Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Spike Lee Tweets Zimmerman Address

Spike Lee doesn't care that he has terrorized an innocent, elderly Florida couple.

From FOX News:

An elderly Florida couple have been forced to move into a hotel after their home address was wrongly tweeted as belonging to the man who shot teen Trayvon Martin.

The tweets were traced back to a man in California and the address was also reportedly retweeted by director Spike Lee to his almost 250,000 followers.

The couple, aged 70 and 72, have been harassed with hate mail, been hassled by media and had scared neighbors questioning them since the tweet, their son Chip Humble told the Orlando Sentinel.

Fearful for their safety, and hoping to escape the spotlight, the couple have temporarily moved to a hotel.

The confusion seems to stem from the fact the woman's son is named William George Zimmerman and he lived briefly at the address in 1995.

When William Zimmerman pleaded with the man who tweeted the address, the man responded, "Black power all day. No justice, no peace" along with an obscenity.

...William Zimmerman said he used his mother and stepfather's address to register a car, get a drivers license and vote when he lived there after college.

"This is really scary, and I'm concerned for my family," William Zimmerman said. "It's scary because there are people who aren't mentally right and will take this information and run with it.

"To endanger people who are innocent because people are angry is not the answer. That's not how we're going to heal. It's not [going] to help the Martin family for someone else to be hurt."

Spike Lee refuses to apologize for his part in harassing the elderly couple.
Late last week, Spike Lee re-tweeted the address of ‘George Zimmerman’ to his quarter of a million followers.

Except it was the wrong address. It was the address of an elderly Florida couple whose son... William George Zimmerman (no relation to shooter) - lived briefly there in 1995. Now the 70-year-old school cafeteria lunch lady with a heart condition and her 72-year-old husband have been forced to move out of danger into a hotel temporarily after receiving hate mail, threats, harassing visits from reporters and fearful inquiries from neighbors.

The woman’s other son Chip Humble told the Orlando Sentinel, "It's scary because there are people who aren't mentally right and will take this information and run with it. To endanger people who are innocent because people are angry is not the answer. That's not how we're going to heal. It's not [going] to help the Martin family for someone else to be hurt."

The O’Reilly Factor contacted Spike Lee’s production company “40 Acres and a Mule.” Instead of issuing a statement or an apology, the executive office told Factor producer Jesse Watters that Spike Lee had “no comment.” That’s it.

Why not apologize?

I don't get it.

Lee made a mistake.

When he tweets something, 250,000 people receive it.

Lee should acknowledge his role in the injustice suffered by the couple. By refusing to apologize, he's acting like a thug.

Would he want his parents or elderly relatives to be harassed like the couple in Florida?

Lee is a rich man in his mid-50s. He should act like a man and set a good example.

Do the right thing, perhaps?

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