If you fast-forward to about 26:00 in the same clip, you will hear the same witness read from his police statement in which he uses the word “straddle” to refer to what the darker-colored person was doing to the man on the bottom. I believe he misspells the word as “strattle”.
Regards,
Shodan
Zimmerman’s injuries are documented and provable. There is no way to prove what, if anything, Martin said.
Keep in mind also that Zimmerman does not claim to have killed Martin in retaliation for Martin’s having broken his nose, blackened his eyes, and put gashes on the back of his head. Zimmerman claims that those injuries put him in fear of his life or grave bodily harm, and that’s why he shot Martin. It’s a subtle distinction, but it is important. Zimmerman did not shoot Martin because of what Martin did in the past, but out of a fear of what Martin was about to do.
Regards,
Shodan
Even if we assume that George did actually fear serious harm/death, the question is, was this fear ‘reasonable’.
George’s injuries are minimal. George’s claim of being sucker-punched look questionable at best. No witness claims to see the ‘head banging on concrete’ as claimed by George. Witnesses report seeing the two ‘wrestling’ on the ground. George’s hands and arms are free the whole time.
How reasonable is it for George to fear bodily harm?
I’m getting on an elevator. I bump the other guy already on the elevator. As the door closes he turns to me, very angry, and says, ‘what’s your problem dude’ in a threatening manner. It looks like he’s reaching into the waistband of his pocket.
Am I justified and pulling out my 9mm and shooting him in the chest?
Did he blacken your eye, break your nose, and put gashes in the back of your head?
Regards,
Shodan
Oh my. Witness #9 is a younger family member of George’s, and she says that George 'hates blacks’.
She contacted the police just two days after the shooting.
But you just said it didn’t matter what happened earlier. You said I can shoot him out of fear for what he’s about to do.
It doesn’t matter what Shodan said before, it only matters what he’s about to say …
No, they aren’t. He had a broken nose and several other head wounds. They are, by any definition, serious. If Martin had stopped attacking him after inflicting these wounds, he’d have been charge with a serious crime. That he continued to attack makes it worse. Of course Zimmerman’s fear was reasonable.
He got punched in the nose. What amounts to no more than a schoolyard scuffle does not justify pulling a gun and blowing away and unarmed teenager.
He had a possible broken nose. And again, why would Martin be charged if he was merely defending himself from the crazy stalker guy now trying to detain him?
Even if we play along and assume that Martin sucker-punched George completely unprovoked, if you seriously think George’s injuries justify death, then every playground fight in the history of the world should justifiably end up with one dead kid with a hole in his chest.
The problem is that if the beating had continued, Zimmerman could have been the one who perished. A human being, even punch drunk prize fighters, no matter how well conditioned, can only take so many blows to the head. A slam to the head can break open a blood vessel in the brain, and that’s all she wrote.
And that fear has to be reasonable. Zimmerman claims that his fear was reasonable, because Martin broke his nose, blackened his eyes, and put gashes in the back of his head.
Your incredibly stupid scenario does not include anything equivalent.
Regards,
Shodan
Oh my…Witness 9 also claims GZ molested her beginning at age 6, until she was 16.
https://twitter.com/JeffWeinerOS
Is her ‘he hates blacks’ statement just out of revenge? Wonder what this will do to the donations flow.
As noted in the EMT records, the ‘black eyes’ (can you even show me one picture of George with black eyes?) probably came from the ‘possibly’ broken nose. The cuts on the head are not evidence of repeated ‘head slammed against concrete’ - particularly when George says that he thinks only a part of his head was on the concrete, so he could wiggle a bit to get on the grass, which is odd because the cuts are right at the top and center of the head, not the side.
And Martin had already stopped with the head banging, right? He was now trying to shut George up, and both hands were on George’s face. George’s hands and arms were free, and he outweights Martin by a good 40lbs. You’re seriously going to claim that George had no choice but to blow the kid away?
And we wonder why other countries look at the US’ fascination with guns and just shake their collective head.
Witness 9, aka Witness Lyin’, is a certifiable fruit basket.
Cite?
I’m claiming that he had the right to “blow him away”. If you want to argue that he shouldn’t be allowed to defend himself against a brutal attack, fair enough, but don’t confuse that with saying he wasn’t allowed to.
I’m from another country, and I have very mixed feelings about your gun obsession. There’s plenty of things that makes me think widespread gun ownership is a bad idea, but someone successfully using one in self defence isn’t one.
The witness said something bad about poor victimized Georgie, so therefore by definition they must be lying. Nothing bad about George could possibly be true.
Do you have a link to the actual witness statement? Or, for that matter, any reason to consider these claims relevant to this case?
If there’s any substance to these claims, it should be a separate investigation.
It doesn’t fit with his actions mentoring black children and protesting against police racism, that’s for sure.
That said, nothing from Witness 9 really has any bearing on the case. She claims George ‘hate blacks’, but nothing of the sort comes out of all the witness statements. We do have a possible violent streak (kicking a dog? Really? And attacking a LEO who has identified themselves as such is pretty ballsy), but I don’t recall any character report citing incidents of racism.
So George may be a cheatin’, lyin’, molestin’ S.O.B. but at least he’s not a racist.