NEW MEME DEVELOPING: IF ZIMMERMAN ISN'T HISTORY'S GREATEST MONSTER, HE'S INNOCENT
(updated)

When I heard an earlier enhancement of the now-famous George Zimmerman 911 tape, I concluded that he seemed to have said "fucking coons" at one point:





Now CNN has done another enhancement, and, yeah, it raises some doubts. CNN's Gary Tuchman now thinks Zimmerman said "fucking cold." (Tuchman says it was unseasonably cold in Sanford, Florida, the night of February 26, but the low temperature that night was just about normal, at 52 degrees.) I think Zimmerman could just as easily have said "fucking cops." I can't really tell.





But you know what? He doesn't have to be a foaming-at-the-mouth racist to have done an unconscionable thing that night out of bad motives.

And while the right wing in this country is asserting that he's being lynched and that his reputation has been irreparably destroyed, I see something just the opposite taking place: we've had to express so much outrage about what Zimmerman did, merely to get some attention to the case, that now, if it turns out he isn't the Antichrist, he'll exceed everyone's expectations of him, and I think people will find it impossible to see him as having done an evil thing.

So if he didn't say "coons," people will say he must be innocent. Or -- well, watch this, from Michael Isikoff on NBC News tonight:

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ISIKOFF: An NBC News review shows that, since August, Zimmerman called police seven times, five times reporting his suspicions about young men in the area. But he never mentioned the men's race without first being asked.

VOICE OF DISPATCHER: And is he white, black, or Hispanic?

VOICE OF ZIMMERMAN: Black.

See what's going on here? If Zimmerman didn't exude racism from every pore at every second of his life, he must be a wonderful guy, and it's impossible to imagine him having any racist motive at any time. Either he's David Duke or he's racism-free -- there's no possible middle ground. We can't even seem to talk about him as a possible menace to society apart from racism -- as an anger management case who should never have been out in public with a gun.

Until now, I wasn't completely sure this case was over. It's over. He'll walk, later if not sooner.

****

UPDATE: OK, one more attempt at audio enhancement, also from CNN:





The enhancer says that what Zimmerman said was "fucking punks." Zimmerman's lawyers say he told them that's what he said as well. I don't hear that.