RUSH: Now, this neighborhood where this all happened. This is one of those instances where I think nobody — “hardly anybody,” let’s put it that way. There may be some, but so few people in the media (and certainly none of our friends who live in major metropolitan areas) have the slightest bit of understanding of the kind of neighborhood it is in Sanford, Florida, where this event took place.

Everybody wants to make this — on the left, anyway — about race. I don’t think race had much to do with this, if anything. One of the reasons people think about race is the way NBC doctored that 911 tape. That is a major, major reason why so many people think this is racial — even racist. Grab ’em again. Play sound bite 21 first. This is what the Today show viewers heard when they were watching Today show on March 27, 2012. NBC aired what they said was a portion of Zimmerman’s call to the police dispatcher.

ZIMMERMAN: This guy looks like he’s up to no good… He looks black.

RUSH: That was what everybody watching NBC saw. And then, of course, that got played over and over again all week on MSNBC. And then that got picked up by everybody, that Zimmerman said, “This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.” A-ha! We’ve got what we want here. We’ve got a “white Hispanic” portraying and pursuing somebody simply because they’re black, and they wear a hoodie and so forth.

Well, here’s what the phone call to the dispatcher actually sounded like…

ZIMMERMAN: This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining, and he’s just walking around looking about.

DISPATCHER: Okay. This guy, is he white, black, or Hispanic?

ZIMMERMAN: He looks black.

RUSH: Zimmerman had to be asked what Trayvon Martin looked like. He had to be asked, and he never volunteered to anybody that Trayvon Martin was black or that what he was doing looked suspicious or any of that because he was black. The dispatcher had to drag that out of Zimmerman. But the country didn’t hear that. The country heard the other thing, and it just took on a life of its own.

And many people, particularly low-information people, just assumed that this is another standard, run-of-the-mill, everyday-occurring-in-America, white-versus-black racial crime. The only time racism came up in the trial, by the way, was from Trayvon Martin’s friend, that witness, Rachel Jeantel. That was the “creepy ass cracker” comment. That was the only time racism even came up in the trial. The FBI conducted an investigation in 2012 to see whether there was any racism involved.

They found none. They found no violation of Trayvon’s civil rights, which is another reason why people are saying that if the DOJ goes for this, they’re gonna have a tough time. Because the FBI itself (which is the investigative arm of the DOJ) found no racism. So what, instead, was going on there? All the people that support Obama — particularly the elites, particularly the wealthy donors on Wall Street and Hollywood, but no matter where they are.

The super rich — even just the standard, ordinary, everyday rich — have their preconceived notions of what life is like in this country. And based on the geography of the country, they typecast people who live in these areas. Like southern people are racist hayseeds. They’re pro-life hicks! They go to church with their shotguns in their laps every Sunday. They get there on Saturday night early to get the best parking spaces and all that. All these stereotypes.

They have no clue what life is really like for most people in this country. You have here a neighborhood — and it is not a well-to-do, upper middle class neighborhood. Now, people might think it is because it’s got a Neighborhood Watch program. You have to have a certain amount of prosperity or success to be able to have one of those. It’s just what people think. But this neighborhood is probably one where the people living there are barely able to afford it.

They are the quintessential paycheck-to-paycheck people. They’ve got their mortgages, and they’ve got their other expenses, but their home is it. They’re proud of it, and they love it, and they think they’ve arrived, but they’re one step up from… How to phrase this? I’m hesitant, ’cause I don’t want to offend anybody. Please, don’t interpret that as a negative. I’m trying to accurately depict what this neighborhood is.

These are people that are really proud, they’re hardworking, but they’re barely able to own a home. These are not people in the subprime mortgage program. These are people that pay their mortgages. These are people that came up with a down payment. It’s lower middle class. This is not upper. It’s an important point. These are lower-middle class people. They’re struggling to make a living. They do whatever they can do to pay their mortgages.

They think that they’re living and play by all the rules.

They’re doing everything, and they’re very proud of the advancement that they’ve made, but they’re living in a country where the economy is just hanging by a thread. They think the country’s hanging by a thread; the economy’s hanging by a thread. Making that mortgage payment every month is a genuine challenge. There are stressful aspects to their lives. This is what the elites don’t get.

This is what the wealthy donors of Obama and Obama himself and all the people in the regime don’t get. It’s not that there are two Americas. There’s a whole bunch of Americas, and Obama and his donors live in the one-tenth of 1% of America where money is not a problem. Money’s not even a factor. “You want to do it? You do it! You want to buy it? You buy it!”

I’ll tell you, a lot of people in those circumstances think that most everybody else lives in that fashion to one extent or another. Financial problems are just… They don’t have them. They might have at an earlier stage in their life, and they might remember those days, but where they are now, they’ve become elitists. They’re special. They qualify as a very rare breed. They’re breathing very rare air. They have no more ability to relate to or understand the kind of people in this neighborhood than they can understand conservatives.

And because they’re living in a neighborhood where they’re paying their mortgages and they’ve got Neighborhood Watch… But they are really close to areas that are not well developed. They’re not across a bridge somewhere. They are next door, next block away from people who don’t have what they’ve got. What they’ve got isn’t very much. And, as such, there’s a lot of crime. There’s a lot of penny ante crime. There’s a lot of hassle. There’s a lot of threatening behavior. You know, life every day is a struggle to hold onto what that you’ve got.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay, back to the “gated community.” A gated community of townhomes. It’s not a gated community of mansions or single-family houses that are 6,000 square foot. Single family townhomes, gated community. These people who live there are just trying desperately to hold onto what they’ve got. But there are people who live nearby who want what they’ve got and have made attempts to take what they have.

So they came up with the Neighborhood Watch organization for their neighborhood. And this Zimmerman guy ends up in it, ’cause he wants to be a cop. I don’t think race had anything to do with this. I think the precarious state of the economy led to a bunch of people (barely getting by, by virtue of hard work) seeing people who are trying to take what they’ve got not being punished, not even being caught, not even being pursued.

The police were not even trying to apprehend ’em. So they say, “We’re gonna do it ourselves. We’re gonna hold onto what we’ve got.” Then you’ve got Trayvon wearing a hoodie which, I mean, what are people…? Let’s face it. Even Mr. Snerdley has told me what a big deal the hip-hop culture is to young African-American males. They all want to be part of it. Who knows what Zimmerman thought, other than what he said. But the idea that race was the factor?

I think the precarious economy — hardworking people trying to hold onto what they got — is the key to this.