Take a look at the report of a prior burglary on Feb. 7, 2012, just three weeks before the shooting of Trayvon Martin, where a suspect, Emanuel Burgess, initially got away.
Zimmerman was not the one who reported this burglary. The victim reported it, and two witnesses provided descriptions of the suspect. The victim said her home on Retreat View Circle had been broken into and her MacPro stolen. One of the witnesses who gave a description said he thought the person he had seen loitering at the victims' house had also stolen his bicycle.
The next day, Feb. 7, officers returned to 1540 Retreat View circle after getting a report that four suspicious persons on bicycles were hanging around the house. The report was not made by Zimmerman.
The cops approached the four suspicious guys on bicycles. One was a white male and three were black males. One witness identified one of the males as the one he thought had stolen his bicycle and had been hanging around Retreat View Circle the day before. He said "Burgess" hadn't even changed clothes.
In the report, the cops say they got permission from one of the suspects, Ransburg, who had a backpack, to search it. The stolen Macpro was in it. The cops decided to arrest all four. In the process, one ran away:
Myself, Ofc. Rivera, and Ofc. Hickley then tried to hand cuff all of subjects, however X took head long night, and ran through the Colonial Village apartments . Ofc. Hickley and myself secured the subjects, while Ofc. Rivera gave chase on foot after [X]. A short time later Ofc. Rivera advised that [X] had been apprehended in the Colonial Village apartment complex.
Seized from Emmanuel Burgess at the time of his arrest was a touch-screen phone used to deal in stolen property.
Here's the mugshot of his arrest on Feb. 7. Here are his charges.
Burgess was not caught on Feb. 6, 2012, the date of the burglary, so he got away that day. And he did run from police to the neighboring complex on Feb. 7. Does the fact that he didn't get away for all time justify the investigators' assertion in their affidavit that Zimmerman "felt" they always got away, as if it was an unwarranted belief? I don't think so.
Why would they write it up that way? It seemed to me they used the words "he felt" to cast it as a unjust perception rather than a fact, in order to strengthen their argument that Zimmerman was talking about Martin when he used the phrase "these a*sholes, they always get away" and "these f*cking punks."
It's all part of the "profiling" story the affidavit was selling, which as I wrote here, you can see is this:
Zimmerman, who also lived in the gated community, and was driving his vehicle observed Martin and assumed Martin was a criminal. Zimmerman felt Martin did not belong in the gated community and called the police. Zimmerman spoke to the dispatcher and asked for an officer to respond because Zimmerman perceived that Martin was acting suspicious.
....During the recorded call Zimmerman made reference to people he felt had committed and gotten away with break-ins in his neighborhood. Later while talking about Martin, Zimmerman stated "these a*sholes, they always get away" and also said "these f*cking punks".
....Martin attempted to run home but was followed by Zimmerman who didn't want the person he falsely assumed was going to commit a crime to get away before the police arrived.
There were many burglaries in the neighborhood. George Zimmerman, as part of his community's watch program, was aware of them. He talked to the victims and police about them. How many were resulted in arrests? Except for those cases, the others got away.
George Zimmerman didn't always call police because he was profiling. Compare the dates on the burglary reports to the dates of his prior calls. One example: Here's the burglary report of a break-in on August 3, 2011, near Zimmerman's home. It was the victim who reported it. Here's the report of Zimmerman's call to police that day. He says he's reporting someone who matched the description law enforcement gave him of the person described by neighbor-victim.
Every affidavit tells a story, and this one was about projecting motive onto Zimmerman. It's all his feelings, perceptions and assumptions, portraying him as someone who profiled people he unjustly "felt" and "assumed' were criminals. Whatever happened to objectively stating the facts? Apparently they don't count for much in the state prosecutor's office.
