You’ve already made it clear that you believe that Zimmerman is guilty simply because he had a firearm. The facts of the case and the actions of the participants have no bearing on your decision.
It doesn’t matter what you or I believe. The jury, if there is a jury, will be presented with photos and testimony that Zimmerman recieved multiple injuries to his head and that Martin inflicted them. FLA law says that if Zimmerman believed, and could explain his belief to a judge, that his life was in imminent danger he could use lethal force to defend his life.
As to why Martin wasn’t startled by the presence of another person could be explained by the possiblility that Martin was focused on killing Zimmerman. Martin’s adrenaline was up and adrenaline is known to reduce your peripheral vision creating a tunnel-vision effect. Maybe Martin was used to fighting with a crowd around him?
Maybe Martin simply didn’t care that a witness was standing there? I notice that Martin didn’t ask anyone for help.
Discharging a firearm inside city limits, maybe?
Listen, just so I understand you: are you saying you’re confident he’ll be convicted based on the evidence made public thus far, or on your certainty that more damning evidence will come to light?
He’s a moron and a liar. Given those facts, and also given the amount of detail he’s already shared with police re: that night, I’d say the odds that he already told the cops a giant lie (that completely goes against the physical evidence in a major way) is at least 85%. When that comes out in court…yeah.
Losing confidence in the horse you’ve been backing? Feel free to switch in mid-stream. It’s just an internet discussion.
You’re actually going to be sad and shocked when he’s convicted, aren’t you?
That makes me sad for you. It’s kind of pitiful.
I’m going to be sad and shocked when he’s acquitted, even though I think he’s an idiotic gun-nut with a hero complex who should be held entirely responsible for Martin’s death. That’s how much faith I have in Florida’s courts.
However, I won’t be surprised when he’s made the NRA’s Man of the Year.
Not speaking for doorhinge, but I will indeed be sad and shocked if he is convicted based only on the evidence currently in the public domain. If any actual evidence of his guilt comes out, I may very well change my position.
Convicting someone despite a lack of evidence is dangerous and disgusting, and far more tragic even than the death of an innocent boy, if indeed that is what happened here.
I’m sad for anyone who feels the need to oppose the principles of fair trials and the presumption of innocence, just because they dislike someone, however strongly.
Your evidence that he’s a gun-nut (besides the fact that he owned a gun)? Your evidence he has a “hero complex” (especially concerning he never had any interactions with any of the other people he reported to the police)?
I’m not convinced he lied in court to the judge, since he never testified to the judge. Having said that, everybody makes bad decisions sometimes.
But, personally, I can see myself doing all of the things that he said that he did that night- based on what he knew at the time that he did them.
Much ado has been made of the fact that he left his car, but I don’t attach a ton of importance to it. He wanted to get an idea where this kid was running to- as well as to try to find a street sign.
It’s not as though he knew the kid was going to assault him for a minute and a half. It’s not like he knew nobody would help him while he was screaming for help over and over.
In retrospect, we can reasonably conclude that if he hadn’t left his car Trayvon Martin would not have attacked him, and consequently Zimmerman would not have shot him. It’s easy to second guess someone’s actions after-the-fact.
We can blame all of the witnesses who heard Zimmerman screaming for help for not intervening. Had any of those neighbors actually come out and helped Martin off of Zimmerman, then Martin would also be alive.
We can blame the parents of Trayvon for not grounding him for his 3rd suspension from school. Had he been grounded, Trayvon would be alive. I mean.. you can point at a lot of steps in the process that, had they been different, would have changed the outcome.
But, ultimately, there is no compelling evidence that anyone acted criminally that night, except Trayvon Martin. I would say that his judgement on that night in particular was by far the worse of the two.
I’ve gotten the impression that Tracy Martin bringing Trayvon to Sanford was, in effect, grounding him. I think his father was trying to get him away from his friends in Miami. I wouldn’t be surprised if Trayvon wasn’t supposed to leave the house. If they knew he was going to be wandering around, I think Brandy Green might have warned him about the neighborhood watch.
It’s a sad state of affairs when kids have to be warned about the neighborhood watch.
Dimmerman carried a gun against the wishes of others, on quasi-official duty; that’s a strike against his his credibility right there. He’s going against the advice of other Neighborhood Watch volunteers. How is that smart?
It’s a goddamn subdivision. When has anyone needed a gun in that subdivision, to stop a criminal from harming them, or entering their home?
He’s not out riding the range, in rattlesnake, bear, and cougar territory.
There’s a time and place for carrying a loaded gun. A relatively peaceful subdivision is not such a a place or time.
I’ve got friends who carry concealed handguns all the time. THOSE guys have the good judgement not to get themselves into this sort of thing.
Dimmerman, OTOH, has shown he does not have the good judgement to avoid creating situations where he might end up using his gun. And yes, he DID create this situation. Trayvon did NOT create it by being young, black, male, and wearing a hoodie. I know certain of you disagree with that, but that shows YOUR innate bias, not mine.
No joke. Literally, it’s sad.
A neighborhood that was averaging over a burglary every month and had a home invasion recently? I started changing my mind when some guys followed my roommate’s girlfriend home to my house one night. She wasn’t the only woman I know that happened to either. I know people who suffered muggings and home invasions and they lived in Florida in nicer neighborhoods than Zimmerman.
I don’t expect you to change you mind. You are obviously impervious to evidence and statistics.
This case isn’t about whether you think Zimmerman shouldn’t own or carry a firearm. The State of FLA says he can. Even in his own subdivision. I’m guessing that the State of FLA doesn’t care if you object to their laws or not.
They should have told him that there WAS a neighborhood watch.
They should also have told him not to punch random strangers.
Al, what do you mean by subdivision? So far as I know, a subdivision is just a big piece of land that has been divided into smaller pieces of land in order to more easily sell it. So my neighborhood, with individual houses on their own little plots, is a subdivision. I can assure you that violent crimes occur in subdivisions.
The subdivision in question is a gated community. I can assure YOU that the rate of violent crimes is LOWER in gated communities. Do you need a cite on that?
Where’s your cite on that home invasion?
And carrying a gun to the GROCERY STORE does not prevent burglaries. A working home alarm might help with that, but a gun at the grocery store does not.
Any muggings or carjackings? THOSE are relevant crimes for carrying a gun outside the home.
If you people want gun-toting, rootin’ tootin’ cowboys roaming the streets of gated communities, then you are crazy, and need to be locked up before you shoot someone.
And you are obviously impervious to common sense, which is the greater flaw, because common sense existed before statistics, and supersedes it when they disagree. Or should.