Was the Zimmy-the-Hero incident staged?

[Jackpine Radical]

Well, how much would it take, really?

We're starting with a police force that showed no interest in arresting him or preserving evidence.

They would not have had to stage an accident; all they would have to do was wait for one that met certain conditions. And, of course, as the police, they would automatically and immediately know about any accidents within useful range.

So you wait for an accident that's pretty dramatic, but where the chance of a fire is low and nobody requires immediate ambulance service.

As soon as the "right kind" of accident occurs, you call Zimmy out to the scene, where he does his superhero schtick.

Q.E. Fuckin' D.

[zbdent]

1. Zimmy might have a police scanner ...

[Jenoch]

2. I have read and heard a lot

about how this was a staged event. So far, I have not read anything to convince me that any of it is more than speculation.

[Lurks Often]

3. Staged to what degree? I don't know too many people willing to roll their truck with their kids

inside. It was the Seminole County police that responded to the accident, not the Sanford PD. Zimmerman arrived before the police did.

Who was the other man that helped, did he know Zimmerman or was he a complete stranger?

And to address two other points that I am sure will come up:
If Zimmerman wasn't involved, none of us would have heard about this story, so I am not surprised it took 4 days to work up to the national media.

I don't blame the family or the other person that helped for not wanting to talk to the press, given the very strong feelings about the case, I won't want to talk to the press either. I think talking to the press about the accident means losing your privacy for weeks.

[Generic Other]

4. I don't think it was staged

I think the story was that Z. found out in some way that there was an emergency down the street from where he was hiding out. He couldn't resist playing hero and the story was embellished by a cop who seemed from his FB page to be obsessed with touting Z's innocence. Clearly, Z. has not backed off his neighborhood block activities. He arrived at the scene just before the cops because he no doubt has a link to a police scanner on his computer and probably his cellphone as well. I don't think it was a staged accident at all. But it does appear to have been a staged rescue.

If this story was legit, you know the rightwingers would be screaming it from the rooftops. Z's brother would mention it. Hannity would. Geraldo. All the apologists would proclaim him a hero. There would be pundits on cable abuzz with talk. I have not noticed a single mainstream media source do that. ABC which first published the scoop does not seem very interested in getting Z to sit down with Diane Sawyer to talk about the rescue mission.

Of course, there is no video, audio or photographic record of a burning rolled SUV. The police report never mentioned fire or anything else. No injuries to passengers. And where's the burned out hulk of a car? Was it towed to a shop somewhere? Was it totalled? Or detailed and returned?

I don't believe anything Z. or his brother says without a lie detector.

[jwirr]

6. That is what I read also. And that a policeman tipped him off that it had happened. The accident to

the family was real.

[Jackpine Radical]

15. Please have another look at my 3rd sentence.

I'm NOT suggesting that the accident itself was staged, just that Z's response to it might have been.

[Tippy]

5. Wish I had kept the link

But I read a policeman a friend of Zimmermans called him and told him about the accident and where it was...Zimmerman went to the location...now that is all I remember of the article. They did go on to say the family was going to thank him but changed their mind when they heard about what the policeman set up...

[Igel]

10. That was the claim.

Claims are cheap.

No evidence was provided, except that the site claimed that it had the cops cell phone records.

One wonders how it got the records, exactly, and why if it was making everything else about the family and the cop public--to the point of Internet stalking--it didn't bother to show them. No matter.

Again, claims are cheap.

Remember Fox Mulder's "I want to believe" poster?

[hrmjustin]

7. The whole thing seems fishy to me. I have a hard time believing it.

[RevStPatrick]

8. I think "staged" is the wrong word.

An opportunity was seized upon.
His cop friend called him and said "Hey, you're just a couple of blocks away. If you get there before we do, it might make you look good..."

Not "staged" but "given a heads up so he could look like a hero."

[Jackpine Radical]

14. My point is that the rescue might have been staged, not the accident.

[99Forever]

9. Staged. Probably.

Even if it wasn't, the ahole is still a cowardly, murdering scumbag. His defenders are equally immoral scum.

[Igel]

11. Plausible vs. proven.

You've shown it's plausible for it to have been staged.

During the GZ trial there were lots of plausible scenarios proposed. "It could have happened this way" or "I think this is what happened." The proposers would assemble the evidence to show that what they claimed might have happened. Sometimes they even included all or at least almost all the evidence to produce a possible scenario.

Then they did the ridiculous: They acted like they have proved what actually did happen.

"Might happen" became "did happen" in their minds. The plausible became the proven. You don't have to show what did happen. Just what might have happened. Fantasy, reality--same thing. We construct our own reality, all 23 of them.

So, okay.

You've shown what might have happened. It's a nice fantasy.

Go forth and actually "D" what happened, instead of just signing it "fuckin' D". Instead of showing possibility, show reality.

Lack of evidence is not carte blanche for making assertions that we can blithely assume are true.

[Jackpine Radical]

13. All I was interested in demonstrating was the plausibility.

People have been claiming that it couldn't have happened because nobody would/could stage a rollover accident. My point is that they didn't have to do that. The accident wasn't staged, but Zimmie's response to it might have been.

[markpkessinger]

12. Honesty, it doesn't matter . . .

Whether or not GZ might hav3 dine a good deed in this instance is totally irrelevant to his role in the killing of Trayvonl it is often the case that a person who commits a perfectly horrible act in one context is capable of doingnsomething that is highly commendable in another. The need we have to either completely lionize or completely vilify is a kind of reductive over-simplification, that ultimately plays into fhe hands of GZ'S defenders.