Trayvon Martin: ABC “News” Gets on Bandwagon, Acting as Martin’s Family Mouthpiece; Family Lawyer Refuses to Release All Information about

Teen’s Last Phone Call to Girlfriend, but Insists That It Requires That George Zimmerman be Arrested “Right Now”
 

Trayvon Martin, left, and George Zimmerman, right
 

[Previously, on this case, at WEJB/NSU:

“Sanford, Florida: Black ‘Little Boy,’Trayvon Martin 17, Beat White ‘Vigilante’ George Zimmerman Bloody; Zimmerman Shot Martin Dead; Now Black WFTV ‘Reporter,’ Daralene Jones, Black Supremacists, and White Aunt Jemima Earwitness Demand That Zimmerman be Arrested.”]

By Nicholas Stix

Note that the “news story” below could have been written by Benjamin Crump, the lawyer for Trayvon Martin’s family.

ABC News “reporter” Matt Gutman tells us “Trayvon Martin’s girlfriend is speaking out,” and “ABC News was there exclusively as the 16-year-old girl told Crump about the last moments of the teenager's life,” but does not show her speaking on camera, or even play her voice speaking off-camera.

This is pure agitprop. The girl would have told the lawyer about the phone call three weeks ago. She wasn’t “telling” Crump about the phone call, anymore than a friendly witness would be “telling” a lawyer interrogating her in a trial anything new. In both cases, the witness would be performing a script. Crump had gone over with the girl exactly what she was to say, and ABC “News,” which routinely cooperates in the production of such performances, knows that better than anyone.

But since the girl didn’t even perform for the public, she isn’t speaking out at all— Benjamin Crump and Matt Gutman are. However, Crump and Matt Gutman are using the girl to try and give their own agitprop more legitimacy.

But since even with ABC News’ ability to dramatically edit the girl’s show, its producers still chose to withhold it, I guess her performance wasn’t that good.

And contrary to ABC News’ dishonest headline, the girlfriend’s secret performance didn’t “Trigger[s] Demand for Arrest ‘Right Now.’” How could it? The demand preceded the performance by almost a week.

As for the lawyer’s claims that the phone call “‘blows ... out of the water’ the shooter's self-defense claim,” it does nothing of the sort. We already knew that Zimmerman was following Martin. What alleged reporter Matt Gutman deliberately left out was that according to Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law, Zimmerman had every right to follow Martin. Crump and his media allies are deliberately misrepresenting the law, because they know that otherwise their argument fails.

“The lawyer said he would give the details of the phone call to the federal investigation.

‘We're going to turn this over to the Justice Department because the family does not trust the Sanford Police Department to have anything to do with the investigation,’ said Crump.”

Note that this is the same Benjamin Crump who demanded that police release the 911, prior to completing their investigation. But now he is withholding most of the call he now claims is his basis for demanding that Zimmerman be immediately arrested.

Crump is bluffing. If what he has said about the call is the best he’s got, then he’s got nothing, and is trying to make it sound as if the phone call were significant. If the phone call were so important, and he were honest, he would release everything he has about it. And that ABC News has chosen to let him determine what he has, while themselves parroting his line, by bragging about having exclusively been present for the non-revelations, while refusing to report on what went on, underscores that it is not acting in a journalistic function at all, but rather merely trying to help Crump railroad Geroge Zimmerman.

Matt Gutman also neglected to report that much maligned Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee Jr. had invited the feds to investigate the case days before the racist protests and petitions demanded as much.

What Crump is claiming, and Gutman is insinuating, is that Trayvon Martin was on his cellphone when Zimmerman killed him. In order to promote this story, they have to leave out that little business about Martin beating Zimmerman bloody.

I’ll have much more to say on this case, and I thank the readers who have been sending me articles about it.

* * *
Trayvon Martin's Last Phone Call Triggers Demand for Arrest 'Right Now'

By MATT GUTMAN (@mattgutmanABC) and SENI TIENABESO (@senijr_abc)
SANFORD, Fla., March 20, 2012
ABC News

A phone call from slain black teenager Trayvon Martin to his girlfriend seconds before he was shot dead by a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain "blows ... out of the water" the shooter's self-defense claim and he should be arrested "right now," a lawyer for Martin's family said today.

Attorney Benjamin Crump spoke after ABC News reported exclusively the existence of a phone call between Martin and his girlfriend, which detailed the last terrifying moments of Martin's life as he was pursued, accosted and shot dead by George Zimmerman.

Police accepted Zimmerman's claim of self-defense and have charged him with no crime.

"This young lady connects the dots," said Crump. "Arrest George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin in cold blood, today.

"We don't understand how he's not arrested. The family worries that the more time passes it will be swept under the rug," the lawyer said.

Martin's death Feb. 26 has stirred national outrage and protests, partly prompting the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the FBI to open an investigation into the case.

Florida State Attorney Norm Wolfinger announced today that he had ordered an "expeditious review" of the investigation conducted by the Sanford Police Department, and that he would be "utilizing the investigative resources of the Seminole County Grand Jury, which will be called to session" next month.

ABC News was there exclusively as the 16-year-old girl told Crump about the last moments of the teenager's life. Martin had been talking to his girlfriend all the way to the store where he bought Skittles and a tea. The phone was in his pocket and the earphone in his ear, Crump said.

"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."

The line went dead. Besides screams heard on 911 calls that night as Martin and Zimmerman scuffled, those were the last words he said.

Trayvon's phone logs, also obtained exclusively by ABC News, show the conversation occurred five minutes before police first arrived on the scene. Crump said the girl's identity was being withheld because "her parents are gravely concerned about her health and her safety." Her parents asked that only an attorney be allowed to ask her questions.

Martin's father, Tracey Martin, and mother, Sybrina Fulton, listened to the call, along with ABC News, ashen-faced.

"He knew he was being followed and tried to get away from the guy, and the guy still caught up with him," Tracey Martin said. "And that's the most disturbing part.

He thought he had got away from the guy, and the guy backtracked for him."

The girl was so distraught after the killing that she spent a night in the hospital, the lawyer said.

"She was really traumatized over this. They were dating. ... It's a situation where to know you were the last person to talk to the young man who was one of the most special persons in the world to you," Crump said.

The lawyer said he would give the details of the phone call to the federal investigation.

"We're going to turn this over to the Justice Department because the family does not trust the Sanford Police Department to have anything to do with the investigation," said Crump.

Zimmerman killed Martin as Martin walked back to his father's fiance's home after stepping out to buy snacks during the NBA All-Star Game. After weeks of relentless pressure, the Sanford Police Department at last released emergency and nonemergency calls placed during the attack.

"These a**holes always get away," Zimmerman said in a call to a nonemergency number.

Dispatcher: "Are you following him?"

Zimmerman: "Yeah."

Dispatcher: "We don't need you to do that."

An altercation soon ensued. A few moments later a torrent of 911 calls flooded in and Martin was killed by a single bullet. Zimmerman claimed self-defense and has yet to be arrested, stoking outrage and claims of prejudice against the police department.

"When George Zimmerman is arrested, tried and convicted I will get a little rest," Tracey Martin said.


Phone records that indicate the time of the girl's call with Trayvon Martin before his death.

Nearly half a million people have signed an online petition on change.org urging law enforcement officials to step in and arrest Zimmerman, who violated major parts of the Neighborhood Watch Manual, which states "It should be emphasized to members that they do not possess police powers. And they shall not carry weapons or pursue vehicles."

There are about 22,000 registered watch groups nationwide, and Zimmerman was not part of a registered group, which police were not aware of at the time of Martin's killing, said Chris Tutko, the director of the National Neighborhood Watch program.

Protests have played out in the Florida town all week with a large gathering expected Thursday.