Scarborough Brands Shooter Of Trayvon Martin A 'Murderer'

It's not easy to make Al Sharpton appear relatively restrained in a racially-charged case such as the one involving the death of Trayvon Martin. But Joe Scarborough has managed to pull off the dubious feat.  On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough flatly branded the reported shooter, George Zimmerman, a "murderer."  It was no slip of the tongue. A couple minutes later, Scarborough declared that Zimmerman had "murdered" Martin.

Sharpton himself never used such language, generally describing Zimmerman as the "shooter," and even imagining, without endorsing, a scenario in which Zimmerman might have been acting in self defense.  View the video after the jump.

The facts may well bear out that Zimmerman acted illegally.  And certainly Scarborough, Sharpton and others are entitled to wonder why Zimmerman, weeks after the shooting, has not been arrested. But to flatly label someone in these circumstances a "murderer"?  Scarborough, a Florida lawyer, should know better.  
 

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Here, though, a guy gets killed, a young man gets killed and the police don't arrest this, this murderer, for anything.  For a weapons charge, anything! . . . It's not enough just to arrest the man who murdered Trayvon Martin.  Something bigger has to happen.  Whoever is running the police force down there, whoever is the state attorney down there, they are not worthy of the public trust.