George Zimmerman – Again

At about 1 pm in Lake Mary, FL, on Lake Mary Blvd near 1-4, George Zimmerman was once again making the news. I don’t know about you but I’m not surprised, I made a comment the other day on Twitter how it was about time for him to once again make the news.

It involved a road rage incident (his second). The driver of a Lexus claims that Zimmerman waved a gun at him so he fired back. The bullet entered the passenger side window of Zimmerman’s Honda and Zimmerman was slightly injured in the face by flying glass/debris. The bullet missed him.

The driver of the other car drove to a strip center and begged a man returning from lunch to call 911 for him, and that he just shot George Zimmerman. It should be interesting to note that this center is very near his former ex-girlfriend’s dentist office from his last domestic violence incident.

We Want His Badge

The chants were “We want his badge! We want his gun! We want his job!” These were the words of Rev. Jarrett Maupin, a protégé of Rev. Al Sharpton and a civil rights activist and protestor at a recent march against a police shooting in the Phoenix area.

Fox 10 in Phoenix decided on a little experiment, have an outspoken protestor take a “use of force simulation”. Check it out below.

and his after interview

After the simulation, in which he also shot an unarmed man, he said that the intensity of the situation was eye opening. He also stated that people need to comply and that you don’t lose dignity by complying. He still supports and calls for independent reviews of police shootings, but I believe his experience has also opened his eyes to some of the situations that police face.

Shuttle Challenger, January 28, 1986

For those that don’t recognize this, this was an Air Force vehicle pass. It took you to a great viewing area just south of the launch pads. To me, they were better than the NASA vehicle passes and we were definitely closer, only the VIP viewing area was closer. This was the last time the Air Force would issue vehicle passes, the day was January 28, 1986 and it was for the launch of the shuttle Challenger. It was the 25th shuttle launch and the first from LC-38B.  It would also be the first loss of a shuttle.

I would get these passes from my father who worked for Martin Marietta.  When I got these passes I would walk along US-1 and try to find people who came the greatest distance and convince them I wasn’t a serial killer and take them along with me to view a launch up close. I’ve taken people from Alaska, Canada, and Germany and many states in-between. That morning though, I didn’t want to find anyone. Maybe it was the cold or maybe it was something else but for some reason I didn’t want to take anyone with me and that was a first. I’m glad I didn’t.

When A “Toy” Isn’t A Toy

We have seen their faces, heard their names, another senseless loss of life. Gone before their time and all for holding a “toy”. As you will see I use “s” when referring to these “toys”. What I’m talking about are air soft and BB guns/rifles. This is the story of 3:

Andy Lopez

1. October 2013; Andy Lopez, 13, of Santa Rosa CA was walking to a friend’s home and was carrying a look-a-like AR air soft “toy” and an air soft pistol “toy”. The pistol was tucked into his waist band and while this one had an orange tip, it was not visible due to being tucked into his waistband. The officers approached from a safe distance from behind and used their vehicle as a shield. They instructed Andy to put down the weapon but instead Andy turned toward the officers and, according to the officers, started to raise the “toy”. 8 shots rang out with 7 of them striking Andy. Most were non-fatal injuries except for the shot to the chest.

John Crawford

2. August 5, 2014; John Crawford III, 22, Fairfield, Ohio. John was out with a friend and was in a Wal-Mart store when he picked up a look-alike assault air rifle “toy” from one of the sporting good aisles of the store. The “toy” had been removed from the box by an unknown person and was not loaded. While he carried the “toy” around a Ronald Ritchie approached store management and then called 911 with a story, in fact it is filled with outright lies. He claimed that Crawford was waving the rifle around and pointing it at children and several times told the 911 dispatcher that he was loading ammunition into the rifle. You can listen to the 911 call and the store’s video which have been timed together.

FLorida’s 10-20-Life

We have all seen the headlines, “Fla. Mom gets 20 years for warning shot”. We have all heard some of the stories trying to tie this long sentence to race. What most don’t know is the history behind what happened. I’m not talking about what happened to Ms. Alexander but the history behind the sentencing. What most fail to realize is that it wasn’t the crime she was found guilty of, it wasn’t her race and it had nothing to do with a warning shot. It has everything to do with a law.

Since the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, the public has focused largely on Florida’s stand your ground (SYG) law. While many consider this to be an unjust and vague law, to me there is a more unjust law on the books and one that existed before Florida’s SYG law.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush

Back in the late 90’s there was a surge of violent felonies in Florida in which a gun was used. At the time, Florida had a mandatory sentence of 3 years when a gun was used in a violent felony. Jeb Bush, while running for governor, came up with and ran a campaign platform for the 10-20-Life law. When he was elected in 1999, the State Legislature passed Bush’s proposal and the law went into effect on July 1, 1999. In 2000 it was expanded to cover 16 and 17 year old’s who fire a gun and have prior criminal records.