Yep. And get the word out on TV, in the newspapers, and online that ANY disturbance of the peace will be immediately, forcefully dealt with.

It used to be that "responses" were on the same level as an "insult" - eg, if someone spoke sharply to someone else, the 2nd person would speak sharply back. If the first person swore ("f* yu"), the second would probably respond in kind. Then the two people would usually go their separate ways. But I've noticed an increase lately in people - subsequent responses seem more often now to be escalated. First person looks at someone funny, 2nd swears at them, now maybe the first will hit. And it used to be guys who really behaved this way - but now, it seems a lot of women are becoming this way.

I think this is what happened with George. He didn't do anything to provoke Martin, but Martin decided to get his nose out of shape because George was watching him. Martin chose not to go home, not to politely ask George what was going on, and also chose not to hide until George left without accosting him. No, instead he immediately escalated the situation by attacking George.

I think this tendency to riot is the same thing. Instead of working within the law, or taking the time to even understand what has happened, people start behaving aggressively. When George is acquited, there certainly will be people rioting, and I'll bet a lot of them have not followed the evidence, will not even follow the trial. They'll just wait for verdict, then start causing trouble.

It seems like they don't just need to be told that National Guard and/or police will be ready, but they seem to need the basic education that America is a country of laws, that we are civilized and we don't act like animals on meth! It's ridiculous that so many people are so anti-social in their behavior.

But that is exactly what he has been doing so far. That how he handled Dee Dee. Besides he accomplished what he wanted, but if the rest of the information got out it could be detrimental. He took a chance because the law appears on his side and the details will remain sealed, so he could release the information to his benefit.
The Judge is not going to say to him you are flouting the law, to make your client look good and help your cause.

Reminder


As well as this DAILY discussion thread about the GZ case... there is also

DAILY DAFT POSTS FROM JUSTARSE QUEST
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=822&p=32126#p32126



If only Trayvon had kept his hands in his pockets, none of this would have happened.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Continuing the posting of FOIA Documents at CTH.....


Part 7 – The Trayvon Martin Cover Up: Sgt. Lourdes Hodges (Trayvon FOIA #14)
Posted on April 16, 2013 by sundance

Sergeant Lourdes Hodges was the person who opened the “Supplemental report” on the Dashboard of Detective Hadley after he completed sending the information requested to Sanford Sgt. Randy Smith. Hadley sent Smith an 8 page report on Trayvon Martin from a Criminal Mischief complaint filed by School Resource Officer Darryl Dunn.

However, at the behest and instruction of Police Chief Hurley, the Mischief Complaint was only part of the behavioral issue from that day. The second aspect from the incident was Trayvon’s backpack containing stolen jewelry and a burglary tool. This part of the incident was intentionally mislabeled, and misreported, by SRO Dunn to eliminate the need for a criminal investigation.

Instead of attaching the Jewelry to Trayvon Martin, Dunn filled out a report of the jewelry outlining it as “found jewelry”, presenting the issues *as if* it were just found items with no ownership etc. As a consequence the jewelry was sent to evidence storage where it sat without investigation.

After M-DSPD Hadley sent the 8 page report to Sanford PD, the jewelry incident was noted as a case number associated with the Trayvon Martin file – but not attached to the file by name. Hence, Sgt Hodges opened a dashboard supplement so that Hadley could photograph the items and send an additional supplemental report along to Sgt Smith in Sanford who was compiling information for a victimology report.

The information Sgt. Smith eventually compiled, with support from the Miami-Dade School Police Force, never saw the light of day. It disappeared down the rabbit hole, and was not included in the final victimology report filed by Sanford Detective Serino.

Sgt. Lourdes Hodges connects many of the dots associated with the process that was taking place in Miami-Dade immediately following the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

As we have continued to outline, the Trayvon shooting was recognized immediately as a risk by the M-DSPD Police Chief Charles Hurley.

Hurley had told his officers to avoid issuing criminal reports on young black males in High School, and to find alternate disingenuous methods of using the reports only for school discipline. This process was an effort to support a false premise of improved statistics mandated by Miami-Dade School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who hired Hurley.

Both Hurley and Carvalho were being heralded as heroes for incredible reductions in criminal student behavior. Unfortunately, the improvements they were taking credit for were merely due to manipulation of statistics and data.

The publicity surrounding the Trayvon Martin shooting, and the potential for investigative journalism, spooked Hurley who worried the scheme would be discovered. As a consequence he told all police officers and leadership that no information was to be shared with outside agencies – the request by Sanford Police, and the fulfillment of part of that request angered Hurley who launched an Internal Affairs investigation against his own team.

Unfortunately the investigation backfired, because the officers within the General Investigation Unit (GIU) told Internal Affairs officers the truth about what was going on. This expanded the investigation outside the GIU to include dozens of corroborative witnesses.

At the conclusion of the internal investigation Police Chief Hurley was suspended, and later fired.

What you are about to read is Sgt. Lourdes Hodges sworn affidavit to the Internal Affairs investigator outlining what took place from her perspective.

PDF Document (87 pages)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/136164820/ser ... -Affidavit

....comments at link
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/201 ... n-foia-14/

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

I said this somewhere before, but perhaps not here. If Crump wanted to show that he is "opposing counsel of some kind", filing this document does the exact opposite. It might, by some stretch of the imagination of Judge Nelson, indicate that he WAS perhaps opposing counsel, but since the situation concerning the HOA is now closed, he is no longer opposing counsel and thus should be available for deposition.

Now, of course, I do not believe that he ever was opposing counsel and should have been made available for deposition at the outset.

@lorac - good post but I think both of them could have done things differently to avoid the situation and now one is dead and the other has been charged with murder 2.

WTH does "both of them could have done things differently" supposed to mean?

First off, to date, I've never questioned anything MOM has done in regard to this case because IANAL. That being said, in light of the IA documents, I have lots of questions I hope get answered.

I would like to know what happened to the report received by Randy Smith. Why haven't we seen or heard any mention of it?

In the documents posted by SD, I've seen four requests sent to SPD regarding the IA investigation. They were sent to Randy Smith, Acting Chief Darren Scott, Capt. Bob O'Connor and an email to pat.smith. So far, I haven't seen any interview by the IA investigators of any of those contacted. As a matter of fact, it was stated that they had not heard back from SPD. In the correspondence to Capt. O'Connor, O'Connor said he would forward the information to the investigator...I believe that would be Serino. Did SPD follow up? If they did, why no mention of it? If not, why not?

And then there's the jewelry. Since the circumstances of the way it made it's way into "found items" has been revealed, has a full investigation been done on it? Has it been traced to any stolen items, not only in the Miami areas, but from Sanford/Orlando areas and I would even say any jurisdiction in Florida? If not, why not?

I would also like to see Dunn deposed. He would have the most direct information about TM.

I can't imagine how those MDSPD could have kept their mouths shut until they were forced to speak up because of Hurley's complaint. They all knew the narrative was false. They all knew TM should have had a criminal record, yet they said nothing. They went into CYA mode.

George could have stayed in his truck and/or identified himself and Trayvon could have gone straight home. I find fault with both of them but I also believe George will be acquitted because I don't believe he did anything illegal.

Going back to my shell.

I just noticed there are only two comments on Robles' article "Multiple suspensions paint complicated portrait of Trayvon Martin" from 3/26/12. Odd considering how popular and often cited it is.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/26/2 ... ayvon.html

Let's be quite clear:

Zimmerman bears no fault for choosing to get out of his truck, to carry a concealed weapon, or to walk on a sidewalk to attempt to regain visual contact with a suspicious person. All such activities are within his moral and statutory rights.

Martin bears no fault for choosing to act suspiciously, for evading Zimmerman's visual contact, or for failing to return home. He was within his rights to do all of those things (presuming here that he wasn't engaged in anything otherwise illegal, and there's no evidence that he was, short of perhaps trespassing).

Martin further bears no fault for approaching and verbally accosting Zimmerman (just as Zimmerman would equally bear no such fault if the scenario were reversed). Approaching and verbally accosting someone is not illegal, and even justifiable, based on circumstances and intent.

The first and only fault lies with Martin, for choosing to assault Zimmerman. That was the precise moment that transcended circumstance and intent, and escalated the situation into a physical altercation.

To ascribe any blame to Zimmerman for "getting out of his car" is asinine and dangerous. We do not live in a Safari Society. We are not morally or statutorily obligated to cower in fear in our vehicles, lest we encounter ne'er-do-wells or violent criminals. I refuse to accept that law-abiding citizens must abrogate our freedoms to the risk or threat of criminals.

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"That the attacker sustained a mortal wound is a matter that should have been considered by the deceased before he committed himself to the task he undertook." - 5th DCA, Stinson v. State (Fl)

Well said, Chip.

Are you serious?

WHY on earth would George stay in his truck?

He was ASKED to watch what the suspect did? And that is what any normal person would do having asked the cops to attend... I would for sure.

Are you suggesting that with a black teen around all citizens should go into lock down?


or identified himself ?????
What... told TM that this was a NW nose just before TM punched him?

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

I agree that Crump has gotten away with much too much and this latest of trying to keep his settlement secret shows he's only been emboldened by his "victories."

Keeping optimistic here that he has finally hit his "brick wall." SPLAT!

Agreed. Fervently hoping some kind of common sense rule of law prevails!!

I had thought of that "HOA is now closed" issue, and took the filing as some form of proof he was future opposing counsel by way of showing they are actively seeking compensation, FWIW.

Maybe he filed it as some type of crowd pleasing evidence that the insurance company attorney(s) felt compensation was due, so GZ is guilty.

Nelson, through backdoor channels, may have sought to see it filed to support her off-the-wall record that Crump is some sort of opposing counsel.

I've also considered the idea that the insurance company will probably ignore it even if Crump were to make the entire agreement public, while at the same time thinking Nelson may have let him know she'll not force him to reveal the entire agreement, FWIW either way.

I'm back with Rumpole in not having any certainty what reason(s) Crump filed it, so I'll just go with JG's for now!

Because it worked out so well for the Miami Dade Schools, Broward is following the same path.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/16/3 ... evamp.html

The proposal comes after years of criticism that Broward principals have leaned too heavily on school-assigned police officers to mete out discipline — at times resulting in unnecessary arrests. When in-school arrests are made, minority students are being disproportionally placed in handcuffs.

Broward had 1,062 school-related arrests during the 2011-12 school year, according to a report by Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice. Miami-Dade County schools, which have significantly more students, had 552 arrests. Miami-Dade has in recent years employed a variety of strategies to reduce student arrests: psychologists and social workers are involved in the discipline process, school police officers were retrained to be more cautious in making arrests, and a Civil Citation Program gives students a chance to nullify a misdemeanor arrest if they complete a diversion program.

It infuriates me that none of these "diversion programs" discuss the role of the PARENTS.

"PARENTS" ...as in plural? (insert winking smilie!)