SHOCKING NEW WITNESS TESTIMONY IN TRAYVON MARTIN CASE!

ABC News has just released a story that could certainly lead to a murder charge against George Zimmerman, the individual who killed Trayvon Martin. Attorneys for Martin's family released cell phone records to ABC News which prove that Martin was on the phone with his girlfriend moments before he was killed.

According to the young woman's statements, Martin told her that he was being followed by a strange man and that he was trying to escape. Her account, bolstered by phone records, disproves Zimmerman's "self-defense" argument -- which was already sketchy based on available witness statements and 911 calls. In fact, given the amount of effort that Zimmerman apparently made to capture Martin, prosecutors have a basis for charging him with first-degree murder.

Here is a clip from the ABC News article. Please read the entire article here.

ABC News was there exclusively as the 16-year-old girl told Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump about the last moments of the teenager's life.

"He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man," Martin's friend said. "I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run but he said he was not going to run."

Eventually he would run, said the girl, thinking that he'd managed to escape. But suddenly the strange man was back, cornering Martin.

"Trayvon said, 'What, are you following me for,' and the man said, 'What are you doing here.' Next thing I hear is somebody pushing, and somebody pushed Trayvon because the head set just fell. I called him again and he didn't answer the phone."

As I have previously argued, Zimmerman was the aggressor. Martin reasonably feared for his own safety. Zimmerman cannot assert self-defense under these circumstances. Prosecutors should charge him with first-degree murder.

The Sanford Police Department Has Lost All Credibility

This new development calls into question the thoroughness of the local police investigation and the credibility of the department. Bill Lee, the Chief of Police for Sanford, Florida, has consistently stated that no evidence could rebut Zimmerman's claim of self-defense. Yet, witness statements, 911 calls, and now phone records and additional witness statements provide ample evidence to establish that Zimmerman murdered Martin and that his self-defense claim is rubbish.

The FBI and Florida State Police have joined the investigation in this case. Once these agencies compile a record, Lee should resign, and the department should be placed under state control. It no longer has the credibility to serve the city.


For more analysis, see:

George Zimmerman, Killer of Trayvon Martin: The Man Who Would Be Cop


Sorry, Trayvon Martin: They Just Don't Like You


BREAKING NEWS in Trayvon Martin Case: Officer in the Case Has A Prior Record of Racial Controversy


BREAKING NEWS: Geraldo Rivera Says Hoodie Killed Trayvon Martin

Amateur Sociologist Richard Cohen Has A Theory About Class and Crime

Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen has published a provocative essay that attempts to analyze the relationship between class and crime. Cohen asks whether liberals got "it wrong" on class and crime. He concludes that they did.

Cohen argues that acts of violent crime are dropping across the nation -- even though the country is experiencing a "Great Recession." Accordingly, Cohen concludes that liberals are wrong to link class and crime: "[T]he latest crime statistics strongly suggest that bad times do not necessarily make bad people. Bad character does." Cohen's essay suffers on many levels.

First, Cohen simplistically portrays liberal social theory regarding crime. Sociologists have definitely linked the absence of meaningful economic opportunity with crime, but they have never advanced this as the sole cause of criminal behavior.

Furthermore, theories that do link crime and class address the relationship in a far more complicated fashion than Cohen even attempts to do. Cohen believes that if crime and class are indeed related, then a short-term economic downturn should necessarily give rise to a spike in crimes. The academic research on criminal behavior, however, does not centralize this simplistic aspect of the crime/class relationship.

Although sudden economic deprivation could certainly motivate some criminals, sociologists have focused on the longterm effects of poverty. After decades of empirical research, some of the brightest minds have concluded that entrenched and concentrated poverty can present such a formidable barrier to legitimate economic opportunity, that individuals turn to crime. The removal of jobs can also lead to behaviors that seem rational under the circumstances, but which harm the law-breaking individuals and their communities even more. William Julius Wilson's informative book When Work Disappears could have informed Cohen's analysis.

Finally, Cohen's use of statistical information is sloppy. Cohen cites to a recent preliminary FBI report which finds that in 2009, violent crimes decreased over 2008 levels. Cohen, however, fails to place those statistics within an historical context. The 2009 FBI report, for example, makes the following observation about robberies:

Although robbery overall showed a decrease, cities with populations less than 25,000 showed increases in robbery. Robberies also increased in both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties, 0.7 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

Also, as the FBI's own disclaimer states, the data are compiled as a result of voluntary reporting by local law enforcement. The FBI warns readers not to use the data to make strong conclusions -- particularly of a comparative nature by jurisdiction:

Figures used in this Report are submitted voluntarily by law enforcement agencies throughout the country. . . . Valid assessments are possible only with careful study and analysis of the range of unique conditions affecting each local law enforcement jurisdiction.

It is very important to test and rethink established theories. The relationship between crime and class, however, deserves more than Cohen's pseudo-sociology.