Shot Himself in the Foot?George Zimmerman, Bigotry, and his past Social Media

computer monitor
of social media
 with smoking gun?

George Zimmerman's attorney has taken the controversial step of waging his client's defence not only in court but using social media.
That may not entirely work in his favor, and one can only wonder how well he knew his client before undertaking that effort.
Much has been made of the fact that Zimmerman's mother is from Brazil, and by that definition a Latina or Hispanic. Some assert that if Zimmerman self-identifies as Hispanic, it is not possible for him to be racist / bigoted / biased towards black Americans, which is of course bogus reasoning.
Apparently it is even quite within Zimmerman's capacity to be racist towards other Hispanics, which is where his previous social media history comes in to the issue.  I wonder if that information will impede the flow of cash from Latino Floridians who might otherwise have been sympathetic?  Zimmerman has apparently been using the internet to extract a lot of change from the gun nut chumps on the right... which he conveniently omits mentioning in court where it would be a significant detail.

It clearly was, and presumably is, true that George Zimmerman has no problems with making the most derogatory conclusions about entire groups of people rather than treating them as individuals, including assuming criminality where none may be present.  This would seem to go to the heart of the matter of George Zimmerman appearing to make inaccurate and racist assumptions about Trayvon Martin.  It continues to amaze me that people can be terribly concerned that George Zimmerman is not being give every possible benefit of the doubt and presumption of innocence, while they fail to give either the benefit of the doubt or innocence to Trayvon Martin for no better reason than he was a black male teen in a hoodie.  That is insufficient information about anyone for a presumption of criminal misconduct.  It is the assumptions which lead to fear on the part of shooters to justify self defense homicides under the Shoot First laws that is the essence of its fundamental flaw.

From MSNBC.com : 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

By M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com

George Zimmerman's attorney defends his move to the Web as a counter to fake sites. Cara Moore of NBC station WESH of Orlando, Fla., reports.

By M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com

George Zimmerman, who's charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, was the owner of an old Myspace page featuring slurs against Mexicans, his lawyer has confirmed to the Miami Herald.
Posting under the pseudonym "Joe G,"Zimmerman wrote about "mexicans walkin on the side of the street, soft a-- wanna be thugs messin with peoples cars when they aint around" and "gettin knifes pulled on you by every mexican you run into!"
Read the full story at The Miami Herald
The discovery adds another social media element to a case that came to national attention largely through Twitter and Facebook. After initially having ordered Zimmerman to scrub his social media history, his lawyer, Mark O'Mara, has embraced a controversial social media strategy to keep the defense side of the case in the spotlight, complete with its own website.
Msnbc.com's Suzanne Choney has examined the ramifications of attorneys using social media to make their cases in public:
The American Bar Association's standards of professional conduct does not deal with social media, a spokesman for the ABA told msnbc.com, but "it's certainly going to be on everyone's radar screen" now.
Stephen A. Saltzburg, a member of the ABA's governing body, the House of Delegates, and former chairman of the ABA's criminal justice section, said "generally speaking, lawyers are not supposed to be making public statements that could compromise a fair trial."
Whether the Zimmerman social media effort will do that would be up to a judge, Saltzburg said.
*********
I appreciate the way in which commentary cartoons can reflect more eloquently than mere words in getting to the essence of issues sometimes.  In that context, I found these to be exemplary instances of that clarity and focus.