Neighborhood watch captain with violent past kills teen, not arrested
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By Madison Ruppert Editor of End the Lie [caption id="attachment_41163" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Trayvon Martin (Image credit: Tracy Martin)"] [/caption] George Zimmerman, the self-appointed captain of the neighborhood watch of a subdivision in Sanford, Florida, murdered an unarmed 17-year-old on his way back from the store last month. It has now emerged that the police might have withheld the killer's violent history from the family of Trayvon Martin, the young man who was brutally murdered for no apparent reason. Initially, police said that 28-year-old Zimmerman admitted to shooting Martin on February 26, after he called 911 to report a suspicious person according to the Martin family's attorney Benjamin Crump. Police said that Zimmerman claimed he shot the young man in self-defense and he has yet to be charged in the shooting. According to Tracy Martin, the victim's father, Sanford police told him that they did not arrest Zimmerman because of his "squeaky-clean" record. However, Crump has now discovered public records from Orange County which show that Zimmerman was arrested in 2005 on charges of resisting arrest with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer. These are hardly charges which one would have on a record even remotely close to "squeaky-clean." "They just lied to the family," Crump said. "They just couldn't see why [Zimmerman] would do anything wrong or be violent." "But not only do you know the guy killed this kid, because he admitted it, you know that he has a propensity for violence because of his past record," Crump added. The records housed on the Orange County Clerk of Courts website appear to show that the charges against Zimmerman were dropped, although that still would not qualify his record as "squeaky-clean" by any metric. The phone number for Zimmerman has reportedly been disconnected and he has been unreachable for comment. In an interview with the Huffington Post , Tracy Martin revealed why the police might have been so lenient to Zimmerman, even with his record. When he asked the police why they did not charge Zimmerman, they said "they respected [Zimmerman's] background, that he studied criminal justice for four years and that he was squeaky clean." "My question to them was, did they run my child's background check? They said yes. I asked them what they came up with, and they said nothing. So I asked if Zimmerman had a clean record, did that give him the right to shoot and kill an unarmed kid?" Unfortunately it seems that police might be giving Zimmerman special treatment because of his background in criminal justice. If police treat individuals with such a background similarly to how they treat actual law enforcement, I wouldn't be surprised if no charges were ever filed or if Zimmerman just received a slap on the wrist for murdering Martin in cold blood. Seeing as police are allowed to murder the elderly and never be charged with a crime and brutally assault senior citizens with dementia , also never to get charged with a crime, this wouldn't be all too surprising. Crump has requested that the police turn over the recordings of the 911 call from the night that Martin was killed and has filed a public records suit in order to get police to hand them over. The young Martin was walking back from a convenience store during the halftime break of the NBA All-Star game, at which time Zimmerman began following him in his car, according to police. The Chief of Police Bill Lee told the Huffington Post , "For some reason [Zimmerman] felt that Trayvon, the way that he was walking or appeared, seemed suspicious to him. He called this in and at one part of this initial call [the dispatcher] recommends him not to follow Trayvon. A police officer is one the way at that point." Instead of following the recommendation of the dispatcher and leaving the actual work to the police, Zimmerman chose to continue to follow Martin. The details at this point are unclear, but according to police a confrontation of some kind ensued and Zimmerman then shot and killed Martin. Hopefully now that Zimmerman's checkered past has come to light the police will stop treating him as if he has some right to murder an innocent, unarmed teen in cold blood for walking home with candy and iced tea. Martin's only crime was walking to the store to get a snack for his brother and being unfortunate enough to be in Zimmerman's area. If Zimmerman isn't charged and brought to justice for his crime, this will be yet another example on the long list of instances proving that the United States has a de facto dual justice system wherein ordinary people are subjected to a certain set of laws whereas law enforcement and those in power or with sufficient wealth are not held to these same laws. Maybe the increased attention that this case is getting across the nation will encourage the Sanford police to actually do their job and bring a murderer to justice. Please support our work and help us start to pay contributors by doing your shopping through our Amazon link or check out some must-have products at our store . Did I miss anything? Would you like to send me your own writing or tip me off to a story? Email me at Admin@EndtheLie.com