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Taaffe and Parks

I really love Nancy Grace, which probably puts me in the minority, but I am losing respect for her because of her coverage of the George Zimmerman trial.

Last night she broke into tears when discussing the 911 call made to police when Trayvon Martin was shot. Sabrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon, got up and quickly left the court when they started to play the audio tape, and Jean Casarez, HLN legal correspondent, said Ms Fulton had been shaking uncontrollably throughout the morning. Nancy Grace tearfully stated that if she had heard her son calling out for help like that, she didn’t think she could even stand up to leave the courtroom.

She claims that she needs to hear all the evidence before she makes a call on this trial, but it seems that she’s already made up her mind. She’s relating to Trayvon’s mother, as a mother herself. How does she know that it is Trayvon Martin yelling for help? There were no eyewitnesses that I’m aware of, that saw the final struggle before the gun went off. George Zimmerman said that HE was the one calling for help, and the judge has already said that voice recognition analysis could not be entered into evidence, so where’s the proof of who’s voice it was?

Tonight on Nancy Grace’s show, she had Daryl Parks, the family attorney of the Martin family on her show, as well as a neighbor of GZ, Frank Taaffe. When the two guests started having a bit of a dust-up regarding the evidence, Nancy got quite hostile towards Mr Taaffe. Mr Parks said that Trayvon’s body was found nowhere near the sidewalk, and that no blood was found on the sidewalk either, both of which contradicted the statement of GZ who said his head was beaten on the concrete path. Mr Parks believed this was very powerful evidence from the Crime Scene Tech.

Mr Taaffe countered that it was raining that night, the crime scene was contaminated, and the rain washed away the blood. Mr Parks disagreed, and they got into a bit of an argument. Mr Taaffe also disputes the prosecutions contention that it was a contact shot. He said it was an intermediate shot from 6″-12″ (what difference that makes? I’m not sure) and that George’s statement in the police station was done with the aid of a voice stress analyzer, which he passed. Mr Taaffe says that GZ was taken to the station, he was questioned, and his story was consistent with self-defence.

Nancy asked Mr Taaffe why the defense is fighting so hard to keep out the previous 911 recordings. She asked “since when was calling the police a bad thing?” Frank said that George volunteered for this. He wasn’t on commission, where every call made he got paid; he was looking out for the safety of the community. He pointed out that one of the 911 calls made by GZ in early February 2012, was reporting a burglary in progress at Mr Taaffe’s own home, which George helped stop, due to his due diligence.

Nancy was outraged when Mr Taaffe said Zimmerman carried his Kel-Tec 9mm hand gun on him when he walked his dog in the neighborhood. He said that George had a concealed weapons permit to carry that gun, and so it wasn’t unusual that he would have had it on him the night Trayvon Martin was killed. Nancy sarcastically asked why GZ needed to carry a 9mm to walk his ‘poodle’, told him not to cop an attitude with her, and called him “Taaffe”. When he replied that it’s not a poodle, it’s a rotweiller, she rolled her eyes and said “why am I not surprised?”. She was really hostile towards him, pounding her pen on the desk, as if HE were the one responsible for Trayvon’s death. I don’t understand why she got so worked up. This man was a guest on her show, and apparently his support of GZ simply outraged her. Because he wasn’t giving her the answers that she wanted, she got downright nasty, which she does frequently with her guests anyway, but I thought this was over the top. She was obviously frustrated. She yelled “if he hadn’t been carrying that gun, the night that a high-school junior was gunned down, the boy would be alive right now”.

I don’t know, call me crazy, but TM as a ‘boy’ always bothers me. I’ve read that he was 6’1″ tall, and at 17, I would consider him a young man, not a boy. He had traces of THC in this system, so who knows how he was acting. He was on suspension from school for 10 days because pot residue was found in his book bag, which is why he was staying with his dad at the girlfriends house.

George wasn’t a saint, and he probably made a few mistakes in his past just like most of us. I don’t see him as a BAD guy. Maybe overly enthusiastic? I just know that if I lived in a neighborhood where there were frequent break-ins, I would be glad to know that the guy who walks his dog every night, is also keeping an eye on my house. One of his neighbors was traumatized when burglars broke into her home during the day when she was home with her baby. The next day George went over and gave the woman his name and contact info, so if she ever was concerned about anything and her husband wasn’t home, she could call him and he would check it out. As a woman, if I was living there, I would be VERY grateful to have someone to call in the night if I was afraid.

I’m just not convinced either way on this whole event. I need to hear all the evidence.