Suspicious Flipping Tweets

The Orlando Sentinel recently reported that the judge in the Trayvon Martin second degree murder case signed an order requiring the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to release biographical profiles of key witnesses in the case to George Zimmerman's defense attorneys. The case is scheduled to begin on June 10, 2013.

The material released, including some criminal background material, is expected to provide fodder to defense attorneys seeking to undermine the credibility of witnesses to the crime that left the 17 year old teen, armed with Skittles and ice tea, dead on the lawn from a handgun blast. The shooter, identified as George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, had been directed by a police dispatcher not to approach the hoodie-wearing teen. Zimmerman said he thought Trayvon looked "suspicious" walking in the drizzle, so, armed with his handgun, he followed Trayvon.

But we know all that.

In another bizarre twist, just days after the Florida judge ordered the release of the biographical material, George Zimmerman's brother, Robert, stirred up a Twitter firestorm yesterday by comparing the deceased Trayvon to an alleged killer based on the similarity that they were both photographed flipping the bird. Gasp!

Brother Robert went on to conclude that "society thinks 'blacks mightB risky.'" On the surface, Robert was referring to the Brunswick, GA killing of a 13 month old boy in his stroller.

But below that surface, Robert managed to conflate ideas supporting his own brother's defense. To begin the tweet, Robert displayed two young black men, side by side, each flipping off: on the left is the alleged baby killer; the other is Trayvon. While it's often true that a picture is worth a thousand words, Robert's 140 character tweet belied his ulterior motive: to reinforce the notion that Trayvon was the assailant and George was merely defending himself that misty night.

Apparently not content to cast dispersions by conflating the picture with the events, Robert went on to suggest that "what these2 black teens did 2 a woman&baby is the reason ppl think blacks mightB risky" reinforcing brother George's allegation that Trayvon was "suspicious" for wearing a hoodie in the rain. And, of course, casting race-based suspicions on all blacks.

After all, Robert leads us to believe that people think blacks mightB risky. That's right, isn't it?