5 next week after I’ve recovered from this week.