George Zimmerman is stating he believes President Obama is responsible for the racial tension surrounding Trayvon Martin’s death back in 2012.
Zimmerman made national headlines when he was acquitted in the shooting death of Martin, which hit a hot spot in the conversation of racial profiling and the judicial system. He has been in trouble with the law since, and he’s now making his feelings on the president known.
"To me, that was clearly a dereliction of duty, pitting Americans against each other solely based on race," he said in an interview with his lawyer, Howard Iken, directly responding to Obama’s comment, “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon."
Referring to him as “Barack Hussein Obama,” Zimmerman said he is "by far" responsible for amping up racial tensions surrounding the case.
He went on to say, “For (Obama) to make incendiary comments as he did and direct the Department of Justice to pursue a baseless prosecution, he by far overstretched, overreached, even broke the law in certain aspects.”
Martin’s death sparked protests, public outrage on the justice system and a debate over Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law.
He said he has a clear conscious and has kept faith in our justice system after a jury found him not guilty. “I believe that the American judicial system failed in the sense that I should not even (have) gone to trial, but I do believe that the jury process succeeded,” he said.
mugshot courtesy of the Seminole County Sheriff