Who Are You Going To Believe, Me Or Your Lying Ears?

The NY Times opens a campaign to bring racial justice to Florida.  They may have landed on the right side of the issue, or not.  Their lead:

Justice Department Investigation Is Sought in Florida Teenager’s Shooting Death

By LIZETTE ALVAREZ

MIAMI — Nearly three weeks after an unarmed teenager was killed in a small city north of Orlando, stirring an outcry, a few indisputable facts remain: the teenager, who was black, was carrying nothing but a bag of Skittles, some money and a can of iced tea when he was shot. The neighborhood crime watch volunteer who got out of his car and shot him is white and Hispanic. He has not been arrested and is claiming self-defense.

Beyond that, however, little is clear about the Feb. 26 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, 17.

As criticism of the police investigation mounts, so too do the calls for swift action in a case with heavy racial overtones. Protests grow larger each week, and lawyers for the family are now asking the Department of Justice to intervene. The case also brings into sharp focus Florida’s self-defense laws, which give people who feel threatened greater latitude in defending themselves than most states.

We all know the script, and yes, former Presidential candidate Al Sharpton is on his way.

Let's press on with what the Times presents as fact:

The police in of Sanford, where the shooting took place, are not revealing details of the investigation. Late Friday night, after weeks of pressure, the police played the 911 calls in the case for the family and gave copies to the news media. On the recordings, one shot, an apparent warning or miss, is heard, followed by a voice begging or pleading, and a cry. A second shot is then heard, and the pleading stops.

“It is so clear that this was a 17-year-old boy pleading for his life, and someone shot him in cold blood,” said Natalie Jackson, one of the Martin family lawyers.

Two shots!  Well, can we make that "two shots?" with a BIG question mark? [UPDATE:  In a follow-up story, the Times does just that.]  From other sources it seems clear to me that the shooter, George Zimmerman, provoked the situation by leaving his car and following the teen.  However, there seems to be a real question, other than in TimesLand, as to how many shots were fired.

Here is the Orlando Sentinel:

Trayvon Martin shooting: Screams, shots heard on 911 call

Two shots and screaming can be heard in dramatic 911 calls released late Friday from the shooting of Trayvon Martin.

So far so good for the Times editorial process.  But...

In one of the eight calls, screaming can be heard in the background as a woman tries to get help. That call is punctuated by two gunshots.

"You hear a shot, a clear shot, then you hear a 17-year-old boy begging for his life," said Natalie Jackson, another family attorney. "Then you hear a second shot."

It was the first time that anyone said two shots were fired that night.

And in an earlier version of the same Sentinel story run by an ABC news affiliate, this paragraph was included:

But three witnesses who have made public statements have been clear that they heard a single shot, and Trayvon was hit in the chest by a single bullet.

One shot is still one too many, but the narrative with a warning shot, the pleading and the cold-bloded execution relies on two shots.

So let's go to the tape.  The Orlando Sentinel version is here; the first "gunshot" is at 24 seconds and the next at 41.  I have downloaded it and converted it to MP3, which is here.

 

Trayvon Martin shooting 911 calls Sanford Police to release 911 calls in Trayvon Martin shooting - Orlando Sentinel

An obvious puzzle is the woman caller's non-reaction to the first "gunshot" at 24 seconds, especially considering her clear "There's a gunshot" reaction to the shot heard at 41.

A possible explanation - the woman recognized the first sound as something else altogether - a door slamming, the phone being bumped against a wall, or whatever - and paid it no mind.  The second shot we hear is the first shot fired.

Eventually, some news service (presumaby not the Times) will hire audio experts to study the tape.  In the meantime, I have employed some free software and some free time to offer some free analysis (and you get what you pay for.)  Here, using Audacity, are waveforms of the two gunshots.

First, the waveform around 24 seconds:

And next, the 41 second mark:

If one of those sounded louder on the tape, it might be because it was louder.  That said, the woman seemed to be moving around inside her home, so the sound quality could have changed.  However, the notion that the first "gunshot" was actually something else would explain her non-reaction and the other witness accounts.

Well - nobody working as a CSI needs to fear for their job based on my effort.  However, I would welcome and encourage a serious effort to establish just what we are hearing on this tape.

WORTH KEEPING IN MIND:

[Police investigator] Serino said Trayvon's father, Tracy Martin, listened to all of the 911 calls in the case before the entire family convened at City Hall to listen Friday night. When asked if the voice on one, a male calling for help was his son, told Serino no.

Police lied Friday, Crump said, when they said Tracy Martin said the voice crying for help was not his son. What Tracy Martin told police, Crump said, was that "he couldn't tell, that it was too distorted."

The audio has since been cleaned up, and now Tracy Martin has no doubt but that the voice is his son, Crump said.

As to just how cleaned up these tapes are, who knows?  Is a gunshot so distinctive that it could be cleaned away?  And there is still her non-reaction to the first shot.

FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE... As a casual consumer of self defense articles, I infer that warning shots are not encouraged. In the case at hand, there was a 17 second lag between shots, which is an age in the course of a backyard scuffle.

Ok, maybe Zimmerman shot with intent twice and missed the first time.

GETTING SOMEWHERE:  This Miami Herald story from Thursday precedes the release of the 911 tapes.  Two witnesses - Austin McLendon, the 13 year old dog walker and Mary Cutcher heard one shot.  From Ms. Cutcher:

“This was not self-defense,” Cutcher said. “We heard no fighting, no wrestling, no punching. We heard a boy crying. As soon as the shot went off, it stopped, which tells me it was the child crying. If it had been Zimmerman crying, it wouldn’t have stopped. If you’re hurting, you’re hurting.”

She and her friend say they heard the sounds from a few steps away, where they were inside beside an open window.

FWIW, the police say they spoke with her and now her story is changing as she speaks to the press.

The HuffPo details Austin's account:

Austin comes on the line [with the 911 dispatcher]: "I saw a man laying on the ground that needed help, that was screaming and then I was going to go over there to try and help him, but my dog got off the leash, so I went and got my dog, and then I heard a loud sound and then the screaming stopped."

The dispatcher asks: "Did you see the person shot? Did you know the person that was shot, or see the person with the gun?"

"No, I just heard a loud sound and then the screaming stopped," Austin replied.

The screaming stopped after the second shot, so how did he not hear the first while he was outside and nearby?

Let's hear from the chief of police:

“Mr. Zimmerman’s claim is that the confrontation was initiated by Trayvon,” Police Chief Bill Lee said in an interview. “I am not going into specifics of what led to the violent physical encounter witnessed by residents. All the physical evidence and testimony we have independent of what Mr. Zimmerman provides corroborates this claim to self-defense.”

To claim self-defense, someone has to show there was danger of great bodily harm or death, Lee said. “Zimmerman had injuries consistent with his story,” Lee said.

Zimmerman had a damp shirt, grass stains, a bloody nose and was bleeding from a wound in back of his head, according to police reports.

“If someone asks you, ‘Hey do you live here?’ is it OK for you to jump on them and beat the crap out of somebody?” Lee said. “It’s not.”

Was Zimmerman engaging in a bit of racial profiling when he started following the black teen?  Was Martin engaging in a bit of profiling by feeling threatened by the large swarthy man?

I remain confident that if Zimmerman had not had a gun he would have stayed in his car and this would be a non-event. As to how the two of them interacted, I don't know, although I am sure Al Sharpton will explain it cogently.

IF YOU CAN'T TRUST THE AP:

Officials released a total of seven 911 calls. All of the callers described a single shot.

AND NOW THE TIMES COMES AROUND A BIT:

Ms. Alvarez has a new story.  Her lead:

911 Calls Add Detail to Debate Over Florida Killing

By LIZETTE ALVAREZ

MIAMI — It was raining the night of Feb. 26 when George Zimmerman, a crime watch volunteer, set out to patrol his neighborhood in his sport utility vehicle, as was his habit in recent weeks. Several break-ins had been reported in the area, and Mr. Zimmerman was especially alert.

He spotted a young black teenager wearing a sweatshirt, with the hood draped over his head. Mr. Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic man, trailed him a bit. Then he called 911, the first of seven calls from Mr. Zimmerman and panicked neighbors that begin to flesh out the details in the death of Trayvon Martin, 17, whom Mr. Zimmerman shot. The police released the recordings to local reporters late Friday night after nearly three weeks of pressure from Trayvon’s parents and their supporters.

The 911 calls from a gated community in Sanford, north of Orlando, culminate with a faint voice in the distance crying and pleading for help. A gunshot is heard, and then silence. Mr. Zimmerman told the police that he had shot Trayvon in self-defense, after the two got into a fight and Mr. Zimmerman wound up on the ground. There have been no arrests in the case. The unarmed teenager, who carried Skittles and a can of iced tea, was walking to the home of his father’s girlfriend from a convenience store.

Big Skip and:

It is not clear from the audio whether one or two shots was fired. And, with the voice muffled in the distance, it is difficult to know which of the two men is crying out for help.

Yesterday we heard two gunshots, today it's one.  I can't wait for tomorrow, and crickets.

Here is one more for the Unanswered Questions file:

Trayvon had no criminal record. He was suspended from his Miami high school for 10 days in February, which is the reason he was visiting his father. The family said the suspension was not for violent or criminal behavior but for a violation of school policy.

I have no idea what school he attended, but for flavor, here is a Southwest Miami High School discipline plan.  Fighting is an automatic ten-day suspension; repeated minor offenses such as smoking or dress code violations can result in a ten dayer.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/15/v-fullstory/2696446/trayvon-martin-case.html#storylink=cpy

Comments

[Jack is Back!]

All I know is this is getting major play on the local Orlando stations which I get but don't watch that much. bgates is in Orlando and may know more.

Our Citizens On Patrol (COPS) don't carry. Funny that in Sanford they do. Large black population in Sanford. This could get ugly if Fat Al is on his way down. Too bad bike week ends tomorrow. How convenient for him.

[Captain Hate]

Why do we even need a jury trial with the NYT crimestoppers on the scene?

[Cecil Turner]

It seems to me the conversation at 43-50" is on point:

Witness: Just . . . there's gunshot[s]
911 Oper: You just hear[d] gunshots?
Witness: Yes.
911 Oper: How many?
Witness: Just one. Jimmy get down. [emphasis added]

I'm gonna go way out on a limb here, and suggest there might've been only one shot.

[Jane (Bad says Obama sucks)]

How do you guys feel about the soldier who they believe killed those 14 Afghans? For some reason I feel very sympathetic toward him, and I'm wondering if it just me.

[Pops]

""the teenager, who was black, was carrying nothing but a bag of Skittles, some money and a can of iced tea when he was shot.""

I believe Osama Bin Laden had some Baby Ruths and a porn DVD...whats your point?

What you are carrying don't mean squat.

[Jack is Back!]

Jane, its not just you. If they decide to go death penalty and he is shown to have been at risk due to his multiple deployments and injuries this could blow up big time. Cave men versus moden man.

[Pops]

Don't you love the media and there..'The teenager, WHO WAS BLACK,....

Imagine if they wrote, the suspected rapist, who was black,...

the suspected bank robbber, who was black,..

They hate to say the persons race when they have done something bad.

[Captain Hate]

For some reason I feel very sympathetic toward him, and I'm wondering if it just me.

Nope; especially after Panetta hung him out to dry and mentioned the death penalty.

[Pops]

"""How do you guys feel about the soldier who they believe killed those 14 Afghans?""

Horrible crime that he should be punished for....but I wonder if Obama will claim it was a case of 'workplace violence' like he did with the Fort Hood Muslim.

[centralcal]

Jane: It is not just YOU. I am still waiting to hear details, but right now, I feel pain - for him - for all of our troops.

[Ignatz]

I feel a bit more sympathy toward the nine kids and three women, not to mention the four men he murdered.

[Captain Hate]

Of course we feel sympathy for them, Ig; but that wasn't the question we were answering.

[Pops]

""the teenager, who was black, was carrying nothing but a bag of Skittles, some money and a can of iced tea when he was shot.""

But he was heard to say, as soon as I finish my effing Skittles, I'm gonna bash your skull in with this Ice Tea can MotherEffer.

[Ignatz]

--Of course we feel sympathy for them, Ig; but that wasn't the question we were answering.--

Good point,CH.
I don't feel very sympathetic toward him. He had a concussion and saw a guy get his leg shot off. So have thousands of other vets who haven't depopulated a village of civilians.
If he showed obvious signs of coming apart then he should not have been redeployed but still hard for me to work up much sympathy for guys who commit massacres.

[Clarice]

Me, too, Jane and also on the "workplace violence". Our guys are being put in combat under unthinkable dangers from their own "allies". 20 have been shot already by them. and it appears we are downplaying that publicly and continuing to carry thru on this charade
How can you put someone thru even one tour of this let alone 4?

[Thomas Collins]

My vote is for one gunshot. I also heard what sounded like crying and pleading before the gunshot. It could be that the killer pulled the gun, the kid cried and the killer shot the kid.

Whatever happened, Sharpton will be his usual racecarding self. That's the one sure thing I can say about this.

[Jack is Back!]

Iggy,

Who knows how you would react given his circumstances if they prove to be more than the usual - brain trauma, PTSD, mucho deployments away from family, friends getting blown up, alcohol, etc. He snaps. His mental condition after all that is not that of say some wall street guy who just made a few million on Solyndra. Euphoria doesn't come to mind in that part of the world he was attached.

[narciso]

Speaking of the theme of the thread, there was a time, in the Cretaceous period when
Cal Thomas, was somewhat relevance, but he has long since passed his sell by date.

[rse]

I mentioned this the other day but from what I read and talking to the mothers of marines who have been there the ROEs mean muslim feelings are being put above american lives.

The mom I talked with last week had learned her son was next to someone who lost both legs to an ied. Could the soldier have connected the friend losing his leg the day before with villagers making those ieds?

Someone asked me recently how I was doing with all this and I told them I kept recalling what happened on that last day when it was otherwise all quiet on the western front. We are telling our best that they cannot win and may lose it all and there is no recourse. And inadequate respect.

[DrJ]

OT, but I mentioned the rain and flood warnings we have had over the last few days. Up the hill by a bit over a half hour, they have had five feet of snow since Tuesday.

CA is not all sunshine and beaches.

[Porchlight]

With the ROE nonsesne and the way they've been treating the soldiers there, something like this was inevitable. The guy who did it bears the responsibility but not 100% of it, in my opinion.

[Jane (Bad says Obama sucks)]

Cal Thomas announced today that he loved Game Change, and how could McCain have nominated a VP who had a baby the year before.

[Jack is Back!]

Chaos at Missouri Caucuses

Ronulans? Say it ain't so.

[Frau Irisches Weib]

Whatever happens in Afghanistan or in FL, the WH will blame it on Bush and racism (CRT). It's a crying shame, Obama & Cie. cannot concentrate on transforming the U.S. into the country it "should" be without these distractions. /s

This is a sad end to St. Patrick's Day. I still want to say, "Tom Maguire go bragh!"

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Accordiong to the Audacity manual, these show time as the independent variable with amplitude as the dependent variable. The darker color is peak values, and the lighter color is the RMS (basically, the average) value at that instant.

Observe in the Audacity traces that the first one shows two distinct high-amplitude areas with a sharp, but sloped, leading edge, about 0.2 seconds apart; the second has an increase in amplitude for abut 0.1 seconds followed by a very distinct very sharp high amplitude event with more or less instantaneous onset followed by what appears to be exponential decay.

The first one is consistent with someone, say, kicking over a trash can: a bang for the kick followed by a bigger bang, both of them with some mechanical deformation, and some "ringing" afterward.

The second one is a very sharp, broad spectrum event. (The RMS is almost as big as the maximum, which means the energy is distributed over a broad spectrum.) Exponential decay is consistent with echoes from that single event.

I'd like to see this transformed to the frequency domain, but it looks to me like the first one is not consistent with a gunshot, while the second one is.

[narciso]

That's so 'unexpected' JiB, not really.

[Frau Irisches Weib]

Well, Arne Duncan has the solution: a black male teacher in every classroom. How about in every black household first? Arne sucks.
LUN

[Americana Alice (formerly known as AliceH)]

JiB@10:19 Holy smokes!

FYI I posted my very different MO caucus experience earlier today:

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2012/03/what-if-they-gave-a-scandal-and-nobody-came/comments/page/3/#comments

[Jack is Back!]

Jane,

You could add this bumper sticker to your inventory at You Too Congress:)

I hate those Coexist ones.

[DrJ]

It has been a while since I've used Audacity, but can't it do a fast Fourier transform? That would cast the time-domain data into the frequency domain.

[Thomas Collins]

I enjoyed your first hand account, Americana Alice. By the way, you may not think you're a people person, but online your are very personable and engaging.

Now that you've gone to double A (Americana Alice), how about adding another A so you'll be Triple A. I recall you stating you were an atheist, so how about Americana Alice the Atheist?!

[narciso]

That's a fairly ludicrous notion, now for more sensible ideas

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/03/congress_and_the_country_need_ken_timmerman.html

[sbw]

Yeah! That's the ticket! [What'd he say?]

[Americana Alice (formerly known as AliceH)]

Thanks, TC. I'll stick w/ AA for now, though.

As for people person - I never quite know how to describe that. I like people. Structured settings are no problem. I don't get anxious leading a meeting or giving presentations. I am also perfectly happy to talk to anyone one-on-one, or in writing.

It's when 2 or more people talk at once, or there are multiple conversations going on, I just get seriously uncomfortable and turn into wallflower and start looking for the exits. I am an intense listener.

[Jack is Back!]

AliceH,

Are you in North Dakota? I saw some reference to Fargo/ Moorhead from a note you wrote. Maybe the restaurant you were going to or something like that.

[MarkO]

Damn good, Charlie. Damn good.

[Americana Alice (formerly known as AliceH)]

??? I'm in Missouri - since starting college, actually. I post a lot about WI because I grew up there. Never been to ND. I did say yesterday I was going to my favorite local restaurant - "My Friend's House". Friend/Fargo - close!

[IDS]

Mythbusters level of science. Good job.

[Jack is Back!]

One last one:

Niters!

[Clarice]

Good grief, Chaco. I was planning on a month long debate over this! Must you?

[Charlie (Colorado)]

It has been a while since I've used Audacity, but can't it do a fast Fourier transform? That would cast the time-domain data into the frequency domain.

Yeah, but that would require actually doing some work on it, starting with installing Audacity. I'm a pundit, I don't need research.

[Frau Irisch]

I never did get Chaco's score on the Murray bubble test, either. Silly but we almost all did it and then complained about the test and our scores.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Good grief, Chaco. I was planning on a month long debate over this! Must you?

(Insert puppy-dog look here.)

[Charlie (Colorado)]

It's when 2 or more people talk at once, or there are multiple conversations going on, I just get seriously uncomfortable and turn into wallflower and start looking for the exits. I am an intense listener.

Sounds like me. I've always thought it a little odd that I am much more comfortable singing karaoke for 300 people than I am trying to make conversation at a table with ten strangers.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I never did get Chaco's score on the Murray bubble test, either.

Oh, sorry, didn't I tell you? is was in the 9-12 range. Working as a butcher as an undergrad helped, NASCAR and hunting hurt me.

[Frau Irisch]

Chaco, I'm betting on a winning score from you. You're up against fdcol, Rick, Jim Rhoads, Janet, Ignatz and Gus.

[Frau Irisch]

And the final number was?

If I have this right:
fdcol- 80
Rick - 78
Jim Rhoads - 68
Janet - 66
Ignatz - 65
Gus - 63

Of course, the test was not monitored...

[Sara]

US - Voter Fraud Declared !! - Christian County - Missouri GOP Caucus !!

[Ignatz]

Jeez, I can barely crack the top five in bumpkinhood.
Jack of all trades, master of none.

[scott]

The second trace seems very consistent with a gunshot. With the clipping it should have a nice 'crackly'(distortion) report. Decaying nicely. I haven't heard the audio, however.

[scott]

The second trace seems very consistent with a gunshot. With the clipping it should have a nice 'crackly'(distortion) report. Decaying nicely. I haven't heard the audio, however.

[Frau Irisch]

You're tops in my bumpkinhood, Iggy. I hope you will not forget us lesser beings.
You *were* bested by Janet, but she's invincible-smoker,biker babe and doer of Good Deeds.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Yeah! That's the ticket! [What'd he say?]

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

Basically, Joseph Fourier showed in the 1800's that any complicated wave could be broken down into a sum of some finite (usually) number of simple sine and cosine waves of different frequencies. The pictures Tom posted have time along the X axis and volume as the Y axis. This is called the time domain.

If you apply a Fourier transform to a signal, it breaks it up into all those pure sine and cosine wave components -- cosine and sine waves look the same, smooth simple curves, it's just a cosine wave is going down when a sine wave is going up, and vice versa. When you plot that then the X axis is frequency and the Y axis is, again, amplitude for each frequency. Since now frequency is the X axis, this is called the frequency domain. This is also called the spectrum, and it's exactly analogous for sound to the spectrum you get from light out of a prism.

The reason I want to see it in the frequency domain is this: a simple pure continuous tone is one very narrow spike in the frequency domain. On the other hand, a singe sharp noise, like a gunshot or a movie clapper board, spreads out into a very broad spectrum in the frequency domain. (For reasons that if you aren't careful I'll explain.)

So my point is that if I looked at it in the frequency domain I could get a much better idea of whether it really is, as I suspect a single sharp noise in the second but not the first.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Okay, I clearly don't have the right test in mind, 20 was the maximum on that one.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

The second trace seems very consistent with a gunshot. With the clipping it should have a nice 'crackly'(distortion) report. Decaying nicely. I haven't heard the audio, however.

Thanks, that confirms what I thought -- I hadn't thought about the clipping though.

Hey, whaddaya want, I'm a theory guy.

[daddy]

"The neighborhood crime watch volunteer who got out of his car and shot him is white and Hispanic."

So now it's important to describe the mixed races of individuals in NYTimes stories? Since when did that start?

And can we expect that in future, or only when they're trying to play up an incident as racist?

My guess is that this unusual attention to an individual's particular pedigree is opportunistic.

[Cole Sear]

Keep your day job, Sherlock. Wait--do you have a day job?

[Ignatz]

--You're tops in my bumpkinhood, Iggy. I hope you will not forget us lesser beings.--

Ah. Soon as I get some banjo lessons under my belt you'll receive my second serenade of Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Frau.

[Frau Irisch]

According to Porch, I believe, there were two different tests, one in Murray's book and the other on a PBS site which was linked here.
LUN

Maybe you had better not take it, Chaco. Ignatz might be bumped from his present place in the, ahem, achievers.

[SDN]

Tom, I just got finished with my renewal class for my TX CHL. Part of the class is when you can use deadly force. One of the students delivered the opinion that being punched doesn't count. My response:

As long as the phrase "beaten to death" appears in the cause of death entry on autopsy reports, punches justify deadly force.

The instructors agreed with me.

[Ignatz]

--Keep your day job, Sherlock. Wait--do you have a day job?--

It helps your insult if you clarify who you're insulting, Watson.

[Frau Irisch]

Isn't it also unusual to list both white *and* Hispanic?

[Clarice]

It's been my experience in incidents of this sort, eyewitness accounts of the number of shots fired is particularly unreliable. This case will come down to exert testimony--or it should.

niters

[Clarice]

**exPert***

[Ignatz]

--I remain confident that if Zimmerman had not had a gun he would have stayed in his car and this would be a non-event.--

On what is that confidence based, TM?
People confront others all the time without firearms and they often get beaten to a pulp for doing so.
I can with just as much supporting evidence say that I remain confident that if Zimmerman had not had a gun we wouldn't have even heard of this incident because it would just be another case of black on white crime which is seldom worthy of more than local coverage and Mr. Zimmerman might be comatose or dead.

[James Murray]

Eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable. The reasons are simple. One, the witness begins observation after the event has started, e.g., a sound or movement draws their attention in the direction of the event. Rarely do they have the ability to recall, let alone identify, what drew their attention. Two, they are not trained observers with the ability to recall what they saw, in detail, in the order they saw it.
Here for example, a first gunshot could have drawn the attention of the witnesses. Then they heard a second which was the first they could identify as such. There testimony is thus, "Only one gunshot."

[CurlyDave]

Mr. Zimmerman, who is studying criminal justice, was arrested once in 2005 on charges of battery on a police officer and resisting arrest with violence. The charges were dropped.

Trayvon had no criminal record. He was suspended from his Miami high school for 10 days in February, which is the reason he was visiting his father. The family said the suspension was not for violent or criminal behavior but for a violation of school policy.

Now it seems to me that Mr. Zimmerman does not have a criminal record -- dropped charges mean no conviction. But the way this article is worded attemptss to lead the reader to believe that arrest = criminal record, which is certainly not true.

[James Murray]

The tape is another example of "observation" beginning after the event. The tape does not answer all the questions. Something precipitated the 911 call. What was that? Did the first shot occur before the 911 call?

[Sara]

Convicted Nazi criminal John Demjanjuk dies at 91, German police say

[willem]

As for the Afgani citizen killed by our rampaging Sargent, there is something to look for.

Grandiose morbid obsession/delusion is allegedly an inherent side effect in the SSRIs drug class. Every school shooting with which I am aquainted appeared to involve SSRIs being prescribed to the shooter, as evidenced by his rampage, had been abandoned to the drug, not being clinically managed on an inadequately-supervised outpatient basis.

With all the hub-bub about prior injuries, depression and PTSD in this soldier's recent history, it's a reasonable question for his fellow citizens to ask.

Was the good soldier just another improperly supervised SSRI patient abandoned to his drug therapy? Was he just another of the >1% of SSRI users who commit grandiose crimes acting out spectacular morbid episodes of killing?

I'm not attacking the drug; just the apparent serial clinical mismanagement among the most vulnerable patients who obviously require considerably more strident supervision and therapeutic oversight.

[willem]

"<1%" of SSRI users ...

[willem]

The audio waveforms are conclusive.

IF Example #1 is a gun, it is a much smaller caliber than the gun report recorded in Example #2. Note the symmetrical compression densities in Example 2 following the wave envelope caused in part by the limiter circuit in the telephone microphone.

Most unusually, there are TWO leading wavefront edges in Example #1 creating an entirely different signature than is seen in Example #2.

What small caliber can fire two rounds, two tenths of one second apart -- a "simultaneously" firing derringer chambered in .22 caliber? A .22 revolver? Perhaps.

I'm an avid shooter. I can't think of handgun that cycles as quickly as two tenths of a second.

Most likely, Example #1 is not a recording of a gun being fired.

Example #2 most certainly is.. and definitely not the source of the waveforms displayed in Example #1.

[daddy]

A point I heard the other day is that the Ft Hood shooter of American troops (November 5, 2009) took/or is taking forever to get resolved. If that unresolved case has been going on for almost 3 years now, I am angry that Leon Panetta or anyone else is demanding that we deal with this soldier expeditiously in order to get an immediate resolution for Political purposes.

I want him treated no different than Nidal Malik Hasan, or Bradley Manning. If he is selectively treated differently than them I will be furious.
I want fairness.

[b]

Willem, seems you do not understand the meaning of the word conclusive.

[mrobvious]

2 stories, 1 Times reporter

2 shots--2 races

1 shot--1 race

Whiteness is a conditional condition.

[Lee Reynolds]

Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if this case could be investigated and the truth determined without any care or concern for the skin color or surname of those involved?

I only care about the facts, or I should say the relevant facts. I do not care about the racial or ethnic identity of the individuals involved as those are NOT relevant facts.

www.tempeteaparty.org

[crosspatch]

One thing that can cause a sound that can sound a lot like a gunshot is a type of screen porch door that is fairly common in the southeast. Many places have a screen door with a spring to keep it closed but without the air cylinder that closes the door gradually. If someone is in a hurry, that light screen door, particularly if it has a wooden frame, can slam shut with a bang that can sound like a gunshot to someone who is unfamiliar with the sound but is immediately recognizable to someone who is used to that sound and they wouldn't say anything about it.

[daddy]

Reading a story on the recently revealed lies of Mike Daisey, an American Public Radio Journalist, it caused me to think of a few other authors/journalists who turned out to be liars:

Off the top I recalled:

--- Greg Mortenson (3 Cups of Tea) who was shown to be a massive liar in Krakauer's "3 Cups of Deceit" expose.

---Michael Bellesiles (Arming America) who was shown by numerous blogs to be a massive liar

---James Frey (A Million Little Pieces) who was shown to be a massive liar after snookering Oprah and the media

---Ward Churchill (Some BS about typhoid in blankets given to the Indians) which was shown to be a massive concoction of lies.

---Scott Beauchamp's lies in The New Republic about his Iraq experiences, shown to be total BS.

---Steven Glass
---Janet Cooke
---Jayson Blair

What strikes me as I think about it, is that all these guys are Liberals, and each is lying in order to foist a false reality upon readers wherein the Left is correct, the Right is bad, and they, the authors writing these lies, are the true champions of the people.

I imagine there are some Right side writers who may have engaged in something similar, but since they don't jump to mind, I have to assume it is much less of an occurrence on the Right.

I don't know what the reason for so much of this behavior on the Left is. Perhaps it is in seeing the excessive adulation the MSM and society and popular culture shower upon the hero's of the Left, and that drives folks for their share of that adulation spotlight.

Anyhow, just thought I'd mention that there's another Lefty lying weasel to add to the bunch, Mike Daisey. Unfortunately he won't be the last.

[crosspatch]

There's also the recent example of the NPR story on the Apple manufacturing plants in China that turned out to be fake.

[Clarice]

daddy, what a great post!

Today's burnt offering:http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/03/the_blacks_a_clown_show_revisited_as_an_american_tragedy.html

[Jane (Bad says Obama sucks)]

Clarice,

First of all, I can't believe your memory. Secondly, every liberal should be asked if he supports CRT. I've asked BEN that question 3 times and he refuses to answer, so I can only assume he is a CRT proponant. This needs to be laid on the table in this election.

GREAT Pieces!

[Extraneus]

Excellent, Clarice.

[pagar]

Just absolutely great, Clarice!

[Amanda]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading what you all have to say...

[Jack is Back!]

Clarice,

Between your latest "Pieces", gasoline prices and my March Madness brackets - I am totally depressed.

Doesn't your theory of Obama's accommodation of CRT and Dinesh D'Szousa's anti-colonist meme mesh together to show a complete bigot and racialist in Obama. In fact, in his books he even mentions being embarrassed by his own Mother's race. Looks like he has thrown more than his grandmother under the proverbial bus. We have the whole white race there.

[Clarice]

Thanks! Hi, Amanda. Now where is that red carpet?
Anyway, welcome and stick around.

[Jack is Back!]

Welcome Amanda - as Rush says, one of the top ten women's names in my world.

daddy,

Daisey is not a journalist but a performance artist and still an admitted fabricator and liar. NPR should have noted the difference but didn't and who would expected more from them. Even left leaning companies are at risk with the left.

Here is Apple Insider's take on it.

[Extraneus]

That CRT-like statement of Obama's on "redistributive change" and the Constitution's "charter of negative liberties," from Clarice's piece, was presumably made without notes or teleprompter, and it was a cogent, well-reasoned statement. Similarly, his statement to the 2007 SEIU Candidate Forum about nationalized health care wasn't the mere blabbering of a complete fool:

I would like to -- I would hope that we could set up a system that allows those who can go through their employer to access a federal system or a state pool of some sort. But I don't think we're going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There's going to be potentially some transition process. I can envision a decade out or 15 years out or 20 years out where we've got a much more portable system.

No, he's smart and coherent when he talks to fellow commies. It's only when he's trying to communicate with the rest of us that he comes off as an idiot. Not when he thinks we're not listening.

Here’s how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long, and they feel so betrayed by government, and when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn’t buy it. And when it’s delivered by — it’s true that when it’s delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama (laugher), then that adds another layer of skepticism (laughter).

But — so the questions you’re most likely to get about me, ‘Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What’s the concrete thing?’ What they wanna hear is — so, we’ll give you talking points about what we’re proposing — close tax loopholes, roll back, you know, the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama’s gonna give tax breaks to middle-class folks and we’re gonna provide health care for every American. So we’ll go down a series of talking points.

But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Um, now these are in some communities, you know. I think what you’ll find is, is that people of every background — there are gonna be a mix of people, you can go in the toughest neighborhoods, you know working-class lunch-pail folks, you’ll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you think I’d be very strong and people will just be skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you’re doing what you’re doing.

[Extraneus]

Don't click Amanda's LUN. Just hover over it to see where it would take you.

[Clarice]

At AT there are a number of commenters who remember similar theatrical productions and then there's this by Jack Kemp (not that one):

"JackKemp
I recall a movie that parodied this Jean Genet play in the 1960s. In what have been Robert DeNiro's first movie called "Hi, Mom" where he plays a young filmmaker exploring NY City with his camera and seeing weird behavior the film parodies. In one scene, a group of liberals go to an encounter theater production in either the East Village or Harlem called "Be Black." In it, the white audience members are lead through a maze of rooms and beaten somewhat by black actors (in both senses of the word) and the libs are made to feel like abused blacks - and made to look like the guilty fools that they are. You can still get this on DVD."
:http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/03/the_blacks_a_clown_show_revisited_as_an_american_tragedy_comments.html#disqus_thread#ixzz1pTEldjwj

[Jack is Back!]

Looks like Krugman will get his wish.

UFO sighted over Chilean Air Force Base near Santiago

Video at link.

[centralcal]

I love Clarice's Pieces on Sunday Mornings. Today it was really, really good. I wondered why I had never heard of the play, then I looked at the year 1961 - I was only in Jr. High.

[TJ Parker]

"Was Martin engaging in a bit of profiling by feeling threatened by the large swarthy man?"

If you think that a skinny teenager can't legitimately be afraid of a threatening man with a gun, who was 100-lbs bigger than him, then you're apologetics have gone too far.

And your amateur forensics are incomplete without a bit of armchair pathology. You should really get your head completely up your @ss and do a virtual autopsy of the victim.

[Jane (Bad says Obama sucks)]

One caveat on the whole redistribution of wealth thing. As I understand CRT, and as borne out by practice so far, particularly that of Holder, Obama is not trying to even out wealth or power. He is trying to make white non-cronies second class citizens subject to an entirely different set of laws and standards. See the black panthers and Gibson guitar for example.

BTW an algae company in California which employs 74 people just got a $2billion property tax exemption. I wonder how much the company donated to Obama. And why is a company with no income occupying a $200b space?

[Thomas Collins]

I clicked Amanda's LUN, Extraneus. I was disappointed. I was hoping that the interracial dating site spam had returned. Instead, it's a drug ad.

[rse]

clarice-daddy's comment above reminded me that Beyond All Reason that you mentioned last week talked about the role of emotional storytelling as an alternative to logic and facts in deciding an issue. The whole point is that feelings matter and truth does not. Thus a narrative that can go power is fine whether it ever occurred or not. Again, let's remember BO's Open up your heart comment in introducing Bell. React unconsciously and intuitively, not rationally is what he is pushing.

clarice-if you saw the world through my story plus all the documentation I have on higher ed and am holding for the moment, you would have to give up your pike concession. You would want to keep them all.

rain-if you are around, that article you link is consistent with the comments from the degrowth conference. And those are not isolated. The policies to gain power through administering all those benefits caused economic stagnancy if not decline. To avoid that reality and the troubling effects the amelioration would have a bureaucratic power, you got various schemes. That's what is collapsing now and the reason for holding the euro is to still try to ignore that reality. You could tell that document was written by social scientists. This is the way we would like world to be and we'd like to administer that social policy. Funny how the creation of true welfare states coincides with Deirdre McCloskey's documented shift to stagnancy.

It is hard not to read that article and then clarice's pieces and not hear bo say "I'd like all citizens to be defined by the state." Except my friends and campaign contributors of course.

[Brian Macker]

NO sound analysis needed. There was obviously only a single shot after shouting by the kid, and it did not sound like "crying" either. In fact at first it sounded angry.

I think Zimmerman is in the wrong here based on the too tapes. The kid my have thought he was being chased and mugged, and may have been attempting self defense in hitting Zimmerman. Zimmerman needed to take that possibility into account. Why on earth would a burglar shout for help?

[Cecil Turner]

Did the first shot occur before the 911 call?

AFAICT, the only evidence of a "first shot" is the event at 24" (the eyewitnesses [earwitnesses?] agreed on one). If so, that invalidates any theory of an unobserved event or relying on an event before the call started (or at least relegates it to the realm of empty speculation).

[Thomas Collins]

He would shout for help, Brian Macker, if he was unarmed and had a gun pulled on him. He could have been an unarmed burglar who had a gun pulled on him.

In any event, I hope (probably a hope not to be realized) that everyone realizes that we need to wait for the investigation before we can make any informed assessment. I'm sure Al Sharpton has already made his assessment (namely, this is better than Tawana Brawly for my racecarding).

[narciso]

A great but ultimately disturbing Pieces, what
a cast in that play, that seemed to echo James Baldwin