Monday, November 18, 2013

On George Zimmerman, Act 2...Or 3...Or More

Gary W. Green/EPA/LANDOV

So…George Zimmerman is at it again.

As far as I know, he is still in custody in Florida this evening.  Police arrested him after his new girlfriend called 911 when he started brandishing his guns in her face and using them to bust up her house, which he then proceeded to push HER out of and lock the doors before police could arrive.

When I first became aware of this story, I thought, “This guy is such an idiot.  Either he thinks his acquittal in the Martin case has given him blanket immunity from prosecution, or he is just too violent and too stupid to know when to quit.  Either way, he’s in jail.  Again. We can only hope he stays there this time.”

I even posted something on Facebook to the effect that his girlfriend called the cops on him, and I guess she can consider herself fortunate that he didn’t shoot HER.  And we can only hope the law can put him away before he kills someone else.

But then I caught the Lawrence O’Donnell show on MSNBC this evening.  O’Donnell played the TWO 911 calls generated by the incident.  The first was from the girlfriend, detailing how Zimmerman had smashed up her house, waved his guns in her face, and was now pushing her out the door and locking her out.

The second was from Zimmerman himself.  He called 911, not because he needed help, but because he “needed to get his story out there.”  And then he went on, in a deadly calm voice, to spin HIS side of the yarn for the operator.  About how his girlfriend smashed her own glass table.  About how SHE “went crazy on him” after he decided it would be better if he moved out and he started to pack up his things.  About how SHE was throwing his stuff around and breaking things.  You can listen yourself here:


Isn't this absolutely chilling?  Here is this guy, moments after a highly-charged confrontation which ended with him pushing this girl out the door and locking her out (and then barricading the door against police), and he sounds like he just woke up on a fine morning and hasn’t quite finished his first cup of coffee.  He’s quiet, he’s calm, and he’s got his story absolutely down pat.  And it sounds for all the world as if, not only does he believe every word he’s saying, but he fully expects the 911 operator--and the entire world, which he knows is going to hear this tape--to believe him, too.

This guy is NOT just your run-of-the-mill, gun-loving good ole boy.  He’s a classic abuser with dire anger management problems bordering on psychopathic, who has the balls and the legal know-how to construct elaborate layers of fiction surrounding his misdeeds with the intent to confuse, side-track and even derail prosecution.  What I heard on that tape was frightening.  He sounded as deadly dangerous as any caricature serial killer/villain pulled out of the minds of the writers of Criminal Minds.  And I had to quit watching Criminal Minds because that show seriously creeped me out.   

It must be obvious, now, that the Trayvon Martin killing was not an isolated, “Oops! He beat me up and I had to shoot him.  Sorry!” incident. If the circumstances of this new arrest are any indication, Zimmerman knew exactly what he was doing, and exactly how to craft his story in order to get himself off the hook.  

And if someone doesn’t keep a close eye on him, he will kill again.  With every intention of getting away with it.

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