George Zimmerman: From Killer To Plagiarizing Scam Artist?

What do you do as a follow up after killing an unarmed teenager and getting off with no punishment whatsoever? Well, If you’re George Zimmerman you start out by domestically abusing your girlfriends and then proceed to perpetrating an eBay hoax to net yourself a cool hundred grand.

Trayvon Martin’s killer is in the news again, this time because he has posted for sale on eBay something he calls an “original” painting. However, there appears to be something fishy about the whole thing.

George Zimmerman

The picture that Zimmerman claims to be an original, hand-painted work of art looks suspiciously like a stock photo from Shutterstock. It has undergone a bit of modification through standard Photoshop filters, but it is clearly a derivative work and there is no attribution or credit for the source. In fact, Zimmerman signed it as his own and made this statement on eBay:

“First hand painted artwork by me, George Zimmerman. Everyone has been asking what I have been doing with myself. I found a creative, way to express myself, my emotions and the symbols that represent my experiences. My art work allows me to reflect, providing a therapeutic outlet and allows me to remain indoors.”

Apparently Zimmerman believes that copying someone else’s artwork is a creative way to express himself and that plagiarism is a therapeutic outlet.

As of the publishing of this article, the bid for Zimmerman’s item is at $110,000. That’s a pretty sweet deal for a work that seems to be a copyright violation. The folks at Shutterstock will probably be interested in this if it actually sells. As will the buyer, unless it is someone who is seeking to funnel funds to Zimmerman through some backdoor, anonymous channel. After all, there is something awfully suspicious about anyone assigning a value this high to a Zimmerman knockoff.

Zimmerman has responded to a few questions on eBay from supporters who express their admiration for him as a hero. In one such response, Zimmerman attacks the people (including Trayvon’s family) who sought to hold him accountable for the shooting death of a kid walking home from the market with an iced tea and a bag of Skittles. Zimmerman says that…

“The system is broken, an innocent man should not spend one second without his God given liberty, solely because a small sect of uneducated loud mouths.”

For someone who has been in trouble with the law on several occasions since his famous acquittal, Zimmerman has an abundance of gall to insult the family of his victim and the civil libertarians who believe that a teenager’s death should not be swept under a legal carpet. And for him to come out with what appears to be a plagiarized work of “art” in an effort of profit from his infamy, and another family’s tragedy, is further evidence of his depraved character.

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eBay should not permit this auction to proceed. It is an affront to a family still in mourning and a violation of the copyright of Shutterstock and the artist who provided the original work. Should the auction conclude, the funds should be sequestered and held until the resolution of any wrongful death suits that may be filed by Trayvon’s family.

[Update 5:52pm:] There have been a dozen canceled/retracted bids so far today, bringing it down 10 grand, but it’s current bid is still above $100,000. Some rich, sick individual obviously wants to give this killer a gift. I wonder who.

h/t Mediaite

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15 thoughts on “George Zimmerman: From Killer To Plagiarizing Scam Artist?

  1. I actually think he’s safe legally. As long as he paid the fee for the Shutterstock image, he can use it and resell the product. He just can’t resell it as CLIPART, as though it was his own. Still, it sounds like he’s playing fast-and-loose with the facts of how he created this. And it’s not a bit surprising. I can’t believe this guy still has (or ever had) “fans.”

  2. He should be arrested for wearing those ugly clothes.

  3. Shepard Fairey did the same thing. He used, without giving credit, an AP photo of Barack Obama as the basis for his iconic “HOPE” poster.

    Goose, gander; sauce, sauce.

    • Yep. And he ended up having to pay a substantial settlement.

  4. “…killing an unarmed teenager and getting off with no punishment whatsoever…”

    For the 1,000th time – according to forensic evidence and corroborating testimony, George Zimmerman was getting his face pounded into pudding, and he was apparently in danger of getting beaten until his skull was smashed and/or his brain stem snapped. That’s why the self-defense argument kicked in, and that’s why the jury voted for acquittal. The prosecutors didn’t even come close to proving their case.

    That being said, George Zimmerman is no hero. The word “scumbag” comes to mind.

    • For the 1000th time, Zimmerman was not getting his face pounded into pudding by a kid who he outweighed by a hundred pounds.

      You can argue about whether or not it was murder, but the statement that Zimmerman killed an unarmed teenager is unarguably true.

      • Yes, he was getting his face pounded. He sustained a broken nose and several lacerations to the back of his head.

        “…an unarmed teenager…”

        He was armed with his fists. Under the right circumstances, you can beat a person to death, and if you have that person pinned to the ground, it becomes a lot easier to do.

        • No his nose was not broken and he suffered MINOR lacerations. If Travon Martin had plummeted GZ’s face into the ground 25 to 30 as GZ described there would have been more than one small trace amount of GZ’s DNA found on Travon’s hoody. There is no way that you can punch someone that badly and not have, blood, swear, tears skin and snot splatter all over you.

      • Trayvon Martin was unarmed in the sense that he didn’t have a hand-held implement to use a a weapon. However, that point is legally irrelevant in determining whether Zimmerman acted in legally justifiable self-defense. There is no requirement in the law for any kind of weapons parity.

        Martin’s age is also legally irrelevant. He was taller and certainly in better physical condition than Zimmerman despite Zimmerman’s efforts to lose weight at a gymnasium. So the term “unarmed teenager,” while technically true, serves only as an appeal to emotion. It’s no more honest than referring to Martin as a “thug.”

        • “He was taller and certainly in better physical condition than Zimmerman despite Zimmerman’s efforts to lose weight at a gymnasium.”

          LOL. Awkward, meet sentence.

          • I can’t wait for you guys to resolve this. I wonder which one will change his opinion….

    • Wrong… the jury found him not guilty because they did not have the evidence they needed to find him guilty because the other side of the story was dead, and he was conveniently without other real witnesses. Some jury members even came out and said that they felt he was guilty, but could not find legal evidence to convict. We have seen several instances of what the real Z is like.

  5. Zimmerman is a waste of life, certainly a waste of oxygen and an affront to all of those who need to breath purified air. Why has no one murdered HIM yet?? Why is he allowed to copy art and make a huge fortune in minutes?? Why is he allowed to still breath?? This burden on society, as screwed up as this society is, needs to die the same death he meted out on an innocent child. I’m Caucasion and I’m outraged. So this is NoT about uneducated loudmouths. Hey Zimmerman, how edumacated are YOU, jackass?? Sickening… He might as well have photocopied the Shutterstock photo and slapped unto EBay, because idiots would still bid on it.

    • I can’t agree with your wishing death on Zimmerman. There are ways for a civil society to deal with people like him without devolving to the same kind of hatred and violence that he engages in.

      Other than that, you’re right that he doesn’t deserve to profit from his crimes, but I suspect the eBay auction was a backdoor method of funneling funds to him by an anonymous supporter. It doesn’t look like a real auction and only one person did most of the bidding.

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