Spike Lee’s re-tweet of a Florida address that he believed belonged to George Zimmerman has cost an elderly couple their peace of mind and may cost the director more than $15,000.
Lee re-tweeted the address last year and the couple filed a lawsuit this summer after threats began flooding their home.
After Lee apologized both publicly and privately to the couple, they agreed to settle outside of court but are now ready to file against Lee once again.
It turns out that the director’s public apology and deleting the tweet didn’t even come close to solving the problem at hand. Thousands of users on Twitter continued to circulate the false address thinking it truly belonged to George Zimmerman who was found not guilty after he shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
Not only did the tweet encourage what many have deemed as “mob justice,” but the couple has suffered quite a bit from that one tweet.
The amount of threats and even a pizza under the name “Zimmerman” being delivered to the home has prompted police surveillance and force the couple to take extra security measures.
In addition to having trouble sleeping at night, the couple can’t even sell the home now that the property value has been drastically reduced due to the rumors circulating about the address.
Under these new circumstances the couple has decided that Spike Lee still needs to pay up for his mistake.
The couple re-filed back in September and just last month the case was transferred to federal court.
The re-tweet serves as a reminder that the way to respond against violence isn’t to encourage more violence or the mob mentality.
