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Mark Fuhrman should be in jail somewhere, but instead he's the go-to guy for Fox News when it comes to criminal trials. Not just any criminal trial, either. No, former Detective Mark Fuhrman is the guy Fox News is using for commentary on the high-profile George Zimmerman trial. Zimmerman, you may recall, is on trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin, after a firestorm of protest was unleashed at law enforcement's initial refusal to prosecute Zimmerman due to Florida's ALEC-authored "Stand Your Ground" law.

For those of you reading this who are younger than age 30 or so, Mark Fuhrman was the policeman who blew up the OJ Simpson criminal trial because of his deep, ingrained hatred of black people.

Media Matters:

During the 1995 murder trial of O.J. Simpson, the defense produced a tape of Fuhrman, who collected evidence in the case, using the word n*****more than 40 times over a 10 year period. The person who made the tape said Fuhrman used the slur "in a very casual ordinary pattern of speech. It was nothing extraordinary. It was just conversation." During the O.J. Simpson trial, a number of other witnesses testified that Fuhrman was a racist. Fuhrman, who testified during the trial that he had not used a racial slur in the past 10 years, pled no contest to perjury charges and was sentenced to three years of probation.

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If you ask the typical hyper-political gun owner (and I have … at Thanksgiving dinner), why it’s important to own a gun, they’ll bark about the Constitution. Yes, the Second Amendment: “The Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed!”

This of course is the slogan the National Rifle Association adopted in the 1970’s. It was then that owning a gun became an absolute right endowed by God and the Constitution. A blessing passed down by our forefathers to obliterate game and protect our property. The NRA was founded in 1870 and for its first hundred years it was for gun control and didn’t mention the Second Amendment as their cause.

Adam Winkler points out in his delicious book, “Gun Fight,” what we call the “wild west” had some of the strictest gun control laws we’ve seen as a nation. The shoot out at the OK Corral took place, after all, because Wyatt Earp was trying to disarm the outlaw Cowboys in accordance with a Tombstone ordinance. The KKK was among other things, a gun control organization. They were trying to keep guns out of the hands of newly freed slaves … but still gun control.

The part of the Second Amendment omitted from the NRA’s slogan is: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State…” Yes, well regulated—it’s in the Constitution!

Now, to some, guns are as sacred as scripture. If you ask, again, this typical hyper-political gun owner why they need to stockpile assault rifles, you will get an answer much like Pat Flynn’s, a recent candidate for a Senate seat in Nebraska. "Really, we have our guns to protect ourselves against the government, number one," Flynn said in a debate right before the primary. "Hunting's number two. But protecting us against our government is number one." Remember Flynn was trying to land a job in the government (he didn’t win his party’s nomination, by the way).

The idea is that we have to be just as armed as our government in order to be safer or have more liberty (or something). The U.S. government has unmanned drones armed with supersonic laser-guided anti-armor Hellfire missiles, “bunker busters,” and nuclear weapons. Are far-right politicians saying we need civilians to have shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles “for protection?” Of course they’re not. They actually do want limits on ownership.

And if you ask the most vehement gun rights advocate why Everyman Gun Owner shouldn’t have nuclear weapons, I’d bet you’d get the same answer as to why we don’t want every country to have the capability: “Because they could get into the wrong hands.”

So weapons-grade plutonium should be limited. But the ever-handy semi-auto Glock pistol with a 30-round high-capacity magazine is an absolute right?

A recent gun buyback drive in Los Angeles resulted in someone turning in a rocket launcher. Comforting.

So we’re not actually talking about limited vs. unlimited. We are talking about degrees of weapon ownership.

Guns fall into the wrong hands all the time. More guns and fewer requirements for ownership doesn’t curb this. George Zimmerman was the wrong hands. Zimmerman, a Florida man now infamous for shooting an unarmed black teenager at close range after a 911 operator told him not to engage the alleged suspect and wait for police to arrive, is now being defended by said hyper-political gun owners. There’s no reason a Neighborhood Watch captain should be patrolling his block with a criminal record and a pistol. Zimmerman was a catastrophe realized. Even in the wake of new evidence about this case, the fact remains if Zimmerman didn’t have a gun, 16-year-old Trayvon Martin would be alive.

The United States is number one in the world in civilian gun ownership. And since we’re not last in gun violence (we’re the 14th highest in deaths—way higher in just injuries) it’s safe to assume that increasing the number of guns doesn’t decrease the number of gun deaths. Just like cutting taxes doesn’t increase revenue—making gun ownership unlimited doesn’t make us safer. It’s a lie. A fairy tale of the gun lobby. Completely unsupported by data or logic. A falsehood.

So unless you think all Americans should get Daisy Cutters this Christmas—you believe in regulations as to who gets a weapon, what kind and where they can have it.

Gun control laws are not tyranny—as the family of Trayvon Martin can testify to—a de-regulated militia is.

Fla. State Sen. Chris Smith wasn't happy with Governor Rick Scott's task force to review the state's 'Kill At Will'/'Stand Your Ground' law, which received national attention in the wake of the killing of teenager Trayvon Martin. So he created his own task force.

Scott's official state version of the task force was filled with legislators who voted in favor of the law in the first place and failed to include people affected by the law or who might seriously question it. Smith saw through the governor's ruse and created his own task force, which released a report on the law that is sharply critical of the law. Smith's task force was much broader than the governor's, including law enforcement, state prosecutors, public and private defense attorneys, and other legal experts

In the years since passage of the drastic revisions to Chapter 776 of the Florida Statute regarding the use of force in self-defense, Floridians have grappled with the tragic consequences of a arguably, ambiguous law which has shown demonstrable confusion within and among police departments, prosecuting offices and the courts. While commonly referred to as the ―Stand Your Ground‖ law, the statutes have not simply helped law abiding citizens protect themselves from attack, but instead, have often been used as cover for the perpetrators of crimes. Each day that goes by without legislative action places innocent lives at stake. While the focus on public safety and the previously well-established principles of self defense are paramount to the Task Force‘s review, the evaluation is also concerned with preventing operation of a system tantamount to lawlessness, where any person can, within a matter of seconds, render himself investigator, judge, jury and executioner, all in one. In a civilized society, governing institutions must provide all Floridians with grounds for confidence in the justice system.

The task force unanimously approved the following recommendations:

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One of the techniques the propagandists at Fox News have mastered over the years marking their toxic rise in the media landscape has been to hold its competitors to standards that Fox itself has no intention of ever meeting. There's nothing Fox talkers love to attack other networks for more than their supposed journalistic sins -- while Fox itself has proven itself time and again as a relentless font of false "facts" and disinformation.

A recent example was the piece by the New York Times' David Carr castigating NBC for failing to correct a misleading audio edit on the air, even though the network did fire the producer responsible.

After broadcasting an audio clip on the “Today” show about George Zimmerman last month that hit the trifecta of being misleading, incendiary and dead-bang wrong, NBC News management took serious action: it fired the producer in charge and issued a statement apologizing for making it appear as if Mr. Zimmerman had made overtly racist statements.

The only thing NBC didn’t do was correct the report on the “Today” show.

What got everyone's panties in a knot? It was an edit that made Zimmerman appear worse than the full recording:

Here is how NBC edited the clip of Mr. Zimmerman, who is now charged with second-degree murder in the Trayvon Martin case:

“This guy looks like he’s up to no good. ... he looks black.”

Here is what Mr. Zimmerman actually said:

“This guy looks like he’s up to no good. Or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.” The dispatcher then asks, “O.K., and this guy — is he white, black or Hispanic?” Mr. Zimmerman pauses and replies, “He looks black.”

The clip was first broadcast on March 22, but no one noticed until it was rebroadcast on March 27. Later, when word of the misleading edit got out, everyone from Sean Hannity to Jon Stewart reacted with disbelief, with good reason.

Got that? It was Fox News -- and Sean Hannity in particular -- who complained loudly about it. And indeed, the Carr piece is accompanied by a "Fox News Watch" graphic from a segment attacking NBC for the edit.

Which is funny, because we remember when it was Fox News doing the deceptive-editing schtick,. They didn't just do it once -- they did it repeatedly:

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The Tampa City Council on Thursday said they would ask Florida Gov. Rick Scott to ban firearms outside the Republican National Convention later this year.

The council has already issued a citywide ban on items like pieces of wood, switchblades, slingshots, containers of bodily fluids and even squirt guns. A so-called "Clean Zone" around the convention area would prohibit string longer than six inches, glass containers, light bulbs, portable shields and gas masks. A smaller protest area would prevent demonstrators from having camping gear, bottles, cans and umbrellas. The Secret Service has said that only law enforcement will be able to carry firearms inside of the convention center.

But Tampa now needs Scott's help because state law prevents local governments from regulating guns. City officials believe that Scott has the executive power to temporarily suspend that law.

"We believe it is necessary and prudent to take this reasonable step to prevent a potential tragedy," council member Lisa Montelione wrote in a draft of the letter to the governor.

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn has said that the state law makes the city "look silly."

"The absurdity of banning squirt guns but not being able to do anything about real guns is patently obvious," Buckhorn explained last week. "Given the nature and the potential dynamic of this event, I think it would make sense that you would not want firearms introduced into that environment by people other than law enforcement."

The mayor suggested that Tampa could "become fodder for the late-night comics because of something that has nothing to do with us and nothing to do with our ability to control the situation, and it's elevated by Trayvon Martin, obviously."

Legal experts told the Tampa Bay Times that in the emotionally-charged protest environment, another tragedy could take place that was covered by Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law that allows gun owners to use deadly force in public places without a duty to retreat.

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Culture war escalated into a shooting war in Sanford. Florida's NRA/ALEC-written "stand your ground" law was passed as an expansion of the right of self-defense, but that's not what it does. This is no accident; it was deliberate business strategy. By empowering armed bullies to seek trouble and shoot at it, the gun lobby creates more fear to drive more gun sales and carry permit applications, both of which are at record highs in the state. Trayvon Martin is actually not the most egregious case of homicide gone unpunished in Florida because of this law.

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Most defense attorneys tell their clients to be quiet and let them do the talking. But George Zimmerman's lawyers are an odd lot, and don't seem to really be managing the public relations aspect of their client's legal affairs very well.

After weeks of silence and weird surrogates appearing on his behalf, George Zimmerman has made himself a website asking for donations. He has done this because he's upset about other people collecting donations in his name.

I am the real George Zimmerman,
    On Sunday February 26th, I was involved in a life altering event which led me to become the subject of intense media coverage. As a result of the incident and subsequent media coverage, I have been forced to leave my home, my school, my employer, my family and ultimately, my entire life. This website's sole purpose is to ensure my supporters they are receiving my full attention without any intermediaries.

    It has come to my attention that some persons and/or entities have been collecting funds, thinly veiled as my “Defense Fund” or "Legal Fund". I cannot attest to the validity of these other websites as I have not received any funds collected, intended to support my family and I through this trying, tragic time.
    I have created a Paypal account solely linked on this website as I would like to provide an avenue to thank my supporters personally and ensure that any funds provided are used only for living expenses and legal defense, in lieu of my forced inability to maintain employment. I will also personally, maintain accountability of all funds received. I reassure you, every donation is appreciated.
Sincerely,
    George Zimmerman

I love this tag line at the bottom of the page, don't you? Also the big American flag sends a message. Of sorts.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is that good men do nothing. - Edmund Burke.

It seems ill-advised to me to put up a website that looks like a patriot or militia site with a quote they're fond of asking for donations, one day after Fox News reports that white supremacists are now 'patrolling' Sanford, to say nothing of the bad taste it displays. But there it is, waiting for the donations to pour in.

That's not even the worst part. The Daily Caller has a report on a furious letter sent to Eric Holder by an unnamed relative of George Zimmerman.

The family member believes the reason Holder hasn’t made those arrests is because he, like the members of the New Black Panther Party, is black.

“I am writing you to ask you why, when the law of the land is crystal clear, is your office not arresting the New Black Panthers for hate crimes?” the family member wrote to Holder.

“The Zimmerman family is in hiding because of the threats that have been made against us, yet the DOJ has maintained an eerie silence on this matter. These threats are very public. If you haven’t been paying attention just do a Google search and you will find plenty. Since when can a group of people in the United States put a bounty on someone’s head, circulate Wanted posters publicly, and still be walking the streets?”

[...]

“I would surmise that, based on your own definition of a hate crime, you have chosen not to arrest these individuals based solely on your race,” the family member wrote to Holder, insisting too that the was “NO racial component” to the “tragedy” that occurred on the late February night when Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin.

Wow. I'm not defending threats made on this family. The right course of action is not paying vigilante justice with vigilante justice. But to put the accusation that Eric Holder is not prosecuting those making the threats because he's black? Yeah, I guess I wouldn't want my identity revealed either, given how that reads.

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It certainly appears that he did, as Lawrence O'Donnell uncovers in this segment.

Robert Zimmerman, retired Virginia Supreme Court magistrate and father of George Zimmerman, has been making the rounds for media interviews with Fox News exclusively. He's cloaked in shadow, of course, so he isn't identified. In those interviews, he was asked whether the police knew he was a retired magistrate and whether that might have had an impact on their decision to let George Zimmerman go free that night without taking his clothes or keeping his gun, or doing any of the usual investigation that police do when they find a dead kid laying on his stomach with his hands underneath him.

Zimmerman's answer to the question was a denial and not a denial. He said, "No one knew that I was a retired magistrate judge. I didn't mention it to the police. I didn't mention it to the state attorney's office."

How interesting that he would specifically say he didn't mention it, without any denial that he spoke to them. Do you think that the police might have known who George Zimmerman was before they showed up that night, simply because he had called them 48 times in the past two months? Do you think it's possible, maybe even probable, that George Zimmerman had bragged about having a daddy who was a retired magistrate judge, or that he might have mentioned it that night when his daddy came to the police station to talk to the state attorney and police but didn't mention that he was a retired judge?

It seems to me, as it did Lawrence O'Donnell, that Zimmerman's statement that he didn't "mention it" to the police or city attorney implies that he was speaking to them. That night. And whether he mentioned it or not, I'd say it's more probable than not that they knew who Zimmerman was, and who his daddy was.

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On This Week, there was a panel discussion on the Trayvon Martin case, as there probably was on every Sunday show this week. It's somewhat ironic that most shows left the discussion to white men, who naturally understand what it feels like to walk down the street, unarmed, with some candy and iced tea and be looked at sideways like they're about to start a riot or rob the little old lady down the street. At least ABC saw fit to have Van Jones join their panel to talk about the Trayvon Martin case.

As it turned out, the discussion was less important than the illustration in many ways. Here's what George Will had to say:

WILL: Well, precisely. I mean, this is why we have what's called due process. We have institutions that are juries and grand juries and prosecutors who are supposed to look at the evidence and come up with the answer.

The root fact is, though, Mr. Jones, that about 150 black men are killed every week in this country. And 94 percent of them by other black men.

And this is -- this episode has been forced into a particular narrative to make it a white-on-black when "The New York Times" rather infamously now decided that Mr. Zimmerman was a white Hispanic, a locution (ph) that was not -- was rare until then, and I think they abandoned by Friday.

Before I get to Mr. Jones' response to this, I want to highlight why this is exactly the problem. You have George Will walking completely past the facts in THIS case in order to justify the frightened white guy shooting the unarmed black guy because there are so many cases where blacks kill blacks.

There is no equivalent there. Yes, it's tragic that there are killings like that, but it misses the entire point of the Trayvon Martin case and makes a hollow, intellectually dishonest attempt to ignore the fact of racial profiling and racial judgments made every day by cops and citizens alike. It ignores the "otherness" factor, which Van Jones brought right back around to the forefront, thankfully.

JONES: Well, let me say, you know, this -- I think this hits pretty close to home. You know, I'm -- as an African-American parent, I have two boys. I think I'm going to have to go broke dressing them in tuxedos every day so they can walk down the streets to buy a Snickers bar or Skittles. I don't -- the standard just seems to keep up and up.

This kid was not in a gang. He was not gang involved. And yet somehow somebody saw him, and, you know, let's give Zimmerman the benefit of the doubt. Let's assume that he was trying to do something good.

Let's assume he was trying to be his brother's keeper, but for some reason, when he saw this young man, this child, he didn't see his brother, he saw the other. We've got to look at ourselves about this. Now, this does not take away from any other problems that you're talking about. But this is disturbing.

As a black parent, I don't know how to protect my sons. And I think that the other thing is that when you are a victim of a crime, if something happens to your child, the only upside is that the police are going to be on your side.

If your child dies at the hands of somebody who's armed -- until now, here I am as a black parent, I got to dress my kid in a tuxedo and if he gets shot, I don't know if the cops are on my side.

That's the essence of it right there. How many of us who are white parents can say with a straight face that as white parents, we don't know how to protect our sons? How many white parents get blamed for their kids being in trouble because they're wearing a hoodie? How many white parents sit down with their kids and have The Talk about how to behave if they're stopped by cops or an angry white person? How many?

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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.

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