Robert Zimmerman Apologizes for Outrageous Trayvon Martin Tweet
Robert Zimmerman Jr., the elder brother of George Zimmerman, apologized for an outrageous tweet he posted about Trayvon Martin.
On Sunday night, Zimmerman shared a picture of Martin next to alleged killer De'Marquis Elkins, who is charged with killing a 1-year-old in Georgia. Elkins and Martin are both holding up middle fingers in the image where Zimmerman wrote, "A picture speaks a thousand words. Any questions?"
Zimmerman appeared on CNN's Piers Morgan Live Wednesday night and said that Twitter wasn't the appropriate place to share his family's views on the case and looked to "clarify" the message behind the tweet that many are calling racist.
CNN reports:
"Yeah, certainly that's one way to read it. And that seems to be the way a lot of people have interpreted it," noted Zimmerman Jr., of the notion that his tweet was racist in its essence."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."
Noting that in hindsight his tweets weren't necessarily the best idea, he went on to offer an apology:
"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 that way," he said. "I understand it's controversial and I apologize for it and I'm sincere about that. I shouldn't have done it this way."
Watch the interview here.
The tweets have been removed since Sunday night.
George Zimmerman's attorney Mark O' Mara issued a statement to clean up the controversy surrounding Robert Zimmerman's tweets. O'Mara believes these actions may hurt the defense.
"...I've always said for the past year that we have to have a conversation about race, and the Zimmerman case has brought it to the forefront, particularly the way young Black males are treated in the system," O'Mara said Thursday on CNN's "Starting Point."
"These type of tweets ... were insensitive to that, and quite honestly are the opposite of what I hope the conversation would be to try and figure out what's wrong with the system and maybe a good way to fix it."
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(Photo: Courtesy Piers Morgan Live via CNN)