George Zimmerman was back in court today for a hearing on the start date for his trial on murder charges. Zimmerman, of course, was the Hispanic neighborhood watchman in Sanford, Florida, who trailed a young black man named Trayvon Martin after calling 911, got into an altercation with Martin in which Martin ended up pounding Zimmerman’s head into the pavement, and then ended up shooting Martin in the chest. The media used the Zimmerman case as an opportunity to bully Americans over their supposed racial intolerance. Even the President of the United States weighed in in the midst of an election cycle, suggesting that if he had a son, he’d look like Trayvon Martin.
Breitbart News had the opportunity to sit down for a one-on-one interview with George’s brother, Robert, in Los Angeles. Excerpts of that interview played tonight on Fox News’ Hannity.
Robert didn’t pull any punches about President Obama’s role in raising the threat level to his brother – and to his family. “We do feel that we’re threatened,” Robert told Breitbart News. “There’s not been a legal resolution in this matter. And even the day that there is legal resolution in this matter, the day that happens I don’t think that every single fear of some kind of retribution will simply just go way, but we’re coping as bets we can, day by day.”
Robert saved especially harsh criticism for President Obama, who inserted himself in the Zimmerman case, even inviting race-baiter Al Sharpton to the White House shortly after Sharpton threatened the town of Sanford over the Police Department’s decision not to arrest Zimmerman originally. When the President was asked about the Zimmerman case in the Rose Garden, Robert said, “Here was this president, from the backdrop of the Rose Garden, making comments about someone based on his skin color. I think we felt bullied, we were a little let down initially, and that disappointment grew because if you don’t have the support of at least the law on your side, of the most powerful man in the Western Hemisphere reminding the world that it is entitled to watch, reminding Americans that the world is watching and that we will get through this with due process, but instead bringing up statements about his skin color … it was alarming to say the least.”
Robert went further: “I don’t think a white president would have been able to get away with the same thing from the Rose Garden in an election season.”
The fallout to the Zimmerman family has been extreme. According to Robert, they often require security for everyday tasks. They have had to move around to avoid targeting. And now, George faces a trial in a case where many legal observers agree there is no evidence to support the prosecutor’s second degree murder charge. No matter what happens, George Zimmerman will, thanks to the President and the media, remain a racist in many Americans’ minds. “If you can’t rebut assertions of racism,” said Robert, “the noise kind of drowns you out. You’re really left defenseless, and you have no other choice but to go into hiding.”
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the book “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).