Guns are to George Zimmerman as land wars in Asia are to superpowers. Never, ever, ever a good idea:
George Zimmerman’s estranged wife called police officers to her father’s house in Florida Monday, saying the former neighborhood watch volunteer who was acquitted of murder threatened her 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.
Early days, could be a misunderstanding, have to hear both sides, she probably had him down on the linoleum in fear for what little frontal lobe capacity he may have, yadda, yadda.
I don’t have words left for how utterly stupid American gun policy is. But on this one? My only surprise is that Zimmerman beat my internal over/under on how long it would take for him to go back down this road.
Oh — and if I’m Shellie Zimmerman, I’m looking long and hard at research like this. [PDF] No snark here; this kind of thing is (literally) deadly serious.
Update: For the record, I checked our posts page before starting this little item. Cole writes faster than I do; hence his ability to nail this story in time for us to land on the FP at almost the same instant. Ah well, as we say in the gum business, double your pleasure, double your fun.
Image: Arthur Devis, John Orde, His Wife Anne, and His Eldest Son William, between 1754 and 1756.
Cacti
Mark O’Mara has told CNN that Mrs. Zimmerman was armed with a sidewalk.
srv
Why the hell didn’t he shoot her?
Keith P.
@srv: Because his wife hadn’t kicked his ass yet?
chopper
i wonder what the zimmerman family crest looks like? what’s latin for “THEY’RE COMIN’ RIGHT FOR US!”?
srv
@Keith P.: White men can never get a break.
Anna in PDX
When I read about her ABC interview on Wonkette a week or so ago, I got chills. As a former DV victim myself I was just thinking “run. run far away” for her.
cleek
@chopper:
(according to Google)
iure venis illi pro nobis!
Omnes Omnibus
@chopper: Google Trans says: Ipsi veniunt ad nos. It is probably grammatically incorrect.
ranchandsyrup
Griftertunity knocks. Zimbo’s gonna cash in.
Poopyman
I see we have further proof that Cole doesn’t bother reading his own blog. I’m not going to comment up there as a protest. Besides, I got shit to do.
Omnes Omnibus
OT, but pretentious art douche related: New van Gogh identified.
Bob
I bet Cole’s big foot post gets more comments. Ces’t la guerre.
Tom Levenson
Saw that. Way cool.
SiubhanDuinne
@Anna in PDX: Why in the world didn’t she file a restraining order against him? (Or maybe she did and he violated it. That wouldn’t surprise me.)
SiubhanDuinne
@ranchandsyrup: Yup, I was thinking the opening chapter to Shellie’s inevitable, inescapable memoir just kinda writes itself.
Randy P
@Omnes Omnibus: Since we’re discussing art news in this thread too, has anyone else been following that story of the art thief’s Mom who claims she burned millions of dollars of stolen Picassos, Monets, Matisses, etc in order to hide the evidence and protect her son?
I can’t even think about this without becoming sick to my stomach.
When people destroy something literally irreplaceable, I just… I can’t comprehend it. There’s a gene I’m missing or something.
Omnes Omnibus
@Randy P: Jesus.
Trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sorry, no link but I read last week they’re discounting her story as a ruse to distract the investigation. Of course, bad things still happen to artworks.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-178534/Stolen-paintings-rain-damaged.html
AdamK
And the painting has a nameless and ignored black kid in it. Sheesh. Talk about quick research.
Tom Levenson
@AdamK: Sometimes you get lucky.
Anna in PDX
@SiubhanDuinne: Hard and probably unfair for me to speculate on that, but I do know that restraining orders do not make people safer, in fact the opposite may be true when the ex already has violent tendencies in that it can make the ex madder and more apt to provoke a confrontation – at least that was what I read in the well-known book The Gift of Fear, which may be out of date, but it sure convinced me.
I did get a restraining order in my own situation lo these many years ago, but I am a kind of legalistic person who tries to jump through all the right hoops.
Jebediah
@Poopyman:
And I shall protest by commenting in neither thread!
Whoops…
Ben Cisco
@AdamK: Genius!
Shakezula
I bet the Venn Diagram of “People who think men have the God given right to knock their wives around” and “People who think Zimmerman is God,” overlaps by at least 85%.
I hope this she has the necessary tools (a-hem) to fend off the CHUDs.
Schlemizel
@Randy P:
Actually they are not irreplaceable! Google Ken Perenyi, the guy is so good there are dozens of his fakes making the rounds of high-end auctions because they have been authenticated by the very best art experts in the world. Show the guy pictures of the missing work & he can produce a stroke for stroke copy and nobody need be the wiser.
Thats only about 50% snark. While I am sick at the loss I also wonder how much it really matters when even the best of the best can’t identify the real thing.
Linnaeus
@Anna in PDX:
I don’ t know much about these things, but I’ve read that while restraining orders won’t necessarily deter a committed abuser, it’s better to have one than not in these situations because there is at least a legal record and a basis for legal action that makes it harder for the abuser to refute by making it a he-said, she-said situation.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
Your posts have better illustrations.
Shakezula
@Linnaeus: Yes, it helps establish that the person against whom the order was issued is the kind of asshole who will (among other things) ignore a judge saying “Thou Shalt Not.”
Elizabelle
Can you hear me laughing from here in Virginia?
Although Trayvon and family got no justice. Still incredibly sad.
Anna in PDX
@Linnaeus: This is true, and needs to be balanced with the fear of bodily harm when deciding whether to file one.
The need to have a good case in court is sometimes not identical to the need to avoid bodily harm.
Redshirt
@Randy P: That’s nothing compared to reducing a 2300 year old Mayan temple to rubble to use for road fill.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324242/Bulldozers-destroy-2-300-year-old-Mayan-pyramid-Belize.html
Odie Hugh Manatee
Sorry Cole, first come first served.
Shellie Zimmerman helped Georgie get away with murder and this is the thanks she gets? What did she think she was going to get from a guy who got away with murder? Flowers? I don’t feel sorry for her a bit. An innocent kid is dead and she helped him get away with it.
I don’t give a shit if she’s Georgie’s next victim. Better her than someone else.
mainmati
@cleek: Literally correct but a Roman would not understand the expression; you’d have to transform it in a way that made sense in Latin.