Robert Zimmerman Jr., brother of George Zimmerman who was convicted in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last February, apologized for his offensive tweets last night during an interview on CNN’s Piers Morgan Live.
Zimmerman admits that sending the tweets, which have now been removed, was not the “right thing to do”, but insists they were sent in an attempt to highlight a much larger point. Zimmerman believes the media is responsible for the negative portrayal of his brother, in case you missed it.
He claims the comparison was made to show that although both young men portrayed themselves similarly, Martin was not portrayed or criticized by media the way Elkins was. De’Marquis Elkins was arrested and charged in the murder of 1-year old Antonio Santiago. George Zimmerman’s defense team also appeared on CNN this morning to clarify that Robert’s opinion in no way represents that of his brother.
Their attorney Mark O’Mara, went on to discuss how he is concerned with the way the incident will effect George and how the tweets were insensitive to another issue: problems within the system and racism. Morgan went on to question the intent behind Robert’s implication that young black men are risky and even referred to some of his tweets as “bordering on outward racism”. Morgan also criticized Robert’s attempt to paint Elkins and Martin in the same likeness. Here’s an excerpt of the transcript of Robert’s interview with Piers Morgan on CNN:
“I don’t think Twitter is the place to make points about what you recall a year ago because the recollections that I have or that we have as a family specifically are very different than what can be portrayed in 140 characters. I realize those were controversial and offensive and I did publicly apologize for them. I don’t think it was the right thing to do in that way. The point about the pictures was the larger point on the media and their honesty in portraying the person who encountered my brother…He chose to portray himself in a certain way”
—Alexis Holliday
