Spike Lee Pays Off Elderly Couple; City of Sanford, FL A "Tinderbox"

"Fully resolved."

Spike Lee has reached an agreement with the Florida couple forced to flee their home...

“The McClains’ claim is fully resolved,” Matt Morgan, their attorney, said in an email. “Mr. Lee personally called them to give a very heartfelt apology. Further, he agreed to compensate them for their loss and the disruption to their lives.

A city of glass. Perfect for a riot.

The new information threatens to heighten tensions in the emotionally charged case. Sanford's Mayor Jeff Triplett told ABC News that "the city today is a tinder box."

"This city is a glass house, and making matters worse the civic center has a lot of glass," he said referring to a town hall meeting slated for 5 p.m. where family and residents will be airing grievances about the Martin shooting.

In addition, the Rev. Al Sharpton said today that he and other protesters intend to "occupy" Sanford on Easter weekend and pray that the city arrests Zimmerman.

The "new information" comes from both Zimmerman's side and allies (exposing Martin's troubled career) and from Martin's girlfriend, who was on the phone with Martin during the period in question too.

Her testimony does not seem to push the string in one direction or the other, at least as reported here.

Martin's girlfriend had said in a recording obtained exclusively by ABC News that she heard Martin ask Zimmerman "why are your following me, and then the man asked, what are you doing around here." She then heard a scuffle break out and the line went dead.

Phone records obtained by ABC News show that the girl, who is 16 and asked to remain anonymous, called Martin at 7:12 p.m., five minutes before police arrived, and remained on the phone with Martin until moments before he was shot.

Well, that exchange could have been guessed. It doesn't shed too much light on two key questions:

1) Did Zimmerman continue following Martin, or did Martin start following Zimmerman when he (as he claims) headed back to his truck?

2) Who actually started the confrontation? Don't tell me, as many in the media seem to suggest, that merely following someone suddenly gives them all the legal right he needs to beat the shit out of you.

If Martin actually began the violence (and we do not know that; we don't know either way) it's going to be hard to argue he was acting lawfully in beating up a guy, just because he felt harassed.

There's a legal method to handle harassment-- calling the cops.

Anyway, a 13-year-old witness says he saw Zimmerman "moaning" on the ground before the shot. Well, if he was moaning, that's evidence that he was dizzy and hurt, and hence not only having some justification for thinking his life was in danger, but also having some kind of a diminished capacity claim -- if you're semi-conscious due to a beating, it's hard to blame you for poor decision-making ensuing from that beating.

We still don't know enough here to be confident of knowing anything.

What we do know is that Community Organizers have ratcheted up a Get Zimmerman campaign without knowing anything, and the media, of course, gleefully assisted.

The proper authorities should be permitted to come to a reasoned, evidenced decision, get this, without the threat of riots should they not decide as the Mob may prefer.

Obama ran partly on the idea that he was some kind of racial healer.

If he doesn't defuse this situation, and this city riots -- so much for that, eh?

Where's Obama's supposedly vaunted temperament and reason now? When reason and restraint are called for, he pitches emotion -- the last thing an already hyper-emotional case needs.

posted by Ace at 05:35 PM

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