Quote of the Day

[Content Note: Violence; racism.]

"I wanted to say I am sorry for the loss of your son. I did not know how old he was. I thought he was a little bit younger than I am, and I did not know if he was armed or not"—George Zimmerman, in court today, offering an aggressively defensive non-apology to Trayvon Martin's parents. There is video here; video starts playing automatically.

Trayvon Martin's father, Tracy, reportedly cried tears of anger after the apology.

Also today: Judge Kenneth Lester set Zimmerman's bond at $150,000, despite prosecution arguments that bail should be set at no lower than $1 million or denied altogether, based on Zimmerman's history of violence, demonstrated via testimony about Zimmerman's previous assault on a police officer (for which he was ordered to attend an anger management program) and an assault on former girlfriend.

Zimmerman's wife and father testified in his defense, the latter arguing Zimmerman was never violent unless provoked. Uh-huh.

To that end, a picture is being circulated that is purported to be of Zimmerman's head bleeding immediately after the shooting that left Martin dead, in regard to which I will just reiterate my previous comment: Even if it is true that Martin at some point got physical with Zimmerman, to pretend that happened unprovoked is absurd in the extreme, given the available recording of Zimmerman talking to police and being told they do not need him to follow Martin, after he describes nothing that reasonably warrants a call to police in the first place. From Trayvon Martin's perspective, he was being stalked by a man in a vehicle who was describing his movements. If at some point he decided to try to defend himself, who the fuck could blame him?