Robert Zimmerman Jr. reacted to the shooting death of Australian athlete Chris Lane on Wednesday with a scathing rebuke of the media, the Obama administration and his family’s critics.
Authorities say Lane, who was white, was killed by two black teenagers and one white teenager while jogging on Friday. Prosecutors say one of the suspects admitted they did it “for the fun of it.”
The racially-charged shooting has garnered widespread attention in Australia and the United States.
Zimmerman, whose brother George Zimmerman was acquitted of Trayvon Martin’s murder last month, responded on Wednesday to The Daily Caller’s questions about Lane’s murder.
Zimmerman suggested that the Lane murder is actually an example of a case rooted in racism.
“Mainstream media is side stepping the fact that one of the alleged murderers openly professed on social media to ‘hate’ white people,” Zimmerman said, referencing The Daily Caller News Foundation’s report Wednesday about one of the suspect’s Twitter feeds.
Here is Zimmerman’s full email response to The Daily Caller:
I remember in my brother’s case that many were unable to comprehend why George would have had a gun in the first place. George was of legal age to own a firearm and lawfully licensed to carry it in Florida. In this tragic “boredom shooting” situation with Mr. Lane it is simply taken for granted that these teenagers had firearm access to allegedly murder him. Mr. Lane was unarmed, he was jogging, he had his back turned to his alleged murderers.
The only response I have seen from the self-proclaimed leadership of the black community has been Jesse Jackson’s “frown.” Mainstream media is side stepping the fact that one of the alleged murderers openly professed on social media to “hate” white people. Mr. Jones goes on to quantify that in his opinion 90% of white people are “nasty.” I have learned throughout the ordeal our family has endured that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton as well as the NAACP do not speak for most African-Americans. Not only do they have a serious credibility problem in my view, but patriotic African-Americans have long ago tossed out and rejected their playbook. Rather, I expect that before long these parties will find a way to turn the alleged killers into victims and profess that it is our fault as a society that is insensitive to the plight of minorities that this alleged slaying happened in the first place.
According to what we know from what are reported to be Trayvon Martin’s text message records, he was trying to purchase a firearm. Unfortunately, these teenagers in Oklahoma succeeded and a man is dead today because of that. We will see if the social media & phone records of these teens are swept-under-the-rug by the “polite” news media as well.
There is a hip-hop, rap, and cultural movement that promotes very dangerous messaging for young people… It encourages them to have and to use guns to solve their problems. In the George Zimmerman case, major news networks were constantly presenting innumerable viewer opinion polls designed to smear George. One poll the major networks will never present in this case: Which one of these three teens looks most like Obama’s theoretical son? Recently, the White House chief Deputy Press Secretary said he was “unaware” of the killing in Oklahoma. Honestly, I can’t say I’m surprised, and I don’t believe many fair-minded Americans are surprised either.
