This is crap for a few reasons. First of all this is surveillance video from probably 10-15 foot away at least. There are no closeups upon which to evaluate whether or not Zimmerman is ‘bruised’. Secondly, we don’t know how long he was at the scene. He could have been there for 30 minutes, an hour or longer, which is plenty of time for wounds to clot and stop bleeding. Thirdly, we don’t know if he was cleaned up by the paramedic crew that was on scene. It’s clear they were there from the report and I would assume they attended to his lacerations and broken nose.
And the last and most important reason this ABC News article is crap is that the initial police report verified that he was in fact bleeding from the back of his head and his nose, which they do acknowledge in the article. But even still that is now in ‘conflict’ with the video they purport shows no blood or bruising.
So why post this video with a title (same as my title without the question mark) that will lead many to believe that Zimmerman had no bruising and wasn’t bleeding like he said? Well, I can tell you it will do nothing but inflame the already overheated rhetoric of those who believe Trayvon Martin was killed because he was black because it will lead many to believe this video is proof that Zimmerman is lying.
Watch the video:
ABC NEWS – A police surveillance video taken the night that Trayvon Martin was shot dead shows no blood or bruises on George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who says he shot Martin after he was punched in the nose, knocked down and had his head slammed into the ground.
The surveillance video, which was obtained exclusively by ABC News, shows Zimmerman arriving in a police cruiser. As he exits the car, his hands are cuffed behind his back. Zimmerman is frisked and then led down a series of hallways, still cuffed.
Zimmerman, 28, is wearing a red and black fleece and his face and head are cleanly shaven. He appears well built, hardly the portly young man depicted in a 2005 mug shot that until a two days ago was the single image the media had of Zimmerman.
The initial police report noted that Zimmerman was bleeding from the back of the head and nose, and after medical attention it was decided that he was in good enough condition to travel in a police cruiser to the Sanford, Fla., police station for questioning.
His lawyer later insisted that Zimmerman’s nose had been broken in his scuffle with 17-year-old Martin.
In the video an officer is seen pausing to look at the back of Zimmerman’s head, but no abrasions or blood can be seen in the video and he did not check into the emergency room following the police questioning.