Breaking: Violent man is violent

Remember George Zimmerman? Of shooting 17 year old Trayvon Martin to death and then getting off fame? Well, CNN has reported that he was arrested Friday night on a charge of domestic violence with a weapon and aggravated assault. He allegedly threw a wine bottle at his girlfriend.

Oh gee oh gee WHAT? Violent men are violent?? God, it’s almost like you can predict this shit.

Raw Story points out this isn’t the first time Zimmerman has faced domestic violence charges:

He was arrested in November 2013 after he pointed a shotgun at a girlfriend’s face and shattered a glass table. Prosecutors later dropped the charges after his girlfriend changed her mind about pursuing the matter. He was also put in handcuffs over a similar incident that September, but his girlfriend refused to press charges then as well.

Cute right? His lawyer, Don West, thinks so anyway, commenting, “It’s clear he hasn’t been very lucky with the ladies the last few months.”

Tee hee! What bad luck abusive men have “with the ladies.”

In September 2014, CNN reports that Zimmerman threatened a man “during a road rage incident,” allegedly saying “I will… kill you.” He was not arrested or charged.

As we know, Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder and accused of “profiling Martin,” who was unarmed when Zimmerman shot him in February 2012. Zimmerman was found not guilty by a jury on July 13, 2013.

In November 2013, Zimmerman was taken into custody at Samantha Scheibe, his then-girlfriend’s, home in Florida. He was arrested on aggravated assault and counts of domestic violence battery and criminal mischief. Zimmerman allegedly broke a table with a shotgun and then pointed it at Scheibe. In a 911 call recording released by police, Scheibe can be heard telling authorities: “He’s inside my house breaking all my [things] because I asked him to leave,” then saying to (presumably) Zimmerman, “I’m doing this again? You just broke my glass table. You just broke my sunglasses and you put your gun in my freaking face and told me to get the [expletive] out.”

He was released on $9,000 bail and denied the accusations. Schiebe asked that charges not be filed (as often happens in cases of domestic abuse) and prosecutors did not press charges.

In September 2013, in Lake Mary, Florida, police responded to a 911 call by Zimmerman’s estranged wife, who reported that Zimmerman had threatened her and her father with a gun and had punched her father in the face.

“He’s threatening all of us with a firearm … He punched my dad in the nose,” Shellie Zimmerman said on the call. “I don’t know what he’s capable of. I’m really scared.” George Zimmerman then allegedly grabbed an iPad from his wife’s hand and smashed it.

Shellie Zimmerman declined to press charges saying, in a subsequent interview on the Today show, “In hindsight I should’ve [pressed charges], and I really regret that, but I’m on probation and the officers made it very clear that day if I pressed charges we were all going to go to jail and I would’ve been the only one to stay there.”

In 2005, Zimmerman’s former fiancee, Veronica Zuazo, filed for a restraining order against him, alleging domestic violence.

So let me get this straight. You’re telling me that men who perpetrate violence against women and other minorities tend to make a habit of said violence? And that these men are generally not held accountable for this violence so they keep doing it? This is weird. I wish there were, like, some kind of pattern we could see. So we could stop these violent men from continuing to perpetrate violence and get away with it. Or something.

Meghan Murphy

Founder & Editor

Meghan Murphy is a freelance writer and journalist from Vancouver, BC. She has been podcasting and writing about feminism since 2010 and has published work in numerous national and international publications, including The Spectator, UnHerd, Quillette, the CBC, New Statesman, Vice, Al Jazeera, The Globe and Mail, and more. Meghan completed a Masters degree in the department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University in 2012 and is now exiled in Mexico with her very photogenic dog.