Attorney Andrew Branca to Critique “Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story”
IndieGoGo funding for expert review of documentary produced by Jay-Z and Trayvon’s parents.
It’s hard to believe, but my first post here at Legal Insurrection was on June 5, 2013. Naturally, it was a post covering the murder trial of George Zimmerman, after Professor Jacobson noticed some of my comments on his own posts and kindly invited me to contribute to the site.
I ended up watching every moment of the trial and reviewing every piece of evidence, and wrote about the trial and surrounding events rather extensively.
(Defense attorney Mark O’Mara during Zimmerman trial)
Over the intervening five-plus years I’ve heard from perhaps hundreds of people that they first became aware of Legal Insurrection as a result of my posts covering that trial, and had remained followers ever since. It’s always very humbling.
Today, the Professor has again extended a very kind invitation to me, as I try something new at Law of Self Defense … our first-ever group funding effort. Specifically, we’re group funding my prospective expert review of the “Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story” documentary produced by Jay-Z and Trayvon Martin’s parents, amongst others.
The six-episode documentary starts tonight, and although it’s theoretically possible it will be a truthful telling of the events surrounding Trayvon’s death and the trial of George Zimmerman that followed, my expectations for that are relatively low (/sarc). Hence the interest in a critique by someone with the legal expertise and personal knowledge to separate truth from propaganda, myths, and outright lies–yours truly.
For relatively modest contributions starting as low as $10 we’re offering a legal review of each episode in vide and audio formats, a written review of each episode in PDF form, and a compiled printed-and-bound book-type compilation of all six episodes with a personalized autograph from me. Our funding goal for a definite “GO” on this project is $1,000, and we’re most of the way there already ($792 as I write this!), but we’ll continue to make the review content available to more donors even above and beyond the project goal (naturally).
So, if this sounds at all interesting, you can learn a lot more of the details, and perhaps even become a funder of our efforts, here:
http://www.lawofselfdefense.com/trayvon
Thanks for all your support, and a particular thanks to Professor Jacobson for his ongoing kindness and generosity.
–Andrew
Attorney Andrew F. Branca
Law of Self Defense LLC
Learn more about self-defense law from Attorney Andrew F. Branca and Law of Self Defense LLC by visiting the Law of Self Defense Patreon page for both free and paid-access content, and by viewing his free weekly Law of Self Defense Show.
Update [AFB]: Holy cow, we blew through our initial fundraising goal of $1,000 less than two hours after first launching the campaign. That makes this project a definite “GO.” Thanks, folks, your ongoing support is truly humbling. Of course, I’m not one to sit on my laurels, so we’ve added a “stretch funding goal.” If we hit $10,000 in total funding we’ll produce a DVD of our video critique/review of the documentary, so folks can have a physical video product. Our $30 contributors will get the DVD for free, $20 contributors for an additional $10, etc. Non-funders will pay the list price of $50, by current plans.)
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Comments
Count me as one of the folks who became aware of LI as a result of your coverage. Thank you!!!
Same here; found LI with the trial coverage, stuck around….
I’ve already seen a promo for the show that featured the EDITED call from Zimmerman to the dispatcher, so you can safely assume that anything truthful in this “documentary” will be accidental and incidental.
“it’s theoretically possible it will be a truthful telling of the events surrounding Trayvon’s death”
__________________
LOL. It’s also theoretically possible that I will buy the winning Powerball jackpot ticket this afternoon, and the odds that I will are considerably higher than the odds that Trayvon Martin’s parents will ever tell the truth about their wayward son.
Kudos to you for being willing to spend six nights watching this self-serving b.s., Branca. You have a stronger stomach than I do.
Well, that’s why the crowd-funding. I really DON’T want to watch the documentary, so I needed some incentive. 🙂
–Andrew
http://www.lawofselfdefense.com/patreon
I’m not sure anything would be worth watching the supposed documentary, but if Mr. Branca is willing to do it, I’m excited to contribute. Thank you for your excellent work here! Also my hat’s off to the Professor for this fine site! Ok, back to lurking…
Andrew,
I understand that you need to exclude access to your review to provide an incentive for people to fund your effort. However, a paywall will prevent the general public from seeing your much-needed response to this documentary. I hope you would consider options to make your work available to a broader audience in order to persuade people and rebut the commonly accepted falsehoods which this documentary will most likely propagate.
It would be a missed opportunity for your expert account of the Zimmerman trial and relevant self-defense law to not reach as wide of an audience as possible. Perhaps, you should consider reaching out to conservative producers like Citizens United to expand the impact of your work.
I’ll do blog posts of the documentary here, the IndieGoGo is for the really detailed content.
And ultimately we’ll make the IndieGoGo funded content generally available, but at a premium to what our funders paid.
–Andrew
http://www.lawofselfdefense.com/patreon
I agree with both nebel and TxDan.
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nebel, I won’t watch the JZ propaganda so I’m not sure I’m interested in watching a rebuttal. But I gladly signed up for the full package in case I change my mind, and because I want it produced whether I watch it or not.
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TxDan, it’s up to us as contributors to ‘persuade’ Mr. Branca to make it more readily available. Perhaps if we bust through the $10K barrier it could take on a life of its own. And then reach an important wider audience. I’m thinking Dinesh D’Souza would know how it’s done. I’ll likely be making a larger donation if the total flirts with the $10K mark.
Well, let’s hope we brush $10k then. We’re at $2,500 after only 7 hours, and we’re running the crowdfunding for 60 days … so $10k is at least a feasible goal. 🙂
–Andrew
http://www.lawofselfdefense.com/patreon
The general public, in large numbers, and to varying degrees, is happy to accept the lies, half-truths, and deceptions of the MSM.
That’s what interns are for.
Done! Looks like you’re over your goal – and well on your way to bringing truth and sunlight to this very divisive and loaded propaganda “documentary.”
Thank you for all you do, and to the Prof. for keeping up with this – I had no idea this “documentary” was even in the works, let alone being broadcast tonight.
Yet another moment to ask – what are they thinking?! Don’t they realize this type of agitprop will only bring on MORE Trump, that this is WHAT GOT TRUMP ELECTED?! Nothing good comes from such hateful, divisive bias.
I wonder – what is in it for JZ? He must be something in it for him, or he wouldn’t waste his time. Do-re-me MONEY (he is ALL about that!), no doubt….but, hmmmm…..what else…..? I wonder. smh
sadly I cannot give anything but I thank everyone who did and Mr Branca for doing this. it should be very interesting.
I’ll pay your way, send an email to [email protected] and I’ll use whatever email address you provide to sign you up. Alternately, give that information to Andrew and I’ll do the rest directly with him.
NK
What is Cape Audio?
Haha, well, it’s not one of those places where you have to wear dark glasses or bandannas for fear of being recognized. At one point, I was going to set up a streaming audio website. Then I figured out that no one listens to old soul music from the 60s, besides me. So, now I just listen, by myself… and I happen to live on one of those Capes that Massachusetts is known for.
As the cousins* across the pond say “Good on you!”
* OK, not mine.
thanks, but in next week I may be able to donate some.
its appreciated but I would rather try to do it on my own, if in week can’t I will rethink.
this is most generous of you though.
did send you test msg to train my email servers , xeams spam firewall and exchange 2012, to not block you LOL
Andrew, if you get enough funding, you might as well do your own Trayvon Martin documentary. I’m sure anything you do would be much more even-keeled than Jay Z’s.
Saint Skittles lives again.
I just stumbled across this piece of propaganda on Paramount while simultaneously opening LI and then hoping that there would be some coverage. Within 5 minutes of tuning in we had the ominous introduction of Jeb Bush’s evil act of signing Stand Your Ground with an “IRA lobbyist” standing at his side, multiple photos of Treyvon as a 12 year old and reference to Zimmerman as a white man.
I don’t think I need to watch another minute.
Good luck on your crowdfunding effort. I think that I’ll skip the whole thing. I really see no need to waste my time watching what will turn out to be a sickening propaganda piece. And, I am well versed enough in the facts of the case, already. Have fun.
I thank George Zimmerman for his service to Sanford, Florida, the State of Florida, and humanity for neutralizing a clear and present malice against civilization.
Mr. Branca – thank you for stepping up and taking this on. When I first saw the promo for this show I instantly thought how wonderful it would be to have your critique, so I’ve happily signed on. Like others here I really appreciated your coverage of the Zimmerman trial and presentation of the law and facts. I have used your resources in my attempts to counter my friends recitations of many of the myths of this case. I look forward to seeing your analysis.
ps – also bought and read your LOSD – must reading!
That’s very kind of you. Thanks!
–Andrew
http://www.lawofselfdefense.com/patreon
“Rest in Power” is a *six* episode show?
It might be an interesting project (for somebody who has the skills, which excludes me) to record the whole paean to the great one and his beautiful aftermath, then cut it to the about thirty minutes of truth (or less) that is hidden inside.
Listening to one of the video commentators already, I heard three of the easiest debunked claims about his early life spoken as if it were the TRVTH proclaimed on high, but I did hear a few whispers of reality hidden underneath it.
“Rest in Power”, a documentary produced by a hip-hop ‘artist’ with the cooperation and assistance of the deceased’s father, a known gang member.
Exactly who and what do they seek to empower? The Hip-Hop community? Criminal gang members? The inner city culture of drugs, violence and single parenthood?
I will not participate by watching an attempt to bestow sainthood on a criminal thug who assaulted what he thought was an easy mark: a short, pudgy white (Hispanic) guy. I would like to say it’s a story with a happy ending, but all life is precious, including that of the protagonist and antagonist in this Greek tragedy.
Drug Prohibition is the demented idea that you can fix the Drug problem by adding a Crime problem
We learned this in 1920 to 1933.
Evidently we need another lesson.
Drug Prohibition is what you get when drug use become detrimental to the smooth operation of society. Human beings are born amoral opportunists. society attempts to teach them to be responsible, caring individuals. However, this does not always work. One of the things tht humans do is over-indulge in recreational chemicals. They use them improperly and to excess. Then they run out an try other chemicals which are inherently deadly. This selfish chemical indulgence cost the lives of thousands of innocents, not just those using the chemicals, every year. Reckless chemical use costs society millions of dollars every year. Then there is the loss of productivity because of missed work due to drug use. This results in a huge problem for society. What can society do about it? Nothing except regulate the possession and use of these chemicals.
And you know what? Every time drug regulation is relaxed, societal costs, including deaths, increases. Every single time. The end of prohibition reduced the immediate death and injury rate by eliminating gang warfare in the bootleg industry as well as the elimination of homemade alcohol. But, alcohol use remained strictly regulated in this country. However, the death toll and injury rate continued to rise as Americans became a personal transportation society. It became so bad that DUI laws were sttrengthened across the country. The legalization of marijuana has seem similar climbing accident tolls. Then we have the ravages of the heroin, cocaine [both crystalline and crack] epidemic, the meth epidemic and now the opioid epidemic.
So, when people complain that the criminal regulation of drugs is not working and must be replaced, the one thing that they never put forth es a viable replacement. If they have a workable alternative, which has a reasonable chance of success, please present it. What they truly want is deregulation of drugs so that they do not want to face criminal charges when they alter their reality.
That must be why Switzerland and Portugal are hellholes.
“Done”
Good. Now let’s get this guy into Congress.
I read the book. The deceit was horrendous.
very divisive and loaded propaganda “documentary.”
Is there any other kind? Has anyone ever made a “documentary” about any politically sensitive subject that was not propaganda?
At best an honest documentary will show you the truth (but not the whole truth), for you can only look where the camera points and can hardly see what’s off-screen. You see what the director wants to to see, even as the medium creates an illusion of omniscience.
Film (and its newer relative, video) excels at conveying emotion but has never been much good for expressing reasoned argument; when used for non-fiction, it is inherently propagandistic.
Although books may be (and have been) used for propaganda, print is just nowhere near as well suited to his as it’s always all too obvious that a book is just ink on paper, and thus the illusion that you’re somehow an eyewitness to what’s depicted is severely limited.
The problem, methinks, is with the very word “documentary,” and its inevitable confusion with its cognate “document.” What’s needed is a new word, something like “visual agitprop” but perhaps shorter and to-the-point.
Doubtful they will cover the real reason he’s dead. He was the son of two degenerates. Through no effort in their parenting, he was a young man running full speed in the wrong direction.
A life was taken. I don’t deny the truth in the Texan defense, but the problem is, we have too many running full speed in the wrong direction.
Count me in – I don’t remember if I found this site through your postings or Prof. Jacobson’s, but I’m always delighted when I see one of your posts, which are always well informed and almost always thought provoking.
I’d love to hear some good advice for kids who feel alienated or threatened by the cops. One would be to call 911 if you feel threatened (I guess unless you’ve hurt someone; then call a laywer!) – IMHO, the fact that Zimmerman called and Martin called his friend was one of the big differences. If nothing else, you make a permanent record of what you were doing at the time of a conflict.