George Zimmerman: Still Terrible

[Content Note: Guns; violence.]

George Zimmerman, who was recently found not guilty of the murder of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, is being interviewed by police after reportedly threatening his estranged wife and her father with a gun.

Shellie Zimmerman called police shortly after 2 p.m. Monday, said Lake Mary Police Chief Steve Bracknell.

Zimmerman hasn't been arrested and officers were at the house trying to determine what happened, Bracknell said.

"We've only heard one side of the story so far," Bracknell said.

As you may recall, George Zimmerman was also not arrested after shooting and killing Martin, until national public outcry finally resulted in his arrest. Fortunately, Shellie Zimmerman is still alive to give her "side of the story" to police, unlike Trayvon Martin. Because there are definitely two totally equal sides in every story of George Zimmerman wielding a gun at someone.

Shellie Zimmerman filed for divorce from George Zimmerman last week. I was just talking to Jessica Luther about this latest incident, and Jess recalled that the news of Shellie filing a divorce petition was met with a lot of sneering at Shellie for only divorcing him now, without any trace of awareness that Shellie herself has almost certainly been abused by this violent, murderous fuck with a history of abusing women.

"Why didn't she leave him before or during the trial?" people questioned, levying their public judgment against her. Well, maybe she was hoping he'd get convicted, too. The most dangerous time for a woman who has been physically abused by a partner (meaning, the time a woman is most likely to be killed) is when she's trying to extricate herself from the relationship.

As @AuntB observed on Twitter: "He killed Trayvon Martin after fighting with his wife. I suspect he took out his anger at his wife on Martin."

He is a dangerous man. No living person is in a better position to understand precisely what that means than Shellie Zimmerman. Perhaps we could bear that in mind and can the judgy jokes.

UPDATE: Zimmerman's attorney says: "There was heightened emotion, and a disagreement took place." Which is a pretty great description of Iain and I bickering with one another about some stupid shit, and a pretty terrible description of someone brandishing a weapon designed to kill things at an estranged spouse.