Elephant in the Room

Reuters reporter Chris Francescani has provided some welcome journalistic rigor to a story, excerpt below, about George Zimmerman’s background. Now that the tribunal has been transferred from the  partisan media to a criminal justice system where at least part of the business has to do with facts, evidence,  and a rational process of determining truth, we’re expecting many of  those voices that were clamoring “I am Trayvon”™ a month ago to be replaced with some serious silence.

As reported Wednesday by Reuters:

a more nuanced portrait of Zimmerman has emerged from a Reuters investigation into Zimmerman's past and a series of incidents in the community in the months preceding the Martin shooting.

Based on extensive interviews with relatives, friends, neighbors, schoolmates and co-workers of Zimmerman in two states, law enforcement officials, and reviews of court documents and police reports, the story sheds new light on the man at the center of one of the most controversial homicide cases in America.

The 28-year-old insurance-fraud investigator comes from a deeply Catholic background and was taught in his early years to do right by those less fortunate. He was raised in a racially integrated household and himself has black roots through an Afro-Peruvian great-grandfather - the father of the maternal grandmother who helped raise him.

A criminal justice student who aspired to become a judge, Zimmerman also concerned himself with the safety of his neighbors after a series of break-ins committed by young African-American men.

Though civil rights demonstrators have argued Zimmerman should not have prejudged Martin, one black neighbor of the Zimmermans said recent history should be taken into account.

"Let's talk about the elephant in the room. I'm black, OK?" the woman said, declining to be identified because she anticipated backlash due to her race. She leaned in to look a reporter directly in the eyes. "There were black boys robbing houses in this neighborhood," she said. "That's why George was suspicious of Trayvon Martin." 

Read the rest of this very detailed story, “George Zimmerman: Prelude to a shooting”.