George Zimmerman 'pointed a shotgun at his girlfriend'

[enhanced_deficit]

Put this shit in off topic. Seriously.

It's a giant ass distraction, and you all know better than to fall for it.

+rep, although I think such attitude could sabotage media game plan.

 

[FloralScent]

I'll pay attention when, and if he's convicted.

 

[WM_in_MO]

I'll pay attention when, and if he's convicted.

Why?

 

[Zippyjuan]

But he was a victim. Just protecting himself from his girlfriend.

 

[rpfocus]

Adios, Zimmie! I guess his wife was just looking for trouble too.

 

[green73]

UPDATE: Zimmerman's Girlfriend Wants to Drop Charges, 'Be With Him'

http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmermans-girlfriend-drop-charges/story?id=21153527

 

[jmdrake]

UPDATE: Zimmerman's Girlfriend Wants to Drop Charges, 'Be With Him'

http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmermans-girlfriend-drop-charges/story?id=21153527

Stockholm syndrome? Women in these cases often drop charges.

 

[pcosmar]

Well, I think Zimmerman made some poor choices that led him to be on edge and prone to breaks. He should've immediately changed his name and moved to a rural area in another state. Starting a new life would be a pain in the ass, but it's better than the past haunting you forever.

I thought so too,, but he does seem to keep getting himself in the news.

 

[moostraks]

UPDATE: Zimmerman's Girlfriend Wants to Drop Charges, 'Be With Him'

http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmermans-girlfriend-drop-charges/story?id=21153527

Sounds a bit like battered woman syndrome to me:http://marriage.laws.com/domestic-v...s-syndrome/stages-of-battered-womans-syndrome

It is so common for victims of domestic violence to decide to recant their testimony and not follow through on pursuing charges against their intimate partner that some states have passed laws requiring mandatory arrest and prosecution of the cases whether the victim cooperates or not.
If the victim refuses to testify or recants and testifies that the incident did not happen, it makes getting a conviction difficult. The abuser is released from jail, avoids any serious consequences and the cycle of violence is free to repeat itself again in their relationship.

So, what makes these victims change their stories?

Threats of More Violence?

For many years, advocates and counselors working with victims of domestic violence believed that they recanted their stories out of fear of more violence. The thought was that victims changed their mind about pursuing charges because the perpetrators threatened them with more violence.
But recent research has revealed that it is not threats that the abusers use to sway their victims into changing their stories, but a sophisticate emotional appeal that typically progresses through five distinct stages designed to minimize their actions and gain the sympathy of the victim.

The Recantation Process

For security reasons, many jails and detention centers record conversations of telephone calls placed by inmates. The participants know their conversation is being recorded, because an announcement is made at the beginning of the call.
By studying many hours of recorded conversations between male inmates facing felony charges of domestic violence and their female victims, who later decided to recant, researchers were able to gain insight into the recantation process.

Real Abusers, Real Victims

By listening to these exchanges between real abusers and real victims, researchers have identified a five-step process beginning with the victims forcefully defending themselves and ending with them planning with the perpetrator how to change their testimony.
The five stages are as predictable as the cycle of violence that repeats over and over in physically abusive relationships.

The Five Steps of Recantation

Here are the five steps identified by researchers:
Step One: Strong and Resolved - Early telephone conversations usually end up as heated arguments about events that led up to the violence. The victim, in these early calls, is strong and resists the perpetrator's account of events.

The victims are almost always resolved to see the abuser prosecuted for his actions in the first or second telephone calls, but as the calls continue, that resolve begins to erode.

Step Two: Minimizing the Abuse - In later calls, the perpetrator tries to convince the victim that the incident was not that serious. But more importantly in this stage, the abuser tries to gain the sympathy of the victim by casting himself as a victim - suffering in jail, depressed, perhaps suicidal, and missing her and the children.

This is a critical turning point in the process, when the real victim begins to see the perpetrator as a victim and begins trying to soothe and comfort her abuser. Once that happens, the next three steps occur relatively quickly.

Step Three: They Don't Understand Us - Once the abuser has gained the sympathy of the victim, they begin to bond over their love for each other and join together to fight against a world that doesn't understand.

Step Four: Lie for Me - Now that it's them against the system, or the state, or an uncaring society, the abuser simply asks the victim to recant her accusations and she agrees.

Step Five: Developing the Plan - After the victim agrees to change her story, they work together to come up with a plan and develop their stories.

Amy Bonomi, lead author and associate professor of human development and family science at Ohio State University, conducted this first-of-its-kind analysis of actual conversations between abusers and their victims. She believes these findings will give advocates and counselors a new model for how to work with victims of intimate partner violence.

http://alcoholism.about.com/od/abuse/a/Why-Do-Domestic-Violence-Victims-Recant.htm

Unlike this article attests, there is also the fear of what they will do when they get out that strongly motivates the victim to recant. You do not want to be the reason they sit in jail because they WILL eventually get out. BTDTGTTS my ex-husbands were real winners so I speak with some experience on the matter. I could probably tell you if I met the guy in person, but this really has the feel of a domestic violence situation just from the number of incidents that are so chaotic and being denied after the fact by the different women involved.

 

[acptulsa]

I doubt he did anything the "girlfriend" says he did.

And I think the only reason the girlfriend isn't admitting the same is because she figures she can just drop the charges and soothe her conscience without facing charges herself for filing a false police report.

As I recall, they never did find that shotgun...

 

[Dr.3D]

And I think the only reason the girlfriend isn't admitting the same is because she figures she can just drop the charges and soothe her conscience without facing charges herself for filing a false police report.

As I recall, they never did find that shotgun...

I suspect there are more political forces (variables) involved than most people would care to admit and those would be related to the great amount of publicity his recent trial had.

 

[69360]

Sounds a bit like battered woman syndrome to me.

Or false accusations by the woman. The court system is extremely biased to lock people up and issue restraining orders purely on ex parte testimony and hearsay.

 

[pcosmar]

As I recall, they never did find that shotgun...

You mean the one reported by police as the shotgun.

I think the guy is "power tripping",, Not everyone has the same reaction to the power in a weapon,, and not all respect that power.

 

[moostraks]

And I think the only reason the girlfriend isn't admitting the same is because she figures she can just drop the charges and soothe her conscience without facing charges herself for filing a false police report.

As I recall, they never did find that shotgun...

Isn't this a different woman? A different incident? I thought that was the estranged wife in a few months ago. http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/26/justice/shellie-zimmerman-interview/index.html

This article reads as if the guns were locked up by the time the police arrived when he was threatening the girlfriend but the wording is vague enough to be questionable. http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/18/justice/florida-george-zimmerman-arrest/

Or false accusations by the woman. The court system is extremely biased to lock people up and issue restraining orders purely on ex parte testimony and hearsay.

I am going by the fact that you have multiple incidents of lashing out and destructive behavior with different people. The level of false accusations this guy is suffering from would be surprising if he were truly an innocent party in all these encounters imo. In my house we have a rule if one person seems to have trouble following them, then the world isn't usually out to get them but rather they might need to look at what they are doing to instigate the situations they are involved in. The new relationship with a girl who is recanting so she can be back with him fits a typical battered pattern. So he either stinks at who he is choosing to hook up with or he is a class a jerk. Considering it isn't just the women he is threatening or assaulted well, my guess would be that he is a violent jerk.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

Stockholm syndrome? Women in these cases often drop charges.

And people who make false accusations during break-ups are equally as common. Flip a coin.