It seems George Zimmerman has some friends in high places. Despite the fact that at least one Sanford police detective did not buy Zimmerman's story that Trayvon Martin posed a threat to his life, officials at the highest level of local justice said to "cut him loose."
Joy-Ann Reid reported earlier Wednesday for TheGrio that state attorney Wolfinger and the Sanford Chief of Police were at the scene that evening before telling the police department to let him go. While there's no way to know whether these officials and former Virginia Supreme Court Magistrate Robert Zimmerman play golf together or hang out or what. What is known is that these officials visited the crime scene and then told police to release Zimmerman without taking any pictures of the alleged broken nose or cut head, without getting blood samples from the bloody t-shirt at least one officer alleges he saw, without even performing the most basic investigative procedures.
None of these things happened, and Zimmerman went free. Trayvon Martin's phone records corroborate his girlfriend's account that he was on the phone with her just moments before the shooting, yet George Zimmerman's father insists she's lying about talking to him.
So far the only story that has been corroborated with fact is Trayvon Martin's, posthumously. Yet George Zimmerman is not yet facing any legal action for shooting an unarmed kid.
This, despite the fact that Trayvon Martin's body was found face-down with his arms beneath him.
This, despite the fact that George Zimmerman had no blood on him, no matter what the police reports said.
Instead, in their words: "cut Zimmerman loose."
Does anyone besides me smell a rat? If you don't, then listen to George Zimmerman's father offer hearsay evidence making Trayvon look like a liar.
As Melissa Harris-Perry pointed out on The Last Word Wednesday night, this explanation only works if there is presumption of guilt. If one presumes innocence, then the Stand Your Ground law would apply to Trayvon, not Zimmerman, since Zimmerman came after Trayvon with a loaded gun. For me, it feels all too convenient.
On Lawrence O'Donnell's show Tuesday, Zimmerman surrogate Joe Oliver said something revealing, at least to me. He was deeply angry after Charles Blow and O'Donnell hammered him and his story, and in a moment of anger he said "If we weren't sitting here talking about George killing Trayvon, we would be talking about how Trayvon killed George." There's that presumption of guilt again, this idea that Trayvon Martin's killer Skittles were somehow a threat to George Zimmerman.
With that, I return to my original question. Did the decision to release George Zimmerman come from on high because of a good old boy system in Sanford, Florida? We don't know yet, but there is enough evidence that something is not right to impel the Department of Justice to investigate the Sanford Police Department along with the murder of Trayvon Martin.
It is time for George Zimmerman to leave his 'undisclosed location' and be arrested and charged. Past time.
